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I think he is, but I could be wrong. He would be called H if he were Hargreaves.
When they are playing the tape of the interview Bond did with Tanya in Istanbul via the camera he held,on the tour boat.
It's a nice idea that the original M was played by Bernard Lee and when he died a new head of Mi6 was appointed. It may also make sense that Admiral Hargreaves would get appointed to that postion.
The truth however is that no attempt is made to explain the new M in OP and therefore we must presume, considering both men were similar ages and had comparable looks and stature, that Brown's M is still Messervy. The truth is that continuity is so flimsy from film to film it hardly matters.
But...I think once Lee died and the part needed recasting the producers missed a great dramatic opportunity to explore Bond's relationship with a new M. This is something that NSNA had to to in 1983, and we get a younger more bureaucratic M played by Edward Fox (who really isn't keen on 007 or his antics). Instead the producers just relied on formula and it's the reason why those late Roger Moore films are the most disappointing of the series. Fox should have played M in the EON series.
Hargreaves being the only exception. In the light of this I prefer the thought that it was a promoted Hargreaves being the new M.
Also, in military organisations, it's quite normal to change heads once every 3 to 5 years. Obviously that would be too much for the Bond series but it's likely that Bond would have had several bosses after a few years.
I also always think of Hargreaves as M,its a good flowing transformation which works,even if it wasnt meant to !!
I don't know where this comes from, but Wikipedia used to list Hargreaves first name as being Marion, hence the M.
M (Admiral Hargreaves)
After Lee's death in 1981, the producers hired actor Robert Brown to play M in Octopussy. Brown had previously played Admiral Hargreaves, flag officer of submarines, in the 1977 film, The Spy Who Loved Me. Bond scholars Steven Jay Rubin, John Cork, and Collin Stutz all consider Admiral Hargreaves would have been promoted to the role of M, rather than Brown playing a different character as M.
That's what it says now. It used to list Robert Brown's M as Marion Hargreaves, and I don't know where the hell that came from.
That is weird,well at least they have adjusted it now !!
"Dikko Henderson" was the real Blofeld. Pleasence and Savalas were decoys.
Brad Whitaker s death was staged, like that of Pushkin. He was actually a CIA agent.
And Shane Rimmer, what do you say about a man like that?
And to answer the main question here, yes, I go with the Hargreaves theory, too. In TSWLM he shows himself as quite a rude man who happens to be an Admiral like Sir Miles. Just like his M.
After seeing Dench it dawned on me that Mi6 would replace M eventually. I thought that maybe Hargreaves would take the post and start planning his retirement. Finally being replaced by Dench. However this theory does not stand up to close scrutiny because of the replacement of Bonds.
We should not try to overthink this.
The only thing that bothers me is that Brown's character - Hargreaves - does not end in M, where as Messervy, Mallory and Dench's character all shared the M in their last name. So why wasn't Brown's character called H or something?
Well, don't real heads of the MI6 still use "C" even if their name doesn't start with C, all because of Sir Mansfield Smith-Cumming?
Well, the default position would be one of skepticism, the people assessing Robert Brown is Admiral Hargreave have the burden of proof. The only one we have is that he was played by the same actor, but that is very thin, as other actors played different roles in the franchise before.
I personally think that he's a promoted Admiral Hargreaves, but it really doesn't matter.