Riz Ahmed

speaker

1,209 appearances 3 recordings 3 series first heard Mar 2026 last heard 10 Jun

Riz Ahmed’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.

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recordings per month · last 12 months

Recordings per month over the last 12 months — 3 in all, peaking in Jun 2026 with 1.

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The Claire Byrne Show · How to be a spy! · 29 May 2026 podcast

What do you need to have to be a successful spy?

Yeah, well, we all like to think we're people, people, people.

But at the same time, you have to report back to your superior.

So are you are you listening out for certain cues?

Are you looking for certain information?

But is it not inherently risky if you are spying or you are there having the conversation with the prince of whoever in front of you and you're kind of, you know, taking mental notes to tell your handler afterwards?

Is there not a risk that you might end up in the slammer or worse because the person who you are spying on might take offence?

Yeah, well, you see, that's it.

Financial is key here.

But like everything else, we were talking about the rise of AI earlier on.

I'm not sure how good AI is as a spy, but I would like to think that rather than, you know, tap up a B-list actor who might have an interesting conversation somewhere, I just hack into someone's phone instead.

I mean, that would be much more efficient.

Is that how MI6 and these organisations are operating these days?

I think that it's probably never going to be as glamorous as it is portrayed in the films.

Look, for me, if you're to pick out the best type of spy that has ever been out there, the character called Ned Broy, who would have been Michael Collins' man in Dublin Castle during the War of Independence, who went on to become the Garda Commissioner subsequently.

You know, the stuff that he was up to giving information out against the British government to the IRA at the time, it was just...

stuff of legend.

You think of everything that happened during the Second World War between the Allies and then the Cold War between the East and the West.

I mean, is it all a little bit dull these days?

Is it not as kind of clandestine as it used to be?

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