Looking for Mr Bond: 007 at the BBC Timeshift


Looking for Mr Bond: 007 at the BBC

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Ever since a British secret agent named Bond - James Bond -

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embarked on his first mission,

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a large global corporation has been keeping tabs on his every move.

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So...

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There's such a lot of Bond to see, isn't there? Is there no end?

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Now, after more than 60 years of tracking 007 in print

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and on screen...

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Thank you. Ready, guys?

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..we open up the BBC vaults to reveal the forgotten files

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on the world's most celebrated secret agent.

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The world's most famous hero assumes a natural position.

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# He's tall and he's dark... #

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Through candid interrogations...

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'How much of that action do you enjoy?'

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I enjoy all of it. I... Particularly the love scenes.

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# Mr kiss, kiss, bang, bang... #

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..technical briefings...

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But this glides away to let the missile come out of the volcano.

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..and foreign assignments,

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we assess Bond's ability to survive in a changing world.

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The Bond movies generally are simply a licence to print money.

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His transgressions, his victories and his innermost secrets explored.

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This is the sort of question that you should not be asking.

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This is a licence to view James Bond -

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unguarded, unrestricted and unseen.

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In 1964, the BBC filed a report from the United States' gold bullion

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depository at Fort Knox.

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And their man on the ground bore more than a passing

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resemblance to the spy himself.

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Oh, incidentally, that's not Fort Knox. It's a film set here.

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Goldfinger in Buckinghamshire, Pinewood. And I'm not James Bond.

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He's a fictitious character.

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Sean Connery had taken a break from filming Goldfinger to reveal for

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the BBC, for the very first time,

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the true identity of Bond's armourer, Q.

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My name's Boothroyd. Geoffrey Boothroyd.

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Certain inaccuracies in the book made me write to Fleming

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and say that I didn't think Bond was going to last very long

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if he used a .25 Beretta pistol, which is a lady's gun,

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and not a very nice lady at that.

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Well, this is the gun Boothroyd objected to,

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Bond's favourite Beretta.

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Bond was using the shoulder holster at the time.

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But his favourite holster was shammy leather,

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because you see, it didn't spoil the line of the jacket.

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I take you over now to a film clip, you'll see here, where

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Major Boothroyd is convincing 007,

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in the company of M, of Fleming's mistake.

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From now on you carry a different gun. Show him, armourer.

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Walther PPK.

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7.65mm with a delivery like a brick through a plate-glass window.

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Takes a Brausch silencer with very little reduction

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in muzzle velocity.

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-The American CIA swear by them.

-Thank you, Major Boothroyd.

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Having exposed Q's real identity,

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the BBC sought to uncover the model for Bond himself.

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But his creator proved evasive.

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People do connect me with James Bond simply

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because I happen to like some of the things that James Bond does, but he

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is a sort of mixture of commandos

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and secret service agents that I met during the war.

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But of course, entirely fictionalised.

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I certainly haven't got his guts, nor his very lively appetite.

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However, his close friend

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and neighbour in Jamaica was far less guarded.

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I think that James Bond was Ian's dream fantasy of what...

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..he would like to be.

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Ruthless and dashing and...

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It's got, as Ian had, a schoolboy quality.

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And further revelations came from a certain flirtatious secretary.

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The first meeting with Ian was at a reception after

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we'd finished From Russia With Love.

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And suddenly he said, "Moneypenny, I want to thank you,

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"because when I first wrote

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"about Miss Moneypenny, I described

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"her as a tall, elegant woman with

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"the most kissable lips in the world."

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And he said, "You are so perfect..."

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And he was coming closer and closer

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to me, much to my delight!

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And when he was about this far away,

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I said, "What do you want me

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"to say - 'Prunes' or 'Cheese'?"

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And he said, "Prunes."

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And just as he was about to kiss me

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his wife said,

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"Oh, Ian, Bedford wants to speak to you."

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Moneypenny may have been smitten,

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but there were those who did not warm to Fleming at all.

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As BBC viewers found out

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when Malcolm Muggeridge quizzed a former MI6 agent turned spy novelist.

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I'm not sure that Bond is a spy, seems to me that he is more

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some kind of international gangster with, as is said, a licence to kill.

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He is a man with unlimited movement,

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but he is a man entirely out of the political context.

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It's of no interest to Bond who, for instance,

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is President of the United States.

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But these highfalutin intellectuals had failed to

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notice that it was actually the President himself who had

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brought Bond to the world's attention.

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In an article for Life magazine in March 1961, John F Kennedy had

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included From Russia With Love in a list of his ten favourite books.

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And this was just the break that two movie moguls needed.

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American Cubby Broccoli

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and Canadian Harry Saltzman had already bought

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the options on Fleming's novels, and with paperback sales rocketing after

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Kennedy's endorsement, they flew to New York to secure the deal with

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United Artists that would put James Bond on screen.

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Normally the question from the distributors was who was

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going to play in it, Cary Grant or James Mason or someone.

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When you surprise them by telling them you don't

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want a known name, you want an unknown,

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he's afraid and confused

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and it's a little more difficult to get the financing.

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But under pressure to cast a leading man, the producers

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stood their ground for a little-known Scottish actor called Sean Connery,

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who they believed best displayed the degree of masculine virility

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that Bond demanded.

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Cubby and I went through, I would say, 200 actors.

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I liked the way he moved,

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and the fact that he had a lot of acting experience.

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But he moves extremely well.

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There's only one other actor that moves as well as he does,

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it's Albert Finney. They move like cats.

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Very light. For a big man to be light on his feet is most unusual.

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However, Fleming remained equivocal, thinking Connery to be

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an over-developed stuntman without the social graces to play his hero.

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But his opinion was swayed when female friends

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of his pronounced Connery as most definitely having "it".

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I met Fleming two or three times and we got on very well,

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I liked him enormously.

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-DIFFERENT INTERVIEW:

-He had such curiosity,

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and his knowledge was...och, so wide.

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Terrible snob, but terrific companion.

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But I think, in the main, he wanted somebody unknown.

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That they would not overshadow the character of James Bond.

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To the British public,

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James Bond perfectly caught the mood of the times and brought

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a sense of reassurance to a country in the grip of Cold War spy mania.

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If there was a third man, were you in fact the third man?

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No, I was not.

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Well, he's a free agent, as I said, at the present time,

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to go as he pleases.

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Dr No, released on the same day as The Beatles' first single,

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introduced a new emblem for a modern Britain.

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And when Bond's silhouette, or rather that of stuntman, Bob Simmons...

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GUNSHOT

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..came sauntering across cinema screens,

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audiences broke into spontaneous applause.

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It was with Goldfinger, the third film in the series,

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that the producers served up their winning cocktail.

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And the pre-title sequence is a stimulating aperitif of its own,

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with all the Bond ingredients.

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Beginning with a typically witty gadget,

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the sequence combined sleek interior sets...

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..stylish posturing...

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EXPLOSION

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..flagrant seduction of a dispensable femme fatale...

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SHE GASPS

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..and graphic violence.

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All culminating in a perfectly delivered throwaway line...

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Positively shocking.

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And a door slam to cue a knockout song.

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MUSIC: Goldfinger by Shirley Bassey

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# Goldfinger

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# He's the man

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# The man with the Midas touch

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# A spider's touch... #

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As both an establishment figure and icon of pop culture,

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James Bond was an easy target during what was the satire boom of the early 1960s.

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# Beckons you to enter his web of sin

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# But don't go in! #

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Shirley Bassey doesn't think much of you, for a start.

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I mean, she says you've got a cold finger, Goldfinger.

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LAUGHTER

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How she ever found that out, I don't know, but that's her business.

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Casino Royale and Diamonds Are Forever,

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From Russia With Sex.

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# Fish finger

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# He's the man The man with the fishy air

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# A fishy stare! #

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GUNSHOT

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For Your Thighs Only, Dr In The Know, Carry On Spy,

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Moon Finger and Muckraker.

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EXPLOSION

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WOMEN SCREAM

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Oh, well. There goes Cuba.

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There's such a lot of Bond to see, isn't there? Is there no end?

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We're proud to present tonight Bye-bye Bondy - the latest,

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indeed one might almost say the last episode in 007.

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It was a black letter day for Bond.

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He received someone, and lost no time in getting to the office of M, his chief.

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When Bond entered, M was inscrutable as always.

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David Frost's co-host, MM, Millicent Martin,

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would spoof Bond on her own show.

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And her choice of guest star would prove prophetic.

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Perhaps monsieur would like to take drinks on the patio?

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Yes, that's quite a nice little piscine-o you've got there.

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LAUGHTER AND APPLAUSE

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It was almost as if he was auditioning for the part

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a decade early.

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A nice secluded corner.

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Over there, Mr Bond?

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Yes, well, I, er, am on holiday. Thank you.

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Yes, Mr Smith.

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-Oh, oh!

-Yes, and I'm "Oh-Oh-Seven," as if you didn't know.

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James Bond, what are you doing at my hotel?

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And what, may I ask, is Sonia Slokova, Russia's master spy,

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doing staying at my hotel?

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HE GRUNTS

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By 1965, nothing, it seemed, could match Bond.

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Not even The Beatles.

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The soundtrack to Goldfinger outsold the mop-tops.

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And during the filming of Thunderball in the Bahamas,

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Bond mania reached new heights.

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Or, rather, further depths.

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A press release, given to the BBC on location,

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described the hysteria around Connery

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when a group of American students swam out to his filming boat.

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"Speak to us," one of them called to him.

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"You are our leader and we are your people."

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The globe-trotting spy was now a trend-setting brand,

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whose personality and paraphernalia saturated public life.

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The Bond films set a complete style and had a tremendous influence

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on design throughout the whole range of the visual arts.

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Did it come as a surprise to you, in fact, the population took up many

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of the, sort of, Bond images and carried them?

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We never expected that tremendous success.

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But after the first we saw there was a market,

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the second we very carefully accentuated the successful parts.

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Bond's iconic car from Goldfinger, the Aston Martin DB5,

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proved a gift for merchandisers.

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And Corgi's miniature version would go on to sell in its millions.

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Whoops! Hello, there.

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Now, this is the star of the show, I think, because this is the model

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of the car that was made for James Bond in Goldfinger.

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You press that knob there...

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Out come the two overriders and the machine guns.

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Now, you've got somebody sitting next to you in the car, and you don't like him.

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Just watch the roof.

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Wahey! Out you come.

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There goes Odd Job.

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Now, every child could have their very own Bond gadget.

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Or, if you had the clout, you could just pop along to the factory

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and pick up a scale model for your son.

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But some BBC pundits were worried that Bond, as a commodity,

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was just a smokescreen for a character with very little depth.

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There's no mystery about James Bond.

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It's too easy, you see, with all this imitation equipment.

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The man himself is nothing, with due respect, Mr Connery.

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Personally, I have never been able to

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collapse into the arms of Mr Bond.

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I see a sort of new hero emerging now...

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The new one on the way is the transvestite...

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LAUGHTER

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..like Danny La Rue, a splendid...hero.

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As production began on the next Bond bonanza

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and amidst rumours that Connery was getting itchy feet in the role,

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the BBC undertook a more probing investigation into the current

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state of 007.

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And for such a special assignment, they sent in their top man.

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Japan, Pinewood style, and the first day shooting on the fifth

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film in the cinema's most spectacular saga.

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They're spending £3 million on You Only Live Twice,

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but it'll probably earn ten times that around the world.

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To write the script,

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which involved an entirely different plot to the book,

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the producers had drafted in an old chum of Ian Fleming's,

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but for the author of Charlie And The Chocolate Factory,

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writing a Bond film would be a very different confection.

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Did you have a certain number of things that you had to do?

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For example, Bond normally goes through women in a film, doesn't he?

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I don't know what you mean by going through them.

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Well, he disposes of them. They get killed, they sacrifice themselves.

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-Yes.

-Are you up to ration?

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There's no question that you must stick to that sort of formula,

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I think, cos I asked that when I went in first. They said, "Oh, yes."

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I said, "He wants a woman, doesn't he,

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"to chase around and fall in love with?"

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And they said, "Well, three would be better."

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Whicker was on hand to watch the pre-title sequence being shot.

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-Better?

-No, just different.

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Like Peking duck is different from ketchup.

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A clever tease in which Dahl flips Bond's

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weakness for women into his undoing.

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-Darling, I give you very best duck.

-That would be lovely.

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We've had some interesting times together, Ling.

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I'll be sorry to go.

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MACHINE-GUN FIRE

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Stop, cut, cut!

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'So, James Bond's been shot where it hurts most, in bed.'

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-As Whicker slipped deeper under the covers...

-Test three, take one.

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You are a slippery customer, aren't you?

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..he turned his beady eye on to a bevy of girls submitting

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themselves to the casting session.

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'Bond's birds seldom last more than ten minutes before something

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'frightful happens to them,

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'but during their brief, passionate posturing,

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'they brave piranhas and death rays for the pleasure of sharing

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'his bedroom and his vodka martinis.'

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What's a nice girl like you doing in a place like this?

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You are a handsome looking brute.

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'Eager to surrender their cinematic all, they're screen tested.

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'They're still not exposed to the real James Bond.

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'They have to make love to his substitute.'

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Cut.

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And to better understand the Bond girl vetting process,

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Whicker sounded out the film's director, Lewis Gilbert.

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Well, you know, there's a sort of classic tradition of Bond girls,

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but this one is a German or Swedish girl,

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but obviously, she must be pretty glamorous,

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but we are trying to do something different with a Bond girl.

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This time, we'd like to try and find somebody who can act.

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So, what's a nice girl like you doing in a place like this?

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Is it a bit too disfiguring when she goes very hard in?

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-No. Let him have his main speed.

-Mm-hm.

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But as Whicker found out

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when he followed the production to Japan, wherever

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in the world Bond went, there was an expectation to conform to his values.

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The Ama pearl diving girls went on strike,

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frightened of over exposure. They're actually starlets and models.

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There's even a lift girl from the Tokyo Hilton.

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But east is east and none of these big city pearl divers wanted

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to be photographed in a bikini.

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They resisted the American public relations man who was after

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some Japanese cheesecake.

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-Let me explain...

-I understand what you want.

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You don't understand what...

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I want to get all of them lined up in modern bathing costumes...

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-Right, you want them to take off their tops.

-Yes. No.

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They don't want to.

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-I don't care what they want.

-What's the trouble, Cubby?

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Oh, it's not really serious.

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We have eight Ama girls,

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or girls who are supposed to be Ama girls, they're Japanese...types.

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And the production department is having a difficult time

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getting them to remove their...

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Not their brassieres or anything, just their outer garments.

0:20:270:20:31

They feel that they're not accustomed to

0:20:310:20:35

walking around in bikinis.

0:20:350:20:37

'Not until Broccoli got there, they weren't.'

0:20:370:20:41

But there was further trouble in paradise and Whicker's cameras

0:20:440:20:48

were there to capture the Bond wagon slowly coming off the rails.

0:20:480:20:52

He's an actor, he's here to do a job.

0:20:520:20:54

He's not just a publicity idol for them.

0:20:540:20:59

He's here and he's not been given the privilege

0:20:590:21:03

and respect of Japan for a certain amount of privacy.

0:21:030:21:06

Connery felt he was no longer a human being,

0:21:060:21:09

but a public institution and not so much an actor as a commodity.

0:21:090:21:14

With fears of becoming typecast, of being overshadowed by gadgets

0:21:140:21:19

and a gargantuan man-made volcano,

0:21:190:21:21

Connery thought it was time to hang up his holster.

0:21:210:21:24

I'm very tired because I've been... It's a long uphill grind.

0:21:240:21:29

I'm...

0:21:290:21:32

I've had a long sort of innings, as it were, and I want to change

0:21:320:21:38

direction now, take another breath and do something else.

0:21:380:21:42

-So, this is your last Bond film?

-Yes.

0:21:420:21:45

With Sean Connery's departure,

0:21:470:21:49

the Bond franchise faced its first crisis.

0:21:490:21:53

Connery had owned the part completely and a replacement seemed unthinkable.

0:21:530:21:58

Although, Cubby Broccoli remained optimistic.

0:21:580:22:01

This won't stop us from making another Bond cos an audience out

0:22:010:22:04

there want to see it.

0:22:040:22:06

We'll present what we have for their approval.

0:22:060:22:08

You'd have a headache breaking in a new Bond, actually,

0:22:080:22:11

-wouldn't you, after five?

-Everything is a headache.

0:22:110:22:15

In early 1968, the hunt was on for an actor to fill Connery's shoes,

0:22:170:22:22

when a 29-year-old Australian model and used-car salesman called

0:22:220:22:27

George Lazenby suddenly swaggered into Broccoli and Saltzman's office.

0:22:270:22:31

I was standing there in a Connery suit, a Connery haircut,

0:22:330:22:36

Rolex watch, crossed arms, saying,

0:22:360:22:38

"I heard you're looking for James Bond."

0:22:380:22:41

Broccoli had deep reservations about hiring a clothes peg,

0:22:410:22:44

as he referred to Lazenby.

0:22:440:22:47

So, over four months, they tested him against the rest of the cast, until

0:22:470:22:51

finally Harry Saltzman said he wanted to see Lazenby in a fight scene.

0:22:510:22:55

They got this big Russian guy.

0:22:550:22:57

Well, I knocked him on his butt cos I didn't know how to miss.

0:22:570:23:00

I thought, "Oh, my God, when this guy gets up, he's going

0:23:000:23:03

"to kill me." He was a real Russian wrestler, you know?

0:23:030:23:05

But he was OK and Harry stepped over him and says,

0:23:050:23:08

"We're going with you."

0:23:080:23:10

Aside from the small matter of finding a new Bond,

0:23:170:23:19

On Her Majesty's Secret Service would see him get hitched

0:23:190:23:23

and in choosing an actress of Diana Rigg's calibre,

0:23:230:23:26

the producers hoped to increase the power of the film's romantic scenes.

0:23:260:23:30

The BBC caught up with Rigg on location in Portugal to ask

0:23:300:23:34

her what she felt the issues were for women in Bond's world.

0:23:340:23:37

From the woman's point of view,

0:23:370:23:39

mainly the fact that the women are victims

0:23:390:23:42

and in our society at the moment, women are being very busy,

0:23:420:23:45

trying to prove that they aren't victims,

0:23:450:23:48

but Ian Fleming definitely, definitely puts them

0:23:480:23:51

in a sort of subsidiary position and Bond uses them.

0:23:510:23:54

They are vessels,

0:23:540:23:56

either for his lust or to get to the big bad boss or something.

0:23:560:24:01

They are ciphers. They are not real people.

0:24:010:24:06

Alongside Rigg, these ciphers come in the form of a deadly harem

0:24:070:24:11

under the control of the arch-villain Blofeld.

0:24:110:24:14

But in this story, Fleming at last allows Bond to fall in love.

0:24:140:24:18

In a sense, it's a game, but also it's quite a clever trick

0:24:200:24:23

because the man who heretofore has been absolutely unobtainable

0:24:230:24:30

suddenly decides through love or whatever to marry this girl

0:24:300:24:35

and he subscribes, but Ian Fleming only allows him to subscribe for

0:24:350:24:42

an hour after his wedding and then I get a bullet through one ear

0:24:420:24:46

and out the other.

0:24:460:24:48

GUNFIRE

0:24:490:24:52

It's Blofeld.

0:24:540:24:55

Blofeld.

0:24:570:24:59

You know, it's quite a good trick because it means

0:25:030:25:06

he has all the right motives, deep down, underneath.

0:25:060:25:12

In other words, he is prepared to get married, if he loves the girl.

0:25:120:25:16

But then by some terrible trick of fate, she's taken away from him

0:25:160:25:20

and he's suddenly available for all those females again.

0:25:200:25:24

Slightly embittered, you know.

0:25:240:25:26

But becoming Bond was to leave Lazenby embittered too.

0:25:260:25:30

Reports had circulated that he was awkward and arrogant on set,

0:25:300:25:34

overwhelmed by the responsibility of the role.

0:25:340:25:37

The critics rather brutally pounded him with such comments as

0:25:370:25:41

"His "lines carry about as much conviction as an insecticide

0:25:410:25:44

"salesman at a flea circus",

0:25:440:25:46

but in spite of the critics, Mr Lazenby appears to know

0:25:460:25:49

his own mind and has maintained a stubborn sense of individuality.

0:25:490:25:53

He grew a beard, for instance,

0:25:530:25:55

and refused to shave it off for the film premiere.

0:25:550:25:58

Anyone can understand that James Bond isn't a real person and they're

0:25:580:26:03

not going to mind the fact that I haven't had a shave for a month.

0:26:030:26:06

Everyone knows that James Bond must have a beard, even though

0:26:060:26:09

you never see it in the film.

0:26:090:26:11

What about the reports that you were deliberately awkward and hostile?

0:26:110:26:15

Well, they were true in a way because I was very uptight lots of

0:26:150:26:19

the time because I didn't understand exactly what was going on.

0:26:190:26:23

And the only person you can ask...

0:26:230:26:26

The only person who knew what was going on was the director.

0:26:260:26:29

And he didn't really feel that an actor was important in the role.

0:26:290:26:34

He felt that you could get any guy, put him in that part

0:26:340:26:37

and make him James Bond, providing he looked similar to what the

0:26:370:26:41

public feel James Bond looks like. And this came...

0:26:410:26:45

That vibration came off the director on to me all the time.

0:26:450:26:48

Lazenby had begun to fear that Bond wasn't quite as far

0:26:510:26:55

out as he could be in 1969.

0:26:550:26:58

This was now the era of peace, not war, he thought.

0:26:580:27:02

Well, how about the director? Did he agree with your idea of Bond?

0:27:020:27:05

Well, no.

0:27:050:27:07

They had a set formula, which was a winner previous

0:27:070:27:11

and you can't blame them for not agreeing with me

0:27:110:27:13

because I was a learner.

0:27:130:27:15

I felt quite confident that if they did change it,

0:27:150:27:17

like putting pop music behind it,

0:27:170:27:20

rather than the sort of light music

0:27:200:27:24

they have, and things like that, it

0:27:240:27:27

would have lifted the whole thing up

0:27:270:27:31

again into another decade, 1970.

0:27:310:27:35

ENGINE REVS

0:27:350:27:38

Lazenby, feeling that Bond had no place in the emerging

0:27:380:27:41

counterculture, kept the beard and hit the road.

0:27:410:27:45

With Lazenby gone, a plan was hatched to lure back Sean Connery,

0:27:530:27:57

who was only too aware of the strong bargaining position

0:27:570:28:00

he now found himself in, as he candidly let slip to the BBC.

0:28:000:28:05

Having been away for four years, I think

0:28:050:28:07

one had made the point too with the lack of success of the one

0:28:070:28:10

previous, the one that I wasn't in anyway,

0:28:100:28:14

and coming back in to do this one,

0:28:140:28:18

the wicket was better for me

0:28:180:28:21

to make the conditions of not being so much a pawn in the circumstances.

0:28:210:28:26

Also, I didn't think I got a fair piece of the cake.

0:28:280:28:32

-You mean financially?

-Yes.

0:28:320:28:34

Connery had been tempted back,

0:28:340:28:37

not only with the promise of a tremendous fee,

0:28:370:28:40

but also by the quality of the script,

0:28:400:28:42

drafted by a young American screenwriter called Tom Mankiewicz.

0:28:420:28:46

I hope that Guy Hamilton, the director,

0:28:460:28:49

and myself, with the assistance of Tom Mankiewicz,

0:28:490:28:51

who has written the screenplay,

0:28:510:28:53

which incidentally I think is probably the best one they've had,

0:28:530:28:57

certainly construction wise for a beginning and a middle

0:28:570:29:00

and an end of a story. It's a very good script.

0:29:000:29:05

I hope it's got enough... I think that there's humour in it.

0:29:050:29:11

And for this moment in a Las Vegas casino,

0:29:110:29:14

Connery and Mankiewicz shared the writing honours.

0:29:140:29:18

Hi, I'm Plenty.

0:29:180:29:20

-But of course you are.

-Plenty O'Toole.

0:29:200:29:22

-Named after your father, perhaps?

-Would you like some help?

0:29:220:29:27

On the craps, I mean.

0:29:270:29:29

That's very kind of you.

0:29:290:29:31

The camp and breezy tone of Diamonds Are Forever, with its liberal

0:29:310:29:34

use of smutty humour, was a new throw of the dice for the Bond franchise.

0:29:340:29:38

To see if this gamble was paying off,

0:29:450:29:47

the BBC despatched one of its top entertainers to Sin City.

0:29:470:29:51

Derek Nimmo arrived just as Connery was shooting his first scenes,

0:29:530:29:57

a frenetic car chase on the downtown strip...

0:30:020:30:05

..involving real pedestrians.

0:30:070:30:09

And you couldn't get much closer to the action than Nimmo did...

0:30:090:30:13

..as he almost found out to his peril.

0:30:140:30:16

-What the hell are you doing?

-I'm...

0:30:200:30:22

Sean?

0:30:220:30:24

What are you doing here?

0:30:240:30:26

-Derek Nimmo?

-I'm terribly sorry. Why are you driving on the pavement?

0:30:260:30:31

I'm making Diamonds Are Forever.

0:30:310:30:33

It's a film.

0:30:330:30:35

A film. Oh, I see, you're not in trouble then?

0:30:350:30:38

As a matter of fact, I rather am in trouble.

0:30:380:30:41

I was here for the gambling and I won quite a lot really,

0:30:410:30:44

but I'm down now to about 1,700 and I don't quite know what to do.

0:30:440:30:49

Well, if I were you, I'd get the hell out of it.

0:30:490:30:52

Connery's swift exit after Diamonds Are Forever would cause the producers

0:30:520:30:56

to begin their hunt for what would be the third different

0:30:560:31:00

Bond in less than four years.

0:31:000:31:02

But many, including Connery,

0:31:020:31:04

were feeling the series may have run its course.

0:31:040:31:07

I came back for the one, that was the understanding.

0:31:070:31:11

I'd do the one and I've got other things I want to do.

0:31:110:31:15

I mean, it's perfectly possible that the cycle has ended.

0:31:150:31:19

But far from ending the cycle,

0:31:190:31:21

it was Mankiewicz's sparkling one-liners and Connery's

0:31:210:31:25

tongue-in-cheek approach that would set the tone for the coming films.

0:31:250:31:29

Sean Connery was the first screen Bond, but now that he no longer

0:31:300:31:34

plays the role, United Artists have laid him to rest. "Sean who?"

0:31:340:31:37

they say. "No, no.

0:31:370:31:38

"There's only one James Bond and that's Roger Moore,"

0:31:380:31:41

who of course just happens to be the latest.

0:31:410:31:44

Lowering his gun and raising his eyebrow, Roger Moore seemed to

0:31:440:31:48

continue from where he'd left off on the Millicent Martin Show in 1964.

0:31:480:31:53

Black queen on the red king, Miss...?

0:31:530:31:56

Solitaire.

0:31:560:31:58

My name's Bond.

0:31:590:32:01

James Bond.

0:32:010:32:03

I know who you are,

0:32:030:32:05

what you are and why you have come.

0:32:050:32:08

You have made a mistake.

0:32:080:32:10

You will not succeed.

0:32:100:32:13

Did Solitaire know something we didn't?

0:32:130:32:15

Moore determined to play the role for laughs.

0:32:200:32:22

But there were concerns as to whether he could really cut it as James Bond.

0:32:250:32:30

When you took over from Sean Connery, because it was new and

0:32:310:32:35

because it was different, people all said,

0:32:350:32:37

"Oh, well, Roger Moore is not my idea of 007.

0:32:370:32:40

"And he's not like Sean Connery and it's a great failure."

0:32:440:32:47

I mean, do you mind that kind of hammering?

0:32:470:32:50

Erm... No, not really because I say it before they do.

0:32:500:32:55

I think the first time they went to see Live And Let Die was

0:32:550:32:59

just to see if I was going to be as bad as they thought I would be.

0:32:590:33:03

With the uncertainty of a new Bond,

0:33:080:33:10

the producers had felt panicked into chasing current cinema trends, but

0:33:100:33:15

James Bond sat uncomfortably in both a Blaxploitation milieu

0:33:150:33:19

and a kung fu craze.

0:33:190:33:21

Stand back, girls.

0:33:210:33:23

In 1975, Harry Saltzman, beset by financial difficulties,

0:33:260:33:31

was forced to sell his share in the Bond franchise to United Artists.

0:33:310:33:35

The break-up of his winning partnership with Cubby Broccoli,

0:33:350:33:38

together with the lukewarm reception

0:33:380:33:41

for The Man With The Golden Gun couldn't have come at a worse time.

0:33:410:33:45

By the mid-1970s, film production in Britain was in harsh decline,

0:33:450:33:49

but undeterred, Broccoli resolved to go for broke with his next venture,

0:33:490:33:54

The Spy Who Loved Me, determined that Bond would keep the British end up.

0:33:540:33:58

Obviously we do make the picture for a worldwide market

0:34:010:34:04

and I think that's the hope of the British industry.

0:34:040:34:07

We feel we have to do something more outrageous, more bizarre

0:34:070:34:10

and more unique.

0:34:100:34:12

For Broccoli and the Bond franchise,

0:34:140:34:16

this would be a very symbolic leap of faith.

0:34:160:34:19

The film's audacious opening stunt was filmed from multiple angles,

0:34:250:34:29

but they went with a single shot and the whole world held its breath.

0:34:290:34:33

JAMES BOND THEME TUNE

0:34:360:34:40

Such was the confidence in The Spy Who Loved Me

0:34:420:34:44

and the feeling that it might just prove

0:34:440:34:47

the saviour of the British film industry, that the BBC,

0:34:470:34:50

in collaboration with the Open University,

0:34:500:34:53

secured unique access to the film's production, as the basis for a

0:34:530:34:57

course on, promisingly entitled, Mass Communications and Society.

0:34:570:35:02

GUNSHOT

0:35:040:35:08

My name is Bond.

0:35:100:35:13

James Bond.

0:35:130:35:15

The resulting eight-part series examined all aspects of Bondiana,

0:35:150:35:19

from giving Bond a new soundtrack for the 1970s...

0:35:190:35:23

I was very anxious to write a song that I thought was completely

0:35:230:35:26

different than any of the songs that

0:35:260:35:28

have been written for the Bond films.

0:35:280:35:31

And I also didn't want them to quite be about the villain.

0:35:310:35:34

I wanted a song written about Bond.

0:35:340:35:36

I thought it was time that he be pretentious enough

0:35:360:35:39

and vain enough, in fact, to have a song written about him.

0:35:390:35:43

..to the usual pressures of being a Bond girl.

0:35:430:35:47

The one thing that sometimes I don't particularly like is the...

0:35:470:35:51

Let's say the sex symbol part of it,

0:35:530:35:56

as most of the Bond girls have been because that is not at all my scene.

0:35:560:36:02

And cameras eavesdropped as set designer Ken Adam explained his

0:36:020:36:06

concept for the film's centrepiece to director Lewis Gilbert.

0:36:060:36:09

-My feeling is as the submarine goes in...

-Into darkness.

0:36:090:36:13

Into darkness, you know, with a high fin, I think that will

0:36:130:36:17

give you a very good...

0:36:170:36:18

I discussed with Claude yesterday actually, I thought the best

0:36:180:36:22

way of showing the set was to suddenly switch on all the lights.

0:36:220:36:27

SIRENS BLARE

0:36:270:36:30

The 380ft long set is a life-size mock up

0:36:330:36:36

of the interior of a 600,000 tonne supertanker,

0:36:360:36:40

containing three submarines,

0:36:400:36:42

floating in 1.2 million gallons of water.

0:36:420:36:46

As if that wasn't enough to keep the 400 guests wondering,

0:36:460:36:49

girls from the cast stripped off their minks in sub-zero

0:36:490:36:53

temperatures, all in the name of publicity.

0:36:530:36:56

The film is costing over £6 million and this set alone, £1 million.

0:36:560:37:01

Appropriately, 007 himself arrived in futuristic style.

0:37:010:37:06

And then with his adversary, a female Russian super spy,

0:37:080:37:11

accompanied the ex-Prime Minister

0:37:110:37:13

around the world's largest film stage.

0:37:130:37:15

Believing they had a hit on their hands, United Artists spent

0:37:170:37:21

a record 4.4 million on worldwide publicity.

0:37:210:37:25

And who better to front it than the man himself?

0:37:250:37:29

My name's Bond, James Bond, and I'm licensed to kill.

0:37:320:37:36

There's a royal premiere tonight, it's the latest Bond,

0:37:360:37:39

The Spy Who Loved Me. It has women, action and me.

0:37:390:37:42

So have you tonight on Nationwide at 6:20.

0:37:420:37:46

I'm Roger Moore, so watch The Spy Who Loved Me and you'll

0:37:460:37:49

love James Bond.

0:37:490:37:50

It still works - on the third take.

0:37:520:37:54

Roger, you do spoof the part a bit, don't you?

0:37:560:37:59

-You think it's funny, in a way.

-Well, of course, the...

0:37:590:38:02

The whole thing is that you must not laugh at it.

0:38:030:38:07

You must let the audience know that they are invited to laugh with you.

0:38:070:38:11

And so it's all a spoof, it's fun.

0:38:110:38:14

The film's most topical gag came in the form of its

0:38:150:38:18

larger-than-life-villain, Jaws.

0:38:180:38:21

Bond's most formidable foe since Oddjob.

0:38:220:38:25

This marvellous man who plays Jaws, he is 7'2".

0:38:270:38:30

When he was grappling with you in the railway carriage,

0:38:300:38:33

what was it like?

0:38:330:38:35

-Is he...

-It was hell.

0:38:350:38:37

He is a very gentle man, very nice, but he's very heavy.

0:38:370:38:40

And when he had me squashed up against that wall...

0:38:400:38:44

Like 20st pushing this bone here right through to the back.

0:38:440:38:48

Yes.

0:38:480:38:50

Bond's highly choreographed confrontations with Jaws

0:38:520:38:55

were a large part of the film's phenomenal success.

0:38:550:38:58

BOND GROANS

0:39:000:39:01

TRAIN HORN BLARES

0:39:010:39:03

And so popular was this mighty-mouthed adversary

0:39:160:39:19

that when the production jetted off to Rio de Janeiro

0:39:190:39:22

for the next movie, they did the unthinkable.

0:39:220:39:25

We've done something in this film that's never been done in any

0:39:300:39:33

Bond film - we've had to bring him back.

0:39:330:39:36

And really that's partly because there's so many people

0:39:360:39:39

round the world that wrote in saying, "Is he going to come back?"

0:39:390:39:42

So we had to bow to that kind of thing.

0:39:420:39:44

We should stop altogether at one point...

0:39:470:39:50

and be suspended and be looking ahead at what...

0:39:500:39:53

At, you know, the other cable car.

0:39:530:39:55

From high jinks over Rio to laser battles in outer space,

0:39:580:40:02

Moonraker was, quite simply, out of this world.

0:40:020:40:06

But James Bond would come hurtling back to Earth

0:40:060:40:09

for an unusually close encounter.

0:40:090:40:12

-BARRY NORMAN:

-It is being said, at the moment, that another

0:40:120:40:15

rival James Bond film is going to be set up with your own

0:40:150:40:17

original James Bond, Sean Connery, playing the part.

0:40:170:40:20

Does that worry you at all?

0:40:200:40:22

Well, that's a, that's a legal thing.

0:40:220:40:25

I'm not going to get into any legal, erm,

0:40:250:40:27

discussions about it.

0:40:270:40:30

But would it worry you if, if such a film were to be made?

0:40:300:40:32

Nothing worries me if I'm making a good film.

0:40:320:40:35

Broccoli may have brushed off the question,

0:40:350:40:38

but Barry Norman was on to something,

0:40:380:40:40

and by the summer of 1983 - look who was back.

0:40:400:40:44

38... Roll camera.

0:40:440:40:46

Connery was in production on the aptly-titled

0:40:460:40:49

Never Say Never Again - a remake of Thunderball -

0:40:490:40:53

the film rights of which resided with an independent producer.

0:40:530:40:56

It seemed quite a good idea after all these years,

0:40:560:40:59

and the moment I said, "Yeah, OK, I'll do it,"

0:40:590:41:02

there was a terrific furore.

0:41:020:41:04

With Roger Moore then in production on Octopussy,

0:41:040:41:07

the press looked to stoke up a bitter rivalry,

0:41:070:41:10

but the 00s were having none of it.

0:41:100:41:13

I...made it quite clear at the outset

0:41:130:41:16

that I was not in any way going to get involved in any silly race

0:41:160:41:19

in terms of rivalry or whatever. As you well know,

0:41:190:41:22

I've known Roger 20 years or so. And I did say to him,

0:41:220:41:25

"You know, they're going to try and play a sort of hype business,

0:41:250:41:29

"but you shouldn't really pay any attention to it."

0:41:290:41:31

And, erm, we didn't.

0:41:310:41:34

However, the BBC hardly remained impartial themselves.

0:41:340:41:38

Good evening from the Warner Theatre in Leicester Square,

0:41:380:41:41

where the crowds are already beginning to gather

0:41:410:41:44

because James Bond is back - the real James Bond,

0:41:440:41:47

at least, the real one in many people's eyes.

0:41:470:41:50

Not Roger Moore, the pretender who has usurped the role

0:41:500:41:52

for the last 12 years, but the original - Sean Connery.

0:41:520:41:56

Welcome back, James, as it were. I must put it to you,

0:41:560:41:59

this is rather unfair, but I was looking at the 00 rule book,

0:41:590:42:02

and it turns out that it's automatic retirement at 45 -

0:42:020:42:05

-did you know that?

-Yeah, well, I've got two years yet.

0:42:050:42:08

MICHAEL WOOD CHUCKLES

0:42:080:42:10

By the mid-1980s, James Bond had become something of a

0:42:120:42:15

-middle-aged man's fantasy.

-Do you hear the muttering?

0:42:150:42:18

Do you listen out for what people are saying about the movie?

0:42:180:42:21

Or about you specifically?

0:42:210:42:23

"Oh, it's old Moore again," they say.

0:42:230:42:25

-LAUGHTER

-"Old Rog."

0:42:250:42:28

Roger Moore seemed to be a long way from leaping over crocodiles.

0:42:280:42:31

Approaching 60, he now jogged about in a suede blouson.

0:42:310:42:35

What was it you were just running away from, then?

0:42:350:42:37

A bad cigar.

0:42:370:42:39

-38...

-And in rather less exotic locations.

0:42:390:42:43

We're in the Amberley Chalk Pits Museum in Sussex,

0:42:430:42:46

it's a goldmine...presumably in San Francisco, or near

0:42:460:42:50

San Francisco.

0:42:500:42:51

And, er...

0:42:510:42:54

the mines are about to be blown up to flood Silicon Valley,

0:42:540:42:57

because Zorin, Christopher Walken, is going to take over the

0:42:570:43:01

world's production of microchips.

0:43:010:43:04

But when the action itself involves the chief villain,

0:43:040:43:07

a peroxide Walken, escaping at 5mph in a mine cart...

0:43:070:43:11

..a damsel in little distress...

0:43:130:43:15

James!

0:43:150:43:16

..and a blow-up Grace Jones...

0:43:170:43:19

..the writing seemed to be on the wall.

0:43:230:43:26

A View To A Kill was to be Roger Moore's farewell to the character

0:43:260:43:30

he had inhabited since 1973.

0:43:300:43:33

Having led the field, Bond was now in danger of being eclipsed by

0:43:330:43:36

a new breed of imitator -

0:43:360:43:39

the all-American action hero. But...you can't keep a good man down.

0:43:390:43:44

A new man is about to take on the villains who want

0:43:450:43:47

to cause mischief around the world - we have a new James Bond.

0:43:470:43:51

After Connery, Lazenby and Moore, now it's...Dalton,

0:43:510:43:55

Timothy Dalton. A Welsh actor who's more used to playing Shakespeare

0:43:550:43:59

than secret agent.

0:43:590:44:00

And it was to be a stagey entrance.

0:44:060:44:08

In the pre-title for The Living Daylights, not one,

0:44:080:44:11

but three 00 agents are presented to us in a training exercise

0:44:110:44:15

on the Rock of Gibraltar...

0:44:150:44:17

No!

0:44:170:44:19

HE SCREAMS

0:44:190:44:20

But it's only when one of them falls to his death

0:44:200:44:23

that we first catch sight of a new hard-edged James Bond,

0:44:230:44:26

both brooding and Byronic.

0:44:260:44:29

And inevitably, the comparison game began.

0:44:310:44:35

-BARRY NORMAN:

-Well, now, how will the new James Bond

0:44:350:44:37

differ from his various predecessors?

0:44:370:44:39

I don't make those comparisons.

0:44:390:44:42

I have a script called The Living Daylights,

0:44:420:44:45

a character called James Bond and...

0:44:450:44:47

..I did my best to make it as well as I can. I can't think of...

0:44:490:44:54

..copying or being different to. I try to be original.

0:44:560:45:00

I studied the books and tried to bring THAT Bond into this film.

0:45:000:45:05

Your comrades in the Soviet Union...

0:45:050:45:08

GUNSHOTS AND SCREAMS

0:45:080:45:09

GUNSHOT

0:45:130:45:14

How much of the stunt work does Timothy Dalton do himself?

0:45:140:45:17

This is the sort of question...that you should not be asking.

0:45:170:45:21

Cinema is magic.

0:45:210:45:22

When people pay their money and go and sit inside a cinema,

0:45:240:45:26

they must believe.

0:45:260:45:27

And programmes like this...

0:45:280:45:31

I mean, betray all our tricks. You wouldn't expect a conjuror

0:45:310:45:35

or a magician to give his tricks away.

0:45:350:45:38

Now, the truth of the matter is that I do as much action as I can.

0:45:380:45:42

GUNFIRE

0:45:420:45:45

That is...until it came to the bedroom action,

0:45:450:45:48

which would see Dalton's Bond forego the usual casual liaisons

0:45:480:45:52

for a Hitchcock-ian love story.

0:45:520:45:54

FAIRGROUND SCREAMS

0:45:540:45:57

Take me on the wheel.

0:45:570:45:59

I think this film... It's not just an action adventure film,

0:45:590:46:02

it's the first time we've seen what could be called

0:46:020:46:04

a romantic mystery thriller. There's an honest and good

0:46:040:46:09

relationship with the leading lady.

0:46:090:46:12

However, the press were keen to make Bond's monogamy

0:46:120:46:15

more topical than the producers had perhaps intended.

0:46:150:46:18

With headlines that this was a safe-sex Bond for the AIDS era.

0:46:180:46:22

But a more likely explanation is that it was all part of

0:46:220:46:26

Dalton's aim to return to Ian Fleming's Bond,

0:46:260:46:29

who was far from being the kind of Casanova that everyone imagined.

0:46:290:46:33

He has, sort of, one girl per book, approximately.

0:46:330:46:36

And that's one a year. I think that's... He's a bachelor...

0:46:360:46:39

INTERVIEWER CHUCKLES QUIETLY

0:46:390:46:41

..and he moves around the world pretty rapidly,

0:46:410:46:43

and, um, I didn't see any great harm in that, myself.

0:46:430:46:46

Fleming's Bond is...

0:46:470:46:50

a man who often was extremely vulnerable.

0:46:500:46:54

You read passage after passage after passage throughout the books

0:46:540:46:57

where...his insides were taut and wrenching with nerves.

0:46:570:47:02

Where, you know, he'd have to have a drink or a pill

0:47:020:47:05

just to stay calm, in order to do the job he had to do.

0:47:050:47:08

Coming hard on the heels of Roger Moore's long and light-hearted reign,

0:47:090:47:14

the world was not quite ready for Dalton's taut

0:47:140:47:17

and unsmiling secret agent.

0:47:170:47:19

His second outing - Licence To Kill - still rated the most violent

0:47:190:47:24

Bond film to date, would be his last.

0:47:240:47:27

And by the early 1990s the franchise was in jeopardy,

0:47:270:47:30

plagued by a series of legal disputes over copyright.

0:47:300:47:34

This was a time of dramatic political shifts in Europe,

0:47:340:47:38

and 007, the quintessential Cold War hero, suddenly seemed obsolete.

0:47:380:47:43

It was to be the longest hiatus in Bond's film history.

0:47:460:47:49

But in 1994...he was back.

0:47:490:47:52

Pierce Brosnan, the new Bond, unveiled a few minutes ago,

0:47:550:47:57

made his name as an action man in the US TV series Remington Steele.

0:47:570:48:01

Now he has to prove the Bond formula and the character

0:48:010:48:04

can still work in the '90s.

0:48:040:48:06

It was a shaky start, though, as shown when the BBC

0:48:070:48:10

caught Brosnan off-guard.

0:48:100:48:12

Well, now I'm joined from Central London by the new 007,

0:48:120:48:15

-Pierce Brosnan. Pierce Brosnan, congratulations.

-Thank you.

0:48:150:48:18

Are you going to be bringing anything new to this role?

0:48:180:48:21

-Er, myself, I'm new. Erm...

-Yes, but what's going to be different?

0:48:210:48:27

Well, I think we have a... With the story outline we've got now

0:48:270:48:31

we have, um...

0:48:310:48:32

He hadn't a clue. But by the time cameras caught up with him

0:48:330:48:36

on location, he was the model Bond.

0:48:360:48:39

The main task at hand is really getting this film

0:48:400:48:43

and telling the story.

0:48:430:48:45

And we are doing that,

0:48:450:48:46

we have a wonderful director in Martin Campbell...

0:48:460:48:50

who's very hungry for this, and likewise myself

0:48:500:48:52

in wanting to get it right.

0:48:520:48:54

For a new Bond and a new director, it was a daunting task.

0:48:540:48:58

What we're filming today is the streets of St Petersburg.

0:49:010:49:04

We built this set here at Leavesden, as you can see.

0:49:040:49:06

I've got an 18-week shoot, I've got four units at any one time.

0:49:060:49:09

Right? You can hear them all yelling and screaming around the corner -

0:49:090:49:12

they probably want me to get round there.

0:49:120:49:15

-BARRY NORMAN:

-On the day we turned up on set, Brosnan was concerned

0:49:150:49:18

that we weren't seeing Bond in quite the right light.

0:49:180:49:21

I'm going to be doing action tomorrow...

0:49:210:49:23

I will be more Bond tomorrow, I promise you, Barry.

0:49:230:49:26

I'm sorry it's a bit boring today, and it's...

0:49:260:49:29

..this is all she wrote, you know.

0:49:300:49:33

Tomorrow I have the gun and I have the girl.

0:49:330:49:36

And Brosnan was true to his word.

0:49:360:49:39

And ACTION!

0:49:390:49:41

The next day, he swapped his Russian run-around for something

0:49:410:49:44

a bit bigger - in a scene that took six weeks to film.

0:49:440:49:47

As well as witty action scenes, director Martin Campbell,

0:50:180:50:21

together with his screenwriters, set about bringing back the familiar,

0:50:210:50:25

such as Bond's old Aston Martin DB5.

0:50:250:50:27

But there was nothing predictable about their recasting of M.

0:50:310:50:35

And in handing HER the line that had been coming to Bond

0:50:350:50:38

for more than 30 years.

0:50:380:50:41

I think you're a sexist, misogynist dinosaur,

0:50:410:50:43

a relic of the Cold War...

0:50:430:50:45

whose boyish charms, though wasted on me,

0:50:450:50:47

obviously appeal to that young woman I sent out to evaluate you.

0:50:470:50:51

Point taken.

0:50:510:50:53

Stella Rimington, the Director General of MI5 at the time,

0:50:530:50:57

was convinced that they had merged fact and fiction in

0:50:570:50:59

casting Judi Dench.

0:50:590:51:01

I can't imagine,

0:51:010:51:03

that had my appointment not been publicly announced,

0:51:030:51:06

the producers of the James Bond film would EVER

0:51:060:51:08

have thought of making M a woman. I was quite taken aback, actually,

0:51:080:51:12

because she did look quite like I looked in those days.

0:51:120:51:15

I had a jacket without a collar and a sort of three-quarter length...

0:51:150:51:19

Which is exactly what she was wearing.

0:51:190:51:22

APPLAUSE AND CHEERING

0:51:220:51:24

But despite their similarities, the true inspiration for a female M

0:51:240:51:28

was revealed on Pebble Mill by no less than the former

0:51:280:51:31

Miss Moneypenny herself.

0:51:310:51:33

Cubby Broccoli called me to say that they wouldn't be using me.

0:51:340:51:38

And I said, "Well, that's all right, because I want to play M."

0:51:380:51:41

So, all those years ago, I had given them the idea that

0:51:410:51:45

there would be a tremendous element of surprise if the new Bond

0:51:450:51:49

walked into M's office...

0:51:490:51:52

the chair swivelled around...and there was Moneypenny.

0:51:520:51:56

And she never called him James again, because she was the boss.

0:51:560:51:59

Did I see the other day that Judi Dench has been cast in that part?

0:51:590:52:02

-Yes, and I feel rather betrayed, actually.

-I bet you do.

-Yes.

0:52:020:52:06

-So, so...

-Because it should have been me.

0:52:060:52:08

And even if... I mean, she's a lovely actress,

0:52:080:52:11

but it just should have been me.

0:52:110:52:13

Across four films,

0:52:150:52:16

Pierce Brosnan successfully reinvigorated the franchise.

0:52:160:52:21

And turned Bond, once again, into a major box-office attraction.

0:52:210:52:25

But with 2002's Die Another Day, they stretched believability

0:52:300:52:34

beyond the limit. James Bond was now at the mercy of CGI,

0:52:340:52:40

be it an invisible car or even kitesurfing a tsunami.

0:52:400:52:44

The last seven years have gone very quickly.

0:52:470:52:49

You... You know, there's a certain, obviously, maturity.

0:52:490:52:52

And just as you're getting the hang of it,

0:52:520:52:54

they're talking about someone else coming along. Show business.

0:52:540:52:57

It's always been like this. I remember when Connery stepped down.

0:52:570:53:00

It was like, "Who's going to be the next guy?"

0:53:000:53:02

So, it's the big circus. And the family...

0:53:020:53:04

The Broccoli family have always done it really well.

0:53:040:53:06

Sure enough, two years later, with talk of his fifth Bond film,

0:53:060:53:09

Brosnan learned that he would no longer be the main attraction.

0:53:090:53:13

The circus was moving on, and its ringmasters were now scouting

0:53:130:53:16

for a new and younger man to top the bill.

0:53:160:53:19

We have decided, after the last film, to go back

0:53:220:53:25

to a more realistic Bond. Sort of go back to basics.

0:53:250:53:31

Go back to the classic Bond and...

0:53:310:53:33

we hope that that's something the audience will appreciate.

0:53:330:53:36

I think people are looking for something

0:53:360:53:39

a little less frivolous today.

0:53:390:53:40

The world's changed a lot. And Bond always changes with the world.

0:53:400:53:46

But the world was in for a shock.

0:53:460:53:48

Finally, the name's Craig, Daniel Craig.

0:53:500:53:53

After months of speculation, the coveted job of being the next 007

0:53:530:53:56

has been landed by the 37-year-old English actor.

0:53:560:53:59

But after four decades of tall, dark and handsome -

0:53:590:54:02

are we ready for the first blond Bond?

0:54:020:54:05

I want to make the best film we can. The most entertaining film we can.

0:54:050:54:08

And it's not a question of redefining...

0:54:080:54:10

but it's a question of taking it somewhere,

0:54:100:54:13

maybe where it's never gone before.

0:54:130:54:15

Craig had noble intentions, but for the man with the golden hair

0:54:150:54:19

the backlash would be vindictive.

0:54:190:54:21

Websites were set up saying he was too ugly, too scrawny,

0:54:230:54:26

too blond. But any doubts the world had,

0:54:260:54:29

disappeared within minutes of Casino Royale's first major

0:54:290:54:33

action set piece.

0:54:330:54:34

And Jonathan Ross was on hand to talk to the principal players

0:54:370:54:40

on location in the Bahamas.

0:54:400:54:42

How's it working out with the crazy Frenchman? You've got this

0:54:420:54:45

Frenchman who jumps off buildings for fun, I believe.

0:54:450:54:48

Yeah, he's got quite a big part at the beginning of the movie.

0:54:480:54:51

He's, I think, the world's best freerunner.

0:54:510:54:53

So we're including him in the action sequence right at the beginning

0:54:530:54:56

of the...of the movie. And it's tough, it's a very tough sequence.

0:54:560:55:00

I have to climb on the platform.

0:55:000:55:03

And after I climb on the girder on the top.

0:55:030:55:08

And on top I have to jump to the crane, and to the crane

0:55:080:55:10

I have a fight with Bond.

0:55:100:55:12

You know, we're not relying on a lot of CGI for this.

0:55:150:55:18

I will be doing stuff and some of it will be me,

0:55:180:55:20

and some of it won't be me, for obvious reasons.

0:55:200:55:22

But can I stop you? Are you going to do the freerunning? Cos I know there's that character early...

0:55:220:55:27

-I've done some of it, yeah.

-How's that.

-Good!

-Terrifying?

-Nah, it's...

0:55:270:55:30

You know what, I've had to knuckle down and get over

0:55:300:55:32

a few things. I'm kind of approaching every day

0:55:320:55:34

as it comes, really. And I get on set and I'm suddenly 200 feet

0:55:340:55:37

up in the air and I go, "OK, well, you signed up."

0:55:370:55:39

LAUGHTER

0:55:390:55:41

As well as being truthful to the action scenes, Craig was keen

0:55:410:55:44

to be faithful to the spirit of the book. And to show

0:55:440:55:47

-the raw vulnerability of 007.

-He's not infallible.

0:55:470:55:51

I just wanted to sort of see him make a few mistakes.

0:55:510:55:54

Because then, the drama of it is sort of better

0:55:540:55:56

when he gets it right. I want to make the audience, sort of, go,

0:55:560:55:59

"Oh, my God, it's all going to go wrong." Believe that

0:55:590:56:01

it's going to go wrong, and then when it goes right it's much more exciting.

0:56:010:56:05

And it's his tangled relationship with the enigmatic Vesper Lynd

0:56:050:56:09

that causes Bond to bare his soul.

0:56:090:56:12

My character is not like a classic Bond girl -

0:56:120:56:14

she's more like a character from '40s movies, you know, quite dark.

0:56:140:56:18

Very complex, many layers.

0:56:180:56:21

You know, she's an equal match to Bond.

0:56:210:56:23

She's, you know, very mysterious and the relationship that they

0:56:230:56:26

have is very unusual. And it's a love story.

0:56:260:56:29

It's like there's blood on my hands. It's not coming off.

0:56:300:56:34

Let me see...

0:56:350:56:37

This was a romance not seen since the days of Dalton and Lazenby.

0:56:380:56:41

But for all the new intensity in Craig's interpretation of the character,

0:56:430:56:46

there was still one Bond convention that was inescapable.

0:56:460:56:50

-Have you said the line yet?

-I have.

-You have?

-Mm.

0:56:520:56:54

-Was it OK?

-I...mmm. Yeah.

-How many takes?

0:56:540:56:57

We did a few, we did a few. And it wasn't much of that...

0:56:570:56:59

We were outside, there was a lot of wind, erm...

0:56:590:57:01

That must have been quite nice, in a way, though?

0:57:010:57:04

-It was nice to get it out of the way.

-Yeah.

0:57:040:57:05

I was... I didn't think about it. I didn't think about it

0:57:050:57:08

until the moment, and we did it and, you know.

0:57:080:57:10

It's at a very key moment in the movie, as well, which is...

0:57:100:57:12

It's hopefully, you know, going to hit home...

0:57:120:57:15

The name's Bond...

0:57:150:57:16

James Bond.

0:57:160:57:18

It's meant to...

0:57:210:57:23

The resounding success of Daniel Craig's 007

0:57:230:57:26

and of James Bond as a British cultural icon

0:57:260:57:29

was celebrated in 2012,

0:57:290:57:31

as part of the London Olympics opening ceremony.

0:57:310:57:35

-But, James, I need you.

-So does England.

0:57:350:57:39

In a sequence filmed in secret, the world's most famous spy,

0:57:390:57:44

having given 50 years of dedicated service to his country...

0:57:440:57:49

Oh, the things I do for England...

0:57:490:57:52

..with his own brand of unbending patriotism...

0:57:520:57:54

What do I do to blow up the room? Whistle God Save The Queen?

0:57:540:57:58

..and loyalty to his monarch...

0:57:590:58:01

I'm having it patched directly to Buckingham Palace.

0:58:030:58:06

Well, I'm sure Her Majesty will be fascinated.

0:58:060:58:09

..James Bond was finally granted an audience with the Queen.

0:58:130:58:18

HE CLEARS THROAT

0:58:180:58:19

Good evening, Mr Bond...

0:58:210:58:24

MUSIC: James Bond Theme by Monty Norman

0:58:240:58:26

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