UKH

After the hoo ha over Daniel Craig's last outing as Bond dies away, any bets as to his successor? More of the same or a radical departure as happened with the last Doctor?

I'd put my money on Toby Jones .

Make a cracking 007 .

AP

Emily Blunt

After his tour de force in 'Detectorists' I'd have to agree

If they wanted to make Bond even rougher around the edges then Tom Hardy has got to be in with a shout. 

Laurence Fox, one of the UK’s finest actors and the epitome of anti woke masculinity a shoe in surely.

Idris Elba would smash it... Although Tom Hardy would be good too!

I guess Julian Clary is too old now

Ok disliker . 

What about a blacked up, transgender Toby Jones .  

Surely you couldn't find fault with that .

Ah yes the gender-swap, both powerful and original.

Would female Bond and female Moneypenny have a flirtatious scene, or would you also gender-swap to have a male secretary? Which gets the greater corporate, I mean social, approval?

There was an article on exactly this giving bookies odds in either last Sunday's Observer or in the Guardian on Saturday (it's on the Guardian website somewhere).

Elba has been rumoured for years (although it sounded like in the article he started the rumour with a tweet!), but one suggestion with longer odds is what's-her-face? The one who has been battling Russian spies on a submarine on Sunday nights for the last few weeks. I thought that was an interesting idea.

And from reading the (great) reviews of the new film, it sounds like we have a new 007 anyway after James has taken early retirement - played by Lashana Lynch. So even if we don't know who is the next James Bond, we know who is now 007!

I love the way that a privately educated former model who is the son of artist and writer who grew up in leafy West London is seen as rougher round the edges than the Daniel Craig, who went to state schools, is the son a teacher and pub landlord...

I know Tom Hardy takes a lot of roles where he plays a rough as you like cockney, but don't let that fool you that he's not as posh as the rest of them.  Posher than some!

EDIT:  FWIW I think Idris would have been fantastic but is too old, he's pushing 50 now, they need someone to commit to 4 films over the next 10 years or so.  Although he's in great shape and can deal with the physicality by the time he's pushing 60 and they're matching him with beautiful young female leads it'll be a bit eew....

Richard Madden or James Norton would be my guess.

For a second I read that as Richard Madeley, who would be incredible as Bond. 

I would pay good money to see Richard Madely star as Bond!

Well, wasn't Bob Holness the very first Bond - on radio ??

So rumour has it - Casino Royale?

https://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2016/06/25/16/35A0329E00000578-3656375-The_...

Can you imagine.

Suranne Jones. I can almost imagine a woman being cast as Bond, someone from Oldham being cast a Bond is just ludicrous.

She actually grew up in Middleton and was at school with my ex-wife.

There was someone even before that, some American actor played him in low budget TV in the states first.

That's one of those questions that always gets asked in pub quizzes, but the answer everyone thinks is right is wrong...  one of those common misconceptions like you can see the great wall of China from space or that Inuit have dozens of words for snow...

Barry Nelson.  Bond was American (of course) so they made Leiter a British Agent and changed his first name from Felix to Clarence.  (Played by an Australian actor.)
https://jamesbond.fandom.com/wiki/Casino_Royale_(1954_TV)

Bob Holness played Bond in a South African radio adaptation of Moonraker a year or two later.

Plenty of time to learn the saxophone for his star turn in the seventies

£27.50 well spent.

Nah, McKenzie Crook.

Greater social approval would be had by making Moneypenny a black female who has more recently transitioned to male, so the black/female boxes have been ticked historically and if a female Bond gets it on with someone who at least looks like a bloke then the older end of the audience  won't be all that confused/upset.

Nick Bullock or Dave Macleod

Craig has been a great Bond, but to me he will always be Geordie from Our Friends in the North.

A great subject in its own right. My favourite is that foreign embassies are considered to be foreign soil.

Jodie Comer would be good. 

Does that mean they're not tiny enclaves of the mother/fatherland after all? 

(Legally speaking)

Oh yes James Norton - although perhaps he would make an even better baddie!

Yeah same.  Loved that show and him in it, an absolutely fantastic series which, as I was a lad growing up in the North East at the time, really made an impression on me.

What a cast that show had - Gina McKee, Christopher Eccleston, Daniel Craig and Mark Strong as the principal characters.... Not sure I can think of another show which managed to pick as many talented actors in the early part of their career like that.

Id quite like to watch the series again. Does anyonw know where I can stream it now?

Couldn't find it anywhere a couple of years back so ended up buying it on DVD

EDIT:  Looks like it's streamable via Amazon Prime / Britbox now https://www.amazon.com/Our-Friends-North-Season-1/dp/B07CGZ6GXJ

They are not, at least in the UK. https://www.cps.gov.uk/legal-guidance/diplomatic-immunity-and-diplomatic-pr...

And it's outrageous that dyslexics have long been under represented.

"My name is Dnob. Jasme Dnob"

Hmm - looks like I'll have to wait for an invitation to the next Ambassador's Reception before I can bag the Pokemon lurking in the embassy's depths

Fun fact - I managed to seriously piss off the senior locations director for this series (or whatever the *uck they're called) when I was coerced into showing him around the set of buildings where I worked - Marconi factory and offices in Bill Quay, Gateshead.  They were looking for authentic looking (read run down and drab) premises to shoot industrial scenes of some sort, and our place was one of the drabbest run down places they could find in the area - which is quite something when I think about it.  As I showed him around he described the outline of the plot to me.  I think his own lack or northernness must have irked me (probably his RP and cravat) and I rudely remarked "Christ, last thing we need is yet another sodding 'grim up north' drama" - which seemed to offend him somewhat.

Anyway, never saw the series but I did hear good things about it.  Didn't even get to be an extra though.  Which is a shame as it might have lead to me being in the running for Bond.

Alan Partridge could be a consideration, if a change of pace is needed?

I'm Bond!  James Bond, A-ha!

I think Charlie Hunnam would make a good bond.

Was fantastic in The Gentleman and knows how to wear a suit.

Agreed. He was convincing in Triple Frontier also..

It would almost be a bit tame seeing her play 007 after Villanelle.

Dave Macleod - that made me laugh!

Quite unfairly for Dave, whenever I hear him speak his voice is instantly translated internally into the R4 Dead Ringers impersonation of Andy Murray. This, combined with a very exacting and methodical approach to tradecraft, would make quite a different Bond film and for some reason I can only imaging it through the lens of "Nuns on the Run".

New Bond - Will Mellor - would bring a certain cheekiness to a rather drab format

My understanding is that they are not, but the treaty provisions protecting them are so strong - they may as well be. So if you are being chased by the peelers for nicking a few fudge squares from Woolworth's pick and mix, and clamber over the wall of Swiss Embassy and land in their fish pond, the cops can't climb over the wall and get you. I'm very certain though in that case the security chap at the embassy would grab you by the ear, march you to the front gate and hand straight over to PC plod. You'd then get done for nicking pick and mix AND violating some complicated and old law protecting foreign missions.

But how many words do the inuit have for types of snow? 

Bob Holness

Julian Assange being the obvious example - granted political asylum in Ecuador for seven years without ever leaving London, and the peelers hanging about outside the whole time ready to arrest him the moment he stepped back into their jurisdiction.  The security chap doesn't have to march you to the gate himself necessarily, the embassy can also choose to invite PC Plod in to get you.  (As was also the case for Mr Assange when the Ecuadorian government decided to revoke his asylum.)

Write the theme tune..  Play the saxophone solo on the theme tune..

If being dead isn't a bar to reprising the role, lets have David Niven back.

With Natalie Casey as Moneypenny?

Very true. The next bond villan(elle) perhaps!

Dave would be better as a "Smiley" type, in a more authentic John le Carré type thriller.

Richard Madden is a great shout although John Barrowman would far more amusing .

I'm not sure about Madden... I've only seen him in The Bodyguard, and the majority of his part there involved him standing around looking emotionless, then spontaneously making love to the woman he was guarding.  Didn't really get a sense of how good (or not) and actor he is?

Perhaps I'm just grumpy about him as he's one of the Game of Thrones lot.  Load of old tosh that, has elevated a cohort of mediocre actors to levels far beyond their abilities.

That'll probably get me banned for saying that! 

STOP GETTING BOND WRONG!!!

No brainer. Steve Coogan. Purely as a nod to Alan Partridge's infatuation with Roger Moore and his love of all things Bond.

youtube.com/watch?v=TC8dWWImNzU&

Not again 😂

Caught him in a remake of Papillon. Pretty good suggestion

Even though I first saw him as young lad in Queer as Folk, he'll always be Jax Teller to me - the anguished bad boy with a heart of gold. I never joined a motorbike club, but lots of wearing hoodies, baggy jeans and white sneakers may or may not reflect that I had a bit of a man-crush on Teller/Hunnam.

But just think of the spin-off videos on training gains and injury avoidance in high risk activity from the seduction of beautiful but murderous foreign agents to bullet forced bridge jumping.

They remade Papillon?!  Missed that, thank god!

I'm sure Hunnam was great, but bloody hell, some stuff just shouldn't be remade...

McShane summarised GoT even more succinctly.

Just looked it up.  Matches my perception of it pretty well.

I suggest we return to the plurality of James Bonds as seen in 1967's Casino Royale.

"Seven James Bonds went to Casino Royale..."

youtube.com/watch?v=Io-jchlnvJM&

We'll never see the like of that movie again.

Ill hold my hand up and say I've not seen the original. I will try to dig it out and watch it over the weekend (I'm sure it's on now TV) 

There's always a chance that a remake will outshine the original, as in "True Grit", for instance, but you are probably right about some films being sacrosanct. 

I hope that the upcoming "Dune" remake impresses me more than "Bladerunner" did.

Spoiler alert:

Went to see it last night and the black female badass 007 was great! Nice little twist. 

But as my son pointed out when we left - how can they call her James Bond? 

Overall 6/10. Some nice jumpy bits, good stunts and the odd amusing line courtesy of Phoebe Waller-Bridge but the story line is just tissue thin. I dont know why they just baggage together stunts and visuals etc with no apparent coherence. Surely a plot and dialogue can't be that hard to create with a monster budget? 

Bring in Tarantino - that would help.

Surely Meghan Markle is in with a shout?

E

A licence to spill (the beans)?

Funny that, I cant stand the guy. 

I did see Cillian Murphy tipped for it, great actor but not sure as Bond.

The name's Bond. Sid James Bond.

Left field, but how about Gillian Anderson?  (With her London accent). 

As for the next Doctor, Tony Head as the kind hearted granddad with a violent history?

I know the word is probably verboten in these parts, but... On Her Majesty's Secret Cervix?

(Not sure Lizzy would be too impressed... but hey... it's been on Porn Hub for years anyway!)

i think Henry cavill or Tom Hardy would do a good job

Cavill would be incredible at it.

Me.

I suspect there will be decade now of multiple slightly less good bonds, a bit like before Craig.

It's that ie the desire for equality and folk desperate to find offence in anything will kill it off.