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MI6 periodically answers mail sent to the website.
The first mailbag covers a cornucopia of James bond
topics, from Hong Kong to Barham, Kent...
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MI6 Mailbag #1
30th December 2006
MI6 periodically answers mail on the main website. Have
you got a point of view that others have missed? Have you
got a question that has gone unanswered?
Selected letters
to the MI6 Editors will be published with an official
response, and an opportunity for other fans from around
the world to
comment. Click here to send
you letter to MI6.
In the first MI6 mailbag, readers from
around the world write about the sexiest girl, visiting
Hong Kong locations, Young Bond on the big screen, uncut
DVDs, the MI6 building, and the surprising literary roots of
007 in an English village... |
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Above: Ian Fleming at the typewriter
in his Goldeneye hideaway in Jamaica. |
Above: Halle Berry (Jinx in 2002's "Die Another Day") did
not fair well in the MI6 Bond Girls Survey in 2006. |
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Sexiest Bond Girl Debate
Paul Starkey - United Kingdom
I felt I had to write in after seeing your article posted where you claim to
settle the age old question of who is the sexiest
Bond girl. I fail to see how you can do this when the data you're using
is so invalid it discounts any Bond girl pre-Dalton! Would it not be wiser
to have a poll on the site where all the Bond girls could be compared, and
by Bond fans rather than the average FHM reader? Given the choice between harsh
faced Halle Berry and the delectable Diana Rigg I know who I think was the
sexier Bond girl!
MI6: The FHM data is restricted to the
first year it ran the Sexiest
100 Women In The World survey - 1995, but Maryam
D'Abo from "The Living
Daylights" (1987) did sneak in to the debut poll.
But it is useful in the size of the sample it covers, and
that the voters are not necessarily Bond fans. However,
a big survey of Bond fans from around the world took place
in September 2006, and as luck would have it, the results
agreed with your feelings on Bond's conquests over the
years. Click here for
the full run down on results. |
Bonding In Hong Kong
Roo Johnston - Phuket, Thailand
Chaps, I can find no reference to the actual
hotel - if it was indeed one - used as the "Rubyeon Royale" (yes,
I get the in-joke) in "Die Another
Day" (2002). I breezed through
there recently, and stayed in a few of the better places but
didn't quite
recognise any of them from the
film. Any gen appreciated.
MI6: Sadly, the production of "Die Another Day"
never set foot in Hong Kong. The hotel, which was fictional,
was created in
Pinewood Studios and the shot of Bond climbing up the dock was
digital trickery.
Above: Pierce Brosnan as James
Bond and Rachel Grant as the delightful Peaceful Fountains
of Desire in a Hong Kong hotel room (actually, Pinewood
Studios). |
One film you could have checked
out though, was 1974's "The
Man With The Golden Gun", which was
shot on location.
Hai Fat's
estate is actually the Dragon Garden in Castle
Peak, and the Peninsular Hotel on Salisbury Road still
has its green Rolls Royce limousines. Unfortunately the "Bottoms
Up Club" was fictional,
but you can visit the dazzling Tsim Sha Tsui
shopping district in which it was set. The wreck of the Queen
Elizabeth (M's office) was scrapped on the spot a year after
the film opened, and portions of the
hull that were not salvaged were left at the bottom of the
bay and
were
later
incorporated
into
landfill
for the airport.
Big Screen Young Bond
Jack Lightfoot-Loftus - York, England
Is there going to be a film
about the Young Bond
books that Charlie Higson is writing? It
would be really good if a kid plays
Bond.
MI6: Charlie Higson was asked whether they were thinking about
starting a movie franchise based on the Young Bond books last
year. This question is best answered by his own words: "There's
a lot of interest from film companies and from Hollywood but
we're going to hold off for the time being. I'm pretty sure there
will be a film one day. But I want to get the books written
- I don't want people to come to the character through film". The
third Young Bond novel is just around the corner...
Licence To Cut
Imran Sheikh - United Kingdom
Will the deleted rooftop chase from OHMSS be on the new DVD? Also will Licence
To Kill be uncut this time around?
MI6: The bad news is that, no, the rooftop
chase sequence that was shot but later cut from 1969's "On
Her Majesty's Secret Service" does not appear on the
Ultimate Edition DVD. The scene in question occurs after
Bond visits the real Hillary Bray at the College of Arms.
Bond discovers an enemy agent spying on him and gives chase
across the rooftops, following the villain to a train station
where he kills him. Sadly,
all
that seems to remain from that scene are a few photographs.
The good news is that "Licence
To Kill" (1989) was released uncut in its Ultimate
Edition DVD incarnation, as was 1995's "GoldenEye" for
the first time in the UK. |
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The Real MI6
Dave Ciampa - Walled Lake, MI, USA
Where in England is this MI6 building used on your site. Is
it a computer generated building?
I looked for it in UK last year and I didn't find it.
MI6: The building is real, and located in Vauxhall
Cross in London on the banks of the Thames. Take the tube to
Vauxhall
and you can't miss it. The building is actually the headquarters
for the Secret Intelligence Service (SIS), which is the new name
for MI6 - but Bond and the media keep
the old moniker alive and in the public domain.
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Star Letter - Barham's Bond
Roots
Bob Parsons - Barham, UK
There is a rich history of the literary Bond in Barham, a small village to the
south of Canterbury, as it was visited a lot by Ian
Fleming - indeed he died
at the Kent and Canterbury Hospital.
First there is Higham Place in the village of Bridge. The
13th century house called Higham Place north of was the home
of Count Zborouski who was famous for his love of fast cars
and fast women (there's a connection) and with Captain Howey
built the Romney Hythe and Dymchurch Railway. The fast cars
were known as the "Chitty Bang Bang" racing cars
and were powered by aero engines. They were banned from entering
Canterbury due to the vibration caused by those engines and
because of the flames that came out of the exhausts on occasions.
These cars were the models for Ian Fleming's Chitty Chitty
Bang Bang - the children's story. It is said that the original
is still buried in the gardens there. |
Now we come to where Bond's ID came from - and
this is completely true. The young Fleming used to visit Higham
Place and he travelled down on the coach from London which was
route 007 - a route number that lasted into recent history being
operated by National Express. A couple of years ago the route
was re-numbered 020 and it is strange that the company does not
continue to use that original association for "Bond Tourism" into
East Kent.
MI6: If anyone can reinforce these points -
or indeed rebuke them - please write
via this form.
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