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James Bond Fan Club The Pre-Premiere 007 SkyFall Newsletter

Newsletter                                                

We’ve Been Expecting You, Mr. Bond
Welcome to this special pre-premiere ‘Skyfall’ edition of the JBIFC’s Newsletter. We thought our members, friends and other fans would appreciate some extra news on the eve of the launch of the exciting new 007 film which, as many of you know, receives its Royal Premiere on Tuesday October 23 in central London.
In fact, so much James Bond news has been flowing in during the last few weeks, it would be a shame not to share some of it with as many of you as possible, including all our good friends right across the world.
Britain at the moment is awash with James Bond news, especially given the fact that this year is the 50 th anniversary of the EON movies and we are also about to see the results of Daniel Craig’s third adventure as a member of Her Majesty’s Secret Service. And boy are we in for a treat! We are very happy to report that the reactions to the new Bond movie from those who have been lucky enough to see it already have been overwhelmingly positive.

Bond Is Most Definitely Back
A large posse of excited journalists and other guests were able to see ‘Skyfall’ at a special press preview at the Odeon, Leicester Square, on Friday October 12, and many of the early press reviews of the new movie appeared in newspapers and on movie review websites over the weekend of October 13-14.
We don’t intend to give away any major spoilers, but there a number of things we can still highlight about some of the reactions to the latest James Bond thriller.
The UK’s newspaper The Times, for example (October 13), in its review, said Bond’s resurrection ‘is one to die for’. The paper called the new Bond movie ‘a great British bulldog of a movie’, which is ‘a triumphant return to classic Bond’. The newspaper, one of Britain’s leading newspapers and probably famous throughout the world, even devoted part of its editorial comment to the return of 007! How many movie franchises can do that?
Similarly, the UK’s Independent newspaper was full of enthusiasm for the new movie, calling it one of the best Bonds in recent memory and ‘Craig’s finest’.
The UK’s best-selling newspaper The Sun was equally enthusiastic: its review was entitled ‘Another big hit, Mr. Bond’, and it predicted that it ‘is sure to be another box office hit’. And that has been the flavour of numerous other reviews – the vast majority have praised the new 007 film sky high.

The Sky is Full of Bond
During the final weekend before the premiere of the 23rd James Bond movie, the British media gave us another generous round of what has been a mini-avalanche of Bond-related material in recent weeks.
A good example came two days before premiere day, in the ‘Celebs’ magazine of the Sunday Mirror (October 21), which carried an interview with Daniel Craig.
The interview opened with the 007 star being asked ‘Do you feel in your comfort zone as Bond now?’, to which Daniel (unsurprisingly) replied: ‘No, not at all. I’d hate to feel in a comfort zone while I was working. That’s not the way I like to do things. You want to be pressurised and you want to be challenged every day’. In response to a question about whether ‘Skyfall’ felt different from his previous two films, the current 007 said: ‘Yeah, definitely – in every way. This has an individual look to it, something I don’t think you’ve seen in any other Bond movie. I think it’s quite special’.

The Bond Brand of Humour
The ‘Celebs’ interview also touched upon rumours that there is more ‘humour’ in the new Bond movie. In response to this, Craig explained: ‘The humour’s not something we’ve tried to do. The humour comes out of situations ore than it does out of gags. We’ve got some very funny lines in the movie, but who knows how an audience may find them? I think there are funny moments but I have a very dark humour’. On the question of the ‘personality’ of Bond, Daniel was asked where he might take Bond next? He commented that it was a case of wait and see: ‘I mean, really, I’m not going to say that we’ve done something incredibly different here. We’ve done something, I think, which has quality about it and we’ve got a great story that we want to tell. But it is a kind of wait-and-see situation’.
Nobody Does It Better
Three days before the premiere of ‘Skyfall’, an interview with Daniel Craig also appeared in the weekend magazine of the UK’s Daily Telegraph newspaper (October 20). Conducted last June, about a week after Daniel completed filming on the new James Bond movie, the interview took place at Claridge’s Hotel in London, where members of the British media had been invited as part of the publicity campaign for ‘Skyfall’. The interviewer, Vicki Reid, noted that, whereas Craig’s first two 007 adventures were ‘quite dark’, his third Bond movie will see a return of what might be called the more traditional ‘cinema’ elements of the film series, such as the wry humour, the gadgets, and the over-the-top villains. All these have featured in the most recent films, but had been played down. Craig said: ‘It’s got some fun in it, but it’s not forced. I’m not winking at the camera. The writing’s really good, and I think that lends itself to humour...’.
Craig’s Praise For Rigg
Who is Daniel Craig’s favourite Bond woman? The UK’s Sunday Express tackled this interesting question on October 21. The answer may surprise some people, but possibly not dedicated Bond fans: it is Diana Rigg, who played Tracy Di Vicenzo in ‘On Her Majesty’s Secret Service’ (1969). The ‘Skyfall’ star was quoted by the Express as saying: ‘Diana Rigg is kind of my favourite, she’s just great in that movie, she stands out for me’. But the Express spoilt its report somewhat by claiming that the 1969 movie is regarded as ‘the least favoured of the franchise’. Really? We think not. However, the Express then tried to claw back a little bit of credibility by noting that Sir Roger Moore has said (again) that he would like to come back as a Bond villain. The newspaper offered a nice little cartoon of a surprised Daniel Craig discovering Sir Roger dressed as Blofeld, complete with white cat, and saying: ‘Ah, Mr. Bond. You weren’t expecting ME!’
Starburst Celebrates Skyfall
Among the large number of Bond-related articles that have appeared in magazines over the last few weeks, there was one magazine that seems like an old friend from the past: Starburst magazine, which was a favourite of many Bond fans for its 007 coverage in the 1970s and 1980s. The glossy British magazine boasts that it is the world’s longest-running magazine of sci-fi, horror, and fantasy, and (pleasingly) it has seen something of a renaissance in recent times. Recent issues have included some great Bond coverage. The latest issue (no.381, for October 2012) has maintained this tradition with style. With Daniel Craig firmly on the front cover, the October issue (a ‘Skyfall’ special) contains a preview of the new Bond movie, an article on the world of Ian Fleming, a ‘Beginner’s Guide’ to Ian Fleming’s Bond novels, a short article on the original American TV version of ‘Casino Royale’ transmitted in the 1950s, an exploration of the Bond strip cartoon that appeared in the Daily Express, a profile of the Bond villains, a look at the 1967 film version of ‘Casino Royale’, a profile of Bond’s vehicles and gadgets, an article on the Charlie Higson ‘Young Bond’ adventures, a profile of the Bond women in the movies, a discussion of the ‘Bonds we never had’, an article on the Bond film that Quentin Tarantino wanted to make, a profile of the ‘Top ten’ Bond stunts, a Starburst readers’ poll on their favourite Bond movie, an interview with Honor Blackman, and an article on ‘Bond at Fifty’. Phew! All that for just £3.95. A bargain, 007.
The Car with the Golden Touch
It has been called the most famous car in the world. Given that Bond’s iconic Aston Martin makes a welcome return in ‘Skyfall’ (including during the London and Scottish sequences), there has been a lot of interest again in the vehicles of 007, especially in the view of the fact that many of them have been on display at the special ‘Bond in Motion’ exhibition at Beaulieu, in the New Forest area of Britain, which has seen thousands of visitors. ‘Global James Bond Day’ on October 5 also saw Bond’s Aston Martin DBS from ‘Quantum of Solace’ makes the largest amount of money at an auction for charity held at Christie’s in central London. The UK’s ‘Collector’s Gazette’ magazine (no.344, for November 2012) has celebrated the Aston Martin with a special article on ‘Bond Collectables’, by Jim Stevenson, which explores the various diecast and other model versions of the Aston Martin which have appeared since the 1960s. Mint-boxed, the original Corgi Toys Aston Martin is now worth hundreds of pounds. Auric Goldfinger would be proud!
Did You Know?
Bond’s Aston Martin was spotted at Hankley Common, in Surrey, sitting outside the impressive Skyfall Lodge, a few days after the massive explosion that took place there. It was looking, er, shall we say ‘rather toasted’, and was covered in tarpaulin three days later by the film’s technical crew to prevent curious onlookers taking a peek.
Bond Bits: Brief Items of Skyfall News You May Have Missed
New Bond woman Berenice Marlohe has revealed how she had just two auditions in a year before landing the coveted role of Severine in ‘Skyfall’. According to the UK’s Sunday Express newspaper (October 14), the 33-year old French actress spent years in Paris struggling to make it on the big screen. She was turned down for countless roles before Sam Mendes saw her potential...
Where did Daniel Craig sneek off for a quick rest while filming Bond? According to a report in London’s Metro newspaper (October 17), he would grab 40 winks underwater! Craig was quoted as saying: ‘Underwater scenes are my favourite because no one can find you’. He continued: ‘When we’re not shooting, I swim to the bottom of the huge tanks at Pinewood Studios, which are 30 ft deep. I just sink to the bottom, put the respirator on and hide. It’s so great and sometimes I get some sleep down there’...
In the novels, one of James Bond’s favourite stores in London was said to be Harrods. It has become something of a tradition in recent years, just before a Bond film premiere, for the store to mount a special Bond display in its shop windows. Visitors to London can currently see a special ‘Skyfall’ window display at the famous store...
The ‘Magic’ radio station in the UK will help celebrate the general release of ‘Skyfall’ on Friday October 26 by playing throughout the day the favourite Bond songs chosen by their listeners...
New ‘Q’ actor Ben Wishaw was featured in the ‘Weekend’ magazine of the Guardian newspaper on October 20. He has been making a second series of the well-reviewed BBC drama series ‘The Hour’. It will be transmitted on the UK’s BBC-2 in November, 2012...
To help celebrate the imminent launch of ‘Skyfall’, the UK’s cable and satellite music channel ‘Magic’ devoted an hour on the evening of October 20 to screening the Bond song tie-in videos...
Congratulations to the singer Adele. With her song for ‘Skyfall’ riding high in the music charts, she has now become a Mum, too! It was announced on October 21 that the ‘Skyfall’ theme-tune singer has given birth to a healthy baby boy. The British media reported that 24-year old singer and her partner Simon Konecki were overjoyed...
To help celebrate the release of the 23rd Bond movie, the ‘Celebs’ magazine of the UK’s Sunday Mirror (October 21) featured an article entitled ‘The 007 secrets’, which gave readers seven supposed ‘secrets’ associated with the Bond films. The ‘secrets’ included no. 7, which noted that in a recent ‘Bond Survey’ Sean Connery was the favourite Bond of all time, followed closely by Daniel Craig...
Sir Roger Moore has been touring Britain as part of the promotion of his new book ‘Bond On Bond’, giving interviews live on stage at various locations. When he appeared at the Rose Theatre in Kingston-on-Thames, Surrey, on Sunday October 14, he said he had just seen ‘Skyfall’, and he was full of high praise for Daniel Craig and the new Bond movie. In fact, he returned to the topic a number of times during the course of his interview live on stage...
The BBC’s ‘Culture Show’ on BBC-2 will be a 30-minute ‘Culture Show 007 Special’ on Wednesday October 24th at 10.00pm (London time), devoted to an interview with ‘Skyfall’ director Sam Mendes, who is interviewed by Mark Kermode. The show will be repeated the following day, and an hour-long version will be transmitted about a week later...
New Bond villain Javier Bardem was interviewed in the weekend magazine of the UK’s Guardian newspaper on October 13. Among the interesting comments was the revelation that he had been approached before about being in a Bond movie but, he said, it was the confluence of a good script and Sam Mendes as director that finally made him say yes to a role in Bond...
Set your reminders. Bond fans in the UK will be able to see Daniel Craig, Dame Judi Dench, and Javier Bardem being interviewed on ‘The Graham Norton Show’ on BBC-1 on Friday October 26, at 10.35pm (London time)...
Charlie Higson, the author of the ‘Young Bond’ series, who is always up for a challenge, will be tweeting summaries of the plots to the Ian Fleming novels on October 23...
Look up! Look down! Watch out for the new issue of the UK’s Radio Times magazine (on sale on premiere day, October 23), which will have an interview with Bond producer Barbara Broccoli...
BBC Radio-4’s movie programme ‘The Film Programme’, to be transmitted on Thursdya October 25 at 4.00pm, will include an interview with Daniel Craig...
After months of preparation and hard work, you can now check out the JBIFC’s re-launched website, where we will continue to bring you all the latest James Bond news...

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James Bond Fan Club Newsletter Oct. 2012


Newsletter                                                    October 2012
Cover photo


Global Eye: James Bond Day
This is a very special year for James Bond fans everywhere. Not only are we celebrating 50 years (!) of 007 on screen, but there are now just weeks to go before the 23 rd Bond movie hits our screens, with Daniel Craig back as MI6’s best operative. At one point, it looked as if this would never happen. But Bond, as they say, is well and truly back. As part of the special celebrations, Friday October 5 has been made Global James Bond Day. The special day will see a series of 007-related events around the world, including a global online (and live) charity auction (organised by Christies in London), a global survey to discover the favourite Bond film of people on a country-by-country basis across the world, a film retrospective at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York, a special music of Bond evening in Los Angeles, and the opening of the ‘Designing 007: 50 years of Bond Style’ exhibition in Toronto, after its highly successful run in London recently. Other events on the day include, for James Bond fans in the UK, a chance to see the new James Bond documentary ‘Everything or Nothing’ at selected Odeon Cinemas. This documentary provides a detailed history of the creation and evolution of Bond on screen, and contains a host of new and rare archive material.
It’s Official: The ‘Skyfall’ Theme Song is by Adele
Many Bond fans will know by now that the award-winning British artist Adele will be singing the theme song to ‘Skyfall’. The song will be released via her official website on Friday October 5, the anniversary day of the release of the first 007 film ‘Dr. No’ in 1962. It is also, of course, Global James Bond Day. The rumours about Adele had been around for some time, and were fanned even more when Adele appeared as a special guest on the Jonathan Ross Show some months back. When mischievous Ross hummed the James Bond theme, Adele was placed in a very difficult position! The JBIFC first got wind of the fact that it was officially Adele a few weeks ago, when an insider at the recording studio became a bit of a bigmouth (as the English would say). We should have fed him to the sharks, or called the Spectre assassination branch.
Adele Fell For ‘Skyfall’
In an official press release issued to the media on October 1, it was revealed that Adele read the script to ‘Skyfall’ and then enlisted the help of Paul Epworth to co-write and produce the theme song. Adele commented: ‘I was a little hesitant at first to be involved with the theme song for Skyfall. There’s a lot of instant spotlight and pressure when it comes to a Bond song. But I fell in love with the script and Paul had some great ideas for the track and it ended up being a bit of a no-brainer to do it in the end. It was a lot of fun writing to a brief, something I’ve never done which made it exciting. When we recorded the strings, it was one of the proudest moments of my life’. The song was recorded at the famous Abbey Road Studios in London, and a 77-piece orchestra was utilised.
Never Say Never: Spectre Back Some Day?
The November issue of the popular British sci-fi magazine SFX, which hit British news-stands in late September, contained some excellent coverage of ‘Skyfall’, together with an interview with Danny Kleinman (the man charged with designing the title sequences for the new Bond movie), and a rare piece by screenwriter Christopher Wood, who wrote the screen treatments for ‘The Spy Who Loved Me’ (1977) and ‘Moonraker’ (1979). Wood also wrote the special tie-in novels that were issued for both movies. In the magazine’s ‘Skyfall’ coverage, there was some interview material with Bond producers Barbara Broccoli and Michael G. Wilson. At one point, the producers made some intriguing comments about future possible Bond movie plotlines. Responding to a question about why the ‘Quantum’ organisation was not used in ‘Skyfall’, Wilson revealed that they have not abandoned the organisation: ‘No, I think it’s still out there, but we just don’t refer to it in this particular film’. And tantalisingly, as SFX also noted, Wilson revealed that they have the rights to bring back Blofeld and Spectre, which played such a big role in the Bond movies of the 1960s before legal issues with Kevin McClory stopped EON utilising them. Wilson added: ‘We believe we can use them. They’re a little dated at the moment. We went for the Quantum organisation, which was more business oriented, trying to corner the market on scarce resources, rather than a criminal organisation that did blackmail and bank robberies’.
Pay Attention, 007: ‘Skyfall’ Team to Return?
Some interesting comments were made by the showbiz columnist Baz Bamigboye in the UK’s Daily Mail on September 21. Bamigboye, who has broken various items of news about ‘Skyfall’ over the past year, said that we should expect to see Naomie Harris, Ben Whishaw and Ralph Fiennes in future Bond films. Bamigboye claimed in his gossip column: ‘It’s already known that Whishaw is the new Q and this page revealed a while back that Naomie is the new Moneypenny. The Skyfall trailer hints as to what Fiennes’s involvement might be, but I’m not going to give it away – though I’ve known for more than a year, and there are rumours galore on the internet’. Bamigboye continued: ‘All three actors have options in their deals to return in other Bond films (the 24 th in the series will start shooting in the next 18 months)’. Meanwhile, Ralph Fiennes has been making an impact as Magwitch in a new big screen version of ‘Great Expectations’, which had its world premiere at the Toronto Film Festival.
A Diamond is Forever: In Praise of Harry
John Patterson, writing in the Guardian newspaper’s weekly ‘Guide’ magazine on September 29, paid generous tribute to Bond producer Harry Saltzman. He opened his article by saying: ‘When it comes time to celebrate 50 years of the James Bond franchise... I hope we recall the half-forgotten man of the whole enterprise: the man who, after reading Goldfinger, discerned the potential movie fortune lying dormant in the novels of Ian Fleming; the man who made Sean Connery a star, and sealed Michael Caine’s fortune by giving him his own spy franchise...’. Patterson noted that Harry Saltzman was, by all accounts, the ultimate caricature of the movie producer: warm, loud, crass, and a consummate gambler, with a keen eye for the main chance ‘and a tight fist around the purse strings’. But for all that, ‘Saltzman ended being behind some of the most important movies in 1960s British cinema’. According to Patterson, Saltzman was part of the large and largely undocumented influx of creative Canadians that landed in London in the late 1950s and early 1960s and, after a few failures, caught the fleeting zeitgeist of the times with the movie ‘Saturday Night and Sunday Morning’, a gritty kitchen-sink drama which made a star of a young Albert Finney (who, coincidentally, is in ‘Skyfall’ as the Bond ancestral home gamekeeper). Moreover, Saltzman pushed for Sean Connery to be Bond, along with Broccoli, against the demands of the studio bosses in America. Without Saltzman, wrote Patterson, ‘British cinema of the 1960s – and ever after – would look decidedly different, and a lot less fun’.
Try Another Way
You have to hand it to Sam Mendes: he went all out to get some really talented stars for ‘Skyfall’. One of these was actress Helen McCrory, who has a small but important part in the new Bond movie as a British Member of Parliament. She has been in the UK’s newspapers quite a bit recently because of her role in the ITV-1 drama ‘Leaving’, and also for her part in ‘The Last of the Haussmans’, a play at London’s famous National Theatre, which has received high praise from the critics. Married to ‘Homeland’ actor Damian Lewis, 43-year old Helen is, primarily, a stage actress, but has also played various acclaimed parts on TV, such as Cherie Blair in the dramas ‘The Queen’ and ‘The Special Relationship’. McCrory was persuaded to take a part in ‘Skyfall’ by Sam Mendes, who personally asked her. And she is very loyal to Mendes: various journalists have tried to prise some details out her concerning ‘Skyfall’, but she has not succumbed. Although she has remained very tight-lipped about her Bond role in media interviews, she clearly thoroughly enjoyed being in the movie. Back in April, she told the London Evening Standard newspaper, for example: ‘It’s great, and I am enjoying it tremendously. I can’t reveal too much about my part but I think there is a lot of writing now for women who are in their sexual prime in their forties’. She also told the Sunday Times, which conducted a lengthy interview with her recently, that: ‘It’s a Bond movie. Everyone wants to be in a Bond movie’. But she refused to add any detail: ‘They are more secretive than the real MI5’. She joked that she would be ‘abducted’ if she said anything more!
Radio Times Bond Special
The BBC’s TV and radio listings magazine Radio Times was something of a James Bond special on September 8, and featured an attractive image of Craig, Connery and Moore on its front cover. Inside the magazine, readers were able to peruse an article by the BBC film expert Barry Norman, who at one point revealed that his father, the film director Leslie Norman, had been on the short list to direct the first 007 movie ‘Dr. No’. Norman also gave recalled some memories of the time when he interviewed Roger Moore in Rio de Janeiro, during the making of ‘Moonraker’. At the time, said Norman, Roger was at loggerheads with Cubby Broccoli over his pay for Bond and whether he would make another Bond movie. Just before the interview began, Cubby apparently said to Norman: ‘Ask him – ask him if he’s going to do the next movie’. So Barry Norman did ask Roger, only to get an evasive but smooth answer which could be interpreted either way! Broccoli was not best pleased. The magazine also contained an article on the music of 007 (to tie in with a BBC Radio 2 special live evening of Bond music on September 14) and a survey asking readers ‘Who is the best Bond?’, with a boxed set of Blu-ray ‘Bond at 50’ discs as a prize, something guaranteed to put somebody in 007 heaven.
A Whole Lot Moore
Sir Roger Moore, who was featured in the hour-long programme ‘Piers Morgan’s Life Stories’ on the UK’s ITV-1 on Friday September 14, was also profiled in the September 8 edition of the ITV magazine TVTimes. The article, by David Hollingsworth, looked at Sir Roger’s illustrious TV career, his charity work, his four marriages, and, of course, his long service as Her Majesty’s Secret Servant 007. On TV, Sir Roger was in ‘Ivanhoe’ (1958-59), ‘The Alaskans’ (1959-1960), ‘Maverick’ (1959-61), and ‘The Persuaders’ (1971-72). More famously, he was also Simon Templar, otherwise known as ‘The Saint’ (1962-69). In fact, as well as being the 50 th anniversary of the James Bond films, 2012 is also the golden jubilee of ‘The Saint’. ‘Ah, yes, Simon Templar is getting old, too’, said Roger. On James Bond, Roger recalled particularly enjoying filming ‘The Spy Who Loved Me’ (1977). He said: ‘I think, perhaps, we reached the right level of humour’. He also repeated something he has said on previous occasions: that he would still love to play a Bond villain: ‘They get all the best lines’. Sir Roger, who was knighted in 2003, also reflected on his hard work for children’s charity UNICEF: ‘I’d say it has become a full-time job. There’s a great deal to do and it’s hard to know when and where to stop’.
The Man with the Golden Gong
On Tuesday September 18, at 8.00pm, the cable and satellite channel Sky Arts 1 screened the first episode of its new series on ‘British Legends of Stage and Screen’. The subject of the first programme was Sir Christopher Lee, well known to Hammer Horror fans as Dracula but also to the 007 fanbase as Francisco Scaramanga, the ruthless assassin with the golden gun, who charged a million a shot. Directed by Anthony Fabian, and narrated by Sue MacGregor, the special Sky Arts profile of Sir Christopher inevitably touched upon his role as a Bond baddie in 1974-75. When he was offered the role and read the script, Lee said of Scaramanga: ‘He had three nipples. When I read that I thought it’s a bit odd. I asked my doctor and he said, oh no, it’s quite common’. Reflecting further on the character, Lee pointed out that Scaramanga ‘had a sense of humour, was very polite, but also deadly’. He also referred to the fact that Bond author Ian Fleming was Lee’s cousin, and revealed that Fleming was at Eton school with a boy named Scaramanga who he ‘disliked intensely’. It was left to viewers to draw the obvious conclusions! Sir Christopher also gave some thoughts on his award of a Knighthood in the New Year’s Honours List in 2009 (he was Knighted by Charles, Prince of Wales). He also reflected on his award of a BAFTA Fellowship in 2001, and said he felt ‘so emotional’ at the audience’s reaction to his appearance on stage to accept the BAFTA award and, with it, the recognition of his film peers. He said he had felt ‘so overwhelmed’. You really earned it, Sir Christopher!
Shaken and Stirred
The October edition of the British monthly magazine History Today, which appeared in late September, helped celebrate 50 years of the Bond movies with a special article on James Bond in history, written by University scholar Klaus Dodds. Starting with ‘Dr. No’ in 1962 and analysing the 007 phenomenon from the 1960s right through to the present day, Dodds speculated on how and why the Bond series as a filmic formula has proven so remarkably resilient over the last 50 years. Key to this in the beginning were the far-sighted producers Albert Broccoli and Harry Saltzman, who purchased the rights to the Bond novels in 1961(except ‘Casino Royale’) and were instrumental in bringing Fleming’s secret agent to the big screen. Dodds also pointed to the highly talented team recruited by Broccoli and Saltzman, such as the screenwriter Richard Maibaum and the set designer Ken Adam. In addition, according to Dodds, the Bond films are action thrillers ‘with generic qualities that follow a clear formula. A simple but dramatic narrative arc was established from the outset’. Other factors that contributed to the huge success of the Bond series included the actors who portrayed Bond, the gadgets, the girls and the glamour, all elements which helped broaden the reach of the Bond series in terms of global markets. More importantly, as Dodds noted: ‘The James Bond phenomena persists not only because it rests on a successful formula but because of the willingness to adapt that formula’. The introduction of Daniel Craig, for example, was significant in re-booting Bond. Dodds ended his article: ‘Bring on Skyfall’. History Today, volume 62, no.10 (October, 2012), is on sale at UK newsagents, priced £5.20.
Bond in the West Indies
Charlie Higson as James Bond? Surely not? Yes, it’s true, but not quite in the way you might have expected. The author of the ‘Young Bond’ book series has penned the screenplay for a new adaptation of Agatha Christie’s popular story ‘A Caribbean Mystery’, made for the British TV channel ITV1 and to be screened in 2013. Higson has included a small role for himself in the plot as ‘James Bond’, the real-life American ornithologist, whose name author Ian Fleming ‘borrowed’ for his new secret agent in his debut novel ‘Casino Royale’. The real James Bond, who sadly died in 1989 (aged 89) was author of ‘Birds of the West Indies’, one of Fleming’s favourite books, which often lay on the coffee table at Fleming’s Jamaican home Goldeneye.
Did You Know?
Ian Fleming actually met the real-life James Bond in person in 1964, at Goldeneye, his home in Jamaica. The 007 author gave James Bond a pre-publication first edition of his latest novel ‘You Only Live Twice’ as a souvenir of his visit to the birthplace of the fictional James Bond. Fleming wrote in it: ‘To the real James Bond from the thief of his identity’.
Bond Bits: Brief News Items You May Have Missed
Ian Fleming’s wife Ann was portrayed on the British stage recently, when the play ‘A Marvellous Year For Plums’ ran at the UK’s Chichester Theatre. Set in 1956, around the time of the Suez Crisis, the play was about the real-life secret affair that was conducted between between Ann Fleming (played by Imogen Stubbs) and the Labour Party leader Hugh Gaitskell (played by Nicholas Le Provost)...
British TV presenter and Radio-2 DJ Chris Evans, who is also a big James Bond fan, turned some heads on August 23 when he drove the original car from the movie ‘Chitty Chitty Bang Bang’ (which was based on Ian Fleming’s story for children) through central London. Evans, who has a collection of classic vehicles, purchased the car for £500,000 in January 2012, the only working one used in the 1968 movie...
There were several versions of the car made for ‘Chitty Chitty Bang Bang’, but the only one that worked was designed by Bond set-designer Ken Adam. It was built by the Ford Racing Team, and has a dashboard plate from a World War One fighter plane...
Olga Kurylenko (from ‘Quantum of Solace’), who stars in ‘To the Wonder’, a love story with Ben Affleck and new Bond villain Javier Bardem, was the only key star of the movie to be able to make it to the premiere of the film at the Venice Film Festival on September 2...
Olga plays a Frenchwoman in the movie who has a passionate affair with an American (Ben Affleck) in Paris, but the relationship slowly begins to unravel. The unusual film, directed by Terence Malick, contains hardly any dialogue. Javier Bardem plays a priest in the movie, who is struggling with his faith...
The JBIFC was very sad to hear of the death of lyricist Hal David, who passed away in Los Angeles on September 1. He penned some of the most memorable songs of the 1960s, including ‘Walk On By’ and ‘Do You Know The Way To San Jose’ for Dionne Warwick. His wide range of work also included collaborations with John Barry on the Bond songs ‘We Have All the Time in the World’ in 1969 and ‘Moonraker’ in 1979. Rest in Peace, Hal...
007 novelist Sebastian Faulks (‘Devil May Care’) gave an interview to the London Metro newspaper on September 20, to help publicise his new novel ‘A Possible Life’ (which is actually five novellas that range across time). He said the book is about ‘how people change over the course of a life. I’ve been interested in this for a long time’...
Who was the heavily-disguised villain in ‘The Power of Three’, an episode of the popular BBC sci-fi show ‘Dr. Who’ shown on September 22? The voice of the villain ‘Shakri’ sounded eerily familiar: well, it was none other than Steven Berkoff, who played renegade Russian General Orlov in ‘Octopussy’ (1983)...
Sean Connery as the Doctor who said No? According to the Sunday Times, which contained extracts from the memoirs of Irish writer Edna O’Brien on September 23, back in 1970 Sean strongly advised her against taking LSD, recalling his own bad experience of it...
After finding it difficult to cope with all the pressures of the fame that went with the Bond mania of the mid-60s, Connery had consulted the famous but controversial psychiatrist R.D. Laing, who had persuaded the Scottish star to take a tab of pure LSD. Connery’s trip was deeply traumatic. After O’Brien went ahead anyway, Connery and a friend came around to her place to see how she was faring. They were so shocked at her condition they stayed to look after her...
Speaking in central London in late September to help promote the new James Bond Blu-ray collection, Britt Ekland (who played Mary Goodnight in ‘The Man With The Golden Gun’), argued that, in her estimation, Sir Roger Moore was the best Bond. She said Bond ‘was a bachelor, unattached, luxurious, sophisticated. I think Roger really portrayed that’. Britt was joined at the event by Richard ‘Jaws’ Kiel...
So, what can we expect after the lengthy pre-credits for ‘Skyfall’, when Adele’s song kicks in? Speaking to SFX magazine, Danny Kleinman, who made such an impact with his iconic titles for ‘Goldeneye’ and ‘Casino Royale’, said about his new title sequences for Craig’s third adventure: ‘I think it’s time to slightly reinvent it again. Make it maybe a bit more vital and a bit more psychological – not change everything, but just enough that it feels different and fresh’...
Naomie Harris, who plays field agent Eve in ‘Skyfall’, has recently finished work on ‘Mandela: A Long Walk Home’, in which she plays Mandela’s (now former) wife Winnie Mandela...
Dame Judi Dench, who reprises her role as ‘M’ in ‘Skyfall’ (and has a major and pivotal role in the movie), attended a special event at Sotheby’s in central London in early September, where leading ‘Bollywood’ stars were out in force. The special evening was held to launch ‘India Fantastique’, a book which celebrates Indian fashion and design....
The new ‘Q’, Ben Whishaw, is keeping very busy. He is in the new movie version of the cult story ‘Cloud Atlas’ and, in the near future, he will be starring alongside Judi ‘M’ Dench in John Logan’s new theatre production ‘Peter and Alice’, which will run at the Noel Coward Theatre in London from March, 2013...
There were some fascinating comments from ‘Skyfall’ cinematographer Roger Deakins in a special free issue of Film and Digital Times in September. Speaking about the ‘look’ of the new 007 film, he said: ‘I can say that it’s got a lot of variety, from the very hot, bright, day exteriors to very dark, underground, cavernous areas lit with little practicals we made up. There’s huge variety, even more than you’d find in a typical Bond film, I think’...
50 Years of Guns and Girls
Paul Burch, music director for the Denmark Street Big Band in London has been in touch and asked me to let you know that they are presenting two amazing James Bond nights with music from all the James Bond films!! The first is on Sunday 14th October At The Spice Of Life, Cambridge Circus, London and Saturday 27th Oct At The Jazz Café Posk, Hammersmith.....

Finally, we've had various media people contact us in the hunt for Bond fans with large collections of Bond memorabillia and who may have met some of the James Bond stars.
BBC online are particularly keen to find enthusiastic fans in the West Midlands area to appear on their web site.
A couple of the daily papers want to find serious Bond fans / collectors, some from outside the UK.
If anyone's interested in having their story told, please email me an idea of what you collect and how much of a Bond fan you are, my email is just below....