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Merry Christmas to all on MI6 Community! :)
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/dec/24/terminally-ill-dutch-child-raises-2m-with-nail-painting-challenge
Also, I'll have something to post tonight for the day that is in it, although since I've already posted in this thread earlier in the month, I'm more than happy for someone else to take this one if anybody wants it?
Thank you, @fire_and_ice. Glad you enjoyed them! :)
I'll keep this one short and sweet. It's very difficult for me to think of anything substantial to add to this thread after all of the amazing contributions from everyone over the last 24 days here.
Thought I might start this post off with a lovely little promo piece from Sky that paid tribute to Bond and featured all 6 actors. It's such a wonderfully edited video and I wanted to find something that included all the men who brought the role to life.
As @0BradyM0Bondfanatic7 said earlier in this thread, it's amazing to think that Sean, George, Rog, Tim, Pierce and Dan are all still with us, especially given the year that's in it. Even as I type news is coming about George Michael passing. The fact that all of these brilliant actors are still with us is something we should all be grateful for.
I'd also like to take a moment to reflect on the genius of Ian Fleming.
What a marvellous imagination that man had. Little did he know at the time of writing Casino Royale that he was about to create a character that would transcend all forms of media and last for all of eternity.
It's also worth thanking everybody here in the Mi6 Community. Thanks for all the discussions, speculation, sharing, celebrating, debating and allowing me to switch off momentarily from the stresses of day to day life to indulge in a world of fandom chatter about my favourite fictional hero. It's a pleasure to be part of this community.
To all the mods, all the members and especially to everyone who has taken part in this terrific thread by @BondJasonBond006 - Thank you!
I wish everyone a very, merry Christmas (Jones)
On Christmas Eve of 1971, I was 17 years old , and not really in much of a mood for hanging out with my parents and grandparents, or my significantly younger siblings either, in order to mark significant holidays.
Therefore, when a friend showed up at my door urging “C’mon, let’s get out of here! Let’s go see the new Bond movie! It’s got the REAL James Bond in it, you know! Not like the last one!” I made hasty excuses to my assembled family members. We piled into his older brother’s rattle-trap of a car, and tooled off to the local drive-in to see Sean Connery, “the REAL James Bond,” in Diamonds Are Forever . I didn’t really have any money to pay for my admission to the film, not having an actual job at that time -- all my available cash had gone towards buying Christmas gifts. But when I confessed this lack to my friends, their response was a cryptic “Don’t worry, we’ve got it covered.” So I must confess to being a little confused when, upon arriving at the drive-in theatre…we didn’t actually DRIVE into the drive-in. Instead, we parked the car on the street just past the theatre’s exit…and as the “coming attractions” played, we crouched down and snuck in through the exit that was barricaded against cars trying to come through without paying…but of no use against a silent band of agents on foot! The half-full field of cars filled with paying customers took no note of us, and we were crouched too low to be seen by drive-in personnel. We hunkered down in the loose gravel of an unclaimed parking space, grabbed a few tinny-sounding speakers and brought them as close as could be managed…and proceeded to watch the movie, bundled up against the cool of the California winter night. We had brought along libations to keep us warm, and that (and the excitement of our covert op!) was enough to keep the winter’s chill at bay. It was my one and only undercover operation with the mission of A View to a Free James Bond movie…and it was a complete success!
Do I regret my youthful indiscretion now, from the perspective of an older and supposedly wiser man? Well…not really. It was an adventure I’ll always remember, one that I like to think Bond himself might have undertaken in similar circumstances. Would I make reparations if I could? Possibly…but the drive-in itself has long ago closed, and Eon Productions has seen its fair share of my hard-earned money in the years since. Does it excuse me that I was unaware that my friend and his brother had not informed me of the caper’s plan until we were actually parked behind the theatre, and my only other option was to wait in the car alone until they returned? It doesn’t really matter; what happened, happened; I took part in it and lived to tell the tale. There was no champagne and no girl to kiss at the end of the adventure…but the next day I opened my Christmas presents surrounded by my family. Still, the greatest Christmas gift I received that year -- the only one I can remember now, 45 years later -- was a story I am happy to tell you today.
Here’s a Christmas-themed trailer for the movie in question. Sean Connery IS James Bond, and Diamonds are for Christmas.
December 27th: @Birdleson
December 28th: @Agent_99
December 29th: @MajorDSmythe
December 30th: @4EverBonded
New Year's Eve: @BondJasonBond006
I will post a proper thank you to all participants on the 31st. You are the best people!
it's your turn :)
I've enjoyed all the posts in this thread, but my favourites have been the ones filled with personal memories. So I'd like to use this slot to talk about GoldenEye, which has a special place in my heart as the first Bond film I saw on the big screen.
I had the bad luck to become a fan during the wilderness years of the early '90s. Having caught up with the back catalogue several times over, I was really, really excited about seeing something brand new.
When the film came out, I had just turned 18 and embarked on the first term of a four-year degree in dead languages, so the two things - a new chapter for me, a new chapter for James Bond - are forever linked in my mind. The term ended with Christmas holidays, so GE always feels like a Christmas movie to me, too.
On opening night, I made my trip to the cinema in the company of the exciting new friends I'd known for, ooh, several weeks at this point. We all attired ourselves appropriately for the occasion, which in my case meant cross-dressing as Bond in a secondhand jacket formerly owned by a crewman on a P&O ferry, plus a bow tie on Velcro I bought specially.
Who were these friends? Where are they now? I have no idea. But I still have the jacket and bow tie.
My university has an extreme sports society, which had been involved in the dam jump from the opening sequence. In celebration of this, as we queued to get in to the cinema, some of the society's members abseiled down the building before running up to a woman in the crowd and presenting her with a box of chocolates (the Milk Tray Man explained, for those outside the UK):
(I had completely forgotten I photographed the stunt until I found this just now while looking for something else.)
Then we were in, and for the first time in my life I was sharing the experience of watching all-new Bond with friends and strangers.
Cast your mind back along with me, and recall a time when you didn't know there was going to be a tank chase in St Petersburg, or a Eurocopter Tiger (one of my favourite helicopters), or Alan Cumming with a silly accent! and when the idea of a female M was new and radical. It was sheer bliss.
Here's that opening stunt, which still stands up as a spectacular way to bring Bond back:
As a newly-minted adult, I had been given a parental allowance to cover textbooks, food, clothes and other necessities during the term. So obviously I spent it on Bond merchandise and good times, while I lived on breakfast cereal.
My parents didn't let me have toy guns when I was little, so this development was inevitable: the official GE pistol, with subtle holster detailing for undercover work. It's obviously not Mint On Card, because if you own a James Bond gun and you don't fire it at yourself in the mirror from time to time, there's something wrong with you.
Probably the only time in my student career I splashed out on bottled water.
I got this mini Smirnoff standee from a pub where I was teaching myself to drink, with mixed results, in the company of some people with whom I was performing in a Christmas pantomime. (Where are they now? I still go drinking regularly with one of them. The rest, no idea.) Possibly my favourite collector's item, just for the happy memory of stuffing it up my jumper and walking out with it.
While I was writing all this up, I remembered that somewhere I had a stash of press cuttings and other ephemera I carefully hoarded at the time, so I have just spent a delightful hour going through that. Here's a selection, including the postcard I stuck on the door of my student bedroom:
Thanks for bearing with me on this journey down memory lane; I hope you've enjoyed it half as much as I have!
I'll do another post some time with more Brosnan-era flyers and clippings, because much of what I turned up is terrifyingly, hilariously dated.
After the 31st, we still can post a few things. So feel free to post again from January 1st onward, and thanks for that great post!
My gifts to the community are a number of my favourite Bond videos:
A defense of Timothy Dalton as James Bond:
A trailer for The Living Daylights in the style of the GoldenEye trailer:
1960's super cool take on the Bond theme by Hugo Montenegro:
A selection of deleted scenes from the Connery to Brosnsn era films:
And lastly, a trailer for The Man With The Golden Gun starring George Lazenby: