The Names.....

The names.....

Crowd surfing upon statues bronzed,

The double O's head to 85,

License to watch TV,

License to kill,

Through the whooshers,

And a wink to Mike,

Call over to our northern cousins,

And our friends across the pond,

In the queue for my toys,

The sword and shield,

Boarding Warwick's finest,

To ride the Valkyries,

Londinium beneath my feet

Unbeknownst oh fellow citizens,

Returning to 17F.
I'm neither shaken nor stirred.

Explanation

This one is about my romantic view of what it means to be and what it's like to be a spy, mixed in with a little bit of what we're lead to believe it's like - when it most likely isn't.

Crowd surfing upon statues bronzed,

This is in reference to Vauxhall Bridge, London. At the south end of the bridge is the headquarters of SIS/MI6. So each day, I imagine that there are many spies that walk over this bridge each on their way to work, passing many hundreds of other people who shall never know what they do. Crowd surfing just refers to being carried over, and the statues relate directly to the bridge which has bronze statues on the side of the bridge.

The double O's head to 85,

This refers to the 00 status (e.g. 007) of the best of MI6. I don't know (and doubt) there is such a system though, but it's what we're shown. The 85 refers to the street number the building is on. It's 85 Albert Embankment. Although don't bother writing to this address. If you want to write to MI6, you want "PO Box 1300, London SE1 1BD" according to their website.

License to kill,

License to watch TV,

Whilst of course having a license to kill (in fact, as far as I know, there isn't a license to kill), there is a license to watch TV that everyone in the UK who wants to watch TV needs to have. Presumably this includes spies? Oh and there is a 50% discount if you're blind (no, I am not kidding.)

Through the whooshers,

Yes, I have watched "Spooks" far too many times, but this refers to the little entry pods that let people into the building. I imagine walking through these and in my romantic view, they would be colloquially known as the "whooshers" for the onomatopoeic sound they make as they open and shut. 

And a wink to Mike,

Mike actually would be a woman. Mike = M in the phonetic alphabet. "M" is of course James Bond's boss. I like to think that M is real.

Call over to our northern cousins,

And our friends across the pond,

When I think about those who are spies, I actually don't think too much about the specifics of the work they're doing, it's more the culture of who they are and the type of people they have become. This bit briefly suggests that some of their duties would include calling over to MI5 (across the river on the north side) and of course our US friends across the pond to find out what their latest intel is.

In the queue for my toys,

Queue = Q. The character in James Bond who has the cool gadgets that Bond goes to visit to get all the cool stuff.

The sword-and-shield,

I can imagine a mission given to the spy who is tasked with breaking into the Russian embassy to steal vital info. The sword and the shield have two meanings. Firstly it's some "toys" given by Q. But the main reference here is that "the sword-and-shield" was the emblem for the the KGB when it was known as that (I think it's FSB now)

Boarding Warwick's finest,

Every good James Bond features an Aston Martin. The headquarters for Aston Martin motors is in Warwick, UK.

To ride the Valkyries,

I always imagine (especially senior) spies to be incredibly intelligent people and very well cultured. People who seem to know everything, probably went to an exclusive school, then onto Oxford or Cambridge to study history and philosophy or something. In my romantic view of them, they're regularly dressing up smartly to go and see an opera, probably a performance of one of Wagner's compositions, such as Ride of the Valkyries.

Londinium beneath my feet

Unbeknownst to my fellow citizens,

So after going to the opera, our James Bond style spy decides to make his way home on a typical drizzly English evening. Walking through the streets, all those people he passes have no idea to his true identity and the fact they are more protected because of his/my work.

Returning to 17F,

I really like the idea of a spy who actually works at MI6 living in flat number 17F. This would be so cool. The reason is that the creator of the James Bond novels, Ian Fleming was actually in naval intelligence. 17F was his codename.

I'm neither shaken nor stirred.

Obviously had to have this in. "Shaken not stirred" is how 007 prefers his martini's. But his demeanour in all he does it to be cool, calm and collected.