The Peaky Blinders creator appeared on BBC Radio 2 recently.
Steven Knight is not a man who gives things away easily. The writer behind Peaky Blinders, Dirty Pretty Things and Spencer spoke to Patrick Kielty on BBC Radio 2 recently about his work on Bond 26 — and true to form, he revealed precisely nothing about the film itself. What he did reveal, perhaps without fully intending to, was how he’s thinking about it.
The full interview doesn’t appear to be online. However, the BBC has published four separate quotes edited into into a 39 second Facebook reel.
Before reading too much into any of it, bear in mind we don’t know what Kielty asked. We don’t know what came before or after each clip, or any other context.
With that caveat clearly on the table they’re still interesting, although he doesn’t give much away in the first quote:
I can’t really talk about what I’m doing with Bond, but I’m enjoying every single second of it.
Standard deflection, and almost certainly the answer to a direct question about the film. The second clip is more interesting:
The books are so good, so underrated as literature
We don’t know what prompted this. It may have been a straightforward question about Fleming. But he’s not just acknowledging the source material, he’s making a serious case for it.
The third clip is the most striking, though again, we have no idea what Kielty asked to draw it out:
There’s something about the world that he created that is tangibly real, and yet it’s something that isn’t real. It’s almost like dreamlike somehow. And I just love the way the style of how he writes, and the dialogue is so good, which is what I’m always looking at.
Whatever the question was, this is a genuinely precise description of what makes Fleming unusual. He builds everything on being very precise about everything — brands, food, weapons, locations — but with unusual situations that are real enough to believe in. And his specific mention of dialogue is pointed — Fleming’s exchanges are dry and direct, the opposite of the quip-heavy writing that has sometimes dominated the franchise.
The fourth clip is more guarded:
I’ve got a very particular way I want this to go. I’m working with fantastic people, the best people. And people will have to wait and see.
Although pulled from context, this appears to signal a fully-formed vision of Bond 26.
What to make of it
Although these appear to be fragments of the interview, Knight fluently speaks about Fleming’s tone with the ease of someone who has spent real time with the books. Whether that translates into anything on screen remains to be seen, but if you were hoping Bond 26 might take Fleming seriously rather than just borrow his character, these four clips point that way.
Bond 26 is currently in development. No release date has been announced. For up to date information see our Bond 26 hub.
