Bond By Numbers

Our final selection for the "3 Non Bonds" festival is the WW2 thriller, "Eye of the Needle" from 1981. Donald Sutherland stars as Faber, aka "the Needle", Hitler's premiere stiletto-wielding spy in England, who is racing to deliver news of the imminent Normandy invasion. But complications arise when he's thrown off course as he tries to flee and ends up shipwrecked on Storm Island. There he meets an estranged couple, Lucy and David...

After bringing us Ronin, The Quiller Memorandum and The Bourne Identity in previous years, 00-Chapman returns to the "3-Non Bonds" stage for one final showcase. This time, Harry Saltzman's 1965 thriller, The Ipcress File, is under investigation. Deemed by some an "anti-Bond" film for its calculated, artistic economy and unlikely hero, this jazzy spy thriller nevertheless had a good helping of James Bond talent behind the camera. Th...

The John Gardner sweep continues with "Win, Lose or Die", the eighth continuation novel from his cycle of Bond adventures. With this story, Gardner keeps on trend-jumping, here drawing inspiration from the "Top Gun" and "Iron Eagle" craze of the era. Bond returns to the Navy, upgrades to Captain and plays War Games with some very important dignitaries in order to defend a top-secret Steward's Meeting from a new terrorist threat. So...

What happens when you mix a “mad love of country with an equally mad indifference to life”? Well, if Alfred Hitchcock's 1940 thriller is anything to go by, a crackpot peace movement and a nest of horrid spies, that's what!

"What's Going On?" Bond fans! Our annual 3 Non Bonds film festival gets underway for the fourth and final time with Josh's selection of Hitchcock's international spy caper. Joel McCrea, Laraine Day and Herbert Mar...

From a post 9/11 framework, some could read John Gardner's seventh Bond adventure as chilling and prophetic. In the year of its publication, however, Scorpius aimed for and hit a lot of contemporary targets. From growing world terrorism to the microchip's boom; from satanic panic to luxury golf resorts, this outing sees M throw Bond into a complex web of inter-agency activity and exceedingly heavy stakes. Scott and Josh talk throug...

A half-century ago, Roger Moore sauntered across the screen in his first gunbarrel scene as James Bond. Live and Let Die started for him a highly successful 7-picture, 12-year run. In honour of its golden anniversary, we deemed it our duty to re-watch the 1973 film and meet to discuss its merits and maladies. What holds up like a cigar-smoking spinnaker and what deflates faster than Whisper's subterranean sofa? Join us for coffee a...

It's been more than five years since all three co-hosts have been together in person. When the short-term stars align like that, shining down on a single postcode, it's definitely time to break out the celebratory fun and games. This episode shares some of that reunion. We could have gone to the cinema.... enjoyed a long dinner.... took in a concert or a ball game... but we played 007 Top Trumps instead! For better or worse, the up...

In John Gardner's sixth continuation novel, M has "cream cake" on his face and Bond is brought in to clean up the mess. Ghosts from a former operation have returned to haunt the MI6 chief as his agents are being mutilated and wiped out. Without the help of official channels, 007 must rely on his rolodex of allies to safeguard the targets and track down the hit team before it's too late. So, tune those harmonica bugs and call your g...

Gardner's fifth Bond adventure sees 007 forced to jettison his annual leave in Europe when he's made aware of a SPECTRE contract on his head. Some of the bounty hunters hope to lure Bond in by kidnapping May and Moneypenny, two heart-shaped targets for the noble agent. Gardner diverts from his own formulaic structure in this one but still delivers the action and zaniness we've come to expect from his early adventures. Vampires and ...

In the season finale, 00-Chapman brings our three-part "What If?" to an end by presenting his original idea for a Bond-related board game. Leaning cosily into the short-life starter genre, "Bonds of War" is a tabletop action card game overflowing with franchise characters and played over the swankiest desk imaginable! Competitive or collaborative, Jeff's explosive concept has something for almost every bond fan and is the only one ...

Our three-part tabletop extravaganza continues here with Josh's retro proposal: a Thunderball-inspired race to nuclear disarmament! Featuring all the thrills from the film but none of the water-logged drag, "BBN Games Thunderball" is 00-Taylor's loving tribute to the best of '60s adventure but with a contemporary flare. It'll strike the right chords with both Bond fans and game aficionados. Tick-tock-tick-tock... protect your Paula...

Our exploration of John Gardner's Bond continues here as the literary gun-barrel sets its aim upon "Role of Honour" from 1984. Tech-heavy and mired in the world of computer sabotage, this title boasts more than a little ingredient inspiration for Roger Moore's swan song, "A View to a Kill", released the following year. Oh, and there's a blimp here, too! So, let loose your mooring cables and join us for a trip through this gravity-d...