007 Audio Dramas' / Radio Plays / Audiobooks

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  • JohnHammond73JohnHammond73 Lancashire, UK
    Posts: 4,151
    Don't suppose anyone on here has ever heard the Moonraker production that starred Bob "Can I have a P please Bob?" Holness as James Bond. Broadcast on South African radio in 1956, I would love to hear it. Or is this likely to be a Bond Holy Grail??
  • Posts: 4,044
    I think it was broadcast live, and not recorded.
  • timdalton007timdalton007 North Alabama
    Posts: 155
    Everything I've ever found indicates that the South African Moonraker was not recorded. It seems very likely the scripts might even survive at this point. Thankfully, Jarvis & Ayers just did their own adaptation for BBC Radio 4 and it is fantastic!

    timdalton007
  • Agent_99Agent_99 enjoys a spirited ride as much as the next girl
    Posts: 3,176
    Only just seen that Radio 4 Extra is airing Goldfinger at 3pm today. Another chance to hear Toby Stephens as Bond and the lovely Martin Jarvis as Ian Fleming, with Rosamund Pike as Pussy Galore and Ian McKellen as Goldfinger:
    https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00rq1w3
  • Red_SnowRed_Snow Australia
    Posts: 2,540
    Following its airing last week, From Russia with Love is available on BBC Sounds:
    https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01kxzr6
  • mtmmtm United Kingdom
    Posts: 16,428
    The Man with the Golden Gun - BBC Radio 4
    Saturday 14th March 2020 2.45 - 4.15pm

    M sends Bond to Jamaica and gives him the seemingly impossible mission of killing Francisco "Pistols" Scaramanga, a Cuban assassin who is believed to have killed several British secret agents.
    Scaramanga is known as "The Man with the Golden Gun" because his weapon of choice is a gold-plated Colt .45 revolver, which fires silver-jacketed solid-gold bullets.

    Jarvis & Ayres 9th adaptation of Ian Fleming's 12th James Bond novel (first published in April 1965).
    Dramatization by Archie Scottney starring Toby Stephens as James Bond and Guillermo Díaz as Francisco Scaramanga
  • Posts: 4,044
    mtm wrote: »
    The Man with the Golden Gun - BBC Radio 4
    Saturday 14th March 2020 2.45 - 4.15pm

    M sends Bond to Jamaica and gives him the seemingly impossible mission of killing Francisco "Pistols" Scaramanga, a Cuban assassin who is believed to have killed several British secret agents.
    Scaramanga is known as "The Man with the Golden Gun" because his weapon of choice is a gold-plated Colt .45 revolver, which fires silver-jacketed solid-gold bullets.

    Jarvis & Ayres 9th adaptation of Ian Fleming's 12th James Bond novel (first published in April 1965).
    Dramatization by Archie Scottney starring Toby Stephens as James Bond and Guillermo Díaz as Francisco Scaramanga

    Thanks for the heads up.
  • mtm wrote: »
    The Man with the Golden Gun - BBC Radio 4
    Saturday 14th March 2020 2.45 - 4.15pm

    M sends Bond to Jamaica and gives him the seemingly impossible mission of killing Francisco "Pistols" Scaramanga, a Cuban assassin who is believed to have killed several British secret agents.
    Scaramanga is known as "The Man with the Golden Gun" because his weapon of choice is a gold-plated Colt .45 revolver, which fires silver-jacketed solid-gold bullets.

    Jarvis & Ayres 9th adaptation of Ian Fleming's 12th James Bond novel (first published in April 1965).
    Dramatization by Archie Scottney starring Toby Stephens as James Bond and Guillermo Díaz as Francisco Scaramanga

    Looking forward to this.
  • Red_SnowRed_Snow Australia
    Posts: 2,540
    @mtm Do you have the direct link for the listing?
  • mtmmtm United Kingdom
    Posts: 16,428
    Red_Snow wrote: »
    @mtm Do you have the direct link for the listing?

    Sure:
    https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000gdtd
  • So, after TMWTGG later on today, thast leaves just CR and TSWLM yet to be done as a BBC Radio play (if you include the Michael Jayston YOLT, of course). I can't see them doing TSWLM, given how the structure is so different and it doesn't really lend itself to adaptation. I can see why they've held back from making CR, given how recent the film is (and the fact that the film is actually fairly faithful to the novel until the Venice bit at the end), but I'd like to see them adapt that for Toby Stephens.

    After that, should they continue? Personally I'd like them to try to do some of the short stories, maybe by creating an overarching narrative to connect The Living Daylights, From A View To A Kill, For Your Eyes Only, and Risico into one story. Colonel Sun would be a good adaptation too. They can skip the Gardner & Benson novels (imo) & adapt the five new continuation novels if allowed by Eon & Ian Fleming Publications.
  • mtmmtm United Kingdom
    Posts: 16,428
    Yeah there’s not a lot of good stuff left, really. Doing the Horowitz novels would be rather fun though.
  • edited March 2020 Posts: 520
    PussyNoMore adores these BBC dramatisations.
    They have been faithfully adapted, intelligently abridged and extremely well produced.
    TMWTGG was no exception.
    The most dramatic introduction was there in all its glory and you could virtually smell Jamaica when the setting moved - not to mention the cordite from Scaramanga’s .45
    Toby Stephens is phenomenal as Bond. He shows Craig a clean pair of heels.
    What’s more when you listen to this, you realise how fantastic faithful screen adaptations of Fleming’s novels could be !
  • Loved this adaptation, the quality of them has been great. That said, listening to this has reminded me of how TMWTGG is Fleming's weakest novel for me.
  • Posts: 520
    Loved this adaptation, the quality of them has been great. That said, listening to this has reminded me of how TMWTGG is Fleming's weakest novel for me.

    BonSimonLeBon_1, The Pussy agrees that it’s his weakest novel but strangely he thought it performed better as a radio dramatisation.

  • I think what helped make it surpass the original is that the Radio adaptation used the ability to give an "inner monologue" to bond that was missing from the original novel. That's where Radio excels over film (at least in my opinion).
  • Posts: 859
    The YT version :
  • timdalton007timdalton007 North Alabama
    Posts: 155
    Just been reading Mark Edlitz's excellent The Many Lives of James Bond at long last and his interview with Michael Jayston made for interesting reading as a fan of the audio Bond. Particularly Jayston saying there were plans to do more when the BBC YOLT was done, but that it didn't go ahead and it was only with the Stephens ones happened that Bond on audio became more of a thing. All of which makes me curious to know which ones they might have done circa 1991-92.
  • mtmmtm United Kingdom
    Posts: 16,428
    Here's one I think we missed: Martin Jarvis was interviewed before Christmas and let slip that the next Radio 4 adaptation is Casino Royale

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/radio/what-to-listen-to/martin-jarvis-james-bond-audiobooks-radio-william/

  • Agent_99Agent_99 enjoys a spirited ride as much as the next girl
    Posts: 3,176
    mtm wrote: »
    Here's one I think we missed: Martin Jarvis was interviewed before Christmas and let slip that the next Radio 4 adaptation is Casino Royale

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/radio/what-to-listen-to/martin-jarvis-james-bond-audiobooks-radio-william/

    Oh awesome!
  • DragonpolDragonpol https://thebondologistblog.blogspot.com
    edited January 29 Posts: 18,281
    mtm wrote: »
    Here's one I think we missed: Martin Jarvis was interviewed before Christmas and let slip that the next Radio 4 adaptation is Casino Royale

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/radio/what-to-listen-to/martin-jarvis-james-bond-audiobooks-radio-william/

    That's welcome news. For some reason I had it in my head that they'd already done all of the Fleming Bond novels and we were waiting to see how they would approach the short stories. It would be great to see them adapted too. A radio adaptation of Kingsley Amis's Colonel Sun would be the icing on the cake once all the Fleming Bonds were adapted. It was written in the 1960s and is the best written Bond continuation novel in my opinion so it should really be adapted too. Realistically, it might be the only chance to ever see the book adapted in full given they've already taken so many bits from it in the Eon Bond films.
  • Posts: 2,161
    Dragonpol wrote: »
    mtm wrote: »
    Here's one I think we missed: Martin Jarvis was interviewed before Christmas and let slip that the next Radio 4 adaptation is Casino Royale

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/radio/what-to-listen-to/martin-jarvis-james-bond-audiobooks-radio-william/

    That's welcome news. For some reason I had it in my head that they'd already done all of the Fleming Bond novels and we were waiting to see how they would approach the short stories. It would be great to see them adapted too. A radio adaptation of Kingsley Amis's Colonel Sun would be the icing on the cake once all the Fleming Bonds were adapted. It was written in the 1960s and is the best written Bond continuation novel in my opinion so it should really be adapted too. Realistically, it might be the chance to ever see the book adapted in full given they've already taken so many bits from it in the Eon Bond films.

    Exactly.
  • timdalton007timdalton007 North Alabama
    Posts: 155
    mtm wrote: »
    Here's one I think we missed: Martin Jarvis was interviewed before Christmas and let slip that the next Radio 4 adaptation is Casino Royale

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/radio/what-to-listen-to/martin-jarvis-james-bond-audiobooks-radio-william/

    I'd missed this bit of news and very welcome it is, too. Given we're going on four years since Golden Gun was broadcast, I'd rather assumed the series had ended. Nice to think there's a chance they'll complete the set. And I second @Dragonpol's idea of them adapting Colonel Sun, even if I don't hold that novel in quite so high regard. Just as likely is them tackling the Horowitz trilogy given they slot in around the various other adaptations.
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