During the Second World War and for two decades after 1950, Bingham worked for MI5, and had long been said to be the inspiration for John le Carré's character George Smiley.
[4] John le Carré wrote that Bingham encouraged him to write his first novel, Call for the Dead (1961), and to remain an active MI5 officer whilst doing so; and in a BBC Radio Front Row interview in 2009, said that Bingham's successful thriller novels, published when the two men worked together at MI5 in the 1950s, inspired him to write his first two books.
In February 2014, MI5 released files at the National Archives on the "Fifth Column" operation, which aimed to identify British Nazi sympathizers during the Second World War.
[6] Bingham was recruited into MI5 by Maxwell Knight to work in the counter-intelligence and political infiltration-based M Section.
[7] Bingham's first novel, My Name Is Michael Sibley (1952), was unusual for its time in suggesting that the British police might not always play fairly.