I get interested in the amount of comment about James Bond and in particular the amount of arguing over who is the best Bond. Yes, I know a lot of people will say, "No contest, it's Sean, by a mile" but it isn't as simple as that. Bond is first a fiction and second a dramatic construct in which thousands of artists have made a contribution. You get the music of John Barry, then David Arnold, coupled with a tried formula of using the stars of the day to do the title theme, always, if you listen, with the Bond leitmotiv.
Then there is the look. Even I would look good in a £5,000 bespoke suit, an Omega Seamaster on my wrist, at the wheel of an Aston. Bond does not do Catford or Daventry, and even if he did, Ken Adam would have designed the set.
Bond is adored by exotic girls, most of whom have starred in a bit of French soft porn, fluency in English not being a barrier, since Ursula Andress was apparently dubbed.
I think the preference for Bonds is a generational thing. Your favourite is the one you grow up wanting to be. For me, it is Roger Moore and I will tell you why. I remember him from The Saint, which if you watch the re-runs, despite it being made for 7/6d an episode, is carried by Roger Moore's charisma and commitment. Secondly, I could never take the character of James Bond entirely seriously and neither did Moore.
The defining scene for me is Moore in the ski/parachute opening sequence in The Spy Who Loved Me. When it came out audiences cheered. And there's the point. Moore had stand-ins and stunt men. A large crew waited for days in the freezing cold to get the shots. It was pure fantasy and a testament to the many film makers and technicians who put it together.
So really I have no favourite Bond. The films are simply a triumph of motion picture craftsmanship and the hero, such as there is one, is the on in our shared dream.
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