James Bond was the daddy, obviously, but the Cold War airwaves were full of spies. There were the serious, broken-hearted spies created by John le Carre, spoof spies such as Maxwell Smart and – by far the largest category – glamour action heroes such as the stars of the popular television series The Man from U.N.C.L.E. That was Bond with a twist, one might say, although the biggest twist was the fact that the enemy Russian spy turned out to be everybody's favourite.

The Man from U.N.C.L.E.'s big idea was that the United States and their Soviet enemies are forced to work together in secret to defeat THRUSH, an unspeakably evil organisation dedicated to taking over the world. Robert Vaughan played Napoleon Solo, the American ladykiller in a Savile Row suit; David McCallum, who was actually English, played Illya Kuryakin, who wore Beatnik roll-necks and suede jackets and was moody and mysterious. No prizes for guessing whose picture adorned the walls of teenage girls across the Free World.