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No. The UK see it for the first time on 12th February. The screening a few days ago was on BBC America in the USA.
I knew that, but I was surprised because almost anybody seems to have seen it...
:-/
There are some nice references to James Bond which just we Bond-fans will pick up. So the writers know their Bond history.
I will follow this mini-series with great anticipation!
Dominic Cooper doesn't look like Ian Fleming but plays the role with a deft mixture of charm and insecurity. Fleming appears to be man of considerable contradiction. On one side he is confident, charming. His privilege of wealth and upbringing give him a condescending regard to authority figures and women; on the other side he is frustrated, feels he hasn't achieved his true potential,
The storyline does seem to borrow a little from the Bond films - we see some visual nods to the films. The beginning is a homage to the Bond films, in particular,
I guess some of the content is based on true events but jazzed up to make it appear more exciting and appealing to a modern tv audience. There is one scene toward the end of the first episode involving an SPOILER REMOVED on London which seem a bit far-fetched and something you'd imagine in a US soap opera or over-the-top Hollywood film. The sex scenes (although not graphic in content) felt a tad cheesy.
If you take the content not too seriously and accept it's rather 'Hollywoodized' and features events that may not have happened to Ian Fleming, I'm sure most James Bond fans will enjoy it. :)
Two more to go, I'll watch them at the end of next week with any luck.
I've watched part 1 and about a third of the way through part 2. It's OK so far.
It was only about an hour or so long, but I liked the docudrama/interview, Bondmaker from 2006. I thought Ben Daniels looked spot on as an older Ian Fleming (not so much as the younger wartime Fleming).
He's the only guest too. 45 minutes of him talking Fleming/Bond.
I think an imaginative writer and director could make a more honest, less sensationalistic biopic of Fleming, especially if they had license to dramatize bits and pieces from Fleming's fiction (though I admit such licence would be hard to acquire).
Such a film could portray the life of the mind. It wouldn't need to be told in chronological order. It could be anchored by quick scenes of Fleming writing at his desk in GoldenEye and reflecting on his past. As he types the screen might fade to the casino in Estoril, showing Commander Fleming in his Naval Intelligence days watching Nazis gamble and fantasizing about foiling them; then the scene might gradually shift into the Bond/LeChiffre card game battle in Casino Royale.
A sequence showing Fleming's marriage to Ann might be intercut with Bond's romance with Vesper. Scenes of the Flemings swimming in Jamaica could be juxtaposed with underwater scenes from the books. Later scenes of the Ann and Ian's souring marriage could be contrasted with romantic scenes from the later Bond novels. Details of Fleming's international travels could shade into Bond's. Eventually fact and fiction would become intermingled and impressionistic, reminiscent of the hallucinatory scenes from the The Singing Detective, where the writer and his creation interacted and clashed. The series could end with Fleming's miserable death, visually showing how Bond exhausted and killed his creator.
I would be interested in watching such a series. But I'm not interested in seeing Fleming's life distorted into a fake Bond film. The truth is much more interesting, especially when augmented by an examination of how Fleming's imagination worked, how it invented a fictional world whose relation to reality is far subtler than anything starring Dominic Cooper.
There are like 3 sex scenes per episode that are like 5 minutes long each. I didn't watch this to see his sex life. I was genuinely interested in his war exploits and his contributions. Episode 3 was a big disappoint. I can only hope Part four gets better.
My personal opinions on the series currently is this.
Episode One: Great starter. Gets the wheels turning.
Episode Two: Really good. Nice homages to Casino Royale. Big buildup.
Episode Three: A dull repeat of things covered in Part one. The buildup from episode two is suddenly gone into focusing on Fleming's sex life which has already be covered in both episodes. All the tension leading up to this buildup is gone. pretty disappointing.
I don't know how the final episode will wrap things up in a one hour episode. Whatever it was building up too should have been fully covered in part 3 but no sadly. I hope they re-release the 1989 GoldenEye biopic about Fleming sometime soon.
E1: Great.
E2: Real good.
E3: Porn.
@Creasy47, Pretty much.
Well, hopefully I can get around to it soon. I have so much I want to catch up on. Too many movies and shows to start online. I think when I get my Spring Break from college, I'm going to just tackle everything I've wanted to see in one week and see how much I can get into, including this.
One more left and two days to go!
“The spy story to end all spy stories” (Ian Fleming)
We all know the character of James Bond, but significantly less is known about his creator Ian Fleming. This was the subject of the four part drama that has just concluded on Sky Atlantic. As something of a hard-core Bond fan this was essential viewing.
Fleming himself has been depicted on television before, most notably by Charles Dance in 1989’s Goldeneye (the title referring to his luxury house in Jamaica). This however is the first significant production looking at the author in some time.
The programme focuses primarily on his earlier days during the Second World War and his involvement with Intelligence, which eventually inspired him to pen the first Bond novel Casino Royale in 1952. Additionally, Fleming’s turbulent love life is also explored as he finds himself becoming intensely involved with married woman Anne O’Neil (whom he too would later go on to marry).
One of the much debated questions over the years has been how much or how little Fleming resembles his famous literary creation. From the outset this drama sets him out to be something of a poser with an appetite for aggressive sex acts (a good excuse for a few gratuitous scenes throughout the series). Not too dissimilar to our hero then. Fleming does all the other things you would expect, he gambles, he smokes, he frequents in sophisticated social circles and – most of all – has an appetite for adventure. Throughout a major portion of this dramatization we see his frustration of not being allowed to venture out from behind his desk. When he finally does the results are somewhat surprising.
Ultimately though Fleming himself is romanticised to a large degree. This is reflected in the casting of Dominic Cooper, a man who resembles the likes of former Bond actors Roger Moore and Pierce Brosnan more than the real Ian. Ultimately he’s a smug playboy with a flamboyant lifestyle, who is desperate to be taken seriously. Especially as his brother Peter is a successful war hero and his mother looks down on him.
Perhaps as one would expect, there are several nods and references to Bond throughout the series, some of which are more subtle than others.
The production itself is solid overall (regardless of a few cheap looking special effects shots) and the performances likewise are very good (Leslie Manville in particular shines as Fleming’s cold mother). However the main shortcoming of Fleming is that it ultimately presents itself as fictionalised, throwaway fluff. Much like his literary creation this is not to be taken seriously, therefore one cannot help but feel the producers have taken an easy, “safe” route. There’s a more interesting drama buried in here somewhere that needs to come out. While not a bad way to spend a few hours Fleming nonetheless is somewhat forgettable.
I will say, though, even though Cooper looked nothing like Ian Fleming, I did think that he could be a potential Bond. His performance(s) exuded all the qualities that I like in a Bond.
I liked the series but I can't help but feel it could have been better.
Still believe Toby Stephens would have made a good Fleming.