Bond & Beyond

The long wait is finally over. After six years, more than half a decade, 72 full months... you can finally find out what we think of No Time To Die. This is not our full review, which will save for a much later viewing, but our initial impressions of the long-awaited 25th James Bond film and Daniel Craig's final outing. Needless to say, there are spoilers abound! We discuss the highs and lows of N...

Alex and James are joined by special guest Matt for the first out a new series of episodes in which we look back at the tenure of each James Bond actor. We start with Timothy Dalton, divisive in his own way but beloved by many fans. Dalton took over the role at perhaps the most interesting moment in the series, and had just two films to demonstrate his Bondness. What was Dalton's legacy and how do...

Something special for you this time, and the perfect follow-up to our Ranking The Bond Cars episode. Alex and James are joined by Alan Porter, author of The James Bond Lexicon and member of the Ian Fleming Foundation - the group that tracks down, restores and exhibits all the vehicles used in the Bond movies. We speak to Porter about his work chronicling the world of 007 in the lexicon and the sur...

Alex and James are rejoined by friend of the show Sam for our third ranking episode. This time, we're talking Bond cars. Listen in as we debate which is the greatest Bond car, taking one from each of the 24 films and judging them based on appearance, gadgetry, use in action sequences, whether or not 007 drives it, and a ton of other criteria we may or may not have been making up as we went. You ca...

Following our review of Anthony Horowitz's debut Bond novel Trigger Mortis, we take a look at his second 007 story. 007 is dead, and an up-and-coming young agent (one James Bond) has been sent to investigate. Listen in as we walk through this tale of intrigue set in the south of France built around a gangsters, a cruise ship with plenty of fire extinguishers, a brilliant older woman character, a g...

James and Alex tackle their first book review: Trigger Mortis by Anthony Horowitz. SPOILER WARNING: We basically break down the whole book.  In this non-Fleming Bond novel written in Fleming's style, 007 must protect a British racing legend from Russian assassins during a dangerous race on the Nurburgring - but that's not actually the plot. We talk about Horowitz's blend of action and insight into...

With the announcement that Hitman developer IO Interactive is working on a new James Bond game, Alex and James are joined by friend of the show and game developer Simon Smith to discuss 007's track record with video games. Naturally, a good chunk of this show is dedicated to our hopes for IO's new game, but we also explore the lack of James Bond games in the past decade, some of the best titles fr...

Following the fun we had with our Ranking The Bond Songs episode, we attempt to rank something even more challenging: the villains. Alex Shaw of the School of Movies podcast - and author of the New Century Multiverse series - joins us to weigh up each Bond villain's plot based on how dangerous (or not) it is to the world. Some want to start a war. Some just want to make money. Some want to start a...

Following the sad news of Sean Connery's passing, Alex and James pay tribute to the man who defined James Bond for so many people. We reflect on his varied career and some of his best roles, the quality of his performance as James Bond, some of his most iconic moments, his surprising final turn as 007 and more. Want to share your thoughts and memories of Sir Sean? Email us via bondandbeyondpod@gma...

Alex and James are joined by Richard and Nia Setters – our first Bond fan couple.  The Setterses talk us through a particularly important coping mechanism for the COVID lockdown: a James Bond marathon. Every Monday night, they have watched a Bond film - from Dr No to Spectre.  We discuss the highs and lows of the series, their thoughts on the best and worst Bonds, and an intriguing alternative for...

Alex and James are joined by friend of the show and regular guest Gez to discuss the terrible news: No Time To Die has been delayed. Again. Bond fans now have to wait until April 2021 to see 007's 25th outing, so in the meantime we kill about 40 minutes of the five-month extension to our wait by discussing:  The Billie Eilish No Time To Die music video. The experience of going to the cinema during...

With what is likely to be the final trailer for No Time To Die now availabe, Alex and James share their thoughts on this tantalising glimpse into Daniel Craig's last outing. Tune in for a lot of excitement, a little apprehension and probably more speculation than is healthy give the trailer is less than three minutes long. Want to share your thoughts on the trailer? Email via  bondandbeyondpod@gma...

James, Alex and special guest Sam attempt the unwise, perhaps the impossible: ranking the Bond title songs from best to worst. Setting themselves a strict(ish) time limit, our triumvirate picks apart each and every Bond anthem, weighing them up against each other as well as how well they stand up today. Some choices were easy, others were hard and heart-breaking. If you want to spoil the results f...

Following our look at Bond elements appearing in animated and family films , James and Alex turn their attention towards TV. Once again, we're not discussing straight up Bond parodies or homages such as Archer, Chuck or Alias. Instead, we're looking at specific moments that pay tribute to film's most famous spy and unpack the elements of the Bond formula that people most instantly recognise. Join...

Alex and James look beyond Bond to see how 007 is honoured, referenced and even mocked in animated family films.  Given the series' history of 50-plus years, it's no surprise that hallmarks of the Bond films appear in other movies but which key ingredients of 007's outings do people draw from? Our rambling discussion takes us from The Incredibles to Spies In Disguise, through Avengers and Bolt, an...

Hello, remember us? James and Alex are back with a short announcement: we're hosting a watch party, where we all gather on Facebook to share comments and thoughts on a classic James Bond film as we watch at the same time. We are starting (as Cubby's Law dictates) with Dr No, the 1962 big screen debut of Ian Fleming's superspy. We'll be pressing 'play' at 9pm GMT on Wednesday, March 25, 2020, and y...

Alex and James share their thoughts on the first trailer for Daniel Craig's upcoming finale, No Time To Die. Was it everything we wanted for a trailer? Were we wrong about our previous predictions, and how many potentially new wrong predictions can we make from just two minutes of footage? Listen in to hear our first impressions of the trailer - and why not share yours with us, too? Email bondandb...

Earlier this year, Alex and friend of the show/semi-regular guest Gez attended a Secret Cinema showing of Casino Royale. Shortly after, we recorded this episode… and now we can finally release it. For those not in the know, Secret Cinema is an event where attendees engage in a roleplaying experience before watching a special presentation of the film on which it's themed. Everyone who attends is sw...

Seven James Bonds went to Casino Royale... Alex and James review what is quite possibly the worst film ever to feature James Bond (albeit in an unofficial, parodical capacity). We discuss the absolute mess that is 1967's Casino Royale, a comedy film in which the real 007 (apparently) and a bunch of fellow agents sharing his name and number try to save the world. 'Save the world' sounds vague, we g...

We're back with our latest episode full of your message. This time, it's all centred around our (semi)recent Desert Island Bond episode. We asked you to choose the 007 film, novel, soundtrack, song, video game, gadget, vehicle, girl and Felix/Not Felix you would want if you were trapped on a desert island - and boy, did you deliver! (Please not this episode was recorded *before* EON announced the...

Picture, if you will, being stranded on an island -- like Crab Key without the Dragon tank/luxury villain's lair. To sustain you in our loneliness, you have a few items and characters from the history of Bond. Which do you choose? Alex and James discuss their desert island picks when it comes to film, novel, game, soundtrack, song, vehicle, gadget, Bond girls, Felix/Not Felix and more. We'd love t...

We're back (again!). Alex and James are joined by long-time friend of the show and semi-regular guest Gez to dig through our inbox and share your thoughts on that awkward Bond 25 reveal.  Given our lengthy absence (sorry again!), new information has come to light about Daniel Craig's final outing, including film locations and the director's choice of composer (much to James' composer). We also tal...

Following last week's much hyped 'reveal' of Bond 25, James and Alex dust of their mics and discuss how the whole affair, er, left them wanting. With no title and only minor plot details revealed, much of Bond 25's production seems up in the air. Does this worry us? Who do we think each of the new cast members will play? And why, oh why did it take EON Productions a full 20 minutes to say very lit...

Bond & Beyond is back, with a very special, slightly experimental episode. Bookending our break nicely, we return to A View To A Kill - but this time we're on location in San Francisco. Having flown out for a work trip, Alex and James met up to visit some of the most iconic locations from the film (well, two of them with a good view of a third). We start at City Hall, scene of the great fire and b...

And so we finally come to the last Bond & Beyond review for 007's cinematic adventures (until they make more of them). James and Alex go through every detail of Roger Moore's final outing as the iconic British spy, from the questionable use of the Beach Boys to Max Zorin's on-brand choice of explosives and his eye for a bargain when it comes to Plot Tables. We waste an hour in France with horses,...