John Rain - Thunderbook: The World of Bond According to Smersh Pod

This paperback edition first published in 2022 by

POLARIS PUBLISHING LTD
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First published in 2019

Text copyright John Rain, 2019, 2022

Illustrations by Phil Beverley
Kall Kwik WGC
www.kallkwikwgc.co.uk

ISBN: 9780957507661
eBook ISBN: 9781788853279

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For James and Alex

Sometimes irreverent, sometimes camp but always deeply affectionate, Thunderbook is a big fat love letter to the Bond franchise. John Rains main endeavour is to make us laugh and he achieves this with great aplomb. Its beautifully observed and a laugh-out-loud joy

KATHY BURKE

An affectionately droll Bond-by-Bond stroll through the films we know and love, whether we like them or not; the rest of this endorsement will avoid puns like Double Oh Heaven and Licensed to Thrill

AL MURRAY

A book full of Bond love and occasional bewilderment

SAMIRA AHMED

Nobody does it better. John Rain delivers his love letter to Bond with a raised eyebrow that would do Roger Moore proud

JOEL MORRIS

CONTENTS

List of Illustrations

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Thanks to: Joel Morris, Jason Hazeley, Marc Haynes, Great Big Owl, Julia Raeside, Polaris (Pete, Julie and Alison), Scott Innes, Stephen Graham, Jason Sinclair, Paul Litchfield, Sean, George, Roger, Tim, Pierce, Daniel, EON, Mum, Dad, Chris, Pete and Mannie... and my classic family.

INTRODUCTION

AS BRITISH AS tuppence, yet as international as the Beatles, James Bond is truly a hallowed cultural institution. A solid link in the long, winding chain of the national DNA. A friend on bank holidays, flourishing among the war movies, Carry On films and The Two Ronnies specials. 007 has been a companion to an entire generation of children who were raised on Sean flinging a hat into the bars of Fort Knox, George telling us it never happened to the other fella and Roger skiing off a mountain. He was a window into the world during a time when the world was less travelled. Who needed to go abroad when you could watch James Bond do it instead? People either wanted to be him or be with him. He had the best cars, the best clothes, the best watches and, at times, magic powers. He could drive, fly, glide, sail, hover or swim anywhere, and could outsmart the very smartest around. His only weakness was, it turned out, appalling misogyny.

When Ian Fleming sat down and decided to turn his insider knowledge of the highly dangerous and exciting world of espionage into a book, he would have had no idea that he was about to create an icon. The places Bond would go, the things he would see all stemmed directly from Flemings pen. The tragedy was that he died during the making of Goldfinger, and therefore never got to see the boob-zoom bit from Octopussy, which he would no doubt have appreciated.

When I was eight years old I went to the cinema with my mum to see Ladyhawke, a fantasy adventure starring Matthew Broderick and Michelle Pfeiffer, in which a woman turns into a bird. However, when we got there we realised wed got the times wrong and had missed it. Luckily, A View to a Kill was about to start on the other screen, and being aware of Bond via the Shredded Wheat sticker campaign during Octopussy and the odd viewing every now and then with my parents on bank holidays, I was only too happy to wander in and see what would happen next. As I sat in the dark and watched a 57-year-old Roger Moore run up the stairs of the Eiffel Tower, I knew that I had found my hero. I would spend the rest of my formative years becoming increasingly smitten with the frankly ridiculous premise of a middle-aged man relentlessly saving the world in increasingly bizarre circumstances, and just as obsessed with each new incarnation as it arrived.

I started Smersh Pod, the podcast celebrating the Bond films (by those who enjoy/hate/arent arsed about them), because I wanted to share some of my knowledge, observations and favourite moments from the 25 official films to date plus the unofficial Never Say Never Again. If youre aware of the podcast, youll know how this all works, but if youve never heard of it, then please come with me as we fix a complicated drink and journey through Bond in film, soaking up the thrills and spills and savouring the devil-may-care attitude of 007.

I hope this book will be seen as a vital and indispensable tool for the discerning Bond fan for many years to come. If Im wrong, then obviously I deserve a laser-beam to the groin, swiftly followed by a dunk in the piranha tank.

John Rain
May 2022

ONE

DR. NO

1962

WHEN DR. NO was released in 1962 and cinemagoers flocked to their local theatres, they thought they knew what they were getting. The movie was based on the sixth James Bond novel by Ian Fleming, published in 1958 a series which had already established itself as a cultural phenomenon. But as the studio logo cuts to black, those fledgling audiences had no idea that they were bearing witness to the birth of a movie franchise that would come to dominate the film world for more than 60 years.