Keeping the British End Up: Four Decades of Saucy Cinema

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After dinner, there will be an auction of items kindly donated by well known Bond brands, with all the proceeds going to Macmillan cancer support.

Our very special guest of honour will be John Glen, the man who directed every Bond film of the 1980s, from For Your Eyes Only through to Licence to Kill. John will be the recipient of the 'Bond & Beyond' lifetime achievement award on the evening. Glen’s films have brought so many of us so much joy and this will be an opportunity for us to show him our appreciation. For Roger, it made sense, “This is a famous spy--everyone knows his name, and every bartender in the world knows he likes martinis shaken, not stirred. Come on, it's all a big joke! So most of the time I played it tongue-in-cheek." He thought of Bonds as pure hokum, "People are always reading things into the films. We set out to make entertainment. There's no hidden agenda. They're just ‘Whambam-thank-you-ma'am! here comes a pretty girl, there goes a car chase, let's shoot a helicopter down.' That's as deep as they got." Moore also understood his audience, “We have very little brutality in Bond. As Cubby once said, we are sadism for the family. Most of the violence is mechanical, Disney violence.”

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We knew it had to be special. It just wouldn’t do to have 007GB’s 2023 centrepiece event at a run-of-the-mill location. James Bond is a Navy man, so why not a battleship? And not just any battleship: HMS Belfast. Moore was in the frame to take over eventually, his friendship with Albert R. Broccoli and Harry Saltzman standing him in good stead, as he quipped “What better way for a potential Bond than to meet the producers.” Early on he established an attitude towards 007, "I tried to find out what Bond was all about, but you can't tell much from the books. There's the line that says 'He didn't take pleasure in killing, but took pride in doing it well.' So that's what I did.” Moore’s experience gave him confidence, “I think that I've got an even-money chance to make it. After all, I've been around a long time in this business. I did The Saint on TV for seven years then The Persuaders on TV with Tony Curtis.”

A uniquely Bondian landmark location. VIP guests who are heroes to the Bond community. Fabulous food and drink. Brass Quintet from Q the Music. A spectacular event we will be talking about for decades to come. Join us in celebrating the 70th anniversary of Fleming’s Bond, honouring the work of director John Glen and toasting the inauguration of 007GB, The British James Bond Fan Club. Sir Roger will always be remembered as the most enduring actor to play 007 and as a great ambassador for the franchise. From his announcement as Sean Connery’s replacement in August 1972 to his retirement in December 1985, he thrilled and charmed a whole new generation of Bond fans and redefined the series. In his seven Bond films: Live And Let Die (1973), The Man With The Golden Gun (1974), The Spy Who Loved Me (1977), Moonraker (1979), For Your Eyes Only (1981), Octopussy (1983) and A View To A Kill (1985), he made James Bond his own. Arguably the greatest purveyor of Cool Britannia before the term had been invented, he kept the British end up as his reign as 007 saw Bond through the 1977 Silver Jubilee and national resurgence in the 1980s. He was the Bond not only of his own but also the Daniel Craig generation by keeping Ian Fleming’s gentleman spy alive when people thought his best days were over. We are all sad at the passing of a great British icon. Nobody did Bond better. The New York Times’s film review of “Live and Let Die” noted that the Bond movies hold a “certain insolence toward public pieties.” This certainly seems true. But why then are the films—like the books before them—so incredibly popular? The answer is that, like with any good spy, Bond has proven adept at creating a little misdirection here and there. Raymond Chandler famously suggested that Bond was “what every man would like to be and what every woman would like to have between her sheets.” This is generally perceived to mean that men want to be Bond because he daringly saves the world from megalomaniacal madmen while bedding women who lust after him because he’s dangerous. But what if all of this were just cover? What if men wanted to be Bond because secretly—or maybe not so secretly—they wanted to be less neutered, more decisive, more graceful under pressure, more accountable, and less postmodern? Admittedly, Brosnan’s Die Another Day quip was a blatant rehash of this Moore classic from the punniest of all Bond entries – the first of three from the film. Thanks to 007GB and From Sweden with Love golfers can enjoy 18 holes on the PGA National, with bacon rolls and refreshments before tee off.I also find a belief, however unreflecting, in the rightness of one’s cause more sympathetic than the anguished cynicism and the torpid cynicism of Messrs le Carré and Deighton. More useful in an adventure story anyway, and more powerful—so powerful that when the frogman’s suit arrives for Bond in Live and Let Die, I can join with him in blessing the efficiency of M’s “Q” Branch, whereas I know full well that given postwar standards of British workmanship, the thing would either choke him or take him straight to the bottom. To be honest, this barely qualifies as a double entendre: Tatiana Romanova complains about the size of her mouth, before our man gallantly comforts her. Moore’s on screen talent was immense but made to look effortless, leading to the popular myth that he could not act. He was sometimes his chief detractor but explained, “Listen, if I say I'm shit as an actor, then the critic can't, because I've already said it! For years my agents would tell me, 'You've got to stop saying these things about yourself. People will believe you.' So? They may also be pleasantly surprised!"