British Bondage

Unless you’ve been living in a hermitage for the past year or two, you’ve probably heard that a new James Bond film is due out in November 2006. Moreover, there’s a brand new 007 to go with it. Casino Royale  will be the 21st Bond film released by EON Productions, the latest instalment in the most successful and longest-running movie series in cinematic history. Our hero this time will be a rugged blond played by Daniel Craig, who succeeds Pierce Brosnan as the sixth incarnation of the ultimate secret agent. But although the star is new, the film returns to 007’s roots, and is based on the very first Bond novel ever written by Ian Fleming. Find out how James Bond first gets his licence to kill. 

Casino Royale  was published way back in 1953, and the obvious question is – why hasn’t it been filmed before? Well the answer is, it has, but not by the well-known Broccoli–Salzman franchise starring Sean Connery and his successors. A ‘non-canonical’ film version of the book appeared in 1967 with a glittering cast headed by David Niven – who, incidentally, fitted Ian Fleming’s quintessentially English notion of James Bond a lot closer than his fellow Scot Sean Connery. But despite the additional talents of Peter Sellers, Ursula Andress, Orson Welles, Woody Allen and many other luminaries, this lighthearted spoof wasn’t a great success. And so, for nearly another 40 years, Casino Royale  gathered dust on the options shelf. 

Shockwaves rippled through 007’s fan club as news of another on-set fire at Pinewood Studios emerged at the end of July 2006, but it seems the latest remake of the original Bond story is now safely in the can, and everything is on schedule for the world premiere at London’s Odeon cinema in Leicester Square on November 17 – a Royal Film Performance with profits going to charity. It’s unlikely you’ll get a chance to attend this glittering event, but regional premieres will be held in five other British cities the following day, and thereafter, Casino Royale will be on general release nationwide. 

Over half a century since the publication of that debut novel, written allegedly to take Fleming’s mind off the prospect of his impending marriage, the Bond bandwagon rolls on as inexorably as ever. Today’s hi-tech media provide ever more outlets for satisfying the world’s insatiable fascination with 007. The internet spawns endless websites for merchandise, video games, and chat rooms dedicated to the suave spy. It’s easy to assume from the exotic film locations and international plot-lines that Bond’s activities take place mostly outside the UK. But James Bond is essentially a home-grown hero, and the best place to find out about him is in Britain. His workplace headquarters, like Ian Fleming’s, is in London, these days represented by the eye-catching waterfront MI6 building at the unfashionable end of Vauxhall Bridge (open only, alas, to vetted secret agents). Not far away on the South Bank is the Imperial War Museum, whose Secret War exhibition on permanent display on the lower ground floor gives some fascinating insights into the real world of Britain’s intelligence services, MI5 and MI6, and their roles during World War II, the Cold War and today’s war on terrorism.

The River Thames east of MI6 provided the setting for one of the most action-packed Bond scenes – the high-speed boat chase in The World is Not Enough.  Spot the locations all the way past Westminster and the Houses of Parliament to Tower Bridge and the London Docklands. To find some of Ian Fleming’s London haunts, head for 22 Ebury Street in Pimlico, where a blue plaque marks his birthplace, or the Admiralty in Whitehall, where in a ground-floor room overlooking Horse Guards’ Parade, Commander Ian Fleming worked with the Director of Naval Intelligence throughout World War II. Track down the Ritz on Piccadilly, where movie-Bond stayed in Diamonds are Forever  (note for dedicated 007 buffs – Fleming’s Bond always stayed at The Savoy). The College of Arms near St Paul’s Cathedral is where Bond went to check Blofeld’s ancestry in On Her Majesty’s Secret Service,  and Sotheby’s auction house is where Bond switches a rare Fabergé egg with a fake in Octopussy. And then, of course, there’s Buckingham Palace, official London residence of the sovereign, which puts in a dramatic appearance in Die Another Day, when arch-villain Gustav Graves drops in to collect his knighthood by helicopter.  For a guided tour of some of the London locations associated with 007, take a James Bond Tour with London Taxi Tours (www.londontaxitour.com).

There was a time when the UK wasn’t an encouraging place for the film industry, so Bond productions were nearly always shot in exotic, faraway places like Thailand, Japan or the Bahamas. The glamour of foreign climes is still a vital element in any Bond movie, of course, but recent films have made a conscious move towards UK locations, if only within the imaginative confines of Pinewood Studios. Outside London, many places in Britain are now on the Bond trail. Favourite golf courses include Sandwich in Kent (Royal St Mark’s) or Stoke Poges in Buckinghamshire (Stoke Park, where Bond played his famous round with Auric Goldfinger). And then there’s Eton College near Windsor, where both Fleming and his alter-ego Bond were educated. The race-courses of Ascot (The Living Daylights) and Epsom (GoldenEye) have both featured in Bond films, the latter, however, masquerading as St Petersburg Airport. The iconic geodesic domes of Cornwall’s Eden Project appeared in Die Another Day, and Portsmouth’s Historic Dockyard can be seen in Tomorrow Never Dies.  Peterborough’s British Sugar Factory was filmed in GoldenEye, and Swindon’s Motorola plant doubled as an oil refinery in The World is Not Enough. Northamptonshire’s Nene Valley railway has had a roll-on part in a couple of films, along with several RAF airfields (Northolt, Upper Heyford, Lakenheath, Mildenhall). Beachy Head provided a backdrop in The Living Daylights,  and Holywell Bay near Newquay stood in as a North Korean battlefield in Die Another Day.  Further afield, the romantic outlines of Scotland’s Eilean Donan Castle and the Welsh mountains of Snowdonia graced The World is Not Enough.

If you want to visit some of these locations in true Bond style, Guy Salmon Prestige Rental can offer you one of five different Aston Martin models (www.guysalmon.com) – Daniel Craig drives a DBS in Casino Royale, by the way. 007 gadgets, however, are not included in the hire price. Running into next year, The James Bond Experience, an exhibition of some of the vehicles and props featured in earlier Bond films, is on display at the National Motor Museum at Beaulieu in the New Forest. These include the original Jaguar XKR Roadster from Die Another Day and the Lotus Submarine Car and Wet Bike from The Spy Who Loved Me  (www.beaulieu.co.uk).

Bond addicts will be gratified to learn that the next 007 movie, (so far code-named simply Bond 22), is already on the production schedule, and will be timed to coincide with the centenary of Ian Fleming’s birth in May 2008. A new Bond novel has also been commissioned for timely publication. So far, the author’s identity is a closely guarded secret, but spymasters Frederick Forsyth and John Le Carré   are both believed to be in the frame. For more on James Bond and all his activities past, present and future, see www.mi6.co.uk. 

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