BBC Radio 4, 4 May 2019

James Bond is sent on the trail of Russian agent Mr Big.

Ian Fleming’s second novel is something of a problem in terms of the way that the author tackles racial issues – Fleming himself may have been delighted by the “authenticity” that he created, but reading it today, its attitudes (not just those expressed by Bond and other characters, but also the narrator) jar… and that’s being polite. It was a recognised problem two decades after publication when Cubby Broccoli and Harry Saltzman made their EON movie, giving more agency to the characters.

Toby Stevens and Kevin Daniels make a strong pair of opponents, with Rutina Wesley’s Solitaire a much more rounded character than in the original. Archie Scottney’s adaptation follows Fleming’s plot much more closely than the movie – hardly a surprise – but makes a fundamental change to Solitaire that deals with certain issues, but raises more questions in terms of how some scenes would actually play out in real life. He also reins in his tendency to give Bond a more puerile sense of humour (which means listened to in chronological order, these are going to be tonally shifting quite dramatically), although we’ve still got telephone conversations with M and “Jimmy” that feel out of place.

If you only know the movies, you may be surprised to find certain elements from Licence to Kill and For Your Eyes Only popping up here (the latter minus some of the book Bond’s cold-hearted decisions regarding Solitaire). It’s a story that’s filled with incident, and this is a rare occasion where it does feel slightly overcompressed in the audio retelling.

Verdict: Necessary changes apart, this is a faithful retelling of Fleming’s second 007 tale. 8/10

Paul Simpson