Ian Fleming - Bondmaker docudrama to air on BBC2, Sunday night

According to the BBC Ian Fleming - Bondmaker tells the fascinating story of how writer Ian Fleming created the world's most famous fictional spy. It was Fleming's experience of the shadowy world of Naval Intelligence during the Second World War that inspired the plots for the James Bond novels. Fleming also shared with Bond a love of fast cars, women and sex. Using Fleming's own words, from his writings and interviews, Bondmaker reveals the man behind the invention of a 20th-century icon.

The film stars Ben Daniels (Cutting It, Conspiracy) as Ian Fleming and Emily Woof (The League Of Gentlemen's Apocalypse) as his wife,Ann. Pip Torrens (The Rotter's Club) plays Fleming's close friend and neighbour, Noël Coward.

Fleming developed his page-turning writing style while working as a journalist for Reuters and The Sunday Times. During the war he was recruited as personal assistant to the Director of Naval Intelligence. Fleming told colleagues that after the war he was "going to write the spy story to end all spy stories". It was not until he was 43, seven years after the war ended, that Fleming wrote the first Bond novel, Casino Royale.

Glamorous, urbane and suave, Ian Fleming was happy to be mistaken for a real-life Bond.Whether posing with a gun for publicity shots or being mysteriously evasive about his experience of wartime intelligence, Ian Fleming actively encouraged the world

Sexy women, fast cars, scrapes with death and groovy gadgets: James Bond is worshipped across the globe as the smoothest fictional spy there has ever been. Ian Fleming - Bondmaker tells the gripping story of how writer Ian Fleming came to create the iconic figure that is 007.

Here, Programme Information shares some fascinating facts about Bond and Fleming.
- Over half the world's population has seen a Bond film.
- More than 100 million Bond books have been sold.
- Ian Fleming's father was killed in the First World War when Ian was just eight years old. Winston Churchill wrote his obituary.
- During the Second World War, Fleming worked in Naval Intelligence. His boss, Admiral John Godfrey, became the model for M.
- To mark his rank as Commander during the War, each of Fleming's specially made Morlands cigarettes was marked with three gold bands. Commander James Bond smokes identical cigarettes.
- Ian Fleming wrote his first Bond book at the age of 43.
- Fleming took the name James Bond from the author of Birds Of The West Indies because it was suitably "dull and anonymous".
- Fleming named his Jamaican house Goldeneye - the code name for one of his wartime Naval Intelligence operations.
- Ian Fleming wrote Chitty Chitty Bang Bang while recovering from his first heart attack in 1961. It was based on bedtime stories he used to tell his son.
- Ian Fleming asked his friend Noël Coward to play the part of Dr No in the first-ever Bond movie. Coward replied in a telegram:"Dr No? No. No. No."

"Ian Fleming - Bondmaker" airs on BBC2 in the UK on Sunday 28th August 2005 at 22:15.

Thanks to `JP` for the alert.

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