Wolf Mankowitz, the celebrated writer and playwright who wrote screenplays lauding James Bond, was under lengthy investigation for his Communist sympathies.
In reports that would make Bond's boss "M" blanch, the documents show that Mankowitz, a Jewish Eastender, was under surveillance, had his mail intercepted and was the target of wiretapping by the intelligence services as hysteria about Communist infiltration gripped Britain.
Even the BBC was put under pressure not to use him on Radio Three and on a television film.
Mankowitz, who wrote the screenplay for 1967's Casino Royale and contributed to the screenplay of Doctor No, was under active investigation from 1944 until the late 1950s, with security agents poring over his army records and his articles on the arts in the Soviet Union.
