Bond's dinner jacket has a pivotal role in torture scenes
Thirteen things you didn't know about James Bond:
• 1 James Bond's middle name is revealed only once in the entire canon. In On Her Majesty's Secret Service (1963), Bond is being held in a raffia-work cage suspended over a pool of piranha fish while the villain, Dr Peevish, taunts him by saying "Herbert, Herbert, Herbert" over and over again. Finally, Bond can bear it no longer. "Go on – kill me, kill me, PLEASE!" he screams. But at that very moment he spots Dr Peevish's Christian name on the laundry-mark attached to the raffia-work cage and shouts, "Do your worst – Dibdin!" While Peevish is blocking his ears in anguish, Bond makes good his escape.
• 2 For the past 40 years, James Bond's older brother, Basildon, has been a leading figure in the stationery business.
• 3 Roger Moore landed the role as an earlier James Bond only after stiff competition from fellow British actor Kenneth Williams, who was shortlisted after a successful screen test for the scheduled Bond sequel, With a View to a Perm.
"Sean had played James all rugged and macho, which I found so dreadfully common," Williams recalled in his diaries. "So I was determined to bring out his more suave and cultured side. I hit upon the idea of giving him a lime-green silk handkerchief that he would take out and wave at the villains at opportune moments – during a car chase, for instance, or while swinging uncomfortably from the underside of a helicopter. But the producers sadly went for the safe proletarian option. Typical!"
• 4 James Bond's dinner jacket plays a pivotal role in the novels. In a key torture scene in Dr No (1958), Bond picks up his dinner jacket from a dry-cleaners, quickly changes into it, then leaps into a mini-submarine to do battle with one of his deadliest enemies. Alas, he has forgotten to remove the array of pins dry-cleaners like to stick into dinner suits, so he spends the entire journey writhing in agony.
• 5 Gadgets have played an increasingly vital role in the James Bond films. In the very first Bond film, Dr No, James Bond is seen struggling with a tin-opener in the exciting opening action sequence; from then on, the producers felt obliged to up the stakes with each successive film. In From Russia With Love (1963), he wrestles with a deckchair, in You Only Live Twice (1967) he spends a tense two minutes attempting to untangle a telephone cord; and in the futuristic Diamonds Are Forever (1971) he is forced to set a video recorder in 20 minutes, armed only with a 60-page instruction manual.
•6 The Bond films have always prided themselves on featuring the latest gadgets, particularly where cars are concerned. In Licence to Kill (1989) there is a cliff-hanging three-minute sequence in an underground car park where Bond keeps pressing his new key-fob, but remains unable to effect entry into his Aston Martin.
• 7 In the early 1980s, the real-life Dr No was given a regular slot dispensing medical advice on GMTV's Good Morning with Anne and Nick, and last year he appeared as an expert panellist on Celebrity Fit Club. But earlier this year, the News of the World published the splash headline "TV Doctor EXPOSED as Ruthless Power-Crazed FIEND Who Plotted World DOMINATION in Island Fortress", which led to his resignation. He is now believed to be operating a veterinary practice in an underground bunker off the Isle of Wight, and is said to employ up to a thousand assistants, many of them dressed in wet-suits.
• 8 The safari suit worn by Roger Moore in Live and Let Die (1973) had originally been worn by Dr Marsh Tracy in the long-running Daktari TV series. Moore's influence was remarkable: in 1974, an estimated 82 per cent of British wore lightweight safari suits to formal dinner parties and society balls. Even the Speaker of the House of Commons opted for a safari suit during the crucial Balance of Payments debate in November 1973, and Earl Mountbatten of Burma wore one, with full decorations, while representing the Queen at a memorial service for King Gustaf of Sweden at Westminster Abbey the following year.
• 9 James Bond's sister, Jennie, was the BBC Royal Correspondent from 1989-2003, and later proved her family mettle on I'm a Celebrity – Get Me Out of Here (2005). The first full-length Jennie Bond movie, scheduled for release in early 2007, is said to be less aggressively masculine that the usual Bond films, and features the all-action heroine grappling with the Earl and Countess of Wessex in a six-inch pool of ornamental goldfish.
• 10 Studies indicate that the average British male imagines himself to be James Bond for at least 13 minutes in every hour. However, some individuals revealed higher readings. For instance, tests show that Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott believes himself to be James Bond for up to 10 hours a day.
This explains his decision – taken months in advance, then rehearsed and executed with pinpoint precision – to punch a voter during the 2001 general election. It also explains his debonair courtship of Miss Tracey Temple, and his repeated insistence on having his half-pints of lager-and-lime shaken, not stirred.
• 11 Distinguished commentator Lord Rees-Mogg can be glimpsed in a cameo role in the Bond film For Your Eyes Only (1981). Clad in a white coat, Rees-Mogg is spotted advising Bond that "in my considered opinion, the SMERSH empire will prove indestructible. Now is the time for the prudent long-term economist to invest in a considerable number of shares". At that very moment, the vast subterranean SMERSH headquarters comes crashing down.
• 12 Baptismal records indicate that Bond was christened Bond James Bond: this explains the way he introduces himself to Ursula Andress in Dr No (1962).
Other famous people who have introduced themselves to women in a similar fashion include Ford Madox Ford, William Carlos Williams and Jerome K. Jerome.
• 13 The cheapest Bond film ever made was the unjustly neglected The Man with the Beige Water Pistol (1974), produced in a time of recession. The most breathtaking action sequence in the film is undoubtedly when Bond – played by Gareth Hunt – chases the villain, Brassfinger, in his Hillman Hunter through the streets of Basingstoke, sticking closely to the speed limit and taking care to stop at traffic lights and intersections in order to avoid costly fines.
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