The Bond Legacy: Part One

In London, a pair of hands pick up a cigarette lighter.

These hands are in the midst of a rapidly escalating game of blackjack against a woman in a red dress, but they don't show any sign of nervousness at all.

Red Dress congratulates the pair of hands on their luck so far, and tells them her name - she's Trench. Sylvia Trench.

And what, she then enquires, is his name?

The camera cuts close to Sean Connery, a lit cigarette hanging lazily from the corner of his mouth, and he tells her with a knowing smirk.

It all comes back to Ian Fleming, you see.

Before this film aired for the first time this former Etonian had already been through Sandhurst, lived in Europe for a short period and studied language at the University of Geneva,and spent time working with the Reuters News Agency.

He'd then become a stockbroker, a role which led him into the Government.

He was appointed as an Intelligence Officer for the British military and proved to be rather qualified for the job, as he was promoted to Commander before his time there was done.

Our interest in him springs more from his actions in the fifties, however, when he decided to try his hand at writing and in the process created one of the most iconic characters in popular fiction today: a secret agent for the British who drank, smoke, slept around with women and almost always won the day at the end.

This character, vividly written by an experienced Fleming, quickly grew too popular for books alone. He needed to be in movies.

When Sean Connery first appeared in the 1962 film Dr No as Fleming's hero, it proved to be a defining moment for the young Scottish actor (and former bodybuilder) as it was his first chance to experience a mixed reaction from the press.

It's fair to say that the critical reception to the film wasn't overwhelming - Fleming himself was less than impressed with it - but it was just successful enough at the box office to warrant a sequel, From Russia With Love, where the producers could try to fix their formula in order to get a more favourable reaction from the audiences.

Their advice? More deaths, more action, and more explosive set-pieces.

It was a smart move. The addition of a more melodramatic and action-packed storyline proved to be a hit with both the general public and those critics who had attacked the first film, and set off a long-term chain-reaction which meant every further film had to try and top the last for death-defying action and thrills.

This signalled the beginning of a million-dollar franchise, even though it meant that the books the series was based on had by necessity to become less and less integral to the film series.

Fleming's secret agent wasn't the sort to throw out cool-sounding one-liners at every opportunity, and that was what the public demanded.12»