All language subtitles for Forbidden.History.S05E04.The.Real.James.Bond.1080p.UKTV.WEB-DL.AAC2.0.H.264-BTN_track3_[eng]

James Bond - the most famous secret
agent in the world.

Action hero, womaniser,
drinker of vodka martinis

and capable of dealing out death
with a cold stare

and an amusing one-liner.

From author Ian Fleming
came a series of spy novels

that spawned one of the most
successful movie franchises

in history.

How far do the films
reflect Fleming's vision

for his secret agent?

Is Bond anything like a real-life
Secret Service agent?

Or is it all pure fantasy?

In short - who is the real
James Bond?

The 007 character was the
turbo-charged version

of Ian Fleming himself.

It's really the best Ian Fleming
could be.

The physical demeanour,
a love for fast cars,

the fact that he golfed...

He draws upon things
he loves so much.

Bond was a case of wish fulfilment
and he sort of, like, wrote himself

into this very sort of suave,

sort of a spy - a man of action
and adventure

that perhaps he'd always wanted
for himself.

There were elements of Ian Fleming
in James Bond

but James Bond was not Ian Fleming.

So you have a spy,
you have a womaniser,

but in the case of Fleming,
it's not quite as glamorous.

Fleming worked very closely with
naval intelligence but

he was the liaison between
Naval Intelligence and the
Special Operations Executive

and other intelligence agencies.

So, he had a very real sense
of what spies were actually like.

THEME MUSIC PLAYS

JAMES BOND-STYLED MUSIC

James Bond is a world famous
British icon.

It's reckoned that over 1 billion
people around the world have seen

at least one James Bond film.

Created by the writer Ian Fleming,

he is the quintessential
Secret Service agent.

He's the man that's got it all -
the gadgets, the guns, the women,

and the cars.

Ian Fleming was the celebrated
English author who wrote James Bond

and in doing so drew upon some
really unique experience

he had in Royal Naval intelligence.

Things like Operation Goldeneye
and a couple of other,

you know, top secret projects
that he oversaw.

So, he wrote about exactly
what he knew.

I think with so many
American heroes,

it was time to have a
quintessentially British hero

and James Bond has fitted that bill,

you know, with his Union Jack
parachute

but also, you know, there with
the gun, the wry smile,

very well turned-out,

quintessentially upper-middle-class
Englishman.

And his tastes, his prejudices,
his fighting the wicked enemies.

You know, he is totally English.

Ian Fleming
wrote his James Bond novels

on a 30-year-old typewriter
in his villa, GoldenEye,

on the island of Jamaica.

To try and understand
the character he created,

I'm going to indulge in a bit
of the Bond lifestyle myself,

starting with the guns.

One of the key premises of Bond
is his so-called license to kill.

This seemingly gave him
nearly free rein

to dispatch his enemies
in cold blood.

And in the course of 24 films,

Bond has killed nearly 400 people.

I'm at EJ Churchill shooting ground
to meet Jon Baker

who is an armourer
and weaponry expert.

I want to experience for myself

what it's like to have your finger
on the trigger of the very guns

Bond himself used.

Oh, wow.

Well, here we have some
Bondish-type guns, OK.

Let's start with the Beretta.

It's very similar to the model 418

that Bond had in Dr No

in about 1962-63 when the film
was made, OK.

OK.

Then, we have the Walther PPK.

Ah, yes. Which is a standard,
you know, the Walther PPK

that Bond would have used
at the time.

Again, he was forced by Geoffrey
Boothroyd, who wrote to Ian Fleming.

He said he had the wrong gun -
it was a woman's gun

and there was a big discussion about
the whole thing,

that Bond had a lady's gun, OK.

Although this is a 9mm version,
the earlier one was a .25 ACP

which is much smaller. OK.

Now, this is a classic Bond handgun,
right? Absolutely correct, yeah.

Bond's weapon of choice is the
Walther PPK.

It's a German weapon, stands
for Polizeipistole Kriminal -

the "police criminal pistol".

And the reason why it was
recommended

to Fleming that this is what Bond
should carry

is because its 7.65mm round
was widely available anywhere.

So Bond, being a type
who travelled widely,

would never be out of ammunition.

Then of course the more ubiquitous
weapons that would have been used.

The Sterling submachine gun, a
British standard-issue weapon

to the military - the Air Force,
the Royal Air Force, the Royal Navy

and the Army and things.

As I say, when the Navy attacked
submarine pens,

they were using those.

So, when would this have been used?

This would have been used anything
right up to the sort of mid '80s.

They were still in service with the
British military in the mid '80s -

Royal Navy Royal, Air Force
and the Army.

So, right up to those and still
being used today.

They used to be used
by the Hong Kong police.

And they're used all over the world,
made by Sterling in Dagenham.

Very good weapon -
little submachine gun.

Can we try them out?
Of course we can. Oh-ho!

OK, all you have to do is cock
the weapon back.

You're ready to fire. OK.

One magazine.

One Sterling.

That's it.

Right, the action back.

Like this?
Yep, and when you're ready...

Woohoo!

OK. That is awesome!

I thought you might like that one.
JAMIE LAUGHS

Wow!

Gun is what a stethoscope is
to a doctor for a secret agent.

You couldn't have him with a big
rifle or a machinegun.

It would be impractical -

the Walther PPK, which recurs
in the books and the films,

is a natty little thing, where it
can be discreetly tucked away

in a tuxedo.

But also, I believe it was chosen
because this is a gun

that genuinely was used all over
the world - not just in Britain

but also in Russia and all the other
Eastern European countries

that he visits in the course
of the various plots.

So, it's there to add a touch
of historical fidelity.

OK, what's this?

This is a AK-47, or this particular
one is an AKMS -

it's what the bad guys would use,
this particular one.

Nice weapon - got a folding stock.

OK - you can just press
the stock release button.

Folds out.

And so, they'd have used real guns
in the films?

They would use real guns in the
film, yeah. They're modified to fire
blanks.

Obviously, we can't fire live
ammunition on set cos you kill
people, right?

Sure. That's not what we do.
But they are real guns because

you need the flash out of the end,
the empty case firing, the changing
of the magazines.

Occasionally, we use rubbers when
the guns need to be thrown around

or special stunts need to be done
but all the time, we use real guns.

OK, now put the magazine in,
rock it in, lock it back.

I'm just going to stand
a little bit further forward

cos it throws the rounds up
quite substantially.

Does it? Yeah.

GUN COCKS
OK.

Like this? When you're ready.
In here? Yep. OK...

Oh, whoa!

That is terrifying!

I warned you!

Now, you could see the flash on it.
You can see the whole thing going.

You can't do that with rubbers,
you can't do that with replicas.

You've got to have a real gun.

So, in the Bond films,
they would have used that?

They would have used that.

Whoa!

Can I have another go?
Of course, you can have another go!

Keep in mind this was sort of...

The Cold War-era inspired
the James Bond character.

So, all those weapons,
all those gadgets,

all the kind of top secret stuff
that we look at and think,

"That's really funny - that's kind
of ridiculous, that would never..."

Well, that actually DID happen.

You know, there were those kind
of concealed weapons.

There were those kinds of gadgets.

It's surprisingly realistic!

Now, guns weren't the only thing
Bond carried.

His pockets were also bulging with
the latest creations from Q Branch,

a division of the Secret Service

that supplied him with an array
of gadgets.

These took centre stage
in the films.

From pens that were for far more
than writing

to invisible cars
with deadly modifications.

Film memorabilia is big business

with collectors all around the world

prepared to part with huge sums
of money

for their own little bit of Bond.

The Prop Store is one of the biggest
dealers in the world.

And, according to their website,
this...

..is Head Office.

I'm quite sure in the right place,
but...

..we shall see.

CROW CAWING

Hey! Stephen. Jamie!
Hi, how are you?

Very good, thanks - welcome to
Prop Store. Thank you very much.

Come on inside. Thank you.

Oh, wow.

Oh, my goodness!

JAMIE LAUGHS
That's the sort of response

we normally get when people come in
for the first time.

Yeah... Not what I was expecting!

Exactly. We're a bit
undercover here.

What's this here -
old spacesuits?

Yeah, this is actually John Hurt's
spacesuit from Alien.

And this is part of some of the
collection of props and costumes

that we have here on display.

But they're not just on display.

Are they for sale or do you rent
them out? How does it work?

Yeah, absolutely - we have auctions
annually.

We have over 6,000 items
on our website.

It's a film buff's dream in here.

I'm particularly
after James Bond memorabilia -

have you got anything like that?

Yeah, I think we've got a few
goodies we can show you.

Do you want to come upstairs?
I'll show you.

This is great!

Come on in to my office.

Let me show you some of the
James Bond goodies that we've got

set up on the table for you to have
a look at in here. Wow...

This is what I've been looking for.

I know that - can I touch it?

Yeah, please do - as long as you're
nice and careful with it.

Now, I know this is a...

..Walther PPK? Absolutely.

Yeah, the signature weapon of choice
for James Bond.

It feels real.

Yeah, that was actually a real-life
firing gun used for filming.

This is Pierce Brosnan's from
GoldenEye. Is that right?

Yeah, the Hero gun. Note - they had
two for first-unit filming.

And this is one of those Heroes.

That is amazing. And what about
this? Well, I know that's an old
mobile phone, right?

Just looks like an old mobile
phone, absolutely.

I think I had one like this. If
you peel it open a little bit...

Whoa! ..you see it's got a bit
of a gadget interface there.

And this is the Bond phone
that he uses in Tomorrow Never Dies

to drive the BMW as he's trying
to escape Carver in the car park.

And I remember at the time
when we watched the film,

this seemed really futuristic.

Yeah. And now, it looks wonderfully
quaint.

Absolutely - I mean, you
could do way more than that

on a regular mobile phone
today, couldn't you?

So, how much would something like
this be worth to a collector?

That one just sold in the Prop Store
auction that we had in September,

actually, for close to £17,000.

Please be careful with it.

You're kidding me! No, absolutely.

Bond props are in demand, they're
very rare - they're hard to find.

B...

£17,000? £17,000.

For this toy phone?

Yeah, I feel like you want to make
a bid here.

BOTH LAUGHING
It's WAY out of my league!

That's an extraordinary amount
of money!

I mean, there's two things that have
happened to the Bond franchise

if we want to talk about it
in those terms.

And one is it's been going
a long time,

but now it's a global franchise

and people are reaching back for
memorabilia right back

to the earliest films.

And, of course,
it's extremely stylish.

You know, it's always been
top brands, you know?

And the fact that you can buy a top
brand associated with James Bond

gives it so much kudos - hugely
attractive to collectors.

Now these bad boys...
Got some big guns for you. Yeah.

They're the heavy artillery, right?

It's the heavy... Yeah - this is
Cigar Girl's machinegun

that she's firing at Bond
in The World Is Not Enough

on the Thames.

It's...

It's made of rubber.

Yeah, absolutely. So during
the filming process,

you've handled a real-life gun there
for the stunt sequence,

for the action sequences, as well.

You have to use
these lightweight versions.

So, if you pop that one down,

and then have a go at picking
this one up, perhaps,

you'll see the difference
in weight and feel to it.

JAMIE LAUGHS
Yeah. Go on - have a go, pick it up.

STEPHEN LAUGHS

Oh!

That is REALLY heavy!
It's very heavy.

So, this was the live-fire gun
that's used on set again.

God - I'm not sure I can actually
lift that up. Wow! Yeah.
So, this isn't...

STRAINING: I have to put that down!

Please do. Can you give me a hand?
Yeah, absolutely - there we go.

And so what about values for these?

You're probably talking about
somewhere around about £10,000,

maybe a little bit more
for the Hero version,

and probably 3,000 to 4,000
for the stunt version.

Something along those lines.

The Bond memorabilia market is
extraordinary.

So many people
seem to want to get their hands

on a genuine prop. People are
willing to pay £50,000,

possibly even more, to get
their hands on what they see

as an authentic slice of cinematic
history.

And that's before we've even got
into the sort of postcards and...

..all the, sort of, the albums and
various little pieces

of merchandise, as well.

Now, I recognise this because this
is exactly the kind

of thing I'm after.

This is one of Daniel Craig's
training...? Yes, all right.

Yeah - so when he's in
rehabilitation,

goes back to MI6 training,

retraining,
that's his training outfit.

So you've got the little emblem on
the crest there on the chest,
as well.

And that's actually the costumer's
tags still attached to it there
from filming.

Right - Skyfall, yeah? Skyfall,
yeah... And if I wanted to own

Dan Craig's track suit, how much
would that set me back?

I think you want to become one of
our customers. You seem very
interested in these.

I'm just trying to find something
I can afford!

How much is that worth?

Somewhere in the region of £15,000
to £20,000 - something like that.

OK.

There is an astonishing market
in Bond memorabilia

and associated objects.

As a woman I find it slightly
amusing, I have to say,

because I doubt very much whether
there's an awful lot

of even very rich women who actually
go to the auctions

and buy the stuff.

Perhaps it's because men want to BE
James Bond

and women want to be WITH him.

So, Jamie, I've got something else
I'd like to show you.

Come this way.
Oh, my goodness.

So, here's another
Aladdin's Cave of props.

Look at this!

This is the piece - this is
the boat that Q designs

for Bond from the opening title
sequence

of The World Is Not Enough.

This is amazing!

So, how many of these
would have been made?

There were 15 made originally.

There's probably only about eight
or nine still in existence.

Some of them got destroyed during
filming or just after filming.

And each of the boats would have had
a different use, as well.

So, you would've had special effects

for the one that comes up on wheels.

You had the gag ones which went
underwater and jumped up and around.

And this particular boat is the boat
that was used for the air cannon
sequence.

Right. I mean, as a collector

and as a Bond fan, it's amazing -
but, I mean, where on earth

would you keep something like this?
HE LAUGHS

Maybe in your own warehouse?

In your own gallery?

That's it. This is it - yeah.

So, the gag with this was that it
jumps out of the Thames - he flies
up out of the Thames,

bounces on the grass and then back
into the water again

just in front of the O2, or what was
then the Millennium Dome.

Yeah.

That's amazing.

MUSIC IN STYLE OF JAMES BOND

The ultimate prize for the Bond fan
is to own an Aston Martin DB5.

The car that made Bond famous
in seven films and that cemented

the connection between Bond and
Aston Martin.

Peter Croll has achieved a
childhood dream

and has lovingly restored this Aston
Martin DB5 from rusty barn find

to an exact replica of the car
from Goldfinger.

So, how long have you had the car,
Peter?

I've had it since 2002 -
so, about 15 years now.

And what kind of state was it when
you bought it?

It was a total restoration.

So, it was in various states of
repair, if you know what I mean.

Bits taken off and in boxes -
it was a...

A car with loads of boxes.

Didn't have any glass on it or
anything like that.

Everything was with it.

So, apart from the gadgets,

this is pretty much as Bond
would have driven it, right?

Yeah, I mean, it's the same car -
he had the navy seats
and that, yeah.

So, pretty much this is...

It's what it would look like
in the day.

And what's it like to drive?
Yep, it's nice - the longer you
drive it, the better it gets.

It sort of warms up and becomes,

like, more refined the more
you drive it.

But, yeah, it's nice to drive.

A bit heavy steering and parking but
other than that, it's lovely.

So, I guess this is like the
ultimate piece of 007 memorabilia,
isn't it?

I think so, yeah. I mean, there
was two stars in that film,

Goldfinger - Sean Connery
and the car, really, wasn't it?

It sort of made them both.

Not surprisingly, Fleming
was obsessed with fast cars

and he gives that character trait
to Bond.

And so the Bond cars are as
memorable in the films

as any other aspect of the films.

I mean, who could forget the Aston
Martin DB5 from Goldfinger?

You know, it lets oil out the back

so that cars behind it
just wipe out.

It even has an ejector seat.

I mean, it has all the mod cons
and things we've never seen before

in a car and yet we're just riveted
every time it's on the screen.

I mean, cars have been very central
to the Bond movies,

to the Bond proposition.

I tend to find the Roger Moore era,
where it went off under the sea,

rather silly, and some of the
gadgets later on a bit naff.

I mean my personal favourite is
Goldfinger, the Aston Martin.

It's the fact the gadgets all set
up great dramatic devices, you know,

when Connery's told there's an
ejector seat but he uses it

in a very precise way
at a very precise moment,

and the gadgets and the drama
really match.

I don't think it's ever been
better, actually, than that film.

Well, this is about as close...

..as being James Bond
as I'm going to get.

Pulling up here at Stoke Park...

..in the right car. Getting out of
an Aston Martin, yes.

The films have certainly garnered
a legion of fans around the world

but I want to find out
where it all originated.

And that means going back to Fleming
and the books.

Peter's kindly dropping me off
at Stoke Park, the film location

where Bond humiliated his nemesis,
Auric Goldfinger, in a game of golf.

Perhaps surprisingly,
James Bond was a keen golfer

but so, tellingly, was Ian Fleming.

Obviously, here at Stoke Park,
you need the appropriate caddy,

so we've got an Oddjob of our own.

And to find out where Bond all
began,

I'm meeting Ajay Chowdhury -
co-author of Some Kind Of Hero -

an expert on all things 007.

What I'm trying to figure out, Ajay,
is how similar was Fleming's Bond

to a real-life secret agent?

I think James Bond
in Fleming's books

was actually not really a spy.

He was more of a sort of commando,
an SOE-type person

that Fleming would have come across
during the war.

He was more of a counterinsurgency
sort of SAS type.

And that's why his Bond
is a lot more adventurous,

much more kind of action-packed,
than a George Smiley le Carre-type.

Yeah - so, he wasn't...

Was Fleming himself a sort of
pen pusher,

or was he was he an active agent
in naval intelligence?

Well, during the war,

Ian Fleming was more like an M
character giving the orders.

He was a commander in naval
intelligence, but he sent commandos

LIKE James Bond out into the field

behind the line, German lines, and
in continental Europe.

And, um... But James Bond then
represented the sort of agent

Fleming probably wished he could
have been. Right. A man of action.

Where does a whole sort of
licence to kill come from?

Is that... Is that Fleming's
invention, or was that an actual...?

Well, the licence to kill,
the double O in the 007,

is the licence to kill prefix.

That probably is fictional but
I think during the war, Fleming was

keen to emphasise that agents
had to do the unthinkable.

They weren't always wearing white
hats and, you know, on the side

of angels. Sometimes they had to be
as ruthless as the enemy and I think

that it underpins some of the ethos
of the James Bond character.

As with most authors, a significant
degree of the character

is actually autobiographical.

So, there are definite similarities
between Fleming and Bond.

They're both commanders.

They both have a naval link.

They're both womanisers.

But there are also real differences.

I mean, Bond is who Fleming would
probably like to have been.

Fleming is involved in
his intelligence work,

in some pretty hairy
and gritty things

but he's resolutely a desk man.

He sits in the Admiralty
in Whitehall.

And he comes up with these ideas

yet Bond is who he'd
like to have been.

And we mentioned the 007 moniker.

Did agents have numbers?

I mean, was that a thing that
was given to them, or...?

I'm pretty sure agents had all
sorts of code numbers... Right.

..and what they call legends.
They had different names.

Most famously, there was Agent
Zigzag and people like that.

And Fleming obviously drew from
that, although the 007 is widely

believed to be drawn
from Rudyard Kipling.

There was a 007 train that
featured one of Kipling's books

and Fleming was a Kipling fan but
the actual realistic background to

all these things is a
combination of myth, reality,

and Fleming's own imagination.

So, like James Bond, Ian Fleming
was an intelligence officer.

In fact, he was involved in
some very complex operations,

training people in guerrilla
warfare, in being spies and so on.

So he had that in common. He
liked the same drinks as Bond,

he liked to gamble.

He liked to play golf.

He certainly like to womanise but...
And there's also a kind of a slight

element of rough play with Fleming,

but I think his play
was rougher than Bond.

One of the reasons Bond was
a cut above the other thrillers

was due to Fleming's vivid,
fast-paced writing style

which took the reader right into
the heart of Bond's world.

In a grey and dreary Britain,
still adjusting to the reality

of life post-war,

his novels added a dash of colour.

And, engrossed in his books, more
than a few readers have missed

their train stops
over the years.

The Bond books were a tearaway
success and one of most important

factors you have to remember
is what the '50s were like.

We often think of
the '50s as glamorous.

We think of America, and Fender
guitars and Cadillacs,

and all that great stuff.
England wasn't like that.

England was really depressed, really
dreary, coming out of the war

still with rationing.

I think James Bond came at
the right time for Britain.

It was the end of
the Second World War.

And along comes a character who,
if you want, is best of British.

You know, reminds British people
what they like about themselves.

And also there's a tinge of
luxury, of glamour, you know.

So Fleming drops in the brand names,
it's stuff that people at that time

couldn't necessarily afford.

But they could live that
life through James Bond.

Though, if Bond was gambling
in a casino or drinking a drink

or driving an Aston Martin
like this one,

then chances are Fleming
had been there and done that.

And this is why he was able to
bring these experiences to life

unlike any other writer.

And, of course, one of the things
most closely associated with Bond

was his signature drink,
the vodka martini.

Fleming is said to have been
inspired by the evenings he spent

drinking at the Duke's Hotel
in London.

Alessandro, how are you?

Very well. How are you,
Jamie? Nice to see you.

I think you know what
I'm going to order.

Vodka martini. Bond style.

Shaken not stirred.
Shaken not stirred.

I always wanted to say that.

OK.

So, we're going to put
a little bit of vermouth.

OK.

But you know Bond drinks also
his vodka martini very, very dry.

So we just wash the glass,
and then we sink it.

So, why, Alessandro, is Duke's Bar
so synonymous with James Bond?

It's mainly with the martini,
because Mr Fleming used to come here

during this time
when he was in Jamaica.

Like a few people, they'll tell
was mainly patronised by people

in politics and in the army.

So, the bar was only this very
small bar. It was quite exclusive.

As we are in St James, all the
clubs, all these wonderful people

do their business, they lunch
in the club, but when you want

to do something that will
be secret, you come here.

Nice. Yeah.

There you are, Mr Bond.

And then of course,
an olive. Oh, yes.

And why did James Bond like
his martinis shaken not stirred?

Ah-ha. That's a very good question.

In those days you would not
dare to shake a martini.

It was completely taboo.

Now when Mr Fleming started writing
about Bond, Bond in the books break

all the rules, to be different,
because Bond...

I mean, it pisses me off that class
of English class, whatever he does

is perfect. Everybody would copy.
Right.

But that is in the imagination
of Mr Fleming.

So he was a bit of
a renegade? On the Bond.

But Bond, not only,
is also...is a fashion.

Whatever he does, like when he
created Vesper, the way he dress,

the watch, everything.
People copy. Right.

So, that's what
he's trying to achieve.

That's wonderful.

It's nice, isn't it?
Yeah, I like that.

When the novels first
came out in the '50s,

few people had even heard of vodka.

You know, it was
the most astonishingly,

glamorous Russian thing.

Certainly, very few people
apart from the upper crust,

like Fleming himself,
would have actually drunk it.

But there's something else
about it, of course. It's Russian.

And this was during
the Cold War and he was

On Her Majesty's Secret Service.

So, what was really going on
here? What was the message?

Maybe the seeds of
the anti-establishment 007

that we see today in Daniel Craig,

actually started there,
with a vodka martini.

Even though elements of Bond,
strictly speaking, are quite

old-fashioned, nevertheless
he still managed to be stylish

and it even comes down to
his preferred tipple.

You know, the vodka martini
which actually

describes his character.
The drink is him.

You know, it's... It's ice cold.

It's strong.

It's shaken, but not
stirred, you know...

It is Bond.

He drinks what he is.

When not behind his desk
working on the latest scheme

to thwart the Nazis,

Fleming immersed himself
in London's nightlife.

And with the German
bombs raining down,

he lived a life of
drinking, dining and women.

Like the character of Bond
that he would go on to create,

Fleming was not much of a one woman
man and his own experiences would go

on to provide the templates
for many of the women that Bond

encounters in the books.

However, the way he portrayed
such women did, on occasion,

land him in hot water.

One definite connection
between Bond and Fleming

is their attitude towards women.

Both of them were fairly mechanical,
were fairly ruthless.

Yes, there was charm.
Yes, there was lovemaking

but these weren't romances.

These were people who left the hotel
room early in the morning and that's

something that Fleming at least
was pleased to see was carried

through in the early Bond,
in the Connery Bond, on film.

Apparently it was true that Fleming
was well into his 30s before

he actually spent a whole
night with a woman.

So, that is telling about his idea
about relationships and when he got

married, Fleming, he...
Basically, it was an open marriage.

So he had real problems
with commitment.

I mean Fleming's attitude towards
women was definitely pre-feminist.

You know, he regarded them
as being like pets.

I think he regarded men as being
real human beings and women were

just objects, you know,
to be used and abused.

And on the abuse front, you know
Fleming liked a bit of S and M.

There's no doubt about it.

It comes across in his
correspondence between women.

You know, it really
was bring your whip,

if you're going to have
a night out with Fleming.

And also, you know, you look at some
of the books, some of the movies...

Licence To Kill, a good example
where, you know, I think it's

Sanchez, who's the villain there,
is beating the woman with a whip.

And you can kind of sense that
that is Fleming coming through

and his attitude to women.

The Bond girls were equally,
if not more important, in the films

with cinemagoers eager to learn
the identity of Bond's latest

love interest, and to find out
more about Bond's relationships

with women, I'm meeting
a very special lady.

Maryam d'Abo played the Bond
girl Kara Milovy in 1987's

The Living Daylights.

It was in this film that
the film-makers decided to try

a rather different approach
and giving the girl a far more

substantial role to play.

As a Bond girl yourself,

how do you think the role of
the Bond girl has developed?

Well, the Bond girl has definitely
developed from Bond girl to

Bond woman. Right.

Can I... Should I say Bond
women? I was a Bond girl.

I consider myself a Bond girl.

But now, you know, the actresses
say, "No, no. Bond women."

But they have, of course,
they've completely changed

and have evolved over time.

In the '60s, it was that whole
period of, you know, action girl

which Ursula Andress played.

But sort of had,
sort of an innocent, naive

or the girl with
the superpowers, you know.

And then you had these wonderful
names, so much humour, you know.

Pussy Galore. Honor Blackman
playing, you know, the villainess,

the head of a whole
little empire of girls,

sort of championing judo
and had sort of powers.

So there was a lot of humour
and they were bigger than life

and they were... They were, yeah,
cartoon characters but with a wink,

you know. A lot of fun. I actually
think they're hilariously funny

when you watch them now.

It's often said that Bond women,
you know, get short shrift.

Who can forget Sean Connery actually
deflecting some bullets by putting

a woman into their path?
You know, it's not very gallant.

But at the same time,
there are women

in the Bond movies who are very
strong. I mean, Pussy Galore even

despite the silly name,
is a very strong character.

Honey Ryder and Kara Milovy,

who was in The Living Daylights,
are all strong independent women.

You know, they're not fluff,
and even though Fleming's attitude

to women wasn't great, he
nevertheless, he did create strong

female characters and those
come through in the movies.

Maryam d'Abo from
The Living Daylights

was sort of a new Bond woman.

I mean, she was beautiful
just like the rest.

But she was kind of on a par
with Bond, a bit more intelligent.

They worked together as a team
and it kind of changed the public's

sort of perception of what
a Bond woman could be.

I came along in '86, '87,
with Timothy Dalton

so they brought a new style of Bond.

And they wanted to go for a less
cartoon character and bring more

of a heart to the character,
more of a relationship between Bond

and his leading lady...

Because that was interesting,
because in your role, he hadn't

really had a relationship
in the past.

They were sort of fleeting...
sort of... Yes. ..one night stands.

He did, it's one night stands.

He was a loner,
just like in the books.

The films took one very
major departure from the books

in the creation of the Bond girls
because in the books,

Bond is the hero.

But in the films, actually, people
are much more interested every year

in finding out who is going to be
the Bond girl in this year's Bond

film and the status they have is
iconic in cinema, and the range

of Bond girls that have
been used over the years

is incredibly diverse.

The way in which they tried to alter
and modernise the role of the Bond

girl in The Living Daylights
to reflect more current attitudes

to women is not the only way
in which the films have differed

from the books.

And this calls into question
how far the films actually represent

Ian Fleming's creation.

The Bonds that we see
in the films, in the books,

it's hugely romanticised.

It's much more of a glamorous,
fast-paced lifestyle

than what being a spy is and
was actually like because much

of the art of being a spy

is not being conspicuous,

and Bond is probably one of the most
conspicuous people you could ever

imagine, cos he turns up
in his fast cars.

He's always got a beautiful
woman draped over his arm.

This is a man who'd rapidly become
famous if the whole thing were real.

What the books and the films do have
in common is the Bond trappings

of fast cars and fast women,

guns, gadgets, and boats.

But Bond is an agent
for the Secret Service,

which in the films became MI6.

So, how far does Bond reflect
the reality of working...

in the building behind me?

Back on dry land,

I'm going to meet someone
who'll be able to answer this.

Many people say he was
an MI6 agent himself.

Though he of course
couldn't possibly say.

So how accurate was Fleming's
depiction of a spy back then?

Well, I think the first thing is
was Fleming actually depicting

a spy in James Bond?

I mean Bond is not a spy
as we normally understand it.

We normally understand a spy to be
someone who goes somewhere to find

something out,
to get information. Right.

Bond doesn't actually
get information.

He's usually there to kill someone.

Or blow something up or get
something, get hold of something.

So he's much more like
a special operations operative

from the World War... World War II.

Right. And that was the world
from which Fleming came,

as part of the Director
of Naval Intelligence,

a world in which you
were doing things,

or if you were finding out things,
you were finding them out in order

to do something about them. Right.

In the early days of the Bond
books and movies, 007 was quite

like a real spy.

Um, you know... The adventures
that he had, you know,

this is inspired by the Cold War.

So, there were all sorts
of crazy espionage events

going on.

But as the Bond films and books
go further and the action

sequences get a little out of hand,

it no longer is based
in any kind of reality.

There's no spies in the last 30
or 40 years who are having dinners

with the Queen and driving fast
cars and sleeping with whoever

they want to sleep with
and getting away with it.

Everyone would have known.
So at the beginning,

yeah, it resembled in reality
what some spies were like

back in the day.

But in modern times, no, it's
strayed pretty far from reality.

So characters like Q and M,
they were based on...

..on real people?

Well, um...

Q is a fairly common army
designation for someone

who supplies equipment.

The Q side of things, and
that I think was used in MI6,

possibly in MI5 as
well, at the time.

M... M is more disputable.

There wasn't an M in MI6.
There was a C, who is the chief,

and there still is and there
was from the very first chief.

Before MI6 and MI5 were set up
or when they were set up in 1909,

there was an M, a figure known as
M who was a chap called Melville,

who was a retired
Special Branch man,

and he was their dog man as it were.

He went and did a lot of...
found addresses for them

and that sort of thing. So, whether
Fleming had that somehow in mind

or something else, I don't know.

A lot of what being a spy
about is spying, is watching

from the shadows, and collecting
information, reporting back.

They're often faceless men and women
who don't enjoy the kind of

glamorous lifestyle
as depicted in the books.

That's not to say, you know, some
spies don't get killed or don't have

to make tough calls and
sacrifices and do occasionally

have the odd gun fights, but I think
what Fleming did was take some of

these isolated incidents, and some
of the characteristics of the spies

and sort of compound
the whole thing into this...

sort of action man
who is James Bond.

Tell me about some of the other
similarities that you find

in Fleming's books with the way
in which spies operate today?

Well, what is similar is that
Bond might be summoned by M

and told there's someone in,
I don't know, in Cairo,

who we believe is a very bad man
and we want to find out

what he is doing. We want someone to
get alongside him and find out more

about what he's doing.

Can you go and meet him?

You know, that kind of thing is
based on some sort of reality.

Sure. What about being sent
to seduce an attractive lady

in a casino...

Generally, I'm not sure seduction,
yeah... ..in Monaco?

..is always a useful
thing in intelligence.

The East Germans did make very
good use of it in the Cold War.

Right. The Stasi. Stasi, yes.
Seducing West German secretaries

and that sort of thing.
They did a lot of that.

But as a general rule, pillow talk
doesn't involve the very directive

qualities that you're looking for.
You know, you're talking about...

the latest nuclear power
station or something like that.

You don't generally, you know,
turn over and say... No.

It struck me from reading
the books and watching the films

that he did it more for pleasure
rather than information.

I'm sure he's sought to
combine business and pleasure,

as so many people do.

And what about martini,
shaken not stirred?

Is that the drink of choice...
I think most probably as a joke.

Much more likely the drink
of Fleming's choice.

And I think probably the
intelligence community went for

gin and tonics a lot. Stirred not
shaken. Yes, as the forces do.

People endlessly argue about
how real a spy Bond was.

But what one can say is
that Fleming knew spies.

He worked in naval intelligence
and he was the liaison officer

with the other spy and intelligence
agencies in Britain.

He worked with the SOE, he worked
with MI5 and he worked with MI6.

So he had a very real, first-hand
experience of Britain's spies

in the period.

Now, the more you look into
the character of James Bond

and where he came from, the more
you realise that if there is a real

James Bond, it's actually
Ian Fleming himself.

OK, so the books aren't
a documentary account of Fleming's

time in the Admiralty during the
war, but they do reflect the kind of

spies of that World War II and
the post-war era, and less so,

modern MI6.

Well, over the last 55 years, Bond
has really changed dramatically.

You know, in the '60s Connery
was confident, smooth, suave...

Then via Lazenby, you go into
the kind of comedy era in the '70s

which became completely ridiculous.

You then have Dalton, I suppose,
in the kind of yuppie 1980s and then

we're into Brosnan, who I think
unfortunately got overwhelmed

by the gadgetry. I mean...
You know, he had an invisible car,

at the end, it all looked very
silly. But Daniel Craig, I think,

really sums up the zeitgeist today,
which is this kind of super serious,

slightly psychotic,
probably needs to go into therapy,

but, you know, he's...
You know, he's at the same time

extremely cool and clearly
appeals to a global market.

Bond is firmly on the map
and Bond is here to stay.

Where we are now with Daniel Craig,
this is superstar status.

The bond franchise
has never been so popular.

And there's every indication
it'll go on being so.

You know what, the entire debate
on whether or not Bond can continue

any longer rages on.

But I've got to tell you that...

an intelligent, good looking,
leading man with

fast cars and faster women,
you know,

that's a recipe for success that
it's going to continue, I think,

into the future.
Just look at Skyfall.

The first Bond film that grossed
over $1 billion in ticket sales.

This whole drama is not
ending any time soon.

The films are all very different.

As time went on they became so full
of gadgets and slick one-liners

that they really shared little more
with Fleming's dark gritty novels

than the titles.

I guess you could say that
Timothy Dalton's was closer,

but it's really with the Daniel
Craig films that they've returned

back to Fleming's
original character,

and I guess you could say
back to the real James Bond.

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