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Robert Brown's M - The same M as Bernard Lee or a promoted Admiral Hargreaves ?

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  • CrabKeyCrabKey
    Posts: 1,993
    The head of the service was code named M regardless of name.
  • DragonpolDragonpol https://thebondologistblog.blogspot.com
    Posts: 18,281
    CrabKey wrote: »
    The head of the service was code named M regardless of name.

    Yes, that's correct. I believe it may have stood for Mailedfist as this is mentioned in one of the Bond novels (I think YOLT). We were just joking here of course but it's telling that most of the Ms had surnames beginning with the letter "M".
  • QBranchQBranch Always have an escape plan. Mine is watching James Bond films.
    Posts: 14,584
    Maybe Hargreaves had an M-themed alias, like what Quentin Quigley is to Q.
  • mtmmtm United Kingdom
    Posts: 16,413
    Dragonpol wrote: »
    CrabKey wrote: »
    The head of the service was code named M regardless of name.

    Yes, that's correct. I believe it may have stood for Mailedfist as this is mentioned in one of the Bond novels (I think YOLT). We were just joking here of course but it's telling that most of the Ms had surnames beginning with the letter "M".

    All three of them we know the names of!
  • DragonpolDragonpol https://thebondologistblog.blogspot.com
    Posts: 18,281
    mtm wrote: »
    Dragonpol wrote: »
    CrabKey wrote: »
    The head of the service was code named M regardless of name.

    Yes, that's correct. I believe it may have stood for Mailedfist as this is mentioned in one of the Bond novels (I think YOLT). We were just joking here of course but it's telling that most of the Ms had surnames beginning with the letter "M".

    All three of them we know the names of!

    Yes, indeed. The female M was even called Barbara Mawdsley in Raymond Benson's The Facts of Death (1998) too.
  • mtmmtm United Kingdom
    edited June 2023 Posts: 16,413
    Yes, although that is totally separate to the films, though. I think some prop paperwork was made for one of the Brosnans with Mawdsley on it (different first name) but didn’t make it to screen.
  • DragonpolDragonpol https://thebondologistblog.blogspot.com
    Posts: 18,281
    mtm wrote: »
    Yes, although that is totally separate to the films, though. I think some prop paperwork was made for one of the Brosnans with Mawdsley on it (different first name) but didn’t make it to screen.

    Yes, I just wanted to mention it for the sake of completeness. I know M was named something else in the Craig era Bond films but that name escapes me now. That's interesting that the Mawdsley name was going to be used in a Brosnan era film. I never knew that. I assume that Benson came up with the name rather than Eon themselves? If so, it shows how Eon sometimes like to tip the hat (in a small way) to the continuation Bond novels.
  • mtmmtm United Kingdom
    edited June 2023 Posts: 16,413
    Sure, I wasn't trying to correct you or anything; I just wanted to mention that as people often think the Barbara Mawdsley name was an Eon thing. Benson said on Twitter a few years back that he came up with it, and indeed it's very noticeable that he never used it in any of the movie novelisations he did.
    I wouldn't put too much store in the prop paperwork thing: I would guess that was just some props guys who didn't have a better option at the time, and it may not have been for the final version of the film anyway. I remember seeing a load of prop paperwork from DAD on display in London a few years back which had 'Gala Brand' heavily mentioned all over them: medical reports and evaluations and the like- before she was renamed Miranda Frost. Apparently this name came from DAD too (this is from someone on AJB who has access to props but who isn't always reliably correct), but she had a first name beginning with M rather than B. Cleese's Q is named as Robert Quentin.
    We learn Craig's M was called Olivia Mansfield in Skyfall (it's visible on the box containing the bulldog).


    ME16H4R0_o.jpg
  • DragonpolDragonpol https://thebondologistblog.blogspot.com
    edited June 2023 Posts: 18,281
    No worries, @mtm. I didn't think you trying to correct me. I just wanted to explain my reasoning. That's very interesting about the use of Mawdsley as a name. As you say it may only have been a placeholder name until they found something else or maybe just an overenthusiastic prop man putting the name on. It does remind me of how Lt Columbo's police badge had "Frank Columbo" signed on it and it was even visible in a few scenes. This was even though his first name was never revealed in dialogue in any of the 69 episodes of the series. It was put down to being an overenthusiastic prop man giving him a first name but it's interesting that it appears in both the 1970s NBC episodes and the revival ABC episodes of Columbo as well. I do also remember hearing that Gala Brand was originally going to be the name of the girl in DAD, I think from a programme made in the run-up to the film that showed Purvis and Wade working on the script. I believe it's also an extra on the DAD DVD and was called something like From Source to Screen.
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