On Her Majesty’s Secret Service

007 represented by one of 50 London benches promoting reading

June 25th, 2014 by

James Bond is to be represented this summer in the Books About Town project by the National Literacy Trust. From the beginning of July until mid-September visitors to London will be able to enjoy the fifty unique benches dotted around London, each shaped like an open book and decorated to represent an individual work of […]

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OHMSS radio play available online

May 5th, 2014 by

[iframe http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio/player/b042cq8f 380 665] Saturday saw the BBC broadcast its new feature length radio version of On Her Majesty’s Secret Service with Toby Stephens as 007 and featuring Joanna Lumley as Irma Bunt. The 90 minute long radio play is available on the BBC website until next weekend and so if you’d like to listen to it click […]

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Toby Stephens and Joanna Lumley in OHMSS radio play

March 26th, 2014 by

Former Bond villain Toby Stephens and ex-Bond girl Joanna Lumley are taking part in a radio version of On Her Majesty’s Secret Service, with the former playing Bond (for the fourth time, after Dr No, Goldfinger and From Russia With Love) while the later is Blofeld’s sidekick Irma Bunt. Lumley previosuly played one of the “angels of death” in […]

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Classic Bond films picked for Great Digital Film Festival

January 13th, 2014 by

Two classic Bond films are being showcased in the Great Digital Film Festival, a week long presentation across Canadian cinemas scheduled between 31st January and 6th February this year. George Lazenby’s single outing as 007, On Her Majesty’s Secret Service, will be shown on 4th February, as will Sean Connery’s fourth Bond film, Thunderball. All […]

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James Bond’s Christmas

December 25th, 2013 by

In the novel On Her Majesty’s Secret Service we get to share Christmas Day with 007 after his narrow escape from Piz Gloria. He visits M’s house to report on Blofeld’s activities and is served roast turkey, plum pudding, a small  glass of old Marsala and most of a bottle of a bad Algerian wine that M […]

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Switzerland and Italy: Bond location summer snaps

October 24th, 2013 by

Over the summer several newsletter subscribers got in touch to let me know what they were doing over the summer. One of those was Laurent-Jean Gacher, who shared a number of great photos of 007 related locations in Switzerland and Italy. Piz Gloria Greeted by George Lazenby at Piz Gloria   Piz Gloria’s Bond World […]

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Was Cabourg an inspiration for Royale-les-Eaux?

September 25th, 2013 by

There has been much speculation about the precise location of and inspiration for the fictitious resort of Royale-les-Eaux, which features in two of Ian Fleming’s James Bond novels, Casino Royale and On Her Majesty’s Secret Service. Casino Royale, the book that introduced Bond to the world, is deliberately or otherwise fairly obscure about Royale’s location. The […]

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James Bond holiday locations #3 – Switzerland

June 24th, 2013 by

While most Bond fans are aware of James Bond’s paternal Scottish lineage, many who have not read the books are unaware that his mother was actually Swiss; Bond’s (premature) obituary in You Only Live Twice tells us that his mother was Monique Delacroix of the Canton de Vaud. Bond visits Switzerland while engaged on two […]

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Syd Cain (1918-2011) [MI6]

November 22nd, 2011 by

Syd Cain, who worked on five of the James Bond films as Art Director and Production Designer, died yesterday at the age of 93. According to an obituary published by MI6: Broccoli hand-picked their first Bond crew largely from his experience with Warwick Films, and selected Cain as his Art Director on “Dr. No”, where […]

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George Lazenby

August 25th, 2011 by

Above: Actor George Lazenby at the November 2008 Big Apple Convention in Manhattan. When Sean Connery announced his retirement form the James Bond films after You Only Live Twice (1967) and Timothy Dalton who was the favoured replacement counted himself out for being too young, Cubby Broccoli began to seriously consider a young Australian as […]

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