Riz Ahmed says UK spies tried to recruit him on three occasions | Riz Ahmed

Oscar-winning actor Riz Ahmed has claimed that British intelligence services tried three times to recruit him, including one involving a senior BBC executive.

Ahmed, 43, said: “It’s happened three different times and it’s all a bit ridiculous and that’s what I mean by that, it’s comedic in nature.

“One was when I came back from my first film, Road to Guantanamo, we went down to Luton airport to celebrate.

“They took me into a side room, locked my arm, threatened to break my arm, took my phone, pretended to press buttons, accidentally changed the language to Danish, and then said: ‘Did you become an actor to further the Muslim struggle?’

“I was thinking: ‘This is so funny.’ And when I finished that they said: ‘Okay. Since the way you answer these questions is truly amazing, would you like to keep an eye on us?’ “No, thank you.”

The London-born actor and musician made these statements during a conversation with journalist Mehdi Hasan on the media platform Zeteo.

Added Ahmed: “The second time it was through a family friend, which was a little bit like: ‘Oh, honey. That’s what’s going on there.’

“The third was a senior official at the BBC.”

Ahmed added that they were someone who had “recently left the BBC” but did not name the person.

Hasan asked how people can be sure that Ahmed did not accept any offer to work for the security services, to which the actor joked that “if I were actually federal it would be a sick biopic”.

Known for films such as Four Lions, Ahmed won an Oscar in 2022 for his short film The Long Goodbye.

In 2017, he won an Emmy for outstanding lead actor in a miniseries or movie for his performance in The Night Of.

Earlier this year, a contemporary South Asian adaptation of Hamlet was released.

In March, the British-Pakistani actor said he aspired to become a stand-up comedian.

He said: “Of course my dream is to be a stand-up comedian, but everyone who knows me says: ‘Please don’t do that.'”

“I see people like Hasan Minhaj or Ramy [Youssef]or Bill Hicks is growing up or Chris Rock and the gloves are off, man.

“You live or you die. There is no fourth wall. There is no kindness in the audience, everything happens moment by moment.”