Swiss actress Ursula Andress had to have her voice dubbed by Monica Van Der Zyl for her iconic role as Honey Ryder in Dr No because producer Albert R. Broccoli thought Andress sounded like ‘a Dutch comedian’.

Before New York actor Joseph Wiseman was cast as Dr No, screenwriters thought the character a little antiquated and Fu Manchu-like, so they briefly considered making the evil scientist a monkey instead.

Casino Royale is the only Bond movie with no dancing women in its opening sequence!

Before shooting the classic golf match scene in Goldfinger neither Frobe nor Connery had ever played the game before.

Goldeneye actress Izabella Scorupco demanded that she be called a ‘Bond Woman’ because she thought the term ‘Bond Girl’ was demeaning. But seven years later, in 2002, the Oscar-winning actress Halle Berry, above, said that she was delighted to be described as ‘a Bond babe’ when she starred in Die Another Day.

President John F. Kennedy was a huge fan of From Russia With Love. So was his assassin, Lee Harvey Oswald.

Bond’s CIA friend Felix Leiter has been portrayed by seven actors, more than 007 himself. Perhaps the best known is Hawaii Five-O’s Jack Lord who appeared in Dr No.

Just before he got the Bond role, male model George Lazenby was due to star in an advertising campaign for roll-on deodorant. The Bond producers bought up the adverts to protect the 007 image.

Spartacus star John Gavin was signed up for the role of 007 after George Lazenby quit, but he was paid off when Sean Connery decided to return one more time for Diamonds Are Forever.

Among those who have composed Bond songs that were never used are Pulp (with Tomorrow Never Dies) and Alice Cooper (who made his own idiosyncratic version of The Man With The Golden Gun).

Julie Christie was originally considered for the part of Domino in Thunderball but producer Harry Saltzman turned her down because he thought her bust was not ample enough.

The influence of the Bond films is so great that Nasa was thrilled to let 007 give the world its first view of the Space Shuttle in Moonraker – two years before the launch of the real thing.

For her role in A View To A Kill, American star Tanya Roberts insisted on having a crate of shampoo and beauty products shipped over from California.

Many were puzzled by the title Die Another Day. The phrase came from the poem cycle A Shropshire Lad, by A. E. Housman: ‘But he who fights and runs away/lives to die another day… ‘

Following Quantum Of Solace, only two more original Fleming titles are left, both from 007 short stories: Risico and The Hildebrand Rarity. Try getting a song out of that.

There was some embarrassment at For Your Eyes Only’s Royal premiere, which was used as a fundraising event for the Year of the Disabled. The film featured as its opening scene a villain in a wheelchair being picked up by Bond’s helicopter strut and then being dropped down an industrial chimney.