"Better make that two" (sexual conquests): Timothy Dalton puts Roger Moore's bed-hopping days behind him amid the HIV/AIDS epidemic When Roger Moore finally hung up his holster in 1985, the James Bond series needed a shot in the arm. In his final two films, dear old Sir Roge was too old to play the role with credibility. Contrary to popular belief, Timothy Dalton was producer Cubby Broccoli's first choice to replace Roger. It wasn't Pierce Brosnan. Cubby had Tim in his sights since 1967 when Sean Connery quit. Yet Tim deemed himself too young at 22. George Lazenby was cast. Cubby reapproached ..read more

Cheerio: Auric Goldfinger gets sucked off Goldfinger set the blueprint for everything the general public wants from a Bond film. The pre-title sequence, plus the John Barry-penned and Shirley Bassey-sung song, tick numerous boxes. The Q briefing has been repeated in almost every Bond film since. Yet 007 himself is careless in the third entry to the James Bond canon. He spends a lot of time captive and doesn't even do much. In one of the most iconic images in cinematic history, he has blood on his hands with the murder of Jill Masterson. He's annoyed with himself in M's office for letting ..read more

What do you do, Vargas? F*ck all 'HERE COMES THE BIGGEST BOND OF ALL!' screamed the Thunderball poster in 1965. The problem is, amid that attempt, this film bogs down under its watery load and into a watery grave. The pre-titles sequence features an exciting fight with a man dressed as a woman. But anyone in the Gen Z cohort can get back behind the sofa when Bond later blackmails a woman into sex.  Bond is conveniently at a health spa, where SPECTRE is plotting its own blackmailing scheme: £100m from the British government. Thunderball is where you can see the early in ..read more

Rude! Rage want to make it last all night After the outlandishness of Moonraker, it was time to rein it in. The result was For Your Eyes Only (FYEO). It's one of the elite films in the James Bond series and, arguably, Roger's most fantastic outing as 007. By the 1980s, Roger was playing hardball over money and only committing to one-picture contracts. Other actors were screen-tested. Hence, Bond visits his wife's grave in the pre-titles sequence (PTS) to establish continuity for Roger's replacement.  The graveyard visit and killing of the 'Wheelchair Villain' — wh ..read more

Toilet: Pierce Brosnan makes his long-awaited (but not for me) debut as James Bond Contrary to popular belief, Pierce Brosnan wasn't Cubby Broccoli's first choice to replace the ageing Roger Moore in the mid-1980s. Timothy Dalton was, but he was unavailable due to Brenda Starr.  Cubby eventually went with Brozza. He was skinny and signed up to play 007 in The Living Daylights. The publicity around Pierce improved Remington Steele's ratings. Another series was commissioned, contractually requiring Brosnan to return to the show. And then, Timothy Dalton became available ..read more

Bore me later: Sean Connery sleepwalks through You Only Live Twice Even the worst James Bond films of the pre-Brosnan era contain iconic moments, and You Only Live Twice is no different. You'd be hard-pressed to find even the most casual Bond fan who doesn't remember Blofeld's scar, the hollowed-out volcano, the piranha pool and Nancy Sinatra's pleasant theme song. Despite this and all of YOLT's fantasia and spectacle, the film is devoid of excitement due to the slow pacing, lacklustre action, Roald Dahl's flat script and Sean Connery's sleep-walking as James Bond.  By ..read more

What a winker: Sean Connery sticks two fingers up at Cubby Broccoli There's been a lot of heavy legal stuff written about the Thunderball/Never Say Never Again debacle. In short: Thunderball is an adaptation of the 1961 novel of the same name by Ian Fleming.  The novel was based on an original screenplay by Jack Whittingham, devised from a story conceived by Kevin McClory, Whittingham and Fleming.  McClory and Whittingham sued Fleming shortly after the 1961 publication of the Thunderball novel. The pair claimed Fleming based the book upon the screenplay ..read more

Gen Z, look away now: Bond tricks Solitaire into losing her virginity In the 1960s, the James Bond series set trends. By the '70s, it began to follow them. Live and Let Die, the first Bond film to jump on a bandwagon, is undoubtedly one of the most memorable and favourite entries to the series for both hardcore and casual fans. Paul McCartney's cracking theme helped this adventure connect with the masses. The bandwagon was blaxploitation, but it works. All the villains are black, but not every Black person in the film is a villain. I won't accept any cries of racism; they’re all intellige ..read more

Dracula: Timothy Dalton bosses Licence to Kill The James Bond series set trends in the '60s. Yet it's been jumping on them since the early '70s: the Blaxploitation of Live and Let Die, the Kung Fu of The Man with the Golden Gun, the space-craziness of Moonraker, and the Indian Jones-esque Octopussy. Violent action flicks such as Die Hard and Lethal Weapon were the marquee films of late '80s cinema. In For Bond Fans Only in Conversation with John Glen, the director cited them as inspirations for Licence to Kill (LTK). Mullets and ill-fittin ..read more

"Bond. Jimmy Bond": the Americanisation of Ian Fleming's Casino Royale Before Sean Connery, there was Bob Holness. Before Blockbusters Bob, there was Barry Nelson. Before Daniel Craig as Bond in Casino Royale, there was Barry Nelson as Bond in Casino Royale. For non-die-hard Bond fans, Bob played James Bond in a South African radio adaption of Ian Fleming's Moonraker in either 1955, '56, '57 or '58. No traces remain. Casino Royale (Climax!) is a live 1954 television adaptation of Ian Fleming's 1953 novel. Climax! was an American dramatic anthology ..read more