Lysander.

Lysander (^{[pronunciation?]}; died 395 BC, Greek: Λύσανδρος, Lýsandros) was a Spartan general who commanded the Spartan fleet in the Hellespont which defeated the Athenians at Aegospotami in 405 BC. The following year, he was able to force the Athenians to capitulate, bringing the Peloponnesian War to an end; he organized the dominion of Sparta over Greece in the last decade of his life.

Early life[link]

Little is known of Lysander's early life. Lysander's father was Aristocleitus, who was a member of the Spartan Heracleidae; that is, like most Dorian men of good family, he claimed descent from Heracles. Nevertheless, Lysander was a mothax: his family was poor and when he was young he needed sponsorship to be able to participate in the Spartan training to be a soldier.

The Battle of Notium[link]

Lysander was appointed Spartan navarch (admiral) for the Aegean Sea in 407 BC. It was during this period that he gained the friendship and support of Cyrus the Younger, a son of Darius II of Persia and Parysatis.

Lysander then undertook the major project of creating a strong Spartan fleet based at Ephesus which could take on the Athenians and their allies.^[1][2]

Alcibiades was appointed commander-in-chief with autocratic powers and left for Samos to rejoin his fleet and try and engage Lysander in battle. The Spartan navarch Lysander refused to be lured out of Ephesus to do battle with Alcibiades. However, while Alcibiades was away seeking supplies, the Athenian squadron was placed under the command of Antiochus, his helmsman. During this time Lysander managed to engage the Athenian fleet and they were routed by the Spartan fleet (with the help of the Persians under Cyrus) at the Battle of Notium in 406 BC. This defeat by Lysander gave the enemies of Alcibiades the excuse they needed to strip him of his command. He never returned again to Athens. He sailed north to the land he owned in the Thracian Chersonese.

Lysander out of office[link]

However, Lysander ceased to be the Spartan navarch after this victory and, in accordance with the Spartan law, was replaced by Callicratidas. Callicratidas' ability to continue the war at sea was neatly sabotaged when Lysander returned all the cash in hand to Cyrus when he left office^[3]

In 406 BC, Callicratidas assembled a fleet and sailed to Methymna, Lesbos, which he then besieged. This move threatened the Athenian grain supply. Athens sent their admiral, Conon, to relieve the siege. When Callicratidas attacked him, Conon retreated to Mytilene, where he was blockaded by Callicratidas’ Spartan fleet.

To relieve Conon, the Athenians assembled a new fleet composed largely of newly constructed ships manned by inexperienced crews. While this fleet was inferior to the Spartans, the Athenians employed new and unorthodox tactics, which allowed them to secure a dramatic and unexpected victory in the Battle of Arginusae, near Lesbos. The blockade of Conon by the Spartans was broken, the Spartan force was soundly defeated and Callicratidas was killed during the battle.

Lysander returns to command[link]

After Sparta was severely defeated at the Battle of Arginusae and with the death of the Spartan navarch, Callicratides, Sparta's allies sought to have Lysander reappointed as navarch. However, Spartan law did not allow the reappointment of a previous navarch, so Aracus was appointed as navarch with Lysander as his deputy. Nonetheless, Lysander was effectively the commander of the Spartan fleet.^[1][2] Cyrus, being especially pleased, once again started to supply the Spartan fleet with cash - even allowing Lysander to run his satrapy in his absence.^[4]

Once back in command, Lysander directed the Spartan fleet towards the Hellespont. The Athenian fleet followed him there. In 404 BC, the Athenians gather their remaining ships at Aegospotami (near the Thracian Chersonese). The Athenian fleet under Admiral Conon was then destroyed by the Spartans under Lysander in the Battle of Aegospotami. Conon withdrew to Cyprus.

Then, Lysander's forces went to the Bosporus and captured both Byzantium and Chalcedon. They expelled the Athenians living in those States. Lysander also captured Lesbos Island.^[1][2]

The defeat of Athens[link]

Following the victory at Aegospotami, the Spartans were in a position to finally force Athens to capitulate. The Spartan king, Pausanias, laid siege to Athens while Lysander's fleet blockaded the port city of Piraeus. This action effectively closed the grain route to Athens through the Hellespont, thereby starving Athens. Realising the seriousness of the situation, Theramenes started negotiations with Lysander. These negotiations took three months, but in the end Lysander agreed to terms at Piraeus. An agreement was reached for the capitulation of Athens and the cessation of the Peloponnesian War in 404 BC.

The Spartans required the Athenians to raze the walls of Piraeus as well as the Long Walls which connected Athens and Piraeus; that the Athenians should abandon their colonies, and that Athens should surrender all but twelve of their ships to the Spartans. However, Theramenes did secure terms that saved the city of Athens from destruction. Greek towns across the Aegean Sea in Ionia were again to be subject to the Achaemenid Empire.

Lysander in Command in Athens[link]

Lysander then put in place a puppet government in Athens with the establishment of the oligarchy of the Thirty Tyrants under Critias which included Theramenes as a leading member. The puppet government executed a number of citizens and deprived all but a few of their former rights as citizens of Athens. Many of Athens' former allies were now ruled by boards of ten (decarchy), often reinforced with garrisons under a Spartan commander (harmost). The practice started the period of Spartan hegemony.

After storming and seizing Samos, Lysander returned to Sparta. Alcibiades, the former Athenian leader, emerged after the Spartan victory at Aegospotami and took refuge in Phrygia, northwestern Asia Minor with Pharnabazus^{[disambiguation needed ]}, its Persian satrap. He sought Persian assistance for the Athenians. However, the Spartans decided that Alcibiades must be removed and Lysander, with the help of Pharnabazus, arranged the assassination of Alcibiades.^[1][2]

Lysander was able to gain a huge fortune from his victories against the Athenians and their allies. Nonetheless, in accord with Spartan tradition, he wished to transfer this fortune to the ephors at Sparta. Lysander commanded the Spartan general Gylippus to undertake this task. However, Gylippus could not resist the temptation to enrich himself and stole a significant amount. When it was discovered what had happened, Gylippus went into exile and was condemned to death in his absence.

Resistance by Athens[link]

The Athenian general Thrasybulus, who had been exiled from Athens by the Spartans' puppet government, led the democratic resistance to the new oligarchic government. In 403 BC, he commanded a small force of exiles that invaded Attica and, in successive battles, defeated first a Spartan garrison and then the forces of the oligarchic government (which included the Spartan general, Lysander) in the Battle of Munychia. The leader of the Thirty Tyrants, Critias, was killed in the battle.

The Battle of Piraeus was then fought between Athenian exiles who had defeated the government of the Thirty Tyrants and occupied Piraeus and a Spartan force sent to combat them. In the battle, the Spartans narrowly defeated the exiles, with both sides suffering large numbers of casualties. Despite opposition from Lysander, after the battle Pausanias the Agiad King of Sparta, arranged a settlement between the two parties which allowed the reunification of Athens and Piraeus, and the re-establishment of democratic government in Athens. The remaining oligarchic Thirty Tyrants were allowed to flee to Eleusis. Thrasybulus restored democratic institutions to Athens and granted amnesties to all except the oligarchic extremists.

Involvement in Cyrus' revolt against the Persian King Artaxerxes II[link]

During 401 BC Lysander still had a continuing influence in Sparta despite his setbacks in Athens. He was able to persuade the Spartans to select Agesilaus II as the new Eurypontid Spartan king following the death of Agis II. He was also able to persuade the Spartans to support Cyrus the Younger in his unsuccessful rebellion against his older brother, Artaxerxes II of Persia.

Cyrus started out with about 20,000 men, of whom around 10,000 were Greek mercenaries, including Spartans. When he reached the Euphrates River at Thapsacus, he announced that he was marching against Artaxerxes II. He advanced unopposed into Babylonia; but Artaxerxes II, warned at the last moment by Tissaphernes, hastily gathered an army.

The two forces met at the Battle of Cunaxa, north of Babylon, where Cyrus was slain. The Greek mercenaries fighting for Cyrus were left stranded after Cyrus’ defeat. They fought their way north through hostile Persians, Armenians, and Kurds to Trapezus, on the coast of the Black Sea under Xenophon. He was an Athenian who became their leader when Tissaphernes, Persian satrap of Caria and Lydia, had Clearchus of Sparta and the other senior Greek captains captured and executed by Artaxerxes.

Xenophon's men made their way back to Greece, with most of the men enlisting with the Spartan Army. Xenophon's successful march through the Achaemenid Empire encouraged Sparta to turn on the Persians and begin a series of wars against the Persians in Asia Minor.

Lysander's final years[link]

Hoping to restore the juntas of oligarchic partisans that he had put in place after the defeat of the Athenians in 404 BC, Lysander arranged for Agesilaus II, the Eurypontid Spartan king, to take command of the Greeks against Persia in 396 BC. The Spartans had been called on by the Ionians to assist them against the Persian King Artaxerxes II. Lysander was arguably hoping to receive command of the Spartan forces not joining the campaign. However, Agesilaus II had become resentful of Lysander's power and influence. So Agesilaus II frustrated the plans of his former mentor and left Lysander in command of the troops in the Hellespont, far from Sparta and mainland Greece.

Back in Sparta by 395 BC, Lysander was instrumental in starting a war with Thebes and other Greek cities to be known as the Corinthian War. The Spartans prepared to send out an army against this new alliance of Athens, Thebes, Corinth and Argos (with the backing of the Achaemenid Empire) and ordered Agesilaus II to return to Greece. Agesilaus set out for Sparta with his troops, crossing the Hellespont and marching west through Thrace.

Death[link]

The Spartans arranged for two armies, one under Lysander and the other under Pausanias of Sparta, to rendezvous at and attack the city of Haliartus, Boeotia. Lysander arrived before Pausanias and persuaded the city of Orchomenus to revolt from the Boeotian confederacy. He then advanced to Haliartus with his troops. In the Battle of Haliartus, Lysander was killed after bringing his forces too near the walls of the city.

Following his death, an abortive scheme by Lysander to increase his power by making the Spartan kingships collective and that the Spartan king should not automatically be given the leadership of the army, was "discovered" by Agesilaus II.^[1][5]

There is argument amongst historians as to whether this was an invention to discredit Lysander after his death. However in the view of Nigel Kennell, the plot fits with what we know of Lysander.^[6]

Lysander remains an ambiguous figure. While the Roman biographer Cornelius Nepos charges him with "cruelty and perfidy",^[5] Lysander – according to Xenophon – nonetheless spared the population of captured Greek poleis such as Lampsacus,^[2] perhaps in order to gain a useful reputation for mildness.

Cult[link]

According to Duris of Samos, Lysander was the first Greek to whom the cities erected altars and sacrificed to him as to a god and the Samians voted that their festival of Hera should be called Lysandreia.^[7]

Sources[link]

See also[link]

• Battle of Aegospotami
• Lycurgus
• King Agesilaus II
• Aegean Sea
• Ephesus
• Cyrus
• Battle of Notium
• Harmost
• Peloponnesian War
• King Pausanias
• Theramenes
• Thirty Tyrants
• Ephor
• Corinthian War
• Battle of Haliartus

External links[link]

• Ancient/classical history (Lysander) – About.com
• Lysander by Plutarch – The Internet Classics Archive on MIT

Special Duties are a British punk rock band from Colchester, Essex.

History[link]

Special Duties was created in October 1977 by schoolfellows Steve Green (Aka Arrogant), Steve Norris (Aka Duty) and Nigel Baker. They were punks at school, but the idea of forming their own band came when they saw The Adverts in Colchester. The fact that the three schoolboys couldn't play and didn't own any instruments didn't discourage them. They decided to put Arrogant on vocals, Duty on guitar and Baker on Bass. The band was originally going to be named X-pelled, but they switched to Special Duties when a box of around 200 badges with "Special Duties" printed on them which had been stolen from a school in Colchester came into their possession, the band deciding that they could save money on getting badges made by simply changing their name to match the stolen ones.^[1] For their debut live show, the band spread the word through the underground punk grapevine that they would performing a free gig underneath the shopping precinct in Colchester. Hundreds of people turned up to see them play a fifteen-minute version of the only song they knew, "There'll Be No Tomorrow", performed in the Marks & Spencer loading bay.^[1] In 1980, Bart Povah joined the band and they recorded their first demo, which got them a record deal with Charnel House Records. The band moved to Rondelet Records soon after and recruited drummer Stuart Bray. Their second EP for the label, "Police State" spent two months in the indie chart, prompting Rondelet to get the band into the studio to record their debut album, 77 in 82.^[1]

In 1982 Arrogant decided to declare war on the anarcho-punk band Crass. Their debut LP was followed by their biggest selling single "Bullshit Crass", an attack on a band that they saw as destroying the traditional punk scene. It came with a Crass-style sleeve and the lead track began with chants of "Fight Crass, not punk", parodying one of Crass's songs. Green explained: "It was the fact that they said 'Punk was dead', and they played this really tuneless music. I saw them as almost a religious cult".^[1] However, after that, their music's leading distributors, Rough Trade and Small Wonder, refused to stock their material. This censorship made life a burden for the band. In 1983 they released the single "Punk Rocker" which was not well distributed. In the same year, the group broke up.

Twelve years later, Captain Oi! Records reissued 77 in 82, and encouraged by the response to it the band got back together, playing at 1995's Fuck Reading at the Brixton Academy. After that the group didn't split again and now they are still gigging and recording.

In 1997 the band released "Wembley Wembley! (Wembley here we come)" to commemorate Colchester United reaching the final of that year's AutoWindscreens Shield at Wembley. Also on the CD was a version of "Up the U's!" a song written about the football club and still sung there today. The third track contained brief interviews with players, such as Garrett Caldwell, Joe Dunne and former club captain Karl Duguid.

In July 1998, he band travelled to New York for a gig at CBGB's, releasing the performance on the Live at CBGB's 1998 album.^[1]

In 2007 the band re-recorded the "Up the U's!" with local band Koopa with a song entitled "Stand Up For Col U" by Koopa and with the vocals of Colchester United players Jamie Cureton, Chris Iwelumo, Wayne Brown, Karl Duguid, Kevin Watson, Pat Baldwin, Kevin McLeod and Dean Gerken. The single was released to raise funds for the Teenage Cancer Trust.

Discography[link]

Chart placings shown are from the UK Indie Chart.^[2]

Albums[link]

• '77 in '82(1982) Rondelet (#15)
• '77 in '97(1997) Captain Oi!
• Live at CBGBs (1999) Special Duties
• The Punk Singles Collection (1999)

Singles/EPs[link]

• "Violent Society" b/w "Colchester Council" (1980) Charnel House
• "Violent Society" b/w "It Ain't Our Fault"/"Colchester Council" (1981) Ronndelet
• "Police State EP"' (1982) Rondelet (#23)
• "Bullshit Crass" b/w "You're Doing Yourself No Good" (1982) Rondelet (#7)
• "Punk Rocker" b/w "Too Much Talking" (1983) Expulsion (#37)
• "Mutt" b/w "London Town" (1996) One Stop
• "Judge and Jury"/"Shadow" (1997) (split with Red Flag 77)
• "Wembley! Wembley! b/w "Up the U's!"/"Interview" (1997) Captain Colchester
• "Split with Violent Society" (1998) Soap And Spikes
• "MRR Rules"/"Lost Cause or Not" (1998) (split with The Creed)
• "I Wish It Could Be '77 EP" (1999) Data
• "Up the U's!" / "Stand Up For Col U" (2007) (Collaboration with Koopa)

References[link]

James Bond, code name 007, is a fictional character created in 1953 by writer Ian Fleming, who featured him in twelve novels and two short story collections. There have been six other authors who wrote authorised Bond novels or novelizations after Fleming's death in 1964: Kingsley Amis, Christopher Wood, John Gardner, Raymond Benson, Sebastian Faulks and Jeffery Deaver; a new novel, written by William Boyd, is planned for release in 2013.^[1] Additionally, Charlie Higson wrote a series on a young James Bond and Kate Westbrook wrote three novels based on the diaries of a recurring series character, Moneypenny.

The fictional British Secret Service agent has also been adapted for television, radio, comic strip and video game formats as well as being used in the longest running and the second-highest grossing film franchise to date, which started in 1962 with Dr. No, starring Sean Connery as Bond. As of 2012, there have been twenty two films in the Eon Productions series, with a twenty third, Skyfall, due for release on 26 October 2012. The film will star Daniel Craig in his third portrayal of Bond: he is the sixth actor to play Bond in the Eon series. There have also been two independent productions of Bond films, Casino Royale, a 1967 spoof, and Never Say Never Again, a 1983 remake of an earlier Eon-produced film, Thunderball.

The films are renowned for a number of features, including the musical accompaniment, with the theme songs to the films having picked up Academy Award nominations on several occasions. Other important elements which run through most of the films include Bond's cars, his guns and the gadgets he is supplied with by Q Branch.

Publication history[link]

Creation and inspiration[link]

As the central figure for his works, Ian Fleming created the fictional character of James Bond, an intelligence officer in the Secret Intelligence Service, commonly known as MI6. Bond was also known by his code number, 007, and was a Royal Naval Reserve Commander.

Name

Fleming took the name for his character from that of the American ornithologist James Bond, a Caribbean bird expert and author of the definitive field guide Birds of the West Indies; Fleming, a keen birdwatcher himself, had a copy of Bond's guide and he later explained to the ornithologist’s wife that "It struck me that this brief, unromantic, Anglo-Saxon and yet very masculine name was just what I needed, and so a second James Bond was born".^[2] He further explained that:

When I wrote the first one in 1953, I wanted Bond to be an extremely dull, uninteresting man to whom things happened; I wanted him to be a blunt instrument...when I was casting around for a name for my protagonist I thought by God, (James Bond) is the dullest name I ever heard.

—Ian Fleming, The New Yorker, 21 April 1962^[3]

On another occasion Fleming said: "I wanted the simplest, dullest, plainest-sounding name I could find, "James Bond" was much better than something more interesting, like "Peregrine Carruthers". Exotic things would happen to and around him, but he would be a neutral figure—an anonymous, blunt instrument wielded by a government department."^[4]

Inspiration

Fleming based his fictional creation on a number of individuals he came across during his time in the Naval Intelligence Division during World War II, admitting that Bond "was a compound of all the secret agents and commando types I met during the war".^[5] Among those types were his brother, Peter, who had been involved in behind the lines operations in Norway and Greece during the war.^[6] Aside from Fleming's brother, a number of others also provided some aspects of Bond's make up, including Conrad O'Brien-ffrench, Patrick Dalzel-Job and Bill "Biffy" Dunderdale.^[5]

Hoagy Carmichael—Fleming's view of James Bond.

Tastes

Fleming also endowed Bond with many of his own traits, including sharing the same golf handicap, the taste for scrambled eggs and using the same brand of toiletries.^[7] Bond's tastes are also often taken from Fleming’s own as was his behaviour,^[8] with Bond's love of golf and gambling mirroring Fleming's own. Fleming used his experiences of his espionage career and all other aspects of his life as inspiration when writing, including using names of school friends, acquaintances, relatives and lovers throughout his books.^[5]

Looks

Fleming decided Bond should look a little like both the American singer Hoagy Carmichael and himself^[9] and in Casino Royale, Vesper Lynd remarks, "Bond reminds me rather of Hoagy Carmichael, but there is something cold and ruthless." Likewise, in Moonraker, Special Branch Officer Gala Brand thinks that Bond is "certainly good-looking… Rather like Hoagy Carmichael in a way. That black hair falling down over the right eyebrow. Much the same bones. But there was something a bit cruel in the mouth, and the eyes were cold."^[9]

Background

It was not until the penultimate novel, You Only Live Twice, that Fleming gave Bond a sense of family background. The book was the first to be written after the release of Dr. No in cinemas and Sean Connery's depiction of Bond affected Fleming's interpretation of the character, to give Bond both a sense of humour and Scottish antecedents that were not present in the previous stories.^[10] In a fictional obituary, purportedly published in The Times, Bond's parents were given as Andrew Bond, from the village of Glencoe, Scotland, and Monique Delacroix, from Yverdon, Switzerland.^[11] Fleming did not provide Bond's date of birth, but John Pearson's fictional biography of Bond, James Bond: The Authorised Biography of 007, gives Bond a birth date on 11 November 1920,^[12] while a study by John Griswold puts the date at 11 November 1921.^[13]

Novels and related works[link]

Ian Fleming novels[link]

Goldeneye, in Jamaica, where Fleming wrote all the Bond novels.^[14]

Whilst serving in the Naval Intelligence Division, Fleming had planned to become an author^[15] and had told a friend, "I am going to write the spy story to end all spy stories."^[5] On 17 February 1952, he began writing his first James Bond novel, Casino Royale at his Goldeneye estate in Jamaica,^[16] where he wrote all his Bond novels, during the months of January and February each year.^[17] He started the story shortly before his wedding to his pregnant girlfriend, Ann Charteris, in order to distract himself from his forthcoming nuptials.^[18]

After completing the manuscript for Casino Royale, Fleming showed the manuscript to his friend (and later editor) William Plomer to read. Plomer liked it and submitted it to the publishers, Jonathan Cape, who did not like it as much. Cape finally published it in 1953 on the recommendation of Fleming's older brother Peter, an established travel writer.^[17] Between 1953 and 1966, two years after his death, twelve novels and two short-story collections were published, with the last two books – The Man with the Golden Gun and Octopussy and The Living Daylights – published posthumously.^[19] All the books were published in the UK through Jonathan Cape.

Post-Fleming novels[link]

After Fleming's death a continuation novel, Colonel Sun, was written by Kingsley Amis (as Robert Markham) and published in 1968.^[34] Amis had already written a literary study of Fleming's Bond novels in his 1965 workThe James Bond Dossier.^[35] Although novelizations of two of the Eon Productions Bond films appeared in print, James Bond, The Spy Who Loved Me and James Bond and Moonraker, both written by screenwriter Christopher Wood,^[36] the series of novels did not continue until the 1980s. In 1981, thriller writer John Gardner picked up the series with Licence Renewed.^[37] Gardner went on to write sixteen Bond books in total; two of the books he wrote – Licence to Kill and GoldenEye – were novelizations of Eon Productions films of the same name. Gardner moved the Bond series into the 1980s, although he retained the ages of the characters as they were when Fleming had left them.^[38] In 1996, Gardner retired from writing James Bond books due to ill health.^[39]

In 1996, American author Raymond Benson became the author of the Bond novels. Benson had previously been the author of The James Bond Bedside Companion, first published in 1984.^[54] By the time he moved on to other, non-Bond related projects in 2002, Benson had written six Bond novels, three novelizations and three short stories.^[55]

After a gap of six years, Sebastian Faulks was commissioned by Ian Fleming Publications to write a new Bond novel, which was released on 28 May 2008, the 100th anniversary of Ian Fleming's birth.^[65] The book—titled Devil May Care—was published in the UK by Penguin Books and by Doubleday in the US.^[66] American writer Jeffery Deaver was then commissioned by Ian Fleming Publications to produce Carte Blanche, which was published on 26 May 2011.^[67] The book updated Bond into a post 9/11 agency, independent of MI5 or MI6.^[68]

Young Bond[link]

The Young Bond series of novels was started by Charlie Higson^[69] and, between 2005 and 2009, five novels and one short story were published.^[70] The first Young Bond novel, SilverFin was also adapted and released as a graphic novel on 2 October 2008 by Puffin Books.^[71]

The Moneypenny Diaries[link]

The Moneypenny Diaries are a trilogy of novels chronicling the life of Miss Moneypenny, M's personal secretary. The novels are penned by Samantha Weinberg under the pseudonym Kate Westbrook, who is depicted as the book's "editor".^[79] The first instalment of the trilogy, subtitled Guardian Angel, was released on 10 October 2005 in the UK.^[80] A second volume, subtitled Secret Servant was released on 2 November 2006 in the UK, published by John Murray.^[81] A third volume, subtitled Final Fling was released on 1 May 2008.^[82]

Adaptations[link]

Television[link]

In 1954 CBS paid Ian Fleming $1,000 ($8,654 in 2012 dollars^[86]) to adapt his novel Casino Royale into a one-hour television adventure as part of its Climax! series.^[87] The episode aired live on 21 October 1954 and starred Barry Nelson as "Card Sense" James 'Jimmy' Bond and Peter Lorre as Le Chiffre.^[88] The novel was adapted for American audiences to show Bond as an American agent working for "Combined Intelligence", while the character Felix Leiter—American in the novel—became British onscreen and was renamed "Clarence Leiter".^[89]

In 1973 a BBC documentary Omnibus: The British Hero featured Christopher Cazenove playing a number of such title characters (e.g. Richard Hannay and Bulldog Drummond). The documentary included James Bond in dramatised scenes from Goldfinger—notably featuring 007 being threatened with the novel's circular saw, rather than the film's laser beam—and Diamonds Are Forever.^[90] In 1991 a TV cartoon series James Bond Jr. was produced with Corey Burton in the role of Bond's nephew, also called James Bond.^[91]

Radio[link]

In 1956, the novel Moonraker was adapted for broadcast on South African radio, with Bob Holness providing the voice of Bond.^[92] According to The Independent, "listeners across the Union thrilled to Bob's cultured tones as he defeated evil master criminals in search of world domination".^[93]

The BBC have adapted three of the Fleming novels for broadcast: in 1990, You Only Live Twice was adapted into a 90 minute radio play for BBC Radio 4 with Michael Jayston playing James Bond. The production was repeated a number of times between 2008 and 2011.^[94] On 24 May 2008, BBC Radio 4 broadcast an adaptation of Dr. No. Actor Toby Stephens, who played Bond villain Gustav Graves in the Eon Productions version of Die Another Day, played James Bond, while Dr. No was played by David Suchet.^[95] Following the success of Dr. No, a second Bond story was adapted and on 3 April 2010, BBC Radio 4 broadcast Goldfinger with Toby Stephens again playing Bond.^[96] Sir Ian McKellen was Goldfinger and Stephens' Die Another Day co-star Rosamund Pike played Pussy Galore. The play was adapted from Fleming's novel by Archie Scottney and was directed by Martin Jarvis.^[97]

Comics medium[link]

In 1957, the Daily Express approached Ian Fleming to adapt his stories into comic strips, offering him £1,500 per novel and a share of takings from syndication.^[98] After initial reluctance, Fleming, who felt the strips would lack the quality of his writing, agreed.^[99] To aid the Daily Express in illustrating Bond, Fleming commissioned an artist to create a sketch of how he believed James Bond looked. The illustrator, John McLusky, however, felt that Fleming's 007 looked too "outdated" and "pre-war" and changed Bond to give him a more masculine look.^[100] The first strip, Casino Royale was published from 7 July 1958 to 13 December 1958^[101] and was written by Anthony Hern and illustrated by John McLusky.^[102]

Most of the Bond novels and short stories have since been adapted for illustration, as well as Kingsley Amis's Colonel Sun; the works were written by Henry Gammidge or Jim Lawrence with Yaroslav Horak replacing McClusky as artist in 1966.^[101] After the Fleming and Amis material had been adapted, original stories were produced, continuing in the Daily Express and Sunday Express until May 1977.^[100]

Several comic book adaptations of the James Bond films have been published through the years: at the time of Dr. No's release in October 1962, a comic book adaptation of the screenplay, written by Norman J. Nodel, was published in Britain as part of the Classics Illustrated anthology series.^[103] It was later reprinted in the United States by DC Comics as part of its Showcase anthology series, in January 1963. This was the first American comic book appearance of James Bond and is noteworthy for being a relatively rare example of a British comic being reprinted in a fairly high-profile American comic. It was also one of the earliest comics to be censored on racial grounds (some skin tones and dialogue were changed for the American market).^[104][103]

With the release of the 1981 film For Your Eyes Only, Marvel Comics published a two-issue comic book adaptation of the film.^[105][106] When Octopussy was released in the cinemas in 1983, Marvel published an accompanying comic;^[103] Eclipse also produced a one-off comic for Licence to Kill, although Timothy Dalton refused to allow his likeness to be used.^[107] New Bond stories were also drawn up and published from 1989 onwards through Marvel, Eclipse Comics and Dark Horse Comics.^[103][106]

Films[link]

The Eon Productions films[link]

In 1962 Eon Productions, the company of Canadian Harry Saltzman and American Albert R. "Cubby" Broccoli released the first cinema adaptation of an Ian Fleming novel, Dr. No, featuring Sean Connery as 007.^[108] Connery starred in a further four films before leaving the role after You Only Live Twice,^[109] which was taken up by George Lazenby for On Her Majesty's Secret Service.^[110] Lazenby left the role after just one appearance and Connery was tempted back for his last Eon-produced film Diamonds Are Forever.^[111]

In 1973, Roger Moore was appointed to the role of 007 for Live and Let Die and played Bond a further six times over twelve years before being replaced by Timothy Dalton for two films. After a six year hiatus, during which a legal wrangle threatened Eon's productions of the Bond films,^[112] Irish actor Pierce Brosnan was cast as Bond in GoldenEye, released in 1995; he remained in the role for a total of four films, before leaving in 2002. In 2006, Daniel Craig was given the role of Bond for Casino Royale, which rebooted the franchise.^[113] The twenty-third Eon produced film, Skyfall, was announced in November 2011, with release scheduled for 26 October 2012.^[114] The Eon Productions series has grossed $4,910,000,000 (over $12,360,000,000 when adjusted for inflation) worldwide, making it the second highest grossing film series, behind Harry Potter.^[115]

Non-Eon films[link]

In 1967, Casino Royale was adapted into a parody Bond film starring David Niven as Sir James Bond and Ursula Andress as Vesper Lynd. David Niven had been Ian Fleming's preference for the part of James Bond.^[116] The result of a court case in the High Court in London in 1963 allowed Kevin McClory to produce a remake of Thunderball titled Never Say Never Again in 1983.^[117] The film, starring Sean Connery as Bond, was not part of the Eon series of Bond films. In 1997 the Sony Corporation acquired all or some of McClory's rights in an undisclosed deal,^[117] which were then subsequently acquired by MGM, whilst on 4 December 1997, MGM announced that the company had purchased the rights to Never Say Never Again from Schwartzman's company Taliafilm.^[118] Eon now currently (as of 2012) holds the full adaptation rights to all of Fleming's Bond novels.^[117][119]

Music[link]

The "James Bond Theme" was written by Monty Norman and was first orchestrated by the John Barry Orchestra for 1962's Dr. No, although the actual authorship of the music has been a matter of controversy for many years.^[121] In 2001, Norman won £30,000 in libel damages from the The Sunday Times newspaper, which suggested that Barry was entirely responsible for the composition.^[122] The theme, as written by Norman and arranged by Barry, was described by another Bond film composer, David Arnold, as "bebop-swing vibe coupled with that vicious, dark, distorted electric guitar, definitely an instrument of rock 'n' roll...it represented everything about the character you would want: It was cocky, swaggering, confident, dark, dangerous, suggestive, sexy, unstoppable. And he did it in two minutes."^[120] Barry composed the scores for eleven Bond films^[123] and had an uncredited contribution to Dr. No with his arrangement of the Bond Theme.^[120]

A Bond film staple are the theme songs heard during their title sequences sung by well-known popular singers.^[124] Several of the songs produced for the films have been nominated for Academy Awards for Original Song, including Paul McCartney's "Live and Let Die",^[125] Carly Simon's "Nobody Does It Better"^[126] and Sheena Easton's "For Your Eyes Only".^[127] For the non-Eon produced Casino Royale, Burt Bacharach's score included "The Look Of Love", which was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Song.^[128]

Video games[link]

In 1983, the first Bond video game, developed and published by Parker Brothers, was released for the Atari 2600, the Atari 5200, the Atari 800, the Commodore 64 and the ColecoVision.^[129] Since then, there have been numerous video games either based on the films or using original storylines. In 1997, the first-person shooter video game GoldenEye 007 was developed by Rare for the Nintendo 64, based on the 1995 Pierce Brosnan film GoldenEye.^[130] The game received very positive reviews,^[131] won the BAFTA Interactive Entertainment Award for UK Developer of the Year in 1998^[132] and generated $250 million of sales worldwide.^[133]

In 1999, Electronic Arts acquired the licence and released Tomorrow Never Dies on 16 December 1999.^[134] In October 2000, they released The World Is Not Enough^[135] for the Nintendo 64^[136] followed by007 Racing for the PlayStation on 21 November 2000.^[137] In 2003, the company released Everything or Nothing,^[138] which included the likenesses and voices of Pierce Brosnan, Willem Dafoe, Heidi Klum, Judi Dench and John Cleese, amongst others.^[139] In November 2005, Electronic Arts released a video game adaptation of From Russia with Love,^[140] which involved Sean Connery's image and voice-over for Bond.^[140]

In 2006 Electronic Arts announced a game based on then-upcoming film Casino Royale: the game was cancelled because it would not be ready by the film's release in November of that year. With MGM losing revenue from lost licensing fees, the franchise was removed from EA to Activision.^[141] Activision subsequently released the 007: Quantum of Solace game on 31 October 2008, based on the film of the same name.^[142]

Guns, vehicles and gadgets[link]

The Walther PPK is the most famous of Bond's handguns

Guns

For the first five novels, Fleming armed Bond with a Beretta 418^[143] until he received a letter from a thirty-one-year-old Bond enthusiast and gun expert, Geoffrey Boothroyd, criticising Fleming's choice of firearm for Bond,^[144] calling it "a lady's gun – and not a very nice lady at that!"^[145] Boothroyd suggested that Bond should swap his Beretta for a Walther PPK 7.65mm and this exchange of arms made it to Dr. No.^[146] Boothroyd also gave Fleming advice on the Berns-Martin triple draw shoulder holster and a number of the weapons used by SMERSH and other villains.^[147] In thanks, Fleming gave the MI6 Armourer in his novels the name Major Boothroyd and, in Dr. No, M introduces him to Bond as "the greatest small-arms expert in the world".^[146] Bond also used a variety of rifles, including the Savage Model 99 in "For Your Eyes Only" and a Winchester .308 target rifle in "The Living Daylights".^[143] Other handguns used by Bond in the Fleming books included the Colt Detective Special and a long-barrelled Colt .45 Army Special.^[143]

The first Bond film, Dr. No, saw M ordering Bond to leave his Beretta behind and take up the Walther PPK,^[148] which the film Bond used in eighteen films.^[149] Since Tomorrow Never Dies, Bond's main weapon has been the Walther P99 semi-automatic pistol.^[149]

An Aston Martin DB5 as seen in Goldfinger.

Vehicles

In the early Bond stories Fleming gave Bond a battleship-grey Bentley 4½ Litre with an Amherst Villiers supercharger.^[150] After Bond's car was written off by Hugo Drax in Moonraker, Fleming gave Bond a Mark II Continental Bentley, which he used in the remaining books of the series.^[151] During Goldfinger, Bond was issued with an Aston Martin DB Mark III with a homing device, which he used to track Goldfinger across France. Bond returned to his Bentley for the subsequent novels.^[151]

The Bond of the films has driven a number of cars, including the Aston Martin V8 Vantage^[152], during the 1980s), the V12 Vanquish^[152] and DBS^[153] during the 2000s, as well as the Lotus Esprit;^[154] the BMW Z3,^[155] BMW 750iL^[155] and the BMW Z8.^[155] He has, however, also needed to drive a number of other vehicles, ranging from a Citroën 2CV to a Routemaster Bus, amongst others.^[156]

Bond's most famous car is the silver grey Aston Martin DB5, first seen in Goldfinger;^[157] it later featured in Thunderball, GoldenEye, Tomorrow Never Dies and Casino Royale.^[158] The films have used a number of different Aston Martins for filming and publicity, one of which was sold in January 2006 at an auction in the US for $2,090,000 to an unnamed European collector.^[159]

Gadgets

The Little Nellie autogyro with its creator and pilot, Ken Wallis

Fleming's novels and early screen adaptations presented minimal equipment such as the booby-trapped attaché case in From Russia with Love, although this situation changed dramatically with the films.^[160] However, the effects of the two Eon-produced Bond films Dr. No and From Russia with Love had an effect on the novel The Man with the Golden Gun, through the increased number of devices used in Fleming's final story.^[161]

For the film adaptations of Bond, the pre-mission briefing by Q Branch became one of the motifs that ran through the series.^[162] Dr. No provided no spy-related gadgets, but a Geiger counter was used; industrial designer Andy Davey observed that the first ever onscreen spy-gadget was the attaché case shown in From Russia with Love, which he described as "a classic 007 product".^[163] The gadgets assumed a higher profile in the 1964 film Goldfinger. The film's success encouraged further espionage equipment from Q Branch to be supplied to Bond, although the increased use of technology led to an accusation that Bond was over-reliant on equipment, particularly in the later films.^[164]

Davey noted that "Bond's gizmos follow the zeitgeist more closely than any other...nuance in the films"^[163] as they moved from the potential representations of the future in the early films, through to the brand-name obsessions of the later films.^[163] It is also noticeable that, although Bond uses a number of pieces of equipment from Q Branch, including the Little Nellie autogyro,^[165] a jet pack^[166] and the exploding attaché case,^[167] the villains are also well-equipped with custom made devices,^[163] including Scaramanga's golden gun,^[168] Rosa Klebb's poison-tipped shoes,^[169] Oddjob's steel-rimmed bowler hat^[170] and Blofeld's communication and bacteriological warfare agents vanity case.^[163]

Cultural impact[link]

Cinematically James Bond has been a major influence within the spy genre since the release of Dr. No in 1962.^[171] The first parody was the 1964 film Carry on Spying showing the villain Dr. Crow being overcome by agents who included James Bind (Charles Hawtry) and Daphne Honeybutt (Barbara Windsor).^[172] One of the films that reacted against the portrayal of Bond was the Harry Palmer series, whose first film, The Ipcress File was released in 1965. The eponymous hero of the series was what academic Jeremy Packer called an "anti-Bond",^[173] or what Christoph Lindner calls "the thinking man's Bond".^[174] The Palmer series were produced by Harry Saltzman, who also used key crew members from the Bond franchise, including designer Ken Adam, editor Peter R. Hunt and composer John Barry.^[175] In 1966 there were twenty two secret agent films released attempting to capitalise on the popularity and success of Bond.^[176] The four "Matt Helm" films starring Dean Martin were released between 1966 and 1969,^[177] the "Flint" series starring James Coburn provided two films in 1966 and 1969,^[178] whilst The Man from U.N.C.L.E. also moved onto the cinema screen, with eight films released: all were testaments to Bond's prominence in popular culture.^[123] More recently, the Austin Powers series by writer, producer and comedian Mike Myers^[179] and other parodies such as the 2003 film Johnny English^[180] have also used elements from or parodied the Bond films.

Following the release of the film Dr. No in 1962, the quote "Bond ... James Bond", became a catch phrase that entered the lexicon of Western popular culture: writers Cork and Scivally said of the introduction in Dr. No that the "signature introduction would become the most famous and loved film line ever".^[181] In 2001 it was voted as the "best-loved one-liner in cinema" by British cinema goers^[182] and in 2005, it was honoured as the 22nd greatest quotation in cinema history by the American Film Institute as part of their 100 Years Series.^[183] The 2005 American Film Institute's '100 Years' series also recognised the character of James Bond himself in the film as the third greatest film hero.^[184] He was also placed at number eleven on a similar list by Empire.^[185] Premiere also listed Bond as the fifth greatest movie character of all time.^[186]

The twenty two James Bond films produced by Eon Productions, which have grossed $4,910,000,000 in box office returns alone,^[187] have made the series one of the highest-grossing ever. It is estimated that since Dr. No, a quarter of the world's population have seen at least one Bond film.^[188] The UK Film Distributors' Association have stated that the importance of the Bond series of films to the British film industry cannot be overstated, as they "form the backbone of the industry".^[189]

Television also saw the effect of Bond films, with the NBC series The Man from U.N.C.L.E.,^[190] which was described as the "first network television imitation" of Bond,^[191] largely because Fleming provided advice and ideas on the development of the series, even giving the main character the name Napoleon Solo.^[192] Other 1960s television imitations of Bond included I Spy,^[178] and Get Smart.^[193]

See also[link]

James Bond portal

• Shaken, not stirred
• Sir Fitzroy MacLean, 1st Baronet
• The Battle for Bond
• 9007 James Bond Asteroid named after the character

References[link]