Risking it all

Today my friend Robert, whom I have not seen for a decade (despite the fact that he only lives in Victoria), is coming for a visit.

I’m going to get the ferry off the island to meet him on the other side. We’re going to have some lunch in town and then – gasp! – we’re going to the cinema. Under normal circumstances you couldn’t get me into town, let alone a cinema, but these are not normal circumstances. It may be no time to die, but I’ll risk it because we’re going to see the new – and final – Daniel Craig Bond film. It has to be done.

I was as excited to hear that Daniel Craig was taking over as 007 as I was to hear, around the same time, that David Tennant was taking over as Doctor Who. Neither disappointed.

I’m sure my then colleague Irmani and I were destined to become friends no matter what, but we truly bonded over Bond – heading straight to her local cinema in Brixton to see Casino Royale as soon as it was released. The Ritzy is a great cinema with a great bar, where we consumed a bottle of wine before going in to see the film. We also took a second bottle in with us, which probably would have been fine if we’d actually had some dinner first. Instead we both fell asleep and only woke up when things started exploding again. So, of course, I had to go to see it again to find out what I’d missed.

Quantum of Solace, as anyone who’s seen it knows, was a bit of a mess. I had no idea why until I watched Being James Bond, a documentary currently airing on Crave. Turns out there was a writers’ strike looming when the screenplay was handed in. There were a lot of problems with it, but the strike started the next day. They couldn’t postpone filming because there was also an actors’ strike in the offing. So, you got what you got. (The doc also highlights all the negative press the choice of Craig as the new Bond received – until he walked out of the water in Casino Royale.)

All forgiven when Skyfall came out. Twice in the past week people have told me this was the best Bond film ever. I’m inclined to agree. It was also the first Bond film that ever made me cry. Almost as soon as Albert Finney turned up unexpectedly, they killed M! How could they do that? (Well, obviously I know. Judi Dench had had enough.)

Ralph Fiennes as the new M? Yeah, okay. Spectre ticked a lot of boxes and did rather feel as if it was wrapping up the Daniel Craig Bond story. Bonus to find out there would be one more.

Over the weekend I had this exchange on Twitter with Adrian McKinty, one of the writers I follow.

In fairness to him, he did like my reply.

Happily I have Skyfall and Spectre on DVD, so, assuming I survive going to a cinema (wish me luck) and if Robert and I don’t get our fill of Craig’s Bond today, we can dig them out.