Bond On Bond (24 page)

The Other Fellas and their tuxedos. Latterly, Tom Ford has designed Daniel Craig’s. When asked recently whether he still enjoyed taking home some of the costumes, Daniel said, ‘When I first did Bond, I was given all these amazing suits and suddenly I’ve got this huge wardrobe and I’m thinking, “Oh my God, what am I going to wear?” I’ve kind of flipped the other way now and if I could just wear jeans and T-shirts all the time I would.’

In the early 1980s the
Daily Mail
referred to me as one of Britain’s best-dressed men. How kind. It’s true to say I don’t feel particularly comfortable in a pair of jeans and a T-shirt, and I rarely dress down when I’m out and about, except perhaps when on holiday.

If you opened my wardrobe today you’d find shirts made for me by the Swedish company Eton Shirts or perhaps a few from Frank Foster of Pall Mall. For Bond, incidentally, I had my shirts made occasionally by Turnbull and Asser but more often than not by Washington Tremlett. There’s also a variety of blazers – as my weight is sometimes a little erratic I have blazers of many sizes – some made to measure and a few ‘off the peg’. My shoes are always handmade by Ferragamo.

In fact, I introduced Ferragamo to the Bond films. A neighbour of mine in Italy was married to Salvatore Ferragamo’s eldest son, and I took her to a premiere of
Live And Let Die
, where she was horrified to see I was wearing Gucci shoes and belt. From then on Ferragamo supplied shoes, belts and luggage for the films.

After I hung up Jimmy’s tuxedo, Timothy Dalton took over, and his interpretation of Bond went back to the books with a more edgy, tougher style. His clothes were largely his own choice from ready-to-wear shops and, as a result, were much more casual and loose-fitting than ever before. Timothy went as far as to say he felt ‘more comfortable’ wearing the off-the-peg range than any of the designer suits supplied.

Some say he looked a little ‘too ordinary’ for Her Majesty’s Secret Service, with not enough occasions for black tie and more formal outfits. But maybe they miss the point of being a spy in that he should blend into the background and the times.

‘I cut the wardrobe down by three-quarters. Bond was never flash or ostentatious. In fact, he really wore a uniform, a dark suit, navy blue. He was very navy blue. He wasn’t a wealthy man. He used his money to buy the best that he needed, but then he kept it,’ said Timothy in a 1989 interview in
Rolling Stone
magazine.

For his second film,
Licence To Kill
, costume designer Jodie Tillen, who came fresh from the TV series
Miami Vice
, suggested a few ideas, much to the chagrin of her new 007. ‘She wanted to put me in pastels,’ said Dalton in an interview with Garth Pearce. ‘Can you imagine? I thought, “No, we can’t have that.” The clothes say so much about Bond. He’s got a naval background, so he needs a strong, simple colour like dark blue.’

After Timothy’s departure, Brioni, an Italian fashion house founded in 1945, was invited to dress the next 007 – in the shape of Pierce Brosnan. With the ability to produce many copies of the same suit, and quickly, to ensure there are numerous intact ones available for action scenes, stunt doubles and so forth, Brioni offered to donate fifty suits for
GoldenEye
. Free of charge, I might add. You see, James Bond must look impeccable at all times. He isn’t allowed to get dirty, to sweat or tear his clothes. I remember being on location in India for
Octopussy
. I must have changed my shirt a dozen times one morning as, despite the heat, Jimmy could not have patches of perspiration on his outfit.

The association with Brioni continued into Daniel Craig’s first outing as 007, with them making his tuxedo (said to be worth £6,000 alone). However for
Quantum of Solace
designer Tom Ford took over tailoring duties. Daniel was reported to have ruined around forty bespoke suits during filming. ‘It really is a crime. It makes me weep every time. They’re great suits,’ he told the British press.

I just hope he managed to save a few for himself.

_______________________

BOND

ON

LOCATION

_______________________

I
t might actually be easier to say where Bond
hasn’t
been in the world, though looking at the films, I have so far spotted him travelling to Jamaica, Croatia, Serbia, the UK, the USA, Turkey, Italy, Switzerland, France, Germany, Mexico, Japan, Portugal, Egypt, Lebanon, the Caribbean, Hong Kong, China, Austria, Brazil, Greece, Spain, Russia, Gibraltar, Morocco, Pakistan, Azerbaijan, Monaco, Cuba, South Korea, North Korea, Uganda, Montenegro, Haiti, Bolivia and Madagascar.

Of course, the filmmakers didn’t actually, or necessarily, visit every country – local locations were often dressed to look like somewhere else. For example, RAF Northolt, the Royal Air Force base near Pinewood Studios, doubled as a Cuban airbase in
Octopussy
, for Blue Grass Kentucky in
Goldfinger
and as an Azerbaijani airbase in
The World Is Not Enough
. The opening scenes of
Casino Royale
were filmed in the same place Sean Connery drove his Aston Martin DB5 in
Goldfinger
– Black Park, near Slough. Then there was Brent Cross shopping centre doubling for a Hamburg hotel car park in
Tomorrow Never Dies
; the Nene Valley Railway in Peterborough doubled for East Germany in
Octopussy
and again in
GoldenEye
for Russia. Amberley Working Museum in West Sussex doubled for Silicon Valley; and the IBM Building in Staines doubled for the German HQ of Elliot Carver in
Tomorrow Never Dies.

Typically, when planning 007’s travels, a script outline comes together first, then the writer, director and producers explore potential locations in which to set the action, and from there thrash out the story some more. Many stops along the way turn out to be false trails, with nothing visually exciting to offer; others are too difficult to reach, or don’t have any local infrastructure; and some are politically dodgy, so they’re all ruled out. But once a likely location is confirmed, the whole team of production managers, location managers, production designer and director of photography ship out to lend their thoughts and ideas.

Then there is the important question, ‘Where can we find a top-class hotel for our beloved star, whom we want to treat royally?’

In the 1960s, there were no such things as economy airlines, cheap all-inclusive package holidays – or even colour television in many homes. The only way people were able to see exotic locations and fancy hotels was by buying a ticket to see a Bond film at the cinema. Nowadays it’s harder to find somewhere with which viewers aren’t familiar, which is why places like Azerbaijan and Bolivia pop up on the list.

Moving around between countries with a 200+ crew is like a military exercise. Typically, in my day, we started off on location, with the unit going ahead by charter and us swanky stars – who secured a first-class flight from the kindly producers – going in a day or two later. Then, with those location scenes in the can, it was back to the studio for a few weeks before jetting off to location number two, thereby allowing the studio stages to be re-dressed with new sets to await our second coming. One therefore had to be prepared to live out of a suitcase for four or five months. Thankfully, I have a big suitcase.

I can’t really go into any great detail on the locations used in the films outside of my seven, as I wasn’t there. So let me tell you about me and mine …

When Live And Let Die
was in the planning stage, writer Tom Mankiewicz suggested to Guy Hamilton that they might go to New Orleans. Why? Well, because Guy liked jazz and old Jimbo hadn’t been there before. It sounded like a good enough reason for a trip out there at least – not only was there jazz in New Orleans, there were bayous too.

‘Wouldn’t that give us a great opportunity for a boat chase?’

‘Hey and there’s this crocodile farm upriver …’

‘How about putting Bond in there on an island surrounded by crocs?’

‘Look, there’s this low bridge here. How about we put Bond in a vehicle, and have the villain
chase
him here?’

‘Yes! How about a double-decker bus?’

… And that’s how scripts and set pieces evolve on a Bond film, and in particular this one.

Locations featured include New Orleans, New York, Jamaica (which, of course, was also the setting for
Dr. No
) and Louisiana.

One hotel we used in Jamaica was the Couples Sans Souci, in Ocho Rios. It doubled as Bond’s San Monique base, and had, incidentally, been used as Miss Taro’s home in
Dr. No
a decade earlier. Meanwhile, over at the Half Moon Bay Club in Montego Bay, bungalow 9 was used as Bond’s own. The club also featured in
Casino Royale
with Daniel Craig, though it had been extensively remodelled by then – and hopefully without any unwelcome snakes slipping in.

The Man With The Golden Gun
was originally planned to shoot in Iran, where part of Fleming’s book was set, but the Yom Kippur War broke out. Scouts were sent to Beirut in the Lebanon instead, but declared it ‘not particularly interesting’ – in the filmic sense, of course. Focus quickly switched to Southeast Asia: Phang Gna Bay, Thailand; Bangkok; Macau; and Hong Kong, where the part-submerged wreck of the RMS
Queen Elizabeth
was also used, and written in as a top-secret MI6 base grounded in Victoria Harbour.