That’s… alright, I guess?
Then at least I have something to hug at Christmas. 
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December 2.
I wonder who’s behind the little window on the Badvent Calendar for today? I hope it’s not “Vesper socks” otherwise it’s going in the bin.
Let’s have a look.
Why, it’s Scottish Shrieker Lulu! Hello Lulu! Merry Christmas Lulu! No…no, don’t “sing” your reply. Just speak it. That’ll be fine.
Seeing you there Lulu reminds me that’s it’s fifty years since your extraordinary rendition - and it feels like being subjected to Extraordinary Rendition - of “The Man with the Golden Gun”. It also sets the mind a-wander in the direction of the vote below…
- Bond theme songs should be performed by British artists / bands, to maintain an impression of “Britishness” about the whole enterprise.
- No, this really doesn’t matter.
0
voters
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Couldn’t care less what’s the accent in a theme song, Bond or otherwise. As long as it’s not Lothar Matthäus Franconian English I’m fine.
“No Dime Duh Dei”? 
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“Hobb ve haff a liddle bit luggy…
”
It doesn’t matter, as people say, but I wonder if this is why they do generally (if not exclusively) hire such folk?
All that said, some of the (subjectively) better songs are not delivered by “British”.
Pushing it a bit wider, for those of us not British, is there an appeal in Bond’s notional Britishness? The British press and I think a lot of the cinema-going public here have a fondness for Bond (and to some extent, give it more leeway than other things) because it makes us look a bit sexy, perhaps. Or at least competent. The next Bond will still be a huge story here, whereas I don’t think we’re all that bothered about who gets to be, say, Batman. Is Bond a cultural ambassador for us? Might just be a highly fictionalised / romanticised / idealised projection, but does it have any traction?
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For a not British German (you Brits love us for the best reasons, I know) and a passionate traveler to GB like me, Bond indeed was a kind of ambassador: more deadly than Sherlock Holmes, maybe a tad less than Miss Marple.
Is the Britishness essential for me? Yes. A Bond who would be an American or even worse a German would just not work for me. Too primitive, both. (And I am including me, absolutely.) I rather enjoy the absurd idea of one British agent saving the world and surpassing every other nations‘ spies.
As for the title song - well, the whole enterprise started as a booster for the British entertainment industry, and British musicians are always way ahead of, well, German ones, for instance.
Then again, even the best British ones were turned down. Even this one. Probably because his last name did not work crosspromotionally:
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What matters is the quality and how Bondesque the song is: nothing else.
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I think so. Without it, Bond is a generic spy.
I think it provides narrative context and texture.
But then again…
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I largely grew up in Germany, starting a mere 20 years after the war. Meaning that pretty much every adult you met as a child had actually lived through the war - and a huge proportion of them actively participated, either as soldiers or as flag weaving support from the sidelines of the home front. That experience gave most in my generation a healthy scepticism towards any form of nationalism and flag waving*.
I will not judge this phenomenon here; it’s just the way it was. For us (figuratively speaking) Germany was boring and small - and the Anglosphere was our place of longing, particularly the US where everything was possible (***evil Ming the Merciless laughter fading in the distance ***). Our generation fully embraced Atlanticism. Hell, the Atlantik-Brücke is practically built out of us now.
So we naturally used to look towards the West - but Britain initially wasn’t particularly interesting for us. Miss Marple and Task Force Police (that’s Softly, Softly Task Force), Onedin Line and Upstairs, Downstairs made it look as if Britain was altogether about as small and boring a place as Germany, possibly just stuffier and with worse weather. Not exactly a place you dream about when the competition is Texas or California, Disney World and Florida. (***more evil Ming laughter, full of feral venom and glee; eff you, Ming ***).
In the 60s Swinging London was a focal point - but I dare say only for a particular part of the population. Ten years onwards we kids didn’t find Britain in the least exciting. Okay, castles and manors were supposed to be haunted by ghosts. That’s exciting as an idea, but not exclusive to Britain.
What changed my mind was indeed James Bond. He was the first secret agent I met - and I met him even before he was James Bond. He called himself ‘Lord Brett Sinclair’ and that was probably the first time I gave the nationality of one of my heroes any thought at all. When he, some years later, skied over a cliff and a Union Jack saved him - that was the starting shot of my journey into that strange and exciting country, a ‘united kingdom’ like none other.
That Bond is British (although most Germans would likely falsely consider him an ‘Engländer’ - an Englishman) is important insofar as since the war this really means the underdog role among the five victorious allies of WW2. The appeal is that a) while Bond is a Briton working for the government the films don’t usually make a lot of fuss about this. Things like the Union Flag parachute and the ON HER MAJESTY’S titles stick out because flag weaving isn’t usually Bond’s department.**
And b) the films usually were set anywhere across the globe outside the UK - or at least they made it look like that. Bond wasn’t tied to Britain like The Avengers; he visited many strange and intriguing places - and never seemed blasé about the customs. Displaced, misplaced, yes often enough. But he didn’t judge foreign peoples on their table manners (that he reserved for Red Grant) or their menu, even if he foregoes the odd cooked goat head. That’s what made Bond somewhat personable and inspired us (read: me) to explore the world in a similar fashion.
Bond’s services to the UK cannot be overestimated. This romanticised/idealised fiction of a brave Briton inside a capable Secret Service pervaded the image of the real SIS and the entire nation like no other fiction I can think of. Read any number of 60s/70s spy thrillers and British services (and thus Britons as a whole) will usually come across as likeable, reasonable, capable - the opposite of their more vulgar American counterparts. And dependable without fail, as opposed to the notoriously leaky French ones, all of them infiltrated by the Russians and borderline communist to the last man. Funny to think the Cambridge Five weren’t Frenchmen and ultra secret files are found far more often on the London underground than on the Metro.
That’s the might of the myth for you. And the myth is really what made bizarre things possible in the past. When I was tasked with keeping an eye on events after the 2016 referendum I talked to numerous people, grownup adults, who rather preferred to live inside the myth than admit realities. It’s what makes me sceptical about future developments, the fact we tend to rather have a shiny faerie tale.
Yes, Bond is without a doubt a major cultural ambassador for the country. Personally, I wouldn’t much care if it was an American, Irishman, South African who depicted him. But today it would HUGELY matter to the nation.
*To this day I find odd how people outside football stadiums wear little flags on their lapels, particularly if it’s politicians. They should know what country they live in and serve. Or at least they shouldn’t need a reminder.
**And it might be interesting to analyse what exactly changed between, say, THE WORLD IS NOT ENOUGH and SKYFALL where it feels like that film had twice as many Union Jack images as the entire series up to that point. I also seem to remember Fleming (supposedly) writing a ‘bible’ for the film series where he stipulates to eschew ‘typical’ caricature Briton paraphernalia like heavy tweeds and the like. Bond wasn’t supposed to be decked out like Blake and Mortimer.
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Perfectly stated and agreed, same experiences growing up.
That seems to be a pervasive idea everywhere now - the myth about having been great once, enough to buy into any promise to bring back the “past”.
But that also seems to apply to Bond: the idea of Bond being “Bond” again, something I myself fall victim to again and again. Maybe nostalgia is the biggest enemy we’re all facing these days.
I always took that for a blunt/cynical attempt at milking the Olympic Games-mood.
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Nostalgia is the biggest enemy a person can face on any day.
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But it´s so cozy and affirmative…
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Cozy and affirmative are for fleece bed jackets and cups of cocoa.
An attitude toward existence needs to clear and reality-based.
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… and never looking back, fondly?
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I often look back with fondness. I endeavor to refrain from indulging in nostalgia.
I follow the path of Simone Signoret (and shouldn’t we all?).
Also recommended:
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This is interesting; there has been a shift in tone in how the Establishment is depicted (albeit part of this may be the hiring of bigger name actors and giving them something to “do”, some conflict in their own character which the likes of Robert Brown and the cost of hiring him wasn’t ever going to be required to justify). All those flags in Skyfall and still I’d say that the most potent use of the Union Flag is the parachute in The Spy who Loved Me, where it’s treated as a bit of fun; also, the hot air balloon in Octopussy, albeit less indelible as an image. Given that 70s and 80s Britain had significant political, economic and social issues, it’s interesting that none of these seemed to rain on James Bond or those watching him. Perhaps that’s the re-reboot angle; everything’s just great.
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Yes! And EON could backtrack with „We never really meant Bond to be serious. Even when we tried.“
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Although I’m generally in favour of where they went with the Craig mini-series, I could do with a laugh. It’s possible that the single greatest departure from British social and political reality ever committed to mass entertainment is Moonraker (the British are borriwng a Space Shuttle - during the Winter of Discontent; hootsome madness), perhaps only matched by Tomorrow Never Dies (the British fleet of five old boats, one of which doesn’t work and the other one has been sunk, are going to take on the Chinese). I like both films enormously and this may be why.
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