I've watched a couple episodes of Spy, a BBC reality series where people are trained to be spies by real, former CIA and MI-6 agents. I thought this would be a hoot, a lot of fun, but I was struck by how intense and serious the "trainers" take this stuff. The first episode I saw was "undercover" where the candidates had to work in pairs using cover stories to work under cover. Some of them had to do a job interview where they had to convince an employer that they were professional photographers, even though they had no prior experience before the day of the interview. Talk about intense! And then, after going to a party and getting in a few drinks, they go home to sleep, only to be awakened in the middle of the night and interrogated by their trainers on their cover story! Ha, now that's tough because they interview your partner as well and if your stories don't match, you're busted. Tonight's show was on surveillance where the candidates had to follow a person around without being seen, and then clandestinely leave them a message. The thing is, the trainers' used the candidate's wives, boyfriends, best friends etc. as the people being followed, so it was incredibly hard for them to follow without being recognized. None of them got it quite right, one chick lost her mark, a couple got recognized, they all had problems. The trainers watch their every move, constantly evaluating them, it's really cool. I hope they re-air this series from the begining, I think I missed a bunch. It's on the National Geographic channel here in Canada.

In this factual entertainment reality series, 16 people from all walks of life are taught the secrets of spy tradecraft by former intelligence operatives from the CIA and FBI.
They undergo a rigorous regime of training in the real world, where candidates will be asked to try out their skills on real people and unsuspecting members of the public. They will have to infiltrate difficult environments and access confidential information, follow targets and mount complex surveillance operations on people and places.
Spy airs Saturdays at 8 pm ET