How 007 kept the British end up for London 2012 Olympic bid victory

James Bond may be a fictional character, but his influence as a British icon helped in some way to win the London 2012 bid for the Olympic games, and to assist in the celebrations.

Back in November last year, Sir Roger Moore appeared in a promotional video for the London 2012 bid, spoofing his days as 007 with Samantha Bond - the latest incarnation of Miss Moneypenny.





And yesterday, after London was announced as the winning bid in an IOC conference held in Singapore, 007 was back in a different guise.

In a square opposite the town hall in Paris, close to where Roger Moore filmed scenes for the 1985 film "A View To A Kill", French supporters awaited the decision on a large screen. Just after Paris was expected to be announced the winner (by the bookmakers and Parisians alike), a band was due to play the French anthem with all the pomp and ceremony the gathered crowd could lap up.

Instead, when London was given the games against the odds, the silence of the crowd was broken by the band playing the James Bond motif and a medley of 007 theme songs to congratulate the British victory. The band were quickly booed by the locals and eventually left the stage as the crowd filtered away from the scene of the bad news.

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Thanks to `JP` for the alert.

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