When Roger Moore finally hung up his holster in 1985, the James Bond series needed a shot in the arm. In his final two films, dear old Sir Roge was too old to play the role with credibility.

Contrary to popular belief, Timothy Dalton was producer Cubby Broccoli's first choice to replace Roger. It wasn't Pierce Brosnan.

Cubby had Tim in his sights since 1967 when Sean Connery quit. Yet Tim deemed himself too young at 22. George Lazenby was cast. Cubby reapproached Tim when Roger retired, but he was busy filming Brenda Starr for the next six weeks.

The Bond studio couldn't wait that long for him.

Six weeks!

Recently, they’ve waited six years while Daniel Craig drags his heels between films.

So, Pierce Brosnan signed for The Living Daylights. He was all skinny and ready. But the hoo-ha surrounding the Irishman's appointment boosted Remington Steele's viewing figures. The show's producers pulled Pierce back into his contract, re-opening the door for Tim.

Pierce Brosnan wasn't the refresh the series needed. He proved he was nothing more than a Roger Connery pastiche when he finally got the role back for 1995's GoldenEye.

On the other hand, Tim starkly contrasted Roger and took the role back to Ian Fleming. He told Cubby that he would've turned the gig down if the idea were to make him a Roger clone.

Tim grabbed the role by the scruff of the neck from the outset — physically and emotionally — headbutting a man in the opening sequence.

Fleming described 007's attitude to killing in his 1959 Goldfinger novel:

"It was part of his profession to kill people. He had never liked doing it and when he had to kill he did it as well as he knew how and forgot about it".

You get a sense of this with Tim's Bond with his breath intake before preparing to take out a sniper. Tim's Bond was full of nuances:

He blows out a cigarette smoke of suspicion as he listens to Koskov's story. He's delirious while charging an expensive dress to the snakey villain. He winces, having just sipped a below-par coffee at the fairground. He looks deep into Kara's soul to uncover if she's double-crossing him.

Plus, the way he adjusts his gun grip in the hotel room with Pushkin. He's superb in this scene and every bit the cold and calculated assassin.

Bond even says, "For f*ck's sake" when he's frustrated with Kara.

John Glen's action is terrific, as usual. The supporting cast is, too. Robert Brown is one of four marvellous actors to play M.

Maryam d'Abo is one of the grandest Bond girls. Her and 007's relationship is intense, romantic and believable.

Conscious of the HIV/AIDS epidemic, Bond only sleeps with two women. Dame Diana Rigg's parrot makes his second appearance in the series. Afghanistan is even on the West's side. And John Barry mixes things up with drum machines. But the layered plot is complex.

Daylights contains a few hangovers from the Roger Moore era that would be eradicated further in Licence to Kill. But both of Tim's films have humour in abundance.

Of course, there are the obligatory stunned reactions of passersby and animals. John Glen just couldn't resist, could he?

Copyright © 2023 J W Emery Ltd. All rights reserved. 

Goldfinger set the blueprint for everything the general public wants from a Bond film. The pre-title sequence, plus the John Barry-penned and Shirley Bassey-sung song, tick numerous boxes. The Q briefing has been repeated in almost every Bond film since.

Yet 007 himself is careless in the third entry to the James Bond canon. He spends a lot of time captive and doesn't even do much. In one of the most iconic images in cinematic history, he has blood on his hands with the murder of Jill Masterson. He's annoyed with himself in M's office for letting Goldfinger get one over him. 

We see our second of many incarnations of Felix Leiter. Legend has it that Jack Lord — brilliant in Dr. No — priced himself out of a return by demanding equal billing with Sean Connery.

The chopping and changing of actors playing Felix was a real missed opportunity. Until the Daniel Craig era, continuity was never the series' strength. 

But in those days, people went to the cinema, and films didn't have an afterlife on discs, VHS or even Betamax. The lack of continuity probably wasn't as jarring to them as it is to us now. But Cec Linder seems a little too old with his middle-age spread.

Talking of looking old, Richard Vernon appears hot on the heels of A Hard Day's Night as Colonel Smithers. It's extraordinary that he was only 39 here. It's also hard to tell that Gert Fröbe as Auric Goldfinger was dubbed. The voiceovers in those early films were spot on.

Even if you hate golf, the sequence on the course has everything. Yet there's no chance of a human crushing a golf ball with their bare hands.

Look out for the exotic location of Southend Airport, which has come to light thanks to Blu-ray. Another Blu-ray eye-opener is the weaves of Sean's wig. He's an utter pleasure to watch in Goldfinger and oozes cool. 

The Aston Martin DB5 chase around Goldfinger's plant is arguably Guy Hamilton's best action scene of his four Bond films. He tended to suck the action out of all the others.

What he was good at were humour and iconic scenes. His films are littered with them, including Bond strapped to the laser table in this one. 

Gen Z, look away now. Pussy Galore is gay in Ian Fleming's novel. She only hints at her homosexuality in the film version: "I'm immune".

Bond performs what's now known as 'corrective rape' on her, and she turns. 

The fight between Bond and Odd Job is also Guy Hamilton's best fight scene. 007 is in real trouble as he's outmuscled.

One thing we must also thank Guy for is this marvellous piece of cinema that still stands up all these decades later. This is the Bond film that others still have to shape up to. 

Copyright © 2023 J W Emery Ltd. All rights reserved. 

Barbara Broccoli has admitted that she doesn't know how to bring James Bond back from the dead. But she's confirmed the character will return:

"We'll figure that one out, but he will be back. You can rest assured James Bond will be back".

Here are 5 possible ways.

1. "I always hated this place": a prequel

We know from the cinematic version of James Bond:

• 007 took a First in Oriental Languages at Cambridge (You Only Live Twice)
• His parents died in a climbing accident (GoldenEye)
• They were named Andrew Bond and Monique Delacroix (Skyfall)
• Bond became an orphan who "always make the best recruits", according to Dame Judi Dench's M (Skyfall)

Hannes Oberhauser gained custody over the 12-year-old Bond in 1983. This relationship led to Franz Oberhauser's jealousy of his foster brother in the much-maligned SPECTRE.

There's plenty of material to work with for a "young Bond" series of films. There's also the possibility of chronicling Bond's Navy years and rise to MI6.

Or working from Charlie Higson and Steve Cole's Young Bond novels. Yet, these are set in the 1930s to fit Ian Fleming's timeline.

N.B. Fleming wrote On Her Majesty's Secret Service (OHMSS) while Dr. No was filmed. He was influenced by the casting of Scottish actor Sean Connery and gave Bond Scottish ancestry.

2. "Welcome to hell, Blofeld": they carry on as if nothing happened

Picking up from the Daniel Craig era with another actor playing Bond could be awkward, especially if Ralph Fiennes, Naomie Harris, Ben Whishaw and Rory Kinnear return. 

Until Daniel Craig, continuity was never the series' strong point. The constant chopping and changing of actors playing Felix Leiter and Blofeld is jarring.

The age-old argument of why Blofeld doesn't recognise Bond in OHMSS, having come face to face with him in the prior film, You Only Live Twice, still rages*.

Forgetting previous film(s) has happened many times before.

*Director Peter Hunt wanted to make a faithful screen adaption of the OHMSS novel, which Ian Fleming wrote before You Only Live Twice.

3. "Marie. Ask Marie": they pick up where OHMSS left off

Us Bond fans often lament that we never got a proper follow-up to the death of Bond's wife, Tracy, in OHMSS. Sean Connery returned to the role.

It was as if then-producers Cubby Broccoli and Harry Saltzman were trying to erase George Lazenby's sole outing from our memories by camping it up in Diamonds Are Forever.

Picking up from George Lazenby holding his dead wife could be exciting but challenging, considering the time gap and change in actors.

Yet, the deceased Donald Pleasance was brought back to incredible effect in 2021's Halloween Kills — without a single drop of CGI.

4. "There's no shame in saying you've lost a step": geriatric Bond

Despite George Lazenby's adamancy that he's never regretted quitting after one film, he and Timothy Dalton have unfinished business with Bond.

We've already seen Bond in retirement in No Time To Die. Could we see a Bond in his 70s or 80s with a past that comes back to haunt him?

5. "This is my second life": Bond survived

The James Bond series has previously stretched the realms of possibility. Daniel Craig doing a Bobby Ewing in the shower, anyone?

Copyright © 2022 J W Emery Ltd. All rights reserved. 

'HERE COMES THE BIGGEST BOND OF ALL!' screamed the Thunderball poster in 1965. The problem is, amid that attempt, this film bogs down under its watery load and into a watery grave.

The pre-titles sequence features an exciting fight with a man dressed as a woman. But anyone in the Gen Z cohort can get back behind the sofa when Bond later blackmails a woman into sex. 

Bond is conveniently at a health spa, where SPECTRE is plotting its own blackmailing scheme: £100m from the British government. Thunderball is where you can see the early inspirations for the Austin Powers films. 

We get our first underwater scene early on, which goes on and on and on and on. Filming underwater was ground-breaking at the time, so the producers tore the arse out of it in this film. But there's just too much of it.

Every intricate detail of how SPECTRE carries out its villainous scheme is documented. We see the weary covering of the Vulcan to the humdrum of moving the atomic bombs. Another reason viewers may not be incredibly engaged is that they know SPECTRE's plans before Bond does. You just watch 007 play catch-up. 

It's only the fourth Bond film, and we're on our third Felix Leiter. You know you've got problems when you need to put an eye patch on a villain to make him interesting. Largo is one of the most forgettable villains in the series and not a patch (no pun intended) on those before him. 

He's cumbersome and monotone. Although this isn't necessarily Aldolfo Celi's fault. Robert Rietty dubbed the Italian to hide his thick Sicilian accent. Even Largo's heavies are mundane.

"Vargas does not drink, does not smoke, does not make love. What do you do, Vargas?" Largo asks his henchman. Vargas doesn't answer, which says everything. This character, among others, does nothing. Absolutely nothing. 

More dreary underwater scenes follow. Animal rights were not as prevalent in 1965, and the production team killed sharks while making the film. We see one poor shark get a harpoon right through its head.

Claudine Auger is pleasant eye candy. She's also dubbed, but not to incredible effect. Tom Jones' song is a decent effort, and the Barbadian locations are beautiful. John Barry's score is as good as ever. Bond's casual summer clothes and sandals are epic.

Luciana Paluzzi as Fiona Volpe is the show's star. Sean is still a joy to watch before he grew tired of the role. Yet the sped-up scenes have not aged well. 

And what happens to the guy who rescues Domino after he jumps into the ocean with her and Bond? It's more clumsiness and clunkiness that seems to be a running theme throughout Thunderball. Or Thunderbore, if you will. It's the first Bond turkey.

If all that wasn't bad enough, we got a remake in 1983.

Copyright © 2026 J W Emery Ltd. All rights reserved. 

After the outlandishness of Moonraker, it was time to rein it in. The result was For Your Eyes Only (FYEO). It's one of the elite films in the James Bond series and, arguably, Roger's most fantastic outing as 007.

By the 1980s, Roger was playing hardball over money and only committing to one-picture contracts. Other actors were screen-tested. Hence, Bond visits his wife's grave in the pre-titles sequence (PTS) to establish continuity for Roger's replacement. 

The graveyard visit and killing of the 'Wheelchair Villain' — who couldn't be named Blofeld for legal reasons — assured the audience it's the same man throughout — despite four different actors. Roger did return, of course, and the scene was kept in.

It's also two fingers up to Kevin McClory before he got to use the character of Blofeld in the non-Eon Bond film: Never Say Never Again. 

With so many jarring discontinuity holes in the series, this attempt at continuity was something the producers wouldn't give much attention to until the Daniel Craig era. He isn't the same man the other five actors portrayed. 

FYEO is wall-to-wall breath-taking stunts directed by the Don of action: Glen. Despite being an action-heavy film, the rest of the film's elements suffer at no point. 

The supporting performances are exquisite, with rich characterisation. There's no dodgy Bond girl performance from Carole Bouquet. The death of her parents is one of the many hard-hitting violent scenes. Countess Lisl von Schlaf's at the hands of Emile Locque is also brutal.

There's plenty of Ian Fleming throughout. One thing that does stray from Ian Fleming is the portrayal of Bill Tanner. He's supposed to be Bond's closest friend in the series, but James Villiers plays him as the opposite. Still, Villiers is magnificent. If I could've brought back any actors from the series who only made one appearance, it would've been him.

The plot and main villain are extraordinarily ordinary. Aris Kristatos has no desire for world domination or to start WWIII. He's simply a selfish crook who steals and sells. With a colossal cohort of thuggish and psychotic killers who work for him, he gets others to do his dirty work while slipping off in the background. 

We also see some different elements of Roger's Bond. He's heavily bashed around and doesn't rely on gadgets or buttons. Despite being well into his 50s, Roger doesn't look too old to play 007. You really do believe that is Roger's Bond who can drive, ski, shoot, jump, fight, climb, outthink and outsmart others better than anyone else. 

There's no attempt to hide Bond's advancing years. 007 seems more world-weary and father-like. He even resists Bibi Dahl's sexual advances. A 1970s Roger Moore Bond would've undoubtedly jumped into bed with her. 

When Claus and Locque stalk Bond up and down the ski jump, Bond genuinely looks frightened. It seems there's no way out, and the Grim Reaper is finally closing in on him. Roger conveyed fear wonderfully. The silent stares by Charles Dance and Michal Gothard are superb.

We even hear Roger's Bond panting and wheezing as he chases Locque's car up the stone steps — a sign that age is catching up with him.

The Maggie and Denis finale is a guilty pleasure, and we also get to hear possibly the rudest song ever recorded. The Bill Conti-penned Make It Last All Night, performed by Rage, makes Frankie Goes To Hollywood's Relax sound like a nursery rhyme. Whatever happened to Rage? Not even a Wiki page.

Conti's super score underpins what would've been a high for Roger Moore to bow out on. Yet we'd see him in two more films. There were no more attempts to play on Bond's advancing years, but instead, cover it up. 

Copyright © 2022 J W Emery Ltd. All rights reserved.

Contrary to popular belief, Pierce Brosnan wasn't Cubby Broccoli's first choice to replace the ageing Roger Moore in the mid-1980s. Timothy Dalton was, but he was unavailable due to Brenda Starr. 

Cubby eventually went with Brozza. He was skinny and signed up to play 007 in The Living Daylights. The publicity around Pierce improved Remington Steele's ratings. Another series was commissioned, contractually requiring Brosnan to return to the show. Then, Timothy Dalton became available.

Pierce revealed he was driving in the States when he saw a massive billboard of new Bond Timothy Dalton staring back at him. Brozza was devastated but finally got his chance in 1995.

Brozza hadn't bulked up much nine years after he was cast. With that silly bouffant hair, his lack of physical appearance in GoldenEye is jarring. Not to mention his lack of screen presence acting-wise. 

Tina Turner was a peculiar choice to perform Bono and The Edge's theme song. The aim must've been to get Bond to appear to the younger generation after a six-year hiatus. 

By '95, Tina had gone to seed. She was well into her 50s and long past her peak success. She'd never had a UK number one, and GoldenEye didn't change that — peaking at number ten in the UK singles chart. This song is a fan favourite, but Tina is like nails down a blackboard to me.

We see a Daniel Kleinman title sequence for the first time. Computer-generated images integrate elements of the film's plot rather than Maurice Binder's naked chicks.

Eric Serra's score has some moments, but it's largely awful. Ladies First, which we hear when Bond is racing with Xenia Onatopp, is like something out of a Commodore 64 game. It's one of the worst pieces of music ever committed to a Bond film.

Robbie Coltrane and Alan Cummings have these weird Russian-turned-Wee Jimmy Krankie accents. Sean Bean begins sentences sounding like Prince William and ends them sounding like Jimmy Saville.

Feeding into Mike Myers' hands for the Austin Powers trilogy soon to follow, Alec Trevelyan sets up some elaborate death for Bond to escape. You'd think that of all people, Alec would know Bond has a knack for evading these setups.

Overall, the supporting cast is solid — but dear old Desmond Llewelyn is a little shaky as Q. He was into his 80s when his 15th Bond film came around, and it shows. You can see him reading off cue cards. 

They went with a new Moneypenny in Samantha Bond. The producers probably didn't have the heart to drop Desmond from his few minutes on screen every few years. It seems pretty laughable to believe that a man his age is at the forefront of MI6's cutting-edge technology.

The film's highlight is the superbly choreographed fight between Alec Trevelyan and Bond during the film's climax. Although Bond seems to coast through the action of GoldenEye a little too easy — fending off an army of Russians with the help of a leather belt. 

It's a far cry from when we last saw 007 in the guise of Timothy Dalton — battered, bloodied and bruised — suit torn — crawling out of a tanker full of cocaine. 

Brozza doesn't quite seem entirely comfortable with the role yet. He appears undecided on where to take his characterisation of Bond. Yet, after the brooding and dark Dalton, he played it safe. With a little bit of Sean and a wee bit of Roger, Brozza was a crowd-pleaser. He was the Greatest Hits package. 

His performance in GoldenEye fails to excite me. I find him incredibly flat, wooden and monotone. He'd grow into the role in his subsequent films. Yet with comfortability came smugness and smarminess that made him unbearable post-GoldenEye. 

For the end credits, Eric Serra lends his voice to his song, The Experience Of Love. Like most of his 90s computer game-sounding score, this dreary and cheesy song is enough to make your ears bleed. 

Much like Sam Allardyce and the England job, Bond was a gig Pierce had waited for all his life. And again, much like Big Sam, it all went pear-shaped after one outing.

Copyright © 2022 J W Emery Ltd. All rights reserved.

Even the worst pre-Brosnan James Bond films contain iconic moments, and You Only Live Twice (YOLT) is no different. You'd be hard-pressed to find even the most casual Bond fan who doesn't remember Blofeld's scar, the hollowed-out volcano, the piranha pool and Nancy Sinatra's pleasant theme song.

Despite this and YOLT's fantasia and spectacle, the film lacks excitement. The tedium is due to the slow pacing, lacklustre action, Roald Dahl's flat script and Sean Connery's sleep-walking as James Bond. 

By the time it came to filming Sean's fifth film in 1966, he'd lost all interest in the role. He feared stereotyping and hated the intrusion into his private life. And it shows. 

He announced his retirement from the Bond on set, and every line he delivers in YOLT seems a chore for him. For all of Roger Moore's wrinkles and faults for staying in the role for a little too long, he remained professional until the end. His enthusiasm never wavered.  

Richard Maibaum, the screenwriter of the previous Bond films, was unavailable for this one. Roald Dahl — novelist, short-story writer, poet, screenwriter, wartime fighter pilot and close friend of Ian Fleming — was chosen to write the adaptation.

Dahl had no prior experience writing a screenplay except for the uncompleted The Bells of Hell Go Ting-a-ling-a-ling. He may have been a great children's writer, but an action thriller writer, he was not. It wasn't even as if Ian Fleming had suggested him — having been dead since 1964. 

Dahl said the novel was "Fleming's worst book, with no plot which would even make a movie". He compared it to a travelogue, stating that he had to create a new plot because he "could retain only four or five of the original story's ideas". It's the first Bond film to mark a dramatic shift from Ian Flemings's original novel. 

The Bond series has a running theme: the subsequent film is more grounded when things get silly. In the guise of George Lazenby, James Bond would return for a faithful adaptation of Fleming's On Her Majesty's Secret Service. 

Some may argue a little too faithful to the book as the age-old argument over Blofeld not recognising Bond, having met him in YOLT, rages on. Yet until the Daniel Craig era, continuity had never been the series' strong point. The chopping and changing of actors to play Blofeld is jarring in YOLT. Donald Pleasance's incarnation is unlike the previous one in From Russia with Love and Thunderball. 

Director Lews Gilbert would return to make the same Bond film twice more: spacecraft/watercraft/aircraft gets hijacked in a bid for world domination > big battle at the end before Bond gets the girl.

The Spy Who Loved Me and Moonraker (for all its silliness) are far more entertaining than the snoozefest that is You Only Live Twice. John Barry delivers, and Japan looks stunning. But I don't think there are any more straws I can clutch at.

Copyright © 2026 J W Emery Ltd. All rights reserved.

There's been a lot of heavy legal stuff written about the Thunderball/Never Say Never Again debacle. In short: Thunderball is an adaptation of Ian Fleming's 1961 novel with the same name.

The novel was based on an original screenplay by Jack Whittingham, devised from a story conceived by Kevin McClory, Whittingham and Fleming. 

McClory and Whittingham sued Fleming shortly after the 1961 publication of the Thunderball novel. The pair claimed Fleming based the book upon the screenplay the trio had written in a failed cinematic translation of James Bond. 

The lawsuit was settled out of court, and McClory retained certain screen rights to the novel's story, plot and characters. Hence, we got Never in 1983 — a non-Eon Bond film. Some fans refer to it as an "unofficial" Bond film.

One suspects Sean Connery agreed to return to the role to stick two fingers up at Eon's Cubby Broccoli for not paying him enough. So, Sean is back, looking fitter than when we last saw him as Bond in Diamonds Are Forever. He sports a thicker Scottish accent, with his famous pronunciation of 'S' beginning to really show.

As a kid, I didn't understand that this film differed from the other Bond films. The title song, title sequence and opening training scene still excite me. But enough about my emotions.

Bond and his "enemy" supposedly use blanks in the test sequence, so why Bond actually kills people is confusing. There are a few things Never does better than Thunderball, including the Bond/Q, underwater and shark scenes.

Kim Basinger's Domino is also an improvement over Thunderball's kept woman of the same name. Klaus Maria Brandauer is way better as Largo than Robert Rietti, who dubbed Adolfo Celi. 

Barbara Carrera gives a powerhouse performance as Fatima Blush and is one of the best characters ever seen in cinematic Bond. Blush and Bond's sex scene is the most graphic yet.

The fight between Bond and Lippe is up there among the best fisticuffs in the 'official' series. It has everything: violence, tension, excitement, brutality and humour. 

Yet there are a few things Thunderball does better: Felix Leiter, Blofeld, M, Moneypenny, the score and the final climax. Never's final cave battle is a damp squib, letting the film down.

Sean Connery wanted a black Felix to make the character more memorable, but it didn't work. Bernie Casey is woeful. Rowan Atkinson attempts to offer some light relief but comes across as irritating. Look out for two actors who also appeared in Eon Bond films.

That year, an ageing Sean in Never went up against an ageing Roger Moore in the Eon-produced Octopussy. Never gets one over Roger's swansong, A View to a Kill, by playing on Bond's advancing years instead of glossing over them.

Never doesn't have the panache of the Eon '80s films. It looks uncolourful and dated. That's despite Never sharing the same director as The Empire Strikes Back: Irvin Kershner.

In the '80s, Roger's Bond was still out-shooting, jumping and skiing his enemies. Sean Connery's Bond was giving massages, playing computer games, dancing the tango and riding a bicycle while donning a tight vest.

Is Never better than Octopussy? Definitely not. Is it better than Thunderball? It certainly has its moments and could be classed as more of a fun romp. 

Copyright © 2022 J W Emery Ltd. All rights reserved. 

In the 1960s, the James Bond series set trends. By the '70s, it began to follow them. Live and Let Die was the first Bond film to jump on a bandwagon.

It's undoubtedly one of the most memorable and favourite entries to the series for both hardcore and casual fans. Paul McCartney's cracking theme helped this adventure connect with the masses.

The bandwagon was blaxploitation, but it works. All the villains are black, but not every Black person in the film is a villain. I won't accept any cries of racism. They're all intelligent and sophisticated. 

The casting of Roger Moore in Live and Let Die may well have saved the series. He's 46 here. He looks a good ten years younger after Cubby Broccoli ordered him to lose some fat and get his hair trimmed. We see Bond's home for the first time since Dr. No. It's different from that of Sean Connery's, and throughout the film, other lengths were taken to distance Roger from Sean.

Bond wears a striped tie instead of a solid one. We don't see him in a tux. He doesn't order a Martini but a Bourbon (neat). And he uses a Smith & Wesson during the final assault. 

While practising the famous line, Roger admitted all he could hear was Sean's voice, tinged with a Scottish accent. But he delivered "Bond, James Bond" perfectly. A '70s Harlem looks run down. It's a fantastic coincidence that the back of Solitaire's cards spell out '007' — adding to the supernatural feel of the film. 

Roger is pretty tough in Live and Let Die. He uses Rosie Carver for sex before threatening to kill her. He tricks Solitaire into losing her virginity to him. Jane Seymour celebrated her 21st birthday on set, but she wasn't the first choice — Diana Ross was. Despite Roger being old enough to be Jane's dad, a running theme throughout his reign as 007, he looks so young that it's unnoticeable. 

Yaphet Kotto as Mr Big/Dr Kananga is brutal and violent, too — as well as charming, well-dressed and smart. The drug dealing theme of the film has a nice twist: Kananga intends to give away over a billion pounds worth of heroin for free. Thus increasing the number of addicts and giving him a monopoly in the market. His heavies are all well-thought-out and are elevated by screenwriter Tom Mankiewicz's razor-sharp wit. 

Live and Let Die ramps up the humour with Mrs Bell and J. W. Pepper, which would also become prevalent during Roger's tenure. Action wasn't director Guy Hamilton's strong point, but his films are littered with iconic moments. Live and Let Die's is Bond dancing over crocodiles and alligators. Look out for Bond clocking his escape route as Tee Hee walks him to 'feeding time'. It's a cool moment in an extraordinary scene.

The boat chase lasts too long and only picks up when George Martin's terrific score kicks in. Kananga's death stretches the realms of possibilities and is pretty laughable. 

So voodoo, fortune-telling, witchcraft and immortality do exist. The Bond series called it in 1974 when Roger Moore proved there was an afterlife post-Sean.

Copyright © 2026 J W Emery Ltd. All rights reserved. 

The James Bond series set trends in the '60s. Yet it's been jumping on them since the early '70s. The Blaxploitation of Live and Let Die. The Kung Fu of The Man with the Golden Gun. The space-craziness of Moonraker. And, the Indian Jones-esque Octopussy.

Violent action flicks such as Die Hard and Lethal Weapon were the marquee films of late '80s cinema. In For Bond Fans Only in Conversation with John Glen, the director cited them as inspirations for Licence to Kill (LTK).

Mullets and ill-fitting clothes were also late '80s crazes, yet Timothy Dalton still looked good amid the nadir of fashion. His Bond isn't too bothered about his appearance, and his hair is more dishevelled than any other incarnations of the character. He even thinks:

"F*ck it. I'll just comb it back" for the casino".

LTK is Brutal Bond with two capital Bs — more than ever before and ever since. The pre-title sequence sets the tone with Franz Sanchez whipping his cheating girlfriend, Lupe, with a manta ray's tail. In For Bond Fans Only in Conversation with Robert Davi, he revealed how he personally picked Taliso Soto from all the girls screen-tested as the one Sanchez would go for.

Timothy Dalton continues to add nuances to his characterisation of Commander James Bond. He's wary of Ed Killifer immediately as the DEA agent punches him in the arm and calls him "old buddy".

I've always liked to think "old buddy" reminds Bond of Red Grant's "old man" in From Russia with Love, which is why he's sceptical of the man. After all, there is continuity in LTK with Felix Leiter bringing up Bond's marriage from On Her Majestys Secret Service. Bond was right, and Killifer, of course, turns out to be a snake. 

Watch out for a cameo by Sean Connery dancing around the swimming pool at "dis wedding party".

Bond also shows contempt for the blasé and slightly camp detective at Felix's home after he's been mauled by a great white shark. Bond stares on coldly when it's Killefer's turn to be shark food. 

Benicio del Toro, just 21 at the time, plays the ruthless and psychotic Dario with swagger. Robert also revealed that he wanted the audience to wonder if Sanchez and Dario were lovers, hence the caressing.

The casting of M has been 100% consistent throughout the series, and Robert Brown is no exception. He's terrific in the face-off with Bond. 

This Bond film is so dark that there's even a suggestion that Sanchez's heavies raped her. But there's humour, despite the common misconception that Tim's films lacked funnies. There's plenty of swearing, too. 

Despite Bond being misogynistic towards Pam Bouvier at first — probably something you'd never see in a Bond film today — she's a physical and mental match for him. Carey Lowell is super in the role. 

John Glen was the Don of directing action, and the tanker chase is the pièce de résistance. Listen for Sanchez's bullets playing the James Bond theme against one of the tanker's bodywork. It takes several listens to fathom it, but you'll get there.

Bond crawls out from beneath the final tanker, bloodied, bruised, suit torn and covered in cocaine disguised as gasoline. We don't see him this battered until Daniel Craig in Casino Royale, 17 years later.

After he sets Sanchez on fire, he perches on a rock and takes an emotional breath as he realises it's all over. Yet it's bittersweet. Della is dead. Felix has lost his arm and leg. Felix looks overjoyed in the hospital, though. Maybe he was off his tits on morphine, or producers felt the film needed to end on a cheery note. 

And the winking fish. People have issues with it, but it's a mechanical fish that winks as decor. What's the problem?

This is also a bittersweet moment for me. Sweet that I've just watched Timothy Dalton boss his second outing of Bond; bitter that his reign as Bond is over — far too soon.

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