0:00:02 > 0:00:05Hello, gentlemen. Today you will enjoy a nice Vesper Martini,
0:00:05 > 0:00:09which is probably James Bond's favourite drink.
0:00:09 > 0:00:13So, one double for each cocktail, of gin.
0:00:13 > 0:00:14Any particular kind of gin?
0:00:14 > 0:00:15A good one!
0:00:17 > 0:00:19- Mother's ruin.- Yes.
0:00:19 > 0:00:21A nice, premium vodka.
0:00:21 > 0:00:23- This is a good vodka.- Yes.
0:00:23 > 0:00:265ml of Lillet.
0:00:26 > 0:00:28Would you like to shake it or stir it?
0:00:28 > 0:00:32- Not bothered.- Not bothered, really. - OK. I suppose shaken.
0:00:42 > 0:00:46This is very impressive, Andre, but who are you working for really?
0:00:46 > 0:00:48Where are you from, Andre?
0:00:51 > 0:00:53- Romania.- Oh.- Oh!
0:00:53 > 0:00:56We thought you were going to say SMERSH.
0:00:58 > 0:01:01- That's very good.- Very impressive, isn't it?- Sounds good as well.
0:01:04 > 0:01:08This was invented for Casino Royale, the Vesper.
0:01:11 > 0:01:14- Isn't it fancy?- Very fancy.
0:01:14 > 0:01:16- There you go, gentlemen.- One moment.
0:01:23 > 0:01:25- Cheers. James Bond.- Cheers.
0:01:27 > 0:01:29BOTH: Ooh!
0:01:29 > 0:01:30That's nice, isn't it?
0:01:30 > 0:01:33Goes down very nicely.
0:01:34 > 0:01:39So, Matthew, who, in your mind,
0:01:39 > 0:01:41is the ultimate James Bond?
0:01:42 > 0:01:45- I think the "premium" Bond, Mark...- Clever.
0:01:45 > 0:01:50JAMES BOND THEME PLAYS
0:02:03 > 0:02:05I need another thousand.
0:02:05 > 0:02:07I admire your courage, Miss...?
0:02:07 > 0:02:10Trench. Sylvia Trench.
0:02:10 > 0:02:12I admire your luck, Mr...?
0:02:12 > 0:02:14Bond.
0:02:15 > 0:02:17James Bond.
0:02:17 > 0:02:20Mr Bond, I suppose you wouldn't care to...
0:02:20 > 0:02:21raise the limit?
0:02:21 > 0:02:23I have no objections.
0:02:23 > 0:02:27'So what do we make of Connery as a figure, as a leading man?'
0:02:27 > 0:02:29Looks like you're out to get me.
0:02:29 > 0:02:32He doesn't look English,
0:02:32 > 0:02:33he doesn't sound English
0:02:33 > 0:02:37and he's very sort of highly aestheticised, too.
0:02:37 > 0:02:42He seems to be wearing loads of make-up, his eyes look enormous.
0:02:42 > 0:02:46He looks like lots of work has been done on him, somehow.
0:02:46 > 0:02:49In a way, he's a sort of Frankenstein monster, isn't he?
0:02:49 > 0:02:52He's a sum of many different parts and influences.
0:02:52 > 0:02:55The producers have sort of moulded him,
0:02:55 > 0:02:58they've put him into these incredible suits, Savile Row suits.
0:02:58 > 0:03:00James, where on earth have you been?
0:03:00 > 0:03:02I've been searching London for you.
0:03:03 > 0:03:06007 is here, sir.
0:03:06 > 0:03:08He'll see you in a minute.
0:03:08 > 0:03:10Moneypenny.
0:03:10 > 0:03:11What gives?
0:03:11 > 0:03:14Me, given an ounce of encouragement.
0:03:14 > 0:03:16He represents a sort of person
0:03:16 > 0:03:18that everybody wants to be,
0:03:18 > 0:03:21- but they're not quite sure what he is.- Yeah.
0:03:21 > 0:03:22And the fact that he is, of course,
0:03:22 > 0:03:26a government employee
0:03:26 > 0:03:30paid to kill people is, erm...
0:03:30 > 0:03:34perhaps some part of the aspiration they didn't know they had!
0:03:34 > 0:03:39Very clever, Mr Bond. But you're up against more than you know.
0:03:39 > 0:03:42You shoot me, and you'll end up like Strangways.
0:03:42 > 0:03:43And you killed him?
0:03:43 > 0:03:45He was killed, but never mind how.
0:03:45 > 0:03:48Who are you working for, Professor?
0:03:48 > 0:03:51Well, you might as well know, as you won't live to use the information.
0:03:51 > 0:03:54- I'm working for... - HE FIRES
0:03:54 > 0:03:57That's a Smith & Wesson.
0:03:57 > 0:03:58And you've had your six.
0:04:07 > 0:04:12There's a very powerful sense of how sexy it is,
0:04:12 > 0:04:16and how much it's part of that persona.
0:04:16 > 0:04:21You know, later Bonds would be either criticised
0:04:21 > 0:04:23for doing too much or not enough.
0:04:23 > 0:04:26It's having that edge which Connery always had
0:04:26 > 0:04:29of looking like he could just...
0:04:29 > 0:04:32Like the Incredible Hulk - he would just suddenly burst out of that.
0:04:32 > 0:04:35And no matter who you were,
0:04:35 > 0:04:37you might be in the line of fire.
0:04:49 > 0:04:52GLASS SMASHES
0:05:04 > 0:05:06There's another procedural element
0:05:06 > 0:05:11that I think is there in all of those '60s films, to some extent.
0:05:11 > 0:05:14In a way, it looks like something to do with spying,
0:05:14 > 0:05:17but I think it's actually something else.
0:05:17 > 0:05:19It's how to go to a hotel,
0:05:19 > 0:05:22how to inspect the environment that we're in.
0:05:22 > 0:05:25It strikes me that an audience member would've been as intoxicated
0:05:25 > 0:05:27by the idea of going to a hotel
0:05:27 > 0:05:30maybe where they knew you were coming, they knew you already.
0:05:30 > 0:05:33There wasn't that kind of moment of embarrassment
0:05:33 > 0:05:36between the person behind the desk and the person arriving,
0:05:36 > 0:05:39which is the trademark of all interactions
0:05:39 > 0:05:42of British people checking in to a hotel.
0:05:42 > 0:05:44The ease of all of that.
0:05:44 > 0:05:46- 32 for Mr Bond. - Hope you enjoy your stay.
0:05:46 > 0:05:48Thank you.
0:05:50 > 0:05:53JAMES BOND THEME PLAYS
0:06:07 > 0:06:09BELLBOY CLEARS THROAT
0:06:09 > 0:06:11Will there be anything else, sir?
0:06:11 > 0:06:13Only this. Thank you.
0:06:13 > 0:06:15Thank you, sir.
0:06:16 > 0:06:19I think it's in From Russia With Love,
0:06:19 > 0:06:22where he goes into a hotel room
0:06:22 > 0:06:24and he's checking it for bugs.
0:06:29 > 0:06:31But I think maybe when you're watching it,
0:06:31 > 0:06:34you don't realise that is quite what he's doing
0:06:34 > 0:06:36until maybe he's looked behind the second or third picture.
0:06:40 > 0:06:43Perhaps he's just seeing, "Is this hotel room good enough?"
0:06:45 > 0:06:48The Bond theme rises.
0:06:48 > 0:06:50Rather excitingly, if you like,
0:06:50 > 0:06:53because he's literally just checking a hotel room
0:06:53 > 0:06:55and it's the sort of music you'd associate with a chase.
0:06:58 > 0:07:01- Mr Bond here.- Yes. - I'm afraid the room won't do.
0:07:01 > 0:07:03- I'm sorry.- The bed's too small.
0:07:03 > 0:07:07The ease, perhaps, is the most sort of attractive quality
0:07:07 > 0:07:11of this sort of non-English Englishman.
0:07:11 > 0:07:15Because, you're absolutely right, the audience...
0:07:15 > 0:07:19What you expect is that it would be something like Carry On Abroad -
0:07:19 > 0:07:22if they ever actually managed to get abroad in those days
0:07:22 > 0:07:24it would be a fumbling embarrassment.
0:07:24 > 0:07:26But he does it with such practised skill,
0:07:26 > 0:07:28American-like confidence, really,
0:07:28 > 0:07:31that sort of urbanity
0:07:31 > 0:07:34which you could only hope to aspire to.
0:07:34 > 0:07:38But, you're right, it's shown in such exquisite detail
0:07:38 > 0:07:41that it's actually part of the joy of it.
0:07:41 > 0:07:46I remember being thrilled first seeing From Russia With Love -
0:07:46 > 0:07:48Bond orders figs and yoghurt.
0:07:48 > 0:07:50Figs and yoghurt, yeah.
0:07:57 > 0:07:58Hello.
0:07:58 > 0:08:01Erm, breakfast for one at nine, please.
0:08:02 > 0:08:05Green figs, yoghurt.
0:08:05 > 0:08:07Coffee - very black. Thank you.
0:08:08 > 0:08:11There's also his bathroom activities,
0:08:11 > 0:08:16which, you know, I don't think we've ever had a British hero,
0:08:16 > 0:08:20a British leading man, who spent quite so much time in the bathroom.
0:08:20 > 0:08:24The bathroom is central to James Bond, isn't it?
0:08:24 > 0:08:26And the rituals of...
0:08:26 > 0:08:31I can imagine, like Clark Gable's absence of vest
0:08:31 > 0:08:32in It Happened One Night,
0:08:32 > 0:08:36that it might have sort of revolutionised
0:08:36 > 0:08:38male bathroom habits.
0:08:38 > 0:08:41Certainly in terms of intention.
0:08:41 > 0:08:42You can imagine that maybe,
0:08:42 > 0:08:45for a week after seeing From Russia With Love,
0:08:45 > 0:08:47lots of men in the audience thought,
0:08:47 > 0:08:50"Right, I'm going to shave like this and I'm going to wear cologne,"
0:08:50 > 0:08:53and then probably gone back to not washing,
0:08:53 > 0:08:55and putting their string vest on.
0:08:55 > 0:08:59But, again, there's something really...
0:08:59 > 0:09:04for the time, very sophisticated about the idea of having such a...
0:09:04 > 0:09:07a look, and such a sharpness to it.
0:09:10 > 0:09:13WATER SPLASHES
0:09:13 > 0:09:15Hmm.
0:09:20 > 0:09:21Oh!
0:09:21 > 0:09:22Forgive me.
0:09:22 > 0:09:24Why do you always wear that thing?
0:09:24 > 0:09:27I have a slight inferiority complex.
0:09:27 > 0:09:30The reason the first three are still so good
0:09:30 > 0:09:33is they're made rapidly
0:09:33 > 0:09:36and they're absolutely on a roll.
0:09:36 > 0:09:38Goldfinger, which I think is the best of them,
0:09:38 > 0:09:42they know exactly what they're doing.
0:09:42 > 0:09:45The formula has sort of slotted into place.
0:09:51 > 0:09:53He wants you.
0:10:02 > 0:10:04Ah, Mr Bond. Sit down, please.
0:10:04 > 0:10:06Mint julep?
0:10:06 > 0:10:08Traditional but satisfying.
0:10:08 > 0:10:11Yes, thanks. Some ice, but not too sweet, please.
0:10:13 > 0:10:16You disappoint me, Goldfinger.
0:10:16 > 0:10:18You know Operation Grand Slam simply won't work.
0:10:18 > 0:10:21Incidentally, Delta 9 nerve gas is fatal.
0:10:22 > 0:10:25You are unusually well informed, Mr Bond.
0:10:25 > 0:10:28You kill 60,000 people uselessly.
0:10:28 > 0:10:31American motorists kill that many every two years!
0:10:31 > 0:10:34They've got a fantastic villain with a really good plot.
0:10:34 > 0:10:35It's full of wonderful things.
0:10:35 > 0:10:39It's just punchy and exciting and glamorous.
0:10:39 > 0:10:41Do you expect me to talk?
0:10:41 > 0:10:44No, Mr Bond, I expect you to die.
0:10:44 > 0:10:47There is nothing you can talk to me about that I don't already know.
0:10:47 > 0:10:49Everything works in Goldfinger, including Connery,
0:10:49 > 0:10:54who is just...you know... He's just completely in his stride,
0:10:54 > 0:10:58he's incredibly comfortable, even in a terry towelling bathing suit.
0:10:58 > 0:11:01I'll get back to the office and cable M you're on the job.
0:11:01 > 0:11:04- You can fill me in on the rest at dinner.- Fine, I'll call you later.
0:11:04 > 0:11:07Amazingly, Diamonds Are Forever was going to be
0:11:07 > 0:11:09a sequel to Goldfinger.
0:11:09 > 0:11:13# Diamonds are forever... #
0:11:13 > 0:11:15I think this film has a slightly different tone
0:11:15 > 0:11:16to what has come before.
0:11:16 > 0:11:20There's a more pronounced sadism about it.
0:11:20 > 0:11:23I think you see a streak of cruelty in Bond
0:11:23 > 0:11:26that isn't quite so visible as it has been up to that moment.
0:11:26 > 0:11:30Well, he always had a cruel mouth, as we know.
0:11:30 > 0:11:33Diamonds is a sort of prototype Roger Moore film,
0:11:33 > 0:11:37but with a nastier edge than any of the Moores had, I think.
0:11:37 > 0:11:42It's a Tom Mankiewicz screenplay, very funny.
0:11:42 > 0:11:46There's a wonderful interview with Connery, a rare interview,
0:11:46 > 0:11:50and he, unusually, sort of says, "It's a good one, this."
0:11:50 > 0:11:53He's clearly having a good time.
0:11:53 > 0:11:56But it is... It's very nasty,
0:11:56 > 0:11:59which can put some people off.
0:11:59 > 0:12:01The opening is particularly horrible, isn't it?
0:12:01 > 0:12:04He's dispatching people
0:12:04 > 0:12:07with surgical knives thrown across the room
0:12:07 > 0:12:11and he drowns Blofeld, seemingly,
0:12:11 > 0:12:12in boiling mud.
0:12:12 > 0:12:14- Yeah, yeah.- It's gruesome.
0:12:37 > 0:12:39Welcome to hell, Blofeld.
0:12:40 > 0:12:43It's got that early '70s quality -
0:12:43 > 0:12:46everything's gone a bit off.
0:12:46 > 0:12:48The '60s have gone off.
0:12:48 > 0:12:50The lapels have got wider, the ties are wider.
0:12:50 > 0:12:53Bond is wearing... He wears a pink tie at one stage.
0:12:58 > 0:13:01He is visibly not very fit.
0:13:01 > 0:13:04There's a bit with Jill St John where he's in his pants,
0:13:04 > 0:13:07he's just sort of like your dad on holiday.
0:13:07 > 0:13:09I don't... I've never minded it.
0:13:09 > 0:13:11I'm very impressed.
0:13:11 > 0:13:13There's a lot more to you
0:13:13 > 0:13:15than I had expected.
0:13:15 > 0:13:18Presumably I'm the condemned man,
0:13:18 > 0:13:22and obviously you're the hearty breakfast. Right?
0:13:22 > 0:13:25Diamonds was the first one I ever saw at the pictures
0:13:25 > 0:13:27and I think that's one of the reasons
0:13:27 > 0:13:29it's still one of my favourites.
0:13:29 > 0:13:34But also it's left me with many residual terrors,
0:13:34 > 0:13:38particularly about being put into a coffin and burnt alive,
0:13:38 > 0:13:39which I've never got over!
0:13:41 > 0:13:44Very moving.
0:13:44 > 0:13:46Heart-warming, Mr Wint.
0:13:46 > 0:13:47A glowing tribute, Mr Kidd.
0:14:15 > 0:14:16It has this...
0:14:16 > 0:14:19It's sort of jet-black comedy.
0:14:19 > 0:14:21But mostly Connery's having a really good time
0:14:21 > 0:14:25and, actually, as a sort of farewell for him,
0:14:25 > 0:14:26it's very pleasing.
0:14:29 > 0:14:31PHONE RINGS
0:14:31 > 0:14:33Your call to Marc-Ange Draco,
0:14:33 > 0:14:35head of Draco Construction.
0:14:35 > 0:14:36- Hello, Draco?- Yes, who is it?
0:14:36 > 0:14:39- Bond, James Bond.- Thank God, James.
0:14:39 > 0:14:42- Lazenby.- Right. The other fella.
0:14:42 > 0:14:45The horrible side of watching On Her Majesty's Secret Service
0:14:45 > 0:14:48is that it's one of the best ones, isn't it?
0:14:48 > 0:14:50So much is lavished upon it
0:14:50 > 0:14:52and yet, at the centre, there's somebody who,
0:14:52 > 0:14:57for all his other qualities, just isn't really an actor, is he?
0:14:57 > 0:15:00Why do you persist in rescuing me, Mr Bond?
0:15:00 > 0:15:02It's becoming a habit, isn't it, Contessa Teresa?
0:15:02 > 0:15:05Teresa was a saint. I'm known as Tracy.
0:15:05 > 0:15:09Well, Tracy, next time play it safe and stand on five.
0:15:09 > 0:15:12People who want to stay alive play it safe.
0:15:12 > 0:15:14Please stay alive.
0:15:14 > 0:15:15At least for tonight.
0:15:20 > 0:15:21Come later.
0:15:23 > 0:15:24I hope it'll be worth it...
0:15:24 > 0:15:26partner.
0:15:26 > 0:15:29People routinely say, "If only Connery had done it."
0:15:29 > 0:15:32But if the bored Connery of You Only Live Twice had done it,
0:15:32 > 0:15:34it wouldn't have been the same film.
0:15:34 > 0:15:38There's something just...so special about this film, I think.
0:15:38 > 0:15:43It's... It's absolutely the end of the '60s.
0:15:43 > 0:15:45If it was made in 1970, it wouldn't be the same -
0:15:45 > 0:15:47it's just on the verge.
0:15:47 > 0:15:49Lazenby looks incredible,
0:15:49 > 0:15:52his ruffled shirt is not overblown,
0:15:52 > 0:15:56it's not ruchey, he just looks great.
0:15:56 > 0:16:00He's got all of Connery's machismo, all of his swagger,
0:16:00 > 0:16:01he looks amazing.
0:16:01 > 0:16:06And he was very young - he was about 29 or 30 when he did it.
0:16:06 > 0:16:08And, weirdly, the absence of Connery, to me,
0:16:08 > 0:16:09is what makes it so special.
0:16:09 > 0:16:10What he does have -
0:16:10 > 0:16:14I think that maybe something that many of the others don't have -
0:16:14 > 0:16:18is a kind of balletic approach to violence.
0:16:18 > 0:16:20Connery could beat people up properly,
0:16:20 > 0:16:24but George Lazenby does something entirely different with his body.
0:16:24 > 0:16:27When he thumps somebody, he carries through.
0:16:27 > 0:16:29You know, famous, he got the part
0:16:29 > 0:16:33because he broke the stuntman's nose
0:16:33 > 0:16:35and they thought, "Well, he can do it."
0:16:35 > 0:16:37Tracy?
0:16:37 > 0:16:38Ugh!
0:16:51 > 0:16:52Ah!
0:17:25 > 0:17:27I'm so glad to be able to do this,
0:17:27 > 0:17:30cos there's lots I want to get off my chest!
0:17:30 > 0:17:33It's one of those things
0:17:33 > 0:17:36that history has just been merrily rewritten about.
0:17:36 > 0:17:38It was a hugely successful film.
0:17:38 > 0:17:42The box-office stuff - it's all there, it was number one.
0:17:42 > 0:17:45But it just, compared to some of the others, wasn't as big -
0:17:45 > 0:17:47but it's become a failure, when it wasn't.
0:17:47 > 0:17:50And, you know, he wasn't popular,
0:17:50 > 0:17:52but I believe I'm right in saying
0:17:52 > 0:17:55he did actually send back the contract to Diamonds Are Forever,
0:17:55 > 0:17:58they didn't sack him. They would've carried on.
0:17:58 > 0:18:02And there's another parallel universe in which he carried on
0:18:02 > 0:18:05and sort of became Roger Moore, as it were.
0:18:05 > 0:18:07Well, he might have become Roger Moore
0:18:07 > 0:18:09- with a bit of practice, mightn't he?- Yeah, yeah.
0:18:09 > 0:18:13The end when - spoiler alert -
0:18:13 > 0:18:16Mrs Bond is killed is very touching.
0:18:16 > 0:18:18And he's really good, I think, in that.
0:18:18 > 0:18:21As I say, a lot better than people give him credit for.
0:18:21 > 0:18:22He loves me...
0:18:22 > 0:18:24Instinctively.
0:18:24 > 0:18:25Infuriatingly.
0:18:25 > 0:18:27Intensely.
0:18:27 > 0:18:28In...
0:18:28 > 0:18:29In?
0:18:29 > 0:18:31- In...- In...?
0:18:31 > 0:18:33- In?- Indubitably.
0:18:34 > 0:18:36First a boy and then a girl.
0:18:45 > 0:18:47It's Blofeld!
0:18:48 > 0:18:49Blofeld.
0:19:16 > 0:19:18It's all right.
0:19:19 > 0:19:22It's quite all right, really. She's having a rest.
0:19:24 > 0:19:26We'll be going on soon.
0:19:32 > 0:19:36There's no hurry, you see. We have all the time in the world.
0:19:45 > 0:19:49He also proves that you don't need Sean Connery.
0:19:49 > 0:19:52- Yeah.- Because, whatever his shortcomings are,
0:19:52 > 0:19:56- the film gets away with it as a casting gamble.- Yeah.
0:19:56 > 0:20:00So even if we are disappointed by how he sounds,
0:20:00 > 0:20:02by how he's not really funny,
0:20:02 > 0:20:04by the shape of his ears even,
0:20:04 > 0:20:06we can say to ourselves,
0:20:06 > 0:20:09well, without this one, we wouldn't be...
0:20:09 > 0:20:11All the others just wouldn't exist, would they?
0:20:11 > 0:20:15Broccoli, at the time, he said, "Well, there were 14 Tarzans".
0:20:15 > 0:20:18That's not a very good impression of him.
0:20:18 > 0:20:22But it established the form and, therefore,
0:20:22 > 0:20:25if they could do it once, they could do it again.
0:20:25 > 0:20:28Obviously they immediately panic and get Connery back
0:20:28 > 0:20:33but, when it's clear he'll only do one more, they have to do it again.
0:20:33 > 0:20:35Which brings us...
0:20:35 > 0:20:36To...
0:20:36 > 0:20:38- Sir Roger Moore.- Yes.
0:20:42 > 0:20:43My name's Bond.
0:20:44 > 0:20:46James Bond.
0:20:46 > 0:20:48I know who you are,
0:20:48 > 0:20:50what you are and why you have come.
0:20:50 > 0:20:53'The principal thing I remember about Live And Let Die
0:20:53 > 0:20:54'when it came out'
0:20:54 > 0:20:56is Bond is no longer in charge.
0:20:56 > 0:20:58It's a blaxsploitation film,
0:20:58 > 0:21:00they are not the brand leaders any more,
0:21:00 > 0:21:02they're slightly panicking about where cinema is going
0:21:02 > 0:21:06and trying to put their old-fashioned hero
0:21:06 > 0:21:08onto a new form, as it were.
0:21:23 > 0:21:24Good afternoon.
0:21:24 > 0:21:26Bourbon and water, please.
0:21:26 > 0:21:28First booth'll do.
0:21:29 > 0:21:32- Tell him neat, would you?- Huh?
0:21:32 > 0:21:34- No ice.- That's extra, man.
0:21:34 > 0:21:39I remember, when I saw it last, seeing Roger in Harlem,
0:21:39 > 0:21:40I was worried about him -
0:21:40 > 0:21:43which is not something you ever really get with Bond before!
0:21:43 > 0:21:45I thought, "My God, he's in trouble here."
0:21:45 > 0:21:48This says something about the times, doesn't it, too?
0:21:48 > 0:21:50That actually going to Harlem
0:21:50 > 0:21:54and going to what could be a perfectly ordinary cafe
0:21:54 > 0:21:55or bar or nightclub
0:21:55 > 0:21:58could seem a more dangerous environment
0:21:58 > 0:22:01than being in a shark pool inside a hollowed-out volcano.
0:22:01 > 0:22:03Get to LA and clean it up!
0:22:03 > 0:22:07I'll come out there and clean you up - and I mean that.
0:22:07 > 0:22:09Is this the stupid mother that tails you uptown?
0:22:09 > 0:22:11There seems to be some mistake.
0:22:11 > 0:22:15- My name is... - Names is for tombstones, baby.
0:22:15 > 0:22:17Y'all take this honky out and waste him - now!
0:22:17 > 0:22:19I love this film, I love it.
0:22:19 > 0:22:21It turned into The Dukes Of Hazzard, really,
0:22:21 > 0:22:23- at the end, doesn't it?- Mm. Mm.
0:22:23 > 0:22:24- Which I feel is...- Well... Ha-ha!
0:22:28 > 0:22:30What are you?
0:22:30 > 0:22:33Some kind of Doomsday machine boy?
0:22:33 > 0:22:37Well, we got a cage strong enough to hold an animal like you here.
0:22:37 > 0:22:40- Captain, would you enlighten the sheriff, please?- Yes, sir.
0:22:40 > 0:22:44JW, let me have a word with you.
0:22:44 > 0:22:47JW, now, this fella's from London, England.
0:22:47 > 0:22:51He's an Englishman working in cooperation with our boys,
0:22:51 > 0:22:52sort of secret agent.
0:22:52 > 0:22:57- Secret agent?! On whose side?! - "Secret agent?! On whose side?!"
0:22:57 > 0:23:01The great Clifton James as Sheriff Waldo J Pepper.
0:23:01 > 0:23:05You can track the tone of the James Bond films
0:23:05 > 0:23:08- by how funny the innocent bystanders are.- Mm.
0:23:08 > 0:23:12Cos there's a period when Roger Moore is in his pomp
0:23:12 > 0:23:14when he can't do anything without, like,
0:23:14 > 0:23:15knocking the top off something
0:23:15 > 0:23:17and revealing a canoodling couple beneath.
0:23:17 > 0:23:20Or a man in a bath, or those sort of things.
0:23:20 > 0:23:23Once those conventions have been re-established, though,
0:23:23 > 0:23:26they're absolutely inescapable, aren't they?
0:23:26 > 0:23:29The dialogue has to follow the same kind of patterns,
0:23:29 > 0:23:31every death has to have a quip.
0:23:31 > 0:23:33Where's Fekkesh?
0:23:33 > 0:23:34Pyramids.
0:23:34 > 0:23:35Argh!
0:23:38 > 0:23:40What a helpful chap.
0:23:40 > 0:23:44Probably the most purely enjoyable, aren't they, the ones of that run?
0:23:44 > 0:23:48And Spy Who Loved Me is a massive, widescreen treat,
0:23:48 > 0:23:52beautifully made, great baddie,
0:23:52 > 0:23:56brilliant Barbara Bach
0:23:56 > 0:23:58as Agent XXX.
0:23:58 > 0:24:01It's kind of got everything, really. And it is a greatest-hits package
0:24:01 > 0:24:05but it sort of reboots Bond for the '70s with massive success.
0:24:29 > 0:24:30Egyptian builders.
0:24:30 > 0:24:33But actually, as ever,
0:24:33 > 0:24:36it's actually commerce that was the great dictator here.
0:24:36 > 0:24:40Because Spy was such a phenomenal worldwide success,
0:24:40 > 0:24:42then the template is absolutely iron-clad,
0:24:42 > 0:24:47so that Moonraker is a companion piece
0:24:47 > 0:24:49the way Thunderball is to Goldfinger.
0:24:49 > 0:24:52And so what you get is the principle of Spy Who Loved Me,
0:24:52 > 0:24:55but on an absolutely grandiose scale,
0:24:55 > 0:24:56which is ludicrous.
0:24:56 > 0:25:00- I love it.- Well, I think the first half-hour, you go,
0:25:00 > 0:25:03"Oh, they've done it again," cos it's terrific.
0:25:03 > 0:25:06But then it just becomes so country-hopping
0:25:06 > 0:25:09and so sort of flaccid - apart from Drax, who's wonderful, I think.
0:25:09 > 0:25:13Mr Bond, you defy all my attempts
0:25:13 > 0:25:15to plan an amusing death for you.
0:25:15 > 0:25:17You're not a sportsman, Mr Bond.
0:25:17 > 0:25:21Why did you break off the encounter with my pet python?
0:25:21 > 0:25:23I discovered he had a crush on me.
0:25:23 > 0:25:25It's a disappointing film, I think, for me.
0:25:25 > 0:25:27Ah! Well, I don't know.
0:25:27 > 0:25:30Any villain who has a master plan to kill everyone on the earth
0:25:30 > 0:25:32but then repopulate it
0:25:32 > 0:25:35with the dancers from Seaside Special gets my vote.
0:25:35 > 0:25:38That is actually explicitly the plan!
0:25:39 > 0:25:42First there was a dream.
0:25:42 > 0:25:43Now there is reality.
0:25:43 > 0:25:47Here, in the untainted cradle of the heavens,
0:25:47 > 0:25:51will be created a new super-race.
0:25:51 > 0:25:55A race of perfect physical specimens.
0:25:55 > 0:25:58No, it's one of those ones where it's a great plot
0:25:58 > 0:26:00and it's obviously self-indulgent.
0:26:00 > 0:26:03There is a kind of madness about it, isn't there?
0:26:03 > 0:26:05Which is probably most legible
0:26:05 > 0:26:09in the scene where the gondola turns into a hovercraft
0:26:09 > 0:26:11to the surprise of everybody.
0:26:23 > 0:26:26But mainly to the surprise of a pigeon
0:26:26 > 0:26:30whom the magic of editing forces into a double-take.
0:26:32 > 0:26:33You say magic...
0:26:39 > 0:26:43No, I think the double-taking pigeon is probably the moment
0:26:43 > 0:26:46where they become the James Bond comedies for a bit.
0:26:46 > 0:26:48There's a...
0:26:48 > 0:26:50We should talk, really, about Roger Moore's approach,
0:26:50 > 0:26:54because he always said, you know, "Sean approached it his way,
0:26:54 > 0:26:57"I approached it through the door marked 'Comedy'."
0:26:57 > 0:27:00And, actually, they're the two titanic bombs in that way,
0:27:00 > 0:27:02because they are...
0:27:02 > 0:27:06Roger Moore did the most and it was incredibly successful.
0:27:06 > 0:27:09That's why he actually did it far longer than he should have done,
0:27:09 > 0:27:10because people loved it.
0:27:10 > 0:27:14Possibly the thing that's never really talked about much with Roger
0:27:14 > 0:27:17is that he was always slightly too old.
0:27:17 > 0:27:20He's older than Connery and, you know, he looks great
0:27:20 > 0:27:25but he is a bit old for the part from the beginning.
0:27:25 > 0:27:27- Yes.- Which means that by the time we get to the end
0:27:27 > 0:27:29he's certainly too old!
0:27:29 > 0:27:31- ENGINE REVS - Oh! Commander Bond.
0:27:31 > 0:27:33Call me James.
0:27:33 > 0:27:35It's five days to Alaska.
0:27:35 > 0:27:37His final one was A View To A Kill.
0:27:37 > 0:27:43And I used to go and see the Bond films with the rest of my family,
0:27:43 > 0:27:45it was a big family tradition,
0:27:45 > 0:27:47and by the time we got to A View To A Kill,
0:27:47 > 0:27:50it was just me and my dad who were the last ones standing.
0:27:50 > 0:27:55And I remember distinctly there's a beautiful scene
0:27:55 > 0:27:58where Roger Moore and Patrick Macnee,
0:27:58 > 0:28:01both dressed 30 years too young
0:28:01 > 0:28:04in sort of suede bomber jackets, are creeping around.
0:28:04 > 0:28:08- Blousons.- Blousons, indeed! - It's worse than that.
0:28:08 > 0:28:11Creeping around Christopher Walken's French estate.
0:28:11 > 0:28:14And my dad leant over to me and said, "If the secret service
0:28:14 > 0:28:17"is in the hands of these buggers, God help us!"
0:28:17 > 0:28:21And I knew the writing was on the wall for Rog.
0:28:21 > 0:28:24But I watched it quite recently and I loved it.
0:28:24 > 0:28:27And I thought, if you watched this film
0:28:27 > 0:28:28not as a James Bond film
0:28:28 > 0:28:32but as a film about an elderly man who thinks he's a secret agent,
0:28:32 > 0:28:34it's absolutely charming!
0:28:34 > 0:28:37- Have you been interested in thoroughbreds long?- No, no.
0:28:37 > 0:28:40As a matter of fact I had a rather dotty old aunt die
0:28:40 > 0:28:41and leave me some stables,
0:28:41 > 0:28:44so I thought it might be rather fun to breed and race horses.
0:28:44 > 0:28:47I take it YOU ride.
0:28:47 > 0:28:49I'm happiest in the saddle.
0:28:49 > 0:28:51A fellow sportsman.
0:28:51 > 0:28:53What about fishing?
0:28:54 > 0:28:56Fly casting?
0:28:58 > 0:29:00I'm neglecting my other guests.
0:29:00 > 0:29:03Enjoy yourself, you'll find the young ladies stimulating company.
0:29:03 > 0:29:05I'm sure they are.
0:29:06 > 0:29:10Amazingly in parallel with the most modern thing you can imagine,
0:29:10 > 0:29:13which is Christopher Walken as the baddie
0:29:13 > 0:29:15and Grace Jones as May Day,
0:29:15 > 0:29:17who are almost aggressively youthful
0:29:17 > 0:29:19and sort of forward-thinking.
0:29:19 > 0:29:23Something about that ridiculous disconnection
0:29:23 > 0:29:25is what makes it brilliant.
0:29:25 > 0:29:30May Day is terrifying - Grace Jones of course utterly terrifying -
0:29:30 > 0:29:33and Bond goes to bed with her.
0:29:36 > 0:29:37May Day, where have you been?
0:29:37 > 0:29:40I've been waiting for you.
0:29:40 > 0:29:42To take care of me, personally.
0:29:57 > 0:30:00I see you're a woman of very few words.
0:30:03 > 0:30:04What's there to say?
0:30:04 > 0:30:08'He gets into bed, you thought, "I'm really worried about you."
0:30:08 > 0:30:11'I actually think both his hips may go at this stage.
0:30:12 > 0:30:15'I remember - this is something I'd forgotten -'
0:30:15 > 0:30:17I remember reading an interview with him
0:30:17 > 0:30:20on the set of Moonraker in Women's Weekly -
0:30:20 > 0:30:21or maybe Woman, my mum's magazine.
0:30:21 > 0:30:26And I was very disappointed, cos the interviewer says,
0:30:26 > 0:30:29"What's your favourite part?" and he says, "The part where I go home."
0:30:29 > 0:30:31And I remember being disappointed as a boy.
0:30:31 > 0:30:33Now I totally understand it!
0:30:33 > 0:30:37But, anyway, he kept threatening to go
0:30:37 > 0:30:41and, eventually, despite the fact that the world still adored him,
0:30:41 > 0:30:43he wisely packed it in.
0:30:43 > 0:30:46And so they, for the first in a long time,
0:30:46 > 0:30:48had to find a new one.
0:30:59 > 0:31:01It's all so boring here, Margo.
0:31:01 > 0:31:04There's nothing but playboys and tennis pros.
0:31:04 > 0:31:06If only I could find a real man.
0:31:06 > 0:31:08THUD!
0:31:13 > 0:31:14I need to use your phone.
0:31:14 > 0:31:16She'll call you back.
0:31:18 > 0:31:19Who are you?
0:31:19 > 0:31:21Bond. James Bond.
0:31:21 > 0:31:23Exercise Control 007 here.
0:31:23 > 0:31:25I'll report in an hour.
0:31:25 > 0:31:26Won't you join me?
0:31:29 > 0:31:31Better make that two.
0:31:31 > 0:31:34As a Bond fan, I was so fed up
0:31:34 > 0:31:37with the idea of this lethal spy
0:31:37 > 0:31:40being played by a geriatric comedian -
0:31:40 > 0:31:43this is by then.
0:31:43 > 0:31:46I welcomed this film like rain in the desert
0:31:46 > 0:31:49and I saw it three times in its opening week.
0:31:52 > 0:31:56And it's got this fantastic opening on the Rock of Gibraltar,
0:31:56 > 0:31:59with all these people who - unless you've read the pre-publicity -
0:31:59 > 0:32:01you think might be Bond.
0:32:01 > 0:32:05Yes, we get three candidates, don't we? They jump out of an aircraft.
0:32:05 > 0:32:07And you don't know who's which.
0:32:07 > 0:32:08And then...
0:32:08 > 0:32:11They could all just be delivering chocolates to some very lucky lady.
0:32:11 > 0:32:13They looked like nearly. Nearly Bonds.
0:32:13 > 0:32:16And then one of them gets his rope cut and falls to his death
0:32:16 > 0:32:19and then Tim Dalton turns like that -
0:32:19 > 0:32:21and he looks amazing!
0:32:21 > 0:32:22Argh!
0:32:26 > 0:32:28And suddenly we're back.
0:32:28 > 0:32:31There's a sense of him...
0:32:32 > 0:32:34..almost being a human being.
0:32:34 > 0:32:39Yeah. The whole idea behind Dalton's Bond is to...
0:32:39 > 0:32:43is to sort of humanise him again,
0:32:43 > 0:32:46take him back from being a sort of superhero.
0:32:46 > 0:32:50There's a kind of much more plausible -
0:32:50 > 0:32:53not entirely plausible - but much more plausible human quality to him.
0:32:53 > 0:32:55He also has this brilliant thing with his tux,
0:32:55 > 0:32:57- which is in both his films. - Yes!- It's his thing.
0:33:00 > 0:33:02Turn off the lights.
0:33:02 > 0:33:05'He pulls the collar across and it sort of...
0:33:05 > 0:33:07'It darkens him into sort of...'
0:33:07 > 0:33:09Milk Tray look - I love that.
0:33:09 > 0:33:12It's a very good film.
0:33:12 > 0:33:15Very good roles for the women,
0:33:15 > 0:33:20and the fact that he actually does appear to really fall for her,
0:33:20 > 0:33:21it's very touching.
0:33:21 > 0:33:23There's some really good stuff in it.
0:33:23 > 0:33:25SHE SHOUTS IN OWN LANGUAGE
0:33:28 > 0:33:30What's that supposed to mean?
0:33:30 > 0:33:32Back end of horse.
0:33:32 > 0:33:34You calling me a horse's arse?
0:33:34 > 0:33:37'It's interesting, because the women involved at times
0:33:37 > 0:33:41'are highly problematic figures, and the question'
0:33:41 > 0:33:43of how much we believe anything
0:33:43 > 0:33:46about what goes on between them is key, I think,
0:33:46 > 0:33:48because it often seems like
0:33:48 > 0:33:52part of this strange, slightly kind of lifeless ritual,
0:33:52 > 0:33:54going to bed, in a Bond film.
0:33:54 > 0:33:58They just seem to be doing it, often, for reasons of convention.
0:33:58 > 0:34:01The idea... The lust is all saved till the fight scene.
0:34:01 > 0:34:07Whereas, you know, the relationship with Kara in Living Daylights,
0:34:07 > 0:34:10she's a very unlikely Bond girl.
0:34:10 > 0:34:12She's very beautiful, very slight,
0:34:12 > 0:34:15and there's something rather touching about it.
0:34:15 > 0:34:19It's much more like a sort of Hitchcock romance.
0:34:19 > 0:34:21It's really affecting.
0:34:21 > 0:34:23- No more.- This one.
0:34:23 > 0:34:26The Living Daylights was a massive success.
0:34:26 > 0:34:28And I can still remember the clipping -
0:34:28 > 0:34:31"This is the Bond for the '90s", they said.
0:34:31 > 0:34:32And his performance, I think,
0:34:32 > 0:34:35has been neglected, underrated, over time,
0:34:35 > 0:34:37partly because of this...
0:34:37 > 0:34:40the apparent relief that people seemed to find
0:34:40 > 0:34:41when Pierce Brosnan came back
0:34:41 > 0:34:44and did something rather more traditional and conservative
0:34:44 > 0:34:46with the part.
0:34:46 > 0:34:48But, for me, his northern-ness
0:34:48 > 0:34:50is his ineluctably attractive quality.
0:34:50 > 0:34:52Yeah. I think he's terrific.
0:34:52 > 0:34:57Really, what you can say now is he's a sort of prototype Daniel Craig.
0:34:57 > 0:35:00It's sort of like the world was not quite prepared for him.
0:35:01 > 0:35:05Dalton registers the thousand natural shocks
0:35:05 > 0:35:07that flesh is heir to.
0:35:27 > 0:35:29You could have had everything.
0:35:29 > 0:35:30Don't you want to know why?
0:35:36 > 0:35:38Argh!
0:35:38 > 0:35:40HE SCREAMS
0:35:45 > 0:35:47And he also...
0:35:47 > 0:35:52Anything he says sounds immediately powerful and authoritative.
0:35:52 > 0:35:55His other most significant work in this period
0:35:55 > 0:35:59- was doing the voiceovers for... DALTON:- 'Brain's Faggots.'
0:35:59 > 0:36:03- And I think when he says.... DALTON:- 'Brain's Faggots.'
0:36:03 > 0:36:08..it's just as powerful as anything he has to say in Licence To Kill.
0:36:08 > 0:36:10Duck!
0:36:11 > 0:36:12We've nothing to declare!
0:36:12 > 0:36:14Just a cello!
0:36:16 > 0:36:18But then this weird thing happens -
0:36:18 > 0:36:19slight digression -
0:36:19 > 0:36:24the EON Productions, the Broccolis got involved in a court case
0:36:24 > 0:36:27about the TV screenings of the Bond films,
0:36:27 > 0:36:30which shut down production.
0:36:30 > 0:36:33And it took five, six years
0:36:33 > 0:36:35to sort out this court case.
0:36:35 > 0:36:39Then, when they realised they could make some more,
0:36:39 > 0:36:43they did offer it to Tim Dalton, and he said no,
0:36:43 > 0:36:46because he said, "That parade has passed by".
0:36:46 > 0:36:49So the search is on again.
0:36:52 > 0:36:54Thank you, Mr...?
0:36:54 > 0:36:55My name's Bond.
0:36:55 > 0:36:57James Bond.
0:36:57 > 0:36:59Xenia Sergeyevna Onatopp.
0:36:59 > 0:37:02Onatopp?
0:37:02 > 0:37:03Onatopp.
0:37:03 > 0:37:05He's a sort of Roger Connery.
0:37:05 > 0:37:10He handles the physical stuff brilliantly,
0:37:10 > 0:37:12he has a definite edge, but he's also...
0:37:12 > 0:37:15He's got a wonderfully Irish quality
0:37:15 > 0:37:17which, again, he wanted to bring to it.
0:37:17 > 0:37:19He thought, well, Connery was Scottish - why not?
0:37:19 > 0:37:21He has a sort of slightly more whimsical thing -
0:37:21 > 0:37:24he's great with the one-liners - and they sit quite well, I think.
0:37:47 > 0:37:49Beg your pardon - forgot to knock.
0:37:51 > 0:37:53Over his four films,
0:37:53 > 0:37:56it never quite gels, I think, for me,
0:37:56 > 0:37:59because it's always slightly not one thing or the other -
0:37:59 > 0:38:01he doesn't become his own man.
0:38:01 > 0:38:03It is, in many ways, designed by a committee.
0:38:03 > 0:38:05They give him his Aston Martin back.
0:38:07 > 0:38:10They give him the popularity of Moore's quips,
0:38:10 > 0:38:12they make it slightly sillier again.
0:38:14 > 0:38:17But then Tomorrow Never Dies and...
0:38:17 > 0:38:20The World Is Not Enough. You see, they sound like...
0:38:20 > 0:38:22The titles, too, sound...
0:38:22 > 0:38:24- Pastichey.- Exactly, yeah.
0:38:24 > 0:38:26I think they're a bit... Whoever made them up,
0:38:26 > 0:38:28they all sound a bit Never Say Never Again.
0:38:28 > 0:38:30Do you know, though - this is an interesting thing -
0:38:30 > 0:38:33Tomorrow Never Dies is only called that because of a misprint.
0:38:33 > 0:38:35"Diets", should it be?
0:38:35 > 0:38:39It's about a Murdoch-like...
0:38:39 > 0:38:42or, in fact, more Robert Maxwell maybe, at the time,
0:38:42 > 0:38:46and his newspaper is called Tomorrow.
0:38:46 > 0:38:49And it was called Tomorrow Never Lies, which makes sense.
0:38:49 > 0:38:51And they sent out a Xeroxed press release
0:38:51 > 0:38:54and it was misread and became...
0:38:54 > 0:38:57You know, it's a shame, because it's a much better title.
0:38:57 > 0:39:01That is a shame, but it also is... I think it's very revealing,
0:39:01 > 0:39:04because the meaninglessness of it all is what's...
0:39:04 > 0:39:06Nobody really cares what it means
0:39:06 > 0:39:10as long as it has certain kinds of qualities to it
0:39:10 > 0:39:11that are Bond-like.
0:39:11 > 0:39:14- Basically, you could call it Never Die Forever.- Exactly.
0:39:14 > 0:39:16There must be... I mean, surely online now
0:39:16 > 0:39:18there is a James Bond title generator.
0:39:18 > 0:39:22- Yes!- But it's a bit like there's a tombola of words
0:39:22 > 0:39:23- that are being plucked.- Oh, yeah.
0:39:23 > 0:39:27Which is why, actually, I think Never Say Never Again is quite a good one, because...
0:39:27 > 0:39:29It should have had three more "nevers" in it.
0:39:35 > 0:39:36The Brosnan films are...
0:39:37 > 0:39:40You cannot and you should not want to take away from the fact
0:39:40 > 0:39:44that they completely re-established Bond as a worldwide smash -
0:39:44 > 0:39:47they were huge, those films.
0:39:47 > 0:39:49But they don't bear up
0:39:49 > 0:39:53to repeated watching like some of the others do,
0:39:53 > 0:39:56and he, I think, remains the best thing in them.
0:39:56 > 0:39:59I'm giving you the opportunity to walk out with your life.
0:39:59 > 0:40:01Looking at our present situation
0:40:01 > 0:40:04strictly as a banker, I would have to say
0:40:04 > 0:40:06that numbers are not on your side.
0:40:07 > 0:40:10Perhaps you failed to take into account my...
0:40:10 > 0:40:12hidden assets.
0:40:22 > 0:40:24You seem to have had a small reversal of fortune.
0:40:24 > 0:40:27- Give me the name.- I can't tell you.
0:40:27 > 0:40:30They're rather like heritage projects of one sort or another.
0:40:30 > 0:40:35They're like a kind of pristine country-house version of Bond
0:40:35 > 0:40:38that you might need a membership card to get into,
0:40:38 > 0:40:41and that seems to say something of its moment, too.
0:40:41 > 0:40:44There's a faintly kind of...
0:40:44 > 0:40:48over-manicured, plasticky quality
0:40:48 > 0:40:50to the architecture of those films.
0:40:50 > 0:40:53By the time you get to Die Another Day,
0:40:53 > 0:40:57it's a very uneasy mixture of trying to be hard-edged
0:40:57 > 0:41:02and the loopiest sci-fi since You Only Live Twice -
0:41:02 > 0:41:03maybe even since Dr No.
0:41:03 > 0:41:04- Invisible cars.- Yeah.
0:41:37 > 0:41:39Come on. Where are you?
0:41:47 > 0:41:49All units report, now!
0:41:49 > 0:41:54So Die Another Day was perceived to be stupidly outlandish
0:41:54 > 0:41:57and then this odd thing happened,
0:41:57 > 0:42:00I think they just decided they needed a new Bond.
0:42:00 > 0:42:03They just didn't come back to Pierce Brosnan
0:42:03 > 0:42:05and so he had his four.
0:42:22 > 0:42:24The name's Bond.
0:42:24 > 0:42:26James Bond.
0:42:26 > 0:42:28Daniel Craig, um, was, uh...
0:42:28 > 0:42:32on the internet, at least -
0:42:32 > 0:42:35where else is there? - a very controversial choice.
0:42:35 > 0:42:38There was a campaign about it because he was too blond.
0:42:38 > 0:42:41Yeah, I know! Had they never seen a Roger Moore film?
0:42:41 > 0:42:45- Roger Moore is... Could even be ginger?- I would say he was sandy.
0:42:45 > 0:42:48- Sandy.- But by the end it's mysteriously very dark!
0:42:48 > 0:42:51Also the texture seems remarkably different, doesn't it,
0:42:51 > 0:42:53like it might have all come out of a can?
0:42:53 > 0:42:55I don't know why(!) Ludicrous things like that.
0:42:55 > 0:42:59Whereas Barbara Broccoli just saw him for who he is,
0:42:59 > 0:43:00which is a very fine actor
0:43:00 > 0:43:03and someone who would give it real sort of balls again.
0:43:07 > 0:43:10And I think, for me, of the three so far,
0:43:10 > 0:43:14Daniel Craig's Casino Royale is still the best.
0:43:14 > 0:43:18It's a very well-thought-through film.
0:43:18 > 0:43:22But it's a very lean screenplay. Again, it's simple.
0:43:22 > 0:43:24It takes the essence of the book,
0:43:24 > 0:43:28which is that Le Chiffre cannot afford to lose this game of cards
0:43:28 > 0:43:31and Bond must beat him - I mean, you've got it.
0:43:35 > 0:43:36Raise.
0:43:38 > 0:43:39Raise.
0:43:39 > 0:43:4112 million.
0:44:12 > 0:44:1414,500,000, all in.
0:44:14 > 0:44:17'It's just brilliantly tense.'
0:44:17 > 0:44:18It's got amazing fights.
0:44:18 > 0:44:21And as far as the character is concerned,
0:44:21 > 0:44:27the real departure here is that every punch hurts.
0:44:27 > 0:44:29All the bones are breakable
0:44:29 > 0:44:31and we feel them all with him.
0:44:31 > 0:44:34Ugh!
0:44:41 > 0:44:44Those fights, they're the most savage
0:44:44 > 0:44:47since Red Grant on the train in From Russia With Love, I think.
0:44:47 > 0:44:49And you enjoy them in
0:44:49 > 0:44:52a sort of slightly voyeuristic way
0:44:52 > 0:44:54for the sheer nastiness of them.
0:44:54 > 0:44:56I've always thought one of the appeals of Bond
0:44:56 > 0:44:59is we all want to believe there is someone like him
0:44:59 > 0:45:02who'll actually stop the world from being destroyed.
0:45:02 > 0:45:04And I think something about Daniel Craig's success
0:45:04 > 0:45:06is that you sort of feel like he's the man for now,
0:45:06 > 0:45:10and that sort of means that you believe in him
0:45:10 > 0:45:12much more as a fallible person,
0:45:12 > 0:45:14slightly psychotic person,
0:45:14 > 0:45:17but he's the right man in a tight corner.
0:45:17 > 0:45:20But that also means he's not Superman -
0:45:20 > 0:45:22he's going to have to...
0:45:22 > 0:45:25You know. And the obvious thing which I still can't quite...
0:45:25 > 0:45:28I remember thinking, "I can't believe they're going to do it -
0:45:28 > 0:45:29"they're going to do it!"
0:45:32 > 0:45:34They're going to do the scene,
0:45:34 > 0:45:35which is with a carpet-beater
0:45:35 > 0:45:37in the novel of Casino Royale.
0:45:37 > 0:45:41But they strap him to a chair with no seat, they rip the seat out,
0:45:41 > 0:45:44and they beat his bollocks with a knotted rope.
0:45:45 > 0:45:48Argh!
0:45:48 > 0:45:50It's one of the most terrifying things in all the films.
0:45:50 > 0:45:54It's incredible - no pun intended - that they had the balls to do it.
0:45:57 > 0:46:01I've got a little itch down there.
0:46:02 > 0:46:04Would you mind?
0:46:11 > 0:46:14Argh, no! No!
0:46:14 > 0:46:17'I remember, the audience that I saw it with,'
0:46:17 > 0:46:19I mean, there were shrieks from them.
0:46:19 > 0:46:22Because, you know, it's unimaginable.
0:46:22 > 0:46:25It's bad enough if you catch yourself getting out of a car.
0:46:27 > 0:46:28Give me the password
0:46:28 > 0:46:32and I'll at least let her live.
0:46:36 > 0:46:39Do it soon enough and she might even be in one piece.
0:46:42 > 0:46:45HE LAUGHS
0:46:45 > 0:46:50The other thing about it is that it discovers Bond's psychopathy
0:46:50 > 0:46:54which, in a way, has been the secret of this series of films all along.
0:46:54 > 0:46:59We've known somehow that to do all these things you must be mad,
0:46:59 > 0:47:03you must have a very weird view of other people,
0:47:03 > 0:47:05a view that's probably quite useful,
0:47:05 > 0:47:07and is useful, for people in the secret service
0:47:07 > 0:47:10who are dissociated from other people,
0:47:10 > 0:47:13people who lie all the time, who have to kill people
0:47:13 > 0:47:14and watch people die,
0:47:14 > 0:47:17who then have to go back home to their families or whoever.
0:47:17 > 0:47:20And, actually, it feels an incredible relief
0:47:20 > 0:47:23for that to be acknowledged in some way.
0:47:23 > 0:47:27There's that scene where Judi Dench says to him,
0:47:27 > 0:47:29"You better keep your distance,
0:47:29 > 0:47:32"you better not get too emotionally involved in this.
0:47:32 > 0:47:34"Not that that's ever been a problem for you."
0:47:38 > 0:47:41I would ask you if you could remain emotionally detached.
0:47:42 > 0:47:46But I don't think that's your problem, is it, Bond?
0:47:46 > 0:47:48No.
0:47:48 > 0:47:50There's this constant flirtation -
0:47:50 > 0:47:52they're going to sack him or he's going to resign
0:47:52 > 0:47:55because he's actually one job away from cracking.
0:47:55 > 0:47:57I think it's a very good film.
0:47:57 > 0:48:00Then, of course, they do it again, it's a misstep.
0:48:00 > 0:48:03It's a massively confident, clever film,
0:48:03 > 0:48:06followed too quickly by Quantum Of Solace.
0:48:06 > 0:48:09- Which Roger Moore could have done. - Well, it's an odd film.
0:48:09 > 0:48:12It was done very quickly
0:48:12 > 0:48:14and not polished.
0:48:14 > 0:48:17So it's 90 minutes long,
0:48:17 > 0:48:20which would've been the leanest Bond film ever, but it's actually...
0:48:20 > 0:48:24The fights and the violence have no narrative,
0:48:24 > 0:48:27you just watch - or you don't watch -
0:48:27 > 0:48:28this quite boring,
0:48:28 > 0:48:30absolutely baffling plot.
0:48:30 > 0:48:32And Daniel Craig has gone from being
0:48:32 > 0:48:36this tortured, slightly psychotic agent
0:48:36 > 0:48:38into a sort of grunt, I think.
0:48:39 > 0:48:40Agh!
0:48:42 > 0:48:43Ugh!
0:48:48 > 0:48:49Ugh!
0:48:49 > 0:48:52Argh!
0:48:54 > 0:48:58But let's tease out his gruntiness a bit,
0:48:58 > 0:49:01because that seems to me a departure, too,
0:49:01 > 0:49:03that he's the first actor who...
0:49:03 > 0:49:07He's got the least complicated hair of all of them,
0:49:07 > 0:49:11and also he's the one who's willing to uglify himself.
0:49:17 > 0:49:21The fact is he's very unconventionally good-looking.
0:49:21 > 0:49:24He's got a sort of ugly-pretty quality to him.
0:49:24 > 0:49:27He's got amazing eyes but he can look quite brutish.
0:49:27 > 0:49:30He's like somebody Genet would have liked, isn't he?
0:49:30 > 0:49:31Oh, definitely.
0:49:31 > 0:49:34It's no accident, when he comes out of the sea in those Speedos,
0:49:34 > 0:49:37that actually he became a very popular Bond
0:49:37 > 0:49:38with the entire audience.
0:49:38 > 0:49:42Because, you know, he looks incredible,
0:49:42 > 0:49:45but it sort of goes way back to Connery and the savagery, I think.
0:49:45 > 0:49:48Yeah, but Connery's suffering was never really important
0:49:48 > 0:49:50to the narrative.
0:49:50 > 0:49:53That, in a way, has become one of the subjects of these films.
0:49:53 > 0:49:55It must be symptomatic of our age.
0:49:55 > 0:49:57That's what we are demanding of Bond.
0:49:57 > 0:50:02And actually, he's become a much more plausible secret agent
0:50:02 > 0:50:03for our times.
0:50:03 > 0:50:05Now, that means...
0:50:05 > 0:50:08That doesn't mean we don't want him to look great in a tux,
0:50:08 > 0:50:12doesn't mean we don't want him to go skiing or...
0:50:12 > 0:50:15And yet there seems to be room in those fantasies now
0:50:15 > 0:50:18- for some pretty dark truths about ourselves as well.- Yes.
0:50:18 > 0:50:23I think you can look at the actual texture of Skyfall.
0:50:23 > 0:50:25The fact that...
0:50:25 > 0:50:29One of Skyfall's great successes is it's such a London film.
0:50:29 > 0:50:32It sort of uses London in the way that it's so rarely been done,
0:50:32 > 0:50:36apart from top-and-tailing Big Ben and a red bus for universal exports.
0:50:36 > 0:50:37But to actually...
0:50:37 > 0:50:41You know, when M and Bill Tanner are driving back
0:50:41 > 0:50:45and MI6 explodes, it's a grey London day.
0:50:45 > 0:50:47SIRENS WAIL
0:50:56 > 0:50:58Oh.
0:50:58 > 0:50:59For God's sake!
0:51:01 > 0:51:03Just get out of the way.
0:51:03 > 0:51:05- Don't you recognise the car? - Madam...
0:51:13 > 0:51:16It's rather lovely, that.
0:51:16 > 0:51:20That's a Tube we could get on. It's good, that.
0:51:43 > 0:51:47This is a Bond we, with just a little bit of a push sideways,
0:51:47 > 0:51:51might believe is out there trying to keep the British end up.
0:51:51 > 0:51:53Or perhaps the founding fantasies
0:51:53 > 0:51:56of what this series is about have shifted.
0:51:56 > 0:51:58Right at the beginning,
0:51:58 > 0:52:03it was clearly satisfying a sense of Britain being decolonising,
0:52:03 > 0:52:06being slightly down-at-heel, losing its place,
0:52:06 > 0:52:10losing its influence in the world everywhere,
0:52:10 > 0:52:12except in the strange dream world of James Bond.
0:52:12 > 0:52:14I don't know...
0:52:14 > 0:52:17We're in a sort of Edward Snowden, Julian Assange world.
0:52:17 > 0:52:21And what if Julian Assange wasn't Julian Assange -
0:52:21 > 0:52:26a rather strange and flawed and muddled individual -
0:52:26 > 0:52:28but a Bond villain with a plan,
0:52:28 > 0:52:33with that strange hair and with some clear-cut motives?
0:52:33 > 0:52:36I'm afraid that is exactly the truth!
0:52:41 > 0:52:44He's absolutely a Bond villain in waiting, isn't he?
0:52:44 > 0:52:48- Funny hair, funny accent...- I do hope he's got an underground base.
0:52:48 > 0:52:53I think he has a treadmill instead, doesn't he?
0:52:53 > 0:52:57He's hollowed out the Uruguay Embassy, much to their distaste.
0:52:57 > 0:53:02I think he's planning to divert the Thames into the earth's molten core.
0:53:02 > 0:53:03It's been done.
0:53:08 > 0:53:11So, Matthew, who's the best James Bond in the world?
0:53:11 > 0:53:12Who would win?
0:53:12 > 0:53:15The best James Bond? In a fight between...
0:53:15 > 0:53:16In a fight between...
0:53:16 > 0:53:19In a fight between George Lazenby and all the others...
0:53:19 > 0:53:20Timothy Dalton.
0:53:20 > 0:53:23The complexity, the edge,
0:53:23 > 0:53:26the brutality of Timothy Dalton.
0:53:26 > 0:53:29I think I'm getting a little of that here, actually.
0:53:29 > 0:53:30The connoisseur's Bond.
0:53:30 > 0:53:33Well, as you know, I'm a huge fan of Tim Dalton,
0:53:33 > 0:53:36but I've got to go for Sean Connery in the end.
0:53:36 > 0:53:40There's only one...in the end.
0:53:41 > 0:53:44Nobody does it better - even though it's a Roger Moore...
0:53:44 > 0:53:46- A Roger Moore song!- This never happened to the other guy.- Ha!
0:53:53 > 0:53:55Argh!
0:53:59 > 0:54:03JAMES BOND THEME PLAYS