Bond moves with the times

The big entertainment news around the world this week is the release of the latest Bond movie, No Time to Die.

It’s unlikely when Ian Fleming wrote his first Bond novel, Casino Royale in 1952 that he could have imagined that his character would be making global headlines almost seven decades later.

But the character, as imagined by Fleming, and 10 years later by Director Terence Young with Dr No, has changed so much through the years. The swaggering, joke-making, double-entendre-loving rogue – as portrayed by the likes of Roger Moore and Sean Connery – is a long way from the sombre and more cerebral Bond as portrayed most recently by Daniel Craig.

Now that Daniel has made his final Bond movie, the focus is turning to the next Bond.

Will he be tall? Will he be blond? Will he be black? Will he even, perhaps, be a she?

There is probably as much fun in guessing and debating the next actor to assume the role as there is in watching the latest movie, but we can be sure of one thing: Bond is never afraid to move with the times.