IT was the place where James Bond author Ian Fleming went to boarding school – and where the grandfather of a current MP inspired one of the stories’ villains.
Dorset and the New Forest can claim a host of connections to the world’s longest-lived spy.
With the 24th official Bond film released on Monday, October 26, the Echo opens the files on some of the area’s links to 007.
1. Ian Fleming was sent to board at Durnford School, an austere prep school at Langton Matravers, in 1915, when he was seven.
2. It has been claimed that Fleming might have been inspired by local tales of the adventures of John Bond, an Elizabethan spy whose family motto is “non sufficit orbis”.
The phrase translates as “the world is not enough”, which became the title of the 19th James Bond film in 1999. The Latin motto can be seen on the Bond family’s house, Creech Grange, at East Holme.
3. Hugo Drax, the villain in Moonraker, is said to have been named after Fleming’s acquaintance Admiral Sir Reginald Aylmer Ranfurly Plunkett-Ernle-Erle-Drax. Later called plain Reginald Drax, he was the grandfather of current South Dorset MP, Richard Drax.
4. John Strangways, a secret service agent in the novels Live and Let Die and Dr No and in the film of Dr No, is also thought to have been named after members of the Dorset gentry.
Sir John Strangways (1585-1666) was a sheriff of Dorset and an MP for the county and separately for Weymouth, while another John Strangways (1636-1676) represented Bridport in the Cavalier Parliament of the 1660s and became a freeman of Lyme Regis.
5. Bournemouth-born Charles Gray played Ernst Stavro Blofeld in Diamonds Are Forever (1971) after playing Dikko Henderson in You Only Live Twice (1967).
Born Donald Gray in 1928, he went to Bournemouth School alongside Benny Hill, who had been evacuated from Southampton.
Gray was a clerk for estate agency Rebbeck Brothers until he left to become an actor, making his stage debut in The Beaux Stratagem at the theatre club next to the Palace Court Hotel.
Bond on a Sunseeker Superhawk 34 in The World Is Not Enough in 1999
6. Poole yacht builder Sunseeker saw its luxury craft featured in four consecutive films, starting with The World Is Not Enough in 1999 (Sunseeker Superhawk 34) and followed by Die Another Day in 2002 (Superhawk 48), Casino Royale in 2006 (XS2000 and Predator 108) and Quantum of Solace in 2008 (Superhawk 43, 37 Metre Yacht M4 and Sovereign 17).
7. Paul Dehn, the Oscar-winning screenwriter who co-authored the Goldfinger screenplay, was a veteran of the Special Operations Executive and played a key role training students at its ‘finishing school for spies’ in Beaulieu.
Bond stars Honor Blackman (Pussy Galore) and the late Richard Kiel (Jaws) at Beaulieu in 2013
8. Many performers from the Bond films visited Beaulieu during its successful Bond In Motion exhibition, which celebrated 50 years of Bond cars and ran from 2012-13.
9. Bournemouth University and Arts University Bournemouth graduates worked on the visual effects for Spectre.
Martine Beswick and Caroline Munro outside Chaplins
10. Plenty of ‘Bond girls’ have made appearances at fan events locally over the years, including Valerie Leon (The Spy Who Loved Me) and Madeline Smith (Live and Let Die). Most recently, Martine Beswick (From Russia With Love and Thunderball) and Caroline Munro (The Spy Who Loved Me) were at a lunch event at Chaplin’s in Boscombe.
11. Believe it or not, a cat called Barty from New Milton is thought to have been seen sitting on the lap of one of the various actors playing Blofeld in the film series.
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