Former Eastenders actor Dean Gaffney, 34, has applied for a job as Mobile Surveillance Officer with the secret service. The soap-star played Albert Square's Robbie Jackson before later mocking himself on Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant's sitcom Extras on which he worked at a local branch of Carphone Warehouse.

The MI5 ad reads, "A valued member of a diverse team, you'll follow subjects of national security investigations by foot and by car.Your observation skills, quick thinking and ability to fit into your environment means you'll be able to make a big contribution." Gaffney certainly thinks he has what it takes to become a real-life James Bond, telling The Sun, "I've got an enquiring mind, so I thought I'd give it a go.MI5 put out an advert looking for people and I thought, 'How hard can it be?' Most spies spend their lives pretending to be people who they're not. I do that for a living." Err. The job would no doubt include following suspected terrorists around the country, though when you really think about it, the last person a terrorist would suspect of being an MI5 officer is Eastender's very own Dean Gaffney. A friend of the actor said, "There wasn't much acting work around so Dean had a look at what else was out there.That's when he saw the MI5 advert and figured it was worth applying.He's not heard back yet - but fingers crossed." Fingers crossed indeed.

Gaffney appeared on the 2006 series of I'm A Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here and gained a reputation for being quite the ladies' man, reportedly dating Linsey Dawn McKenzie and Alicia Douvall.