• The first part of this article covers the story of the James Bond films from Dr No in 1962 up to the retirement of Sean Connery after You Only Live Twice in 1967.

• In the second part, the story covers George Lazenby's one film, Sean Connery's brief return, and Roger Moore's 1970s Bond films.

• The third part finishes the Moore era and covers Timothy Dalton's brief tenure as Bond.

The Brosnan Years

After missing out on the part in 1985, due to his contractual obligations to the producers of television series Remington Steele, Pierce was delighted to finally win the role in 1994. Pierce's wife, Cassandra Harris, appeared briefly in 1981's For Your Eyes Only. She was very keen that Pierce be chosen to play Bond, but sadly died of ovarian cancer three years before the announcement was made. Since the death of his wife, Pierce has been closely involved in fund-raising for research into breast and ovarian cancer.

GoldenEye

You know the name. You know the number.
- Advertising tagline¹

After 6 years, the longest gap between Bond films since the series started in 1962, Bond finally returned to cinemas. GoldenEye, taking its title from the name of Ian Fleming's home in Jamaica, tells the story of a rogue British agent's attempts to use a secret ex-Soviet weapon to gain revenge for British acts in World War II. This was the first Bond film not to contain any elements from Fleming's novels.

'How do you take it?'

'Straight up, with a twist.'

The film opens with a flashback to Bond and close friend 006 (Alec Trevelyan, played by Sean Bean) infiltrating a Soviet chemical weapons plant in the days before the fall of the Berlin Wall. The attack goes wrong and Trevelyan is killed by General Orumov (Gottfried John). Years later, Orumov and sidekick Xenia Onatopp (Famke Janssen) steal the key to 'goldeneye', an orbital weapon that, when fired, destroys any item containing a microchip. They destroy the ex-Soviet base where it was kept and make their escape. Bond is dispatched to find out what happened. After a shaky start, he teams up with Natalya Simonova (Izabella Scorupco), a computer programmer who used to work on the goldeneye, and eventually learns that Trevelyan is alive and is plotting with Onatopp, Orumov and computer genius Boris (Alan Cumming) to turn it on London. This is to avenge the deaths of Trevelyan's parents who, along with other Cossacks in World War II, were deported by the British government to Russia, where Stalin had them executed. Bond and Natalya track Trevelyan to his base in Cuba where, in a fight on a satellite dish high above the ground, Bond eventually kills former friend.

Don't touch that! That's my lunch.

There were many changes between Licence to Kill and GoldenEye, the most talked-about of which was the fact that Bond's boss, 'M', was now a woman. Many people said that this would never work, and it is a tribute to Judi Dench that she has now made the part her own. A new Moneypenny also made her debut in GoldenEye, and Samantha Bond, like Judi Dench, is an excellent addition to the Bond team. There is some continuity though, in the form of Desmond Llewellyn who, in his role as gadget-man 'Q', had worked with every previous Bond. The MI6 support team also starts to enlarge, with the addition of Michael Kitchen as Chief of Staff Bill Tanner, a character originally found in Fleming's novels. GoldenEye also sees the return of Bond's Aston Martin DB5, as last seen in Thunderball, although this time it is his own personal vehicle - his official Q-branch car is a BMW Z3.

There were also changes on the production team, starting with the director. Although John Glen had directed the previous five Bond films, the decision was taken with GoldenEye that each new Bond film would be directed by a different director. For GoldenEye, this was Martin Cambell. Maurice Binder, long-serving designer of the Bond opening titles, had died in 1991, and the job went to Daniel Kleinman. Another of the Bond team's longest serving members, Derek Meddings, died shortly after filming was completed. Meddings was the man responsible for the special effects on one of Bond's most famous vehicles - the Lotus Esprit that turns into a submarine - and GoldenEye was dedicated to his memory.

GoldenEye was an enormous success around the world, becoming easily the highest grossing Bond film up to that point. After being away from cinema screens for too long, Bond had definitely returned.

Tomorrow Never Dies

'Wait... I'm just a professional doing a job.'

Me too.

Production of Tomorrow Never Dies² began with some very sad news. Cubby Broccoli, the man who originally brought Bond to the screen and who had produced every Bond film from Dr No through to Licence to Kill, died in 1996. Not surprisingly, TND is 'lovingly dedicated' to Cubby.

Global media tycoon Elliot Carver (Jonathan Price) is determined that his new news network will become the world's biggest news provider. To make sure of this, he engineers a stand-off between the British and Chinese military. A British ship, unknowingly sent off course into Chinese waters, has been sunk by Carver's people, with the Chinese airforce being framed. The British, convinced that the ship was in international waters, dispatch a warfleet to China. Bond has 48 hours to find out who is really beind everything. With the help of old flame Paris (Teri Hatcher), now Mrs Carver, Bond infiltrates Carver's laboratories and starts gathering evidence. Eventually teaming up with Chinese agent Wai Lin (Michelle Yeoh), Bond pursues Carver down in Vietnam. In an explosive battle on board Carver's stealth boat, Bond eventually kills Carver and prevents a nuclear missile from being fired at Beijing.

With TND, the new faces from Goldeneye were starting to become 'regulars', as Judi Dench and Samantha Bond returned as M and Moneypenny. Although Tanner did not return, the character of Charles Robinson (Colin Salmon), a friend of Bond and member of M's staff, is introduced. Changes in personnel between films included a new director, Roger Spottiswood, and a new composer. Eric Serra, whose music in Goldeneye was very disappointing, was replaced by long-time Bond fan David Arnold. Arnold went back to the old Bond themes, reinventing and reinterpreting them using modern styles and technology, producing a score that is entirely modern, while still keeping true to Bond's roots.

Despite being in competition with Titanic, the biggest grossing film of all time, TND still performed well at the box office, taking only slightly less than Goldeneye.

The World is Not Enough

'I could have given you the world.'

'The world is not enough.'

'Foolish sentiment.'

'Family motto.'

The title of TWINE first appeared in On Her Majesty's Secret Service. When Bond goes undercover as a genealogist, he is informed that his family motto is orbis non sufficit - 'the world is not enough'.

The film, directed by Michael Apted, begins with Bond retrieving money on behalf of industrialist Sir Robert King (David Calder) after the death of an MI6 agent. The money has been booby-trapped, and Sir Robert is killed in the explosion. As threats have also been made on the life of Sir Robert's daughter Elektra (Sophie Marceaux), Bond is assigned to protect her. The man thought to be responsible for the threats is Renard (Robert Carlisle), who is slowly dying from a bullet in his brain, which has the side effect of removing his ability to feel pain. Bond gradually becomes suspicious of Elektra and, teaming up with nuclear physicist Christmas Jones (Denise Richards), eventually discovers that Elektra is in league with Renard. They are planning to explode a nuclear submarine in Istanbul, contaminating the Mediterranean and ensuring that Elektra's oil pipeline is the only way to transport oil from Russia to Europe. With the help of Christmas and old friend Valentine Zukovsky (Robbie Coltrane), Bond eventually kills Elektra and prevents Renard from detonating the submarine's reactor.

TWINE marks the passing of the great Desmond Llewellyn, who gives his final performance as Q. Despite his statement that he would not be retiring, his scenes in the film do provide a fitting end to his Bond career, as he leaves Bond with some fatherly advice and disappears to spend his retirement fishing, assuming, that is, that he can repair the boat that Bond destroys in the pre-credits sequence. Q leaves the department in the not-so-safe hands of his junior, christened 'R' by Bond, played by John Cleese. Cleese and Llewellyn reportedly agreed that they would keep playing the roles until Llewelyn was 100 and Cleese was 80. Sadly, Llewellyn died in a car crash soon after TWINE was released. He will be greatly missed by Bond fans around the world.

'Now listen, 007. I've always tried to teach you two things. Number one, never let them see you bleed.'

'And the second?'

'Always have an escape plan.'

Part of the pre-credits sequence from Twine was filmed around the real headquarters of British Intelligence (MI6), on the banks of the Thames in London. At first, MI6 tried to have the film crew barred, but the goverment's Foreign Secretary, Robin Cook, overruled them, saying 'after all Bond has done for Britain, it was the least we could do for Bond'.

Critical reviews of TWINE were mixed, some reviewers praising the plot, characterisation and action scenes. Other reviewers felt that Bond had long since passed his best, but, then again, reviewers have been saying that since From Russia With Love...

Die Another Day

2002 is a triple anniversary for Bond. It is 50 years since Ian Fleming wrote Casino Royale and 40 years since the release of Dr No, while Die Another Day is the 20th official Bond film. The film, directed by Lee Tamahori, is due to be released on November 22nd 2002 and, as always, specifics of the film are being kept under wraps by the production company. The film will feature the regular Bond team, with the exception of Desmond Llewellyn - John Cleese being promoted to the 'rank' of Q. The main 'Bond girl' role will be played by Oscar-winning actress Halle Berry.

Miscellaneous Bondage

The Competition

As soon as it became clear that the Bond films were going to be an enormous success, other production companies started to jump on the bandwagon, with action films of their own. The result was that cinema-goers in the mid-to-late 1960s were confronted with a series of spy films of varying quality. Among the more successful were the four 'Matt Helm' films, based on novels by Donald Hamilton and starring Dean Martin, and the two 'Derek Flint' films, starring James Coburn. One of the least successful was Operation Kid Brother, an Italian-made film starring Sean Connery's brother Neil, along with Bond-related actors including Lois Maxwell, Bernard Lee and Daniela Bianchi.

At the same time as the films, television was also getting in on the act, the most well-known Bond-type series being The Man From UNCLE³, starring Robert Vaughan and David McCallum as Napoleon Solo and Ilya Kuryakin. The show was cancelled in 1968, but not before producing a number of feature-length spin-offs and turning Vaughan and McCallum into stars. They reprised their roles for the 1983 film Return of the Man From UNCLE, which also featured a very brief cameo from George Lazenby, driving an Aston Martin with the registration JB1.

Other television shows that premiered in the 1960s spy boom included I Spy, which launched the career of Bill Cosby⁴, Mission: Impossible, Danger Man, The Avengers and The Persuaders.

The Unofficial Bond Films

The first unofficial Bond film was 1967's Casino Royale. Producer Charles K Feldman held the rights to the novel, but realised that he could not compete directly with the official films. Instead, he turned Casino Royale into a spoof, recruiting the likes of Woody Allen, Peter Sellars, David Niven, Orson Welles and Ursula Andress. The story bears almost no relation to the book, features an enormous cast (most of whom are claiming to be James Bond) and required five directors to complete. It performed reasonably well at the box office, and its camp, psychaedelic 1960's style still has many fans. Presumably, these include Canadian actor and writer Mike Myers, whose 'Austin Powers' series of films owe a lot to the style and humour of Casino Royale.

A more serious competitor to the official Bond films appeared in the form of 1983's Never Say Never Again, as described in Part III of this article. The film, a remake of Thunderball, was the result of rival producer Kevin Mclory's ongoing battle with Cubby Broccoli, Eon pictures and the late Ian Fleming. Sean Connery was persuaded out of retirement (hence the title of the film), which was enough to make it a success, although it failed to outdo Octopussy, the official Bond film released earler the same year.

Other Bonds

In the late 1950s, British newspaper The Daily Express published a series of comic-strip adaptations of the Bond novels. The adaptations were written by newspaper staff and illustrated by John McLusky, who appeared to be almost psychic, as his drawings of Bond bore a remarkable likeness to Sean Connery, three years before the actor was even considered for the role.

More recently, a short-lived children's animated series was made. The show, James Bond Jr, featured Bond's 'nephew', accompanied by 'IQ', nephew of 'Q'.

James Bond Will Return

As of November 2002, the cinematic James Bond will be 40 years old and will have appeared in 20 films. When Harry Saltzman and Cubby Broccoli formed Eon productions to produce Dr No, they cannot possibly have had an inkling that their adaptation of Ian Fleming's creation would have survived so long. The final word on the matter must go to an unnamed, but highly perceptive, reviewer in Variety magazine, talking about Dr No in 1962:

As a screen hero, James Bond is here to stay. He will win no Oscars, but a heck of a lot of enthusiastic followers