James Bond's links to Dorset ahead of No Time To Die release

Daniel Craig will be reprising his role as 007 for the franchise's 25th instalment of Bond, which will finally be in cinemas from Thursday September 30.

Over the years the MI6 secret agent has travelled to countless exotic and tropical destinations around the globe, but the franchise has several links closer to home in Dorset.

An Estate previously owned by the Bond family - one of which is thought to have inspired the original character.

The Moigne Combe Estate, eight miles or so from Dorchester, was previously once owned by Dorset’s prominent Bond family.

It is reported stories about John Bond, an Elizabethan spy, inspired 007’s creator Ian Fleming to come up with the character.

Another link to the family and the franchise is the family’s motto, non sufficit orbis which translates as ‘the world is not enough,’ which of course became the title of the 21st Bond film in 1999.

The motto can be seen on the Bond family’s house, Creech Grange, South of Wareham.

In 2018 the Moigne Combe Estate went up for sale for £3,500,000 including its ten bedroom mansion house with lake views complete with 141 acres of land.

Poole yachts have featured in several instalments of Bond

Yacht makers Sunseeker, based in Poole, have made several vessels which have featured in different James Bond films.

Sunseeker's Superhawk 34 featured in Pierce Brosnan’s the World is Not Enough and in Die Another Day a Superhawk 48 produced by the company was used.

In the Daniel Craig era both XS2000 and Predator 108 models featured in 2006’s Casino Royale.

Then three further yachts, the Superhawk 43, the 37 Metre Yacht M4 and the Sovereign 17, can all be seen in Quantum of Solace.

James Bond, one of Dorset’s own?

Author Brian Lett has previously said that Gustavus March-Phillips, or Gus, was one of the Special Operations Executive’s leading secret agents in the first few years after its inception in 1940 and also inspired Ian Fleming.

Mr March-Phillips was appointed to command a maritime force which he chose to be based in Poole Harbour.

He also commandeered Anderson Manor, near Wareham, as a base to rest following raids across the channel against enemy positions on the French coast.

Ian Fleming met Mr March-Phillipps through his work as assistant to the Head of Naval Intelligence.

Stories of his service with the British Expeditionary Force, being evacuated from Dunkirk, joining the commandos and being part of Special Operations Executive are said to have provided a lot of inspiration for the character everyone knows as James Bond.

Bond villain said to be named after MP’s grandfather

Hugo Drax, who is the villain in Moonraker, is said to have been named after Ian Fleming’s acquaintance Admiral Sir Reginald Aylmer Ranfurly Plunkett-Ernle-Erle-Drax.

He was later called Reginald Drax and is the grandfather of current South Dorset MP Richard Drax.

Actor Michael Lonsdale played Hugo Drax on-screen, a Word War Two veteran who intends to establish German superiority over England by firing a missile at the British Isles.

It is said that it was only his name that Fleming used as inspiration for the character.

Dorset education for 007's creator

Bond’s creator Ian Fleming attended Durnford preparatory school, at Langton Matravers, on the Isle of Purbeck.

Mr Fleming started the school when he was just seven years old in 1915.

Following his time in education in the county he went onto to be a student at Eton College in his teenage years.

Former Sheriff of Dorset inspiration for fellow 00 agent

John Strangways is a secret agent in the Live and Let Die and Dr No novels, as well as the film adaption of the latter, who is thought to have been named after a former Sheriff of Dorset.

Sir John Strangways was a Sheriff of Dorset in the 16th century and also an MP for Weymouth at the time. Both share the same name and it is said that was the inspiration behind the characters name.

A man by the same name also represented Bridport in Parliament 1660s in another Dorset link.