Work is already underway in introducing more content, and a much more improved look and feel to the website. Although the primary focus of the site will naturally be the ‘Trail, you’ll find other useful resources connected with the world of intelligence and espionage.  In short, the difference between the existing site and the new one scheduled to be launched in January/February 2012 will be significant.

In the meantime, the main site will be taken down and all relevant content for the tour etc, will be displayed here.  The top horizontal menu leads the way…

If you have any queries, don’t hesitate to leave a message here or email:

info(@)intelligencetrail.co.uk

So, have a great festive season, but above all, be safe in whatever Yuletide and New Years tomfoolery you care to indulge in!

Mr. X

Afterwards the group headed for their post-tour dinner.  But the evening wasn’t quite over yet. The Sexpionage Quiz was still to appear. Having already being told in advance, the
walkers were obviously paying close attention to the stories regaled. However it soon became apparent that some of them were also not oblivious to the uses of smartphones and internet research when answering the questions. Such shocking cheating, haha!

Needless to say, the two couples with the most correct answers were also those who were employing such technological skulduggery – and therefore removed from the reckoning! (anything for a bit of drama, hehe)  Two sudden death questions finally produced a
worthy winner and recipient of a nice gift voucher.  I’ve not been informed as to whether there were any fights breaking out on their coach trip back home, but they certainly
all enjoyed themselves. Thanks guys, it’s also a fun night for myself and will look forward to seeing you again.

As it happened, the tour had been arranged a few months in advance. However, given what has been going on in the spy world recently, you’d be forgiven for thinking that they wanted a timely fix of Sexpionage! And more of that to come!

If you DO want your own fix of Sexpionage, book yourself onto the public tour on Friday evenings at 7pm ! Just make sure you leave your sense of morality and your inhibitions safely tucked up for the evening back home!

World Travel Market  

Yours Truly will once more be unleashed onto an unsuspecting throng of global travel and tourism professionals at the world-renowned World Travel Market expo, at London’s ExCel centre, in November. It is somewhat akin to when The Stig gets released every now and again from the Top Gear test track.

Talking of which, if you’re a travel blogger and want to know what’s the best way of getting across the capital from West London to Excel (or thereabouts), see how The Stig and the rest of the Top Gear chaps fared when competing against each other using a push bike, a car, public transport – and a speedboat! http://www.topgear.com/uk/videos/london-calling

Whilst hours – or rather DAYS – can indeed be spent just simply walking around the huge exhibition halls (and subsequently wondering on one’s return home how and WHY – so many brochures and freebies were collected from representatives of places one will most likely never visit), this year there’s a big incentive for attending: The Social Travel Market.
Lots of seminars all about blogging, tweeting, and tips on using video (very relevant given my plans for the teasers!), and a bunch of networking opportunities with some of the most talented and ambitious travel bloggers in the world.  Something tells me I’m not going to be milling around the exhibition halls and stands that much!

Familiarisation Tours

To capitalise on the number of foreign-based travel bloggers descending on London for the WTM in November, some familiarisation tours will be offered. Whilst the WTM can’t necessarily offer sex, violence, treachery, and betrayal, THE INTELLIGENCE TRAIL certainly can! Full details will be appearing in another post. If you’re a blogger or travel trade professional and you’d like further information and/or wish to join one of the tours, get in touch. Spaces will be filled on a first-come, first-served basis, and subject to verification.

Private Tours

Several have already been organised for various organisations over the next few months. With many companies having to cut back on the traditional Christmas shindigs, the ‘Trail can certainly offer something different.  Whilst office Christmas parties CAN conjure up sex, violence, treachery, and betrayal, this normally involves the partygoers themselves! On the ‘Trail however, you can simply settle for some raucous tales instead – especially if you opt for the nicely naughty ‘Sexpionage’ tour. Get your mistletoe at the ready!

Website

The official website is in line for a major redevelopment.  This is being earmarked for December –January, and is likely to involve moving onto WordPress.  Whilst it is hoped that the website will not deviate too much in terms of design aspects, content is nevertheless king.  And this is the main priority: being able to announce new schedules, offers, and news releases etc. as quickly as possible, and offer improved content in general.

Video

For a while now, it’s been the firm intention to produce some 30/60” teaser videos that can either be uploaded onto the official website and/or YouTube etc, which will give a bit of a flavour as to what the Trail – and the tales that are included – are all about.

So sometime before the end of the year, it is hoped to do some of these so they can be uploaded onto the new website.  The great thing of course is that as the main components of the tour are the locations and Yours Truly, I can’t see the likes of LucasFilm being required for this sort of project! All the same, I’ll be happy to hear from any young film students or professionals who’d be interested in helping out. Maybe you’ve got a uni project or need some examples of your work something to get you on your first step on the career ladder. Some mutual back-scratching is always a good thing!

That’s about it for just now: a brief plan of what’s in store over the next while. But there’s also that well-known maxim that ‘no plan ever survives contact with the enemy!’ Or in my case, real life! So keep your fingers crossed!

I’m instead talking about the 2011 Rugby World Cup which I’ve been glued to for the last month or so (let’s skip over Scotland’s performance, ok ?!).  It’s been a great championship, with a few surprise results, and it has to be said some rather questionable refereeing decisions.  Any Welsh readers, you have my utmost sympathies and it is testimony to the Welsh team that even a man down for most of the match, you were giving the French a damn good run for their money.  Had there been fifteen fiery red dragons on the pitch, it would be Wales facing the All Blacks in the final – which I’m watching right now.

But arguably more important for spy fans, is the very last episode of Spooks, aired tonight on BBC1.  We’ve had ten seasons of the MI5 drama and it’s all coming to an end this evening.

Now don’t get me wrong, the show has its critics.  Dame Stella Rimmington, the former MI5 Director General abhors it, whilst another former DG, (Baroness) Eliza Manningham-Buller is not exactly a fan – she regarded the series as being “simplistic”.   John Le Carre was even less eloquent, calling it “crap”. Ooooh, handbags at fifty paces!

Okay, anyone with more than a passing interest in the intelligence world will often cringe at some of the shenanigans on the show.  Last week’s episode was prima facie evidence: MI5 apparently having carte blanche to sneak off within the US Embassy in Grosvenor Square to recover a laptop in a store room.  Sure that’s plausible.  Cough.  Ahem.  That’s certainly not the impression I got regarding their security when I was in there!

However, leaving aside any ‘professional’ criticism of the show, one can’t deny it has been one of the strongest, most consistently well produced BBC dramas for many years. I don’t think I’ve missed a single episode, and would cite it as one of the best television shows to be made in the last decade or so. As pure entertainment, it is very well executed. Great characters and some lovely choice bits of dialogue, especially for Peter Firth (do you remember him as the Russian political officer, dispatched by Sean Connery in The Hunt for Red October ?) who plays Sir Harry Pearce.  And from a purely commercial perspective, it’s not bad for the ‘Trail either.

And, very quickly, in reference to Mr Le Carre’s comments. Although professionally he may have a point, I’d watch an extended two-hour Spooks adventure faster than you say ‘TV Licence Fee’ than be re-subjected to the awful cinema version of Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy. More of that later!

So it will be sad to see the end of a much-loved spy drama, although I bet the BBC commercial arm will in turn be salivating with the thought of the DVD box-set sales!

As you can imagine, the media have dedicated a fair amount of column inches to the end of the show. The Telegraph for instance asks why Spooks has enthralled so many for so long, and also in a wider context also asks why us Brits love spies so much?

And remember, if you’re a Spooks fan you needn’t suffer in silence. Join the ‘Trail for your fix of REAL spy shenanigans!

So in brief…

Spook Cinema

Firstly,I’m still in a state of shock at how disappointing the ‘Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy’ movie was.  More of that in a separate blog – once I’ve cooled down!  Yes, time should heal etc etc, but it’s not done the trick yet!  Spy cinema was however rescued by ‘The Debt’, starring Helen Mirren.  A very classy effort indeed.

Tour News

Places on the Trail can now also be booked online at GetYourGuide for either the Classic ‘Trail on Sunday afternoons, or the naughty X-rated ‘Sexpionage’ tour (NOT for prudes or the easily embarrassed!) on Friday evenings.

Autumn continues to be a popular time for the public and private tours.  Private and Corporate group tours are a major customer segment and is being aggressively targeted (or perhaps described as a much more diplomatic and informative take on the KGB’s term ‘active measures’!).

Examples include recent advertising and editorial coverage in the June/July edition of Group Travel Organiser magazine.

Press Tours

Helping out the lovely folk at the spy hotel of spy hotels here in London, the wonderful     St. Ermin’s, there have been some lovely journalists from across the pond introduced to the ‘second oldest profession’ and of course the hotel’s links with it. I’m glad to report that all of them (so far!) have survived the ordeal of sex, violence, treachery, and betrayal dished up by Yours Truly.

When such journalists don’t necessarily have a fascination or previous knowledge of the intelligence world, it often comes as an even bigger shock to them when they hear what’s gone on. Which of course just encourages me even more, haha!

‘Dodgy Dossier’

The ‘Trail’s very own dossier (in full-on ‘Cold War’ style) full of key details and background information about the tours is now available for corporate clients, journalists, and travel trade professionals. If you’d like your own copy, get in touch.

Networking / LinkedIn

Various networking events have been attended to further spread the word on the street – and on cyberspace. LinkedIn is also increasingly used to further cement relations with key contacts, and there are some positive recommendations and referrals now highlighted. Jolly good.

During June and July it was also the home to a most interesting discussion on one of the tourism groups. It quickly escalated from ‘Lively discussion’ into full-on ‘trolling’, thread-hijacking and some pretty unprofessional behaviour on their part. Of course, one’s own behaviour was admirable – a textbook lesson actually in how to defend one’s own reputation and position, whilst refraining from outright slagging off of somebody else and
their business.

What made it even funnier/sad was that the protagonist wasn’t even a direct competitor! Anyway with reputation and business intact, and with the protagonist duly ejected from the group due to the behaviour exhibited, things returned to normal. Some people, eh ?!
But one thing was proven.  Reputation is everything, and the ‘Trail’s credentials and reputation will be defended vigorously.  Everytime.

It must be said, that at times it was bordering on hilarious. Surreal too, if truth be told. The protagonist was so far off the scale that I was actually ‘commended’ by another poster who told me that if the protagonist was a PR stunt cooked up by myself, then I was to be saluted!  For sheer comedy value I may yet post more details about the whole story. After I’ve taken legal advice of course, hahaha!

LinkedIn is also home to the newly formed Military and Intelligence Tourism
Association. Set up to encourage military and spy-related attractions, museums, appropriate hotels etc, to network and share best practice and hopefully look at increasing category demand as a whole. It’s all rather new and exciting.  Hopefully the first
get-together will be in the next few months.

Er…. Actually you know what, I think another post IS needed!  Okay, that was the past: more snippets of current and future shenanigans will appear shortly!

But I’m getting a little concerned, and if truth be told, a little peeved. Why? I’ll tell you.

We are just days away from one of the most hotly anticipated spy films in history – namely, the cinematic version of John Le Carre’s epic ‘Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy’ (for any spy fans who have NOT read the book, or seen the absolutely magnificent BBC TV adaptation of it, you MUST. It’s as simple as that. Really.)

But WHERE is the promotion for the Tinker Tailor movie?!  I’ve been in the cinema at least once a week for the last month and a half. I’ve not seen one trailer for ‘Tinker Tailor’. Yet over the past few months I’ve seen trailers for the next Sherlock Holmes film, and even one for the final Batman story. The latter isn’t even coming out until next year!

So what the hell is going on?  I only saw posters for the film appear in the cinema last week.  Are the cinema chains not showing the trailers because they think the film is of ‘selective appeal’ ? Well, when there’s a stellar cast such as Messrs. Oldman, Hurt, Firth, Strong etc etc… AND the story itself is a classic, it can’t be positioned as a low-budget, niche film. This deserves, nay, demands, the proper promotion and publicity. And there are plenty of newspaper features and interviews with the cast members etc. But when I can’t even see any trailers for it in the cinema, what’s up? If anyone involved in the film – especially the marketing and PR –  picks up on this posting, I’d really appreciate an answer to this enigma.

As a result, there are now extra tours scheduled for August, during the week and at the weekends. Many of these are the ‘Early Years’ tour covering 1909-1945, the ‘Cold War’ tour covering 1945-1992, and of course the Classic ‘Trail, offering a bit of everything!  The X-rated Sexpionage tour continues as normal on Friday evenings.

For full details of the tours (and schedules) head over to www.getyourguide.com – here are the links to each of the tours…

The Classic Trail          The Early Years          Cold War          Sexpionage

1923   The original ‘C’, Sir Mansfield Smith Cumming CG, KCMG, first Chief of the Secret Intelligence Service, more commonly referred to as MI6, dies in his office in Melbury Road, Kensington, aged 64.

Smith Cumming’s legacy has lived on, whether it be the green ink, the green C on MI6′s crest, the ‘CX’ his organisation produced, and the desk and grandfather clock…

Born on April Fools Day, 1859. But he was certainly no fool.

First of all, going back to the re-opening of the marvellous St. Ermin’s Hotel, I came across a delightful blog from Down Under called Taste For Travel  which mentioned the ‘Trail’s favourite hotel and one or two spook-related titbits. I of course felt honour-bound to make contact and indulge some more. One thing led to another (well you should know me by now, when it comes to not being able to keep my ‘trap’ shut!) and lo and behold this came about – the appropriately titled Sex, Lies, and Lots of Spies

After the news release about the Friday evening Sexpionage tours came out, there were a few interesting people making contact. One was from a brand new website called Culture Odyssey  which is dedicated to bring to other’s eyes cultural insights from around the world, as suggested/contributed by fellow global inhabitants (er..that basically means you and me.) After pointing out to them that the intelligence world was fairly low on culture and humanitarianism (unless of course you count the heroics of MI6 Berlin Station Chief Frank Foley during the 1930′s) they were still keen to cover the ‘sex and spies’ tour and wanted a mug shot to go along with the story. How could I refuse? So in full big monochrome glory, here you go!