Some of you may be familiar with The Rest is Entertainment, a podcast devoted to news, interesting stories and unusual perspectives on the entertainment business.  On their most recent episode they discussed how MI6 have joined Instagram and Spy Culture got a shout out from Marina Hyde, one of the hosts.  Marina and Richard Osman also discussed the BBC show Spooks (perhaps the best spy TV series ever made in Britain) recruitment propaganda, the CIA’s role in Hollywood, the US Navy and the Top Gun films and whether MI6 are mostly doing this for recruitment, or to maintain consent for their surveillance and other covert operations, or just to make spying look cool, or all of the above.

Having listened to The Rest is Entertainment regularly since its launch in late 2023 I am happy and grateful that Marina name-dropped Spy Culture, and that she appears to have read the CIA and Hollywood Timeline.  The issue of government influence on social media, entertainment media and pop culture more broadly has come up repeatedly on this podcast, and they also make some very good film and TV recommendations.  A big thank you to Richard and especially to Marina, along with the producers.