Stuntmen recreate Casino Royale action for TV documentary

Half-a-dozen Oxford stuntmen are in training to recreate the moves of super spies James Bond and Jason Bourne - reports the Oxford Mail.

Members of Oxtricks have been perfecting back flips, cartwheels and spectacular leaps ahead of their parts in a Sky TV documentary to be filmed in the city next month.

Oxtricks focuses on the acrobatic skills of free running and parkour - dangerous disciplines popularised in recent action films Casino Royale and the Bourne trilogy.

Parkour first shot to prominence in a BBC TV advertisement, which featured a man performing death-defying leaps over rooftops in order to get home to watch his favourite programme.

Now John Glover, Matti Holmes, Jonny Last, Kieran Edmonds, Adam Frewer and Joe Arrevalo plan to follow in the super sleuths' footsteps by showing off their skills on the small screen.

Mr Glover, also known as Jayjee, 19, from Henley Avenue, Iffley, first began training in parkour and free running in 2005 after watching a documentary called Jump Britain.

He has since perfected moves including the side sommie, a 360-degree somersault, and the kong, a type of dive, and works semi professionally as a free running showman.

Mr Glover said: "We have varying backgrounds of martial arts and breakdancing. Everyone has their own unique skill in the way they do things.

"We have done self taught acrobatics like flips, back flips no-handed cartwheels and the one where you run up the wall and flip over.

"I probably train at least four times a week. You really need determination and commitment.

"It takes a lot of confidence. You need mental strength to overcome fears and to get the confidence to do what you want to do safely. It's not a case of just running and jumping off a wall - your body needs to be conditioned so it can take the impact of jumps and flips.

"We often have people in the streets when we are training who come up to us and are really impressed with what we do."

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