Authors: Roger Moore
Bond On Bond (11 page)
The twentieth Bond film, in the fortieth year, paid homage to some of the earlier films, most notable here with Halle Berry re-creating Ursula Andress’s famous scene in
Dr. No
.
Christmas Jones was played by Denise Williams, and in her case proved Christmas came more than once a year.
Moneypenny
The lovely Lois Maxwell was a Canadian actress whom I first met way back during my time at RADA. We often appeared in the same student plays.
In 1962 Lois contacted her old friend director Terence Young and asked if there might be a part for her in his next film, as her husband had recently suffered a heart attack and they desperately needed the income. Terence said there were two possible parts: Sylvia Trench, Bond’s love interest; or Miss Moneypenny. Lois read the script and didn’t much care for the Sylvia Trench role, as it featured a scantily dressed scene with 007, so she opted for Moneypenny and received £200 for two days’ work.
Alongside her role in the Bond movies, Lois appeared with me in an episode of
The Saint
and
The Persuaders!
before we resumed our on-stage association when I took on the role of Jimmy Bond.
It’s interesting to note that despite her worldwide fame, Lois’s total screen time as Moneypenny in her fourteen films was less than twenty minutes, and she spoke fewer than 200 words. That’s the power of Bond for you.
The one and only Lois Maxwell in the role she loved.
Samantha Bond (no relation) played Moneypenny in all the Pierce Brosnan films.
Pamela Salem was Sean Connery’s choice for the role in
Never Say Never Again
.
Caroline Bliss was a two-time Moneypenny for a two-time Bond, Timothy Dalton. She had a penchant for Barry Manilow records!
Two of a kind, Lois with Desmond Llewelyn – how I miss them both.
It was a huge shock to hear of Lois’s death in 2007. She was always fun, wonderful company to be in and was absolutely perfect casting. Towards the end of my tenure as Jimbo, Lois said to Cubby that she would like to see Moneypenny become the new M. Cubby smiled and said, ‘I don’t think we can have a female head of the Secret Service.’
It was a great pity that after I moved out of Bond they didn’t take her on to continue in the Timothy Dalton films, but I guess a younger Bond flirting with an older Moneypenny wasn’t to be.
Other Miss Moneypennys include Caroline Bliss, Samantha Bond and – in the unofficial
Never Say Never Again
– Pamela Salem. Call me old-fashioned if you will, but there’ll only ever be one Miss Moneypenny for me.
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We must get them in the shops for Christmas, Q.
A
lmost every Bond film features a trip into Q-Branch, an underground Aladdin’s cave-like bunker beneath the power desks of MI6, where a group of boffins led by their Quartermaster feverishly develop and invent wonderful gadgets, gizmos and accoutrements for the field operatives of Her Majesty’s Secret Service. It’s unclear just how many of these devices are ever returned; certainly if Jim is a yardstick then very few come back intact.
One of my first 007 gadgets. A radio transmitter housed in a hairbrush.
While being one of the most well known and favourite of the returning characters, Q’s origins are not terribly clear. There is a reference to Q in Chapter 3 of Fleming’s
Casino Royale
. M says to Bond, ‘Go over a few days before the big game starts and get your hand in. Have a talk to Q about rooms and trains, and any equipment you want.’
The famous Walther PPK as presented to Jim by ‘The Armourer’ in
Dr. No
. The PPK was used in most of the films up to
Tomorrow Never Dies
, and then made a welcome return in
Quantum Of Solace
.
Q-Branch features occasionally in the novels, supplying Bond with equipment and gadgets, but it is said by scholars that the true origin of the Q character lies in the first film,
Dr. No
. The secret service armourer, Major Boothroyd, replaces Jim’s Beretta with a new Walther PPK. There is no direct reference to Boothroyd being associated with Q Branch, though the character was based on a real person who advised Fleming on changing Bond’s weapon, Major Geoffrey Boothroyd.
In the next film, Desmond Llewelyn’s character is referred to as the ‘Equipments Officer’, when he supplies Jim with his new attaché case, although he is credited as Boothroyd in the closing titles. Of course, forever after we knew him as Q, which to my mind is far less confusing.
The first real gadget was the attaché case in
From Russia With Love
. It included twenty gold sovereigns, a throwing knife (this original design is by Pinewood effects engineer Bert Luxford), a tear gas canister and hidden ammunition.
Desmond Llewelyn played Q from 1963 to 1999 in a total of seventeen films. On screen, he was the gadget master who invented wonderful, never-before-seen devices, whereas off screen Desmond was a complete technophobe who struggled even to operate his own video recorder.
Desmond was not in
Dr. No
; that was Peter Burton. However, when Burton proved unavailable for
From Russia With Love,
Terence Young cast Desmond after remembering him from a few years earlier in a film called
They Were Not Divided
.
When Desmond arrived on set Terence asked him how he was going to play the character. ‘As an English civil servant,’ Desmond replied.
‘No, you’re a Welshman. Play it as a Welshman,’ said Terence.
Desmond argued that a Welsh accent wouldn’t carry the air of authority he felt the character should have. Nevertheless, he did as his director asked and put on a very broad Welsh accent.
‘Well, look-see, I have this smashing case for you … press this ’ere button and out pops a lovely knife …’
‘No, you’re quite right,’ said Terence. ‘Play it as you thought.’
On the next film,
Goldfinger
, the character was really rounded out. Guy Hamilton told me that when Sean entered Q-Branch, Desmond stood up to greet him.
‘No! No! No!’ said Guy. ‘You hate this man. He destroys everything you ever give him. You have nothing but contempt for him! Don’t stand up to greet him.’
From then on, Q treated Bond with a circumspect irritation and established that wonderful love–hate relationship that lasted throughout the series.
Q’s appearance in a Bond film was always highly anticipated, so you can imagine my disappointment when he wasn’t in
Live And Let Die
. Apparently, it was decided that Bond was relying a little too much on gadgets, and Q would therefore be dropped.
However, there was such an outcry after the film’s release that Q was immediately written back into the next film.
The miniature spy camera from
On Her Majesty’s Secret Service
, that Jim used to photograph Blofeld’s Angels of Death.
In Japan, Tiger Tanaka demonstrated the rocket-firing cigarette to Bond. They say smoking kills …
In
Goldfinger
, early GPS-style technology was employed in these two tracking devices. One was affixed to Auric Goldfinger’s car while the other, smaller, device was hidden in Jim’s shoe.
Desmond always struggled to learn his dialogue, as after all, it was usually quite technical. I, being a caring and kind performer, noticed this early on in our working relationship and decided to take full, evil advantage of it.
Beware of pickpockets … or should that be, beware pickpocketers. A finger trap slipped in the inside jacket pocket gives any hoodlum in search of your gun a nasty snap.