Preview of `Ian Fleming - Bondmaker` BBC docudrama this Sunday

Whether the creator of James Bond ever introduced himself in such a way, is not reliably recorded. But since his death in 1964, the man behind Britain's most celebrated fictional secret agent has attracted almost as much interest as 007 himself. Much has been written about potential inspirations for the character who remains, to this day, one of the most recognisable symbols of stylised British-ness. Historians have pored over Fleming's louche, high-society friends, ranging from Russian-born agents to naval intelligence officers, in search of a single figure who embodied Bond's qualities - reports The Herald.

But how much of Fleming's own personality and life is reflected in Bond? It is this question that a forthcoming BBC drama-documentary, Ian Fleming – Bondmaker, to go out on Sunday, seeks to answer. The similarities and differences between the two are subject to a Bond-style re-creation, with actor Ben Daniels (who starred in Cutting It and Conspiracy) playing the part of Fleming and Emily Woof (from The League of Gentlemen's Apocalypse) as his wife, Lady Ann Rothermere.

The drama opens in 1964 with Fleming at his Jamaican home, Goldeneye (the code name for one of his wartime naval intelligence operations), being interviewed. Asked how he would describe his creation, Fleming's reply is delivered amid a puff of cigarette smoke: "James Bond is the man every girl secretly dreams of meeting and the man who leads the life every man would like to live, if he dared." He adds: "He [Bond] is the author's pillow fantasy of feverish dreams of what I might have been. I do rather envy him."

But having established that gulf between Fleming and Bond, the various scenes of Fleming's life are depicted in such a Bondly fashion – think bath scenes with sultry women and dry one-liners delivered amid plumes of smoke – that the viewer could be forgiven for thinking the two men are one and the same.

It is often unclear who is talking. Whose thoughts are we privy to, Bond or Fleming's, when, for example, Fleming sits down alone to breakfast on the verandah of Goldeneye, declaring, a la Roger Moore: "Scrambled eggs and coffee. The only two things in the world you can depend on," before looking up at his wife, standing in the distance and giving her a withering look befitting the misogynistic character he created.

Colette Flight, the producer of Bondmaker, maintains that the programme offers a fresh perspective on an age-old debate. "I think it does give people a new look at Fleming and Bond," she says. "I don't think many people know Fleming's story. He had his own adventures. Fleming took that and transformed it for James Bond."

Ian Fleming was born in 1908, the son of a Tory MP, Major Valentine Fleming, who was killed in the First World War, and the grandson of a banker, Robert Fleming, who was from Dundee. Educated at Eton, where he distinguished himself only at sports, and trained at Sandhurst, Ian Fleming's formative years gave him an insight into the mindset of the quintessential English gent. He spent time in Switzerland and three years as a student in Munich and Geneva.

In 1931, after deciding against an army career, he secured a job in journalism at Reuters through family connections and was posted to Moscow and Berlin. After Reuters, he became a stock broker, before the outbreak of the Second World War offered him a insight into life in the intelligence services. He was made personal assistant to the director of naval intelligence, essentially a desk job with little glamour, but one in which he excelled. "He was very good at his job. He was great at making things happen. He was a charmer, he was a do-er," says Flight.
His war years spent at the Admiralty saw him preside over a team of intelligence officers, many of whose professional experiences would have been much closer to Bond's than his own. In the programme, Fleming remarks: "Thank God for the war. Many of the men I worked with were bits of the prototype of Bond. Bits of me creep in but he is, almost entirely, a product of my imagination."

No Bond novel, or film, is complete without a romantic sub-plot and Fleming's own love-life was peppered with passionate encounters. A notorious womaniser, his most notable conquest was Rothermere, then wife of Lord Rothermere, proprietor of the Daily Mail.

The 12-year affair culminated in an unexpected pregnancy and they married, later moving to Jamaica to settle down. Like Bond, monogamy did not come easily to Fleming and his novels became an outlet for the everyday frustrations and constrictions he felt at being a husband and a father.

Fleming said: "Bond was born as a counter-irritant or antibody to me getting married at the age of 43. I invented him to take my mind off the appalling business of getting married so late in life. It was a rather dramatic step for a confirmed bachelor to take so I created Bond to insulate myself from the shock." Flight adds: "James Bond was a reflection of him, but Fleming was a human, and wanted to believe in love and marriage, but I think he found that marriage just didn't work for him."

It was while waiting to be married that he wrote his first novel, Casino Royale, in 1953, which he self-depracatingly refers to as, "adolescent tripe, dreadfully embarrassing. It's miserable stuff. I couldn't face seeing it in print".

Nevertheless, the original adventure, together with the 13 other Bond books, went on to sell an estimated 100 million copies worldwide, while more than half of the world's population have seen a Bond film. Casino Royale will become the 21st Bond film when it is released in the near future (it was made into a film in 1967 starring David Niven, but that version was a spoof).

Flight concludes: "Whether or not he wrote them during his midlife crisis, as some say, the Bond novels are terrific reads. He gave Bond the adventures that he never had. He knew the type of character the public wanted. They really are page-turners.

"Fleming is a fascinating and complex character with an extraordinary imagination. In some ways I did feel sorry for him as his life didn't stand up to his expectations or certainly not to his fantasies. Fleming gave Bond many of his own likes, dislikes and tastes, especially cigarettes, alcohol, women, cars and gadgets. But Fleming was not James Bond."

Ian Fleming – Bondmaker, Sunday, BBC1, 10.15pm.

Thanks to `JP` for the alert.

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