Sir Roger Moore speaks about his regret at ignoring poverty during his time as 007

The BBC have published a transcript of an interview from `Breakfast with Frost` where Sir Roger Moore said he regretted ignoring the poverty around him while he was filming James Bond movies in glamorous locations.

"The one thing I feel ashamed about is having been on all those locations, where there is desperate poverty. All I was worried about was my dinner suit looking smart, is there a mark on my shirt, where is the nearest toilet, I was worrying what we`re going to have for lunch. I was not really being aware of what was going on in the world."

Sir Roger received a knighthood on Saturday in this year`s Queen`s Birthday Honours.

He said the knighthood was for his work with the United Nations` children`s fund Unicef, rather than for his seven Bond films or other acting work.

"Raising the eyebrow for Bond, or the Saint, was one thing but raising awareness for children is much more important," he said.

Sir Roger recalled some of the worst things he had seen during his confrontations with poverty around the world.

He said he would always remember the "smell" of poverty.

"It`s something you don`t see when you see the images on television or on the cinema screen, the absolute appalling smell of poverty. It`s not because people don`t wash, it`s just it is there, it sort of gets into your system. You know that you`re going to smell it."

He said another frightening smell was "the small of burning flesh - and that remains with the victim for many, many years".

"I remember going to a hospital in Salvador, and I was about a quarter of a mile away and I could smell - I knew exactly what I was going to see. I was going to see the same sights I had seen at East Grinstead, visiting the burns hospital. Except the facilities weren`t quite so good in Salvador."

Sir Roger said the two sights that would remain with him most involved a child and an elderly lady.

"To see a child without arms, her body having been destroyed by a landmine. That remains. An old lady`s watery eyes as she looked at me in Zambia last year, and she said `we used to live like human beings and now we live like animals`"

"They were grubbing in the ground getting roots, and the old people ate the roots. If they survived the children could then eat them.

"There were no middle-aged people, there were no people to plant. They were dead or they were incapacitated by HIV/Aids. It`s a frightening situation throughout Africa, the HIV/Aids system."

Sir Roger said he planned to continue working with Unicef for as long as he could.

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