Dench's M name revealed thanks to meticulous 'Skyfall' props?

The team at ComingSoon.net were lucky enough to take a much-coveted peek inside the EON archives, and particularly at some of the props used in the latest James Bond outing. Their finds pertain to a number of major spoilers, so read on at your own risk.

Amongst the sheets and sheets of paper painstakingly generated for the filming are Bond's psych and fitness evaluation, indicating that he of course failed the brunt of the tests, as well as the box in which Bond receives a trinket from M.

In the film, Eve brings 007 news of the reading of the will, in which the old MI6 chief left a number of trinkets to colleagues. One of these was the Royal Doulton British Bulldog that adorned her desk and which James Bond despised so much. She naturally leaves it to 007.

Printed on the box, close readers have spotted the name of M, although it is never uttered on film. "Olivia Mansfield bequeaths James Bond" the prop is reported to read.

This is consistent with the line from "Casino Royale" wherein Bond says he initially thought M was randomly assigned nom de plum, and did not have any particular significance to his boss, but since hacking her computer he had discovered otherwise. Before Bond can utter his boss's name, M interjects, "Utter one more syllable and I'll have you killed."

For a while, Bond fan lore was working on the assumption that the M was personally significant to Dench's character, that her call sign was not indeed randomly assigned, and it has previously been rumoured and assumed that Dench's M was named Barbara Mawdsley.

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