BOB BARKLEY

Bob Barkley is an agent with American Intelligence.

It should be stated that there is some disagreement as to whether this agent's last name is spelled as shown or as "Barclay". What is not debatable, though, is that he is, or at least becomes, an undercover operative for the American Intelligence community though even here, exactly whom he works for is not clear.

Before he is brought into the clandestine world, Barkley was a very experienced, very well-known foreign correspondent for a media company known as Amalgamated. He was also said to be a successful author having at least one and likely several books to his name. He is very well traveled and his name is recognized by people he deals with.

His entry into intelligence work comes about as a result of a meeting between a chief intelligence officer and the CEO of Amalgamated when they decided a lone wolf operative working under the cover of a correspondent was needed to help counter-espionage activity around the world. Both men had their own choice for the best man for the job and both had the name of Bob Barkley in mind.

It is likely that Barkley was a reasonably tall (6') man in his mid-30's with short, light brown hair. He is a good looking man in better than average shape. [This from a picture of the man portraying him on radio].

Barkley is single with no long-term attachments. He is not looking for one, either, as he has truly enjoyed his globe-trotting as a reporter and plans on continuing both the travel and the reporting, along with the spy-hunting duties he has just taken on.

     I have only been able to listen to one episode (the first one) but it was very enjoyable and I definitely would like to listen to more should the opportunity (and finances) permit. The actor portraying Barkley, Jack McCarthy, makes the character sound like someone who is serious about what he is doing but also having a good time doing it. There was no "just the facts, ma'am" vibe nor any "the only good commie is a dead commie". Of course, the Cold War was only just heating up.

     I did get a kick out of reading how the creator's idea of an Intelligence agent traveling the world using a foreign correspondent gig as a cover did cause some consternation in both the journalist and espionage communities. While both the trope of a spy using reporting as a blind and the one of foreign officials suspecting any reporter of being a spy have become common place in the genre, they had to have started somewhere. Why not here?