BBC Radio 4, March 14, 2020 and on BBC Sounds

James Bond is put on the trail of Pistols Scaramanga…

And so the Radio 4 007 dramatisations go from the second Bond story, Live and Let Die, to the final novel penned by Ian Fleming (and, so the story goes, polished after his death by Kingsley Amis). Yes, the films of the two books followed each other but I suspect that’s coincidence. Fans of the Jarvis/Ayres series will note that one book has been missed out – You Only Live Twice, which was adapted nearly 30 years ago with Michael Jayston in the lead role – but the key elements of that are incorporated into the narrative as required here.

This is by a long way the most pared back of Archie Scottney’s dramatisations of Fleming: Toby Stephens’ Bond is pretty much as Fleming wrote him, questioning if he can kill in cold blood, rather than with any schoolboy humour added to the text. I doubt there’s anyone who would make claims that this is one of Fleming’s best 007 tales – in fact, I doubt it would make many people’s Top 10 let alone Top 5, given its reuse of certain tropes that have appeared across the series. But it’s got an energy to it that felt sorely lacking in the extended travelogue that is the vast majority of You Only Live Twice, and Stephens and Guillermo Diaz as Scaramanga bring that to the recording.

The play reflects the unusual pacing of the book, and works the better for it. There are nice moments for John Standing’s M as well as Josh Stamberg’s Leiter – although I am bemused by the change of name of the service neurologist. Moira Quirk’s Mary Goodnight is a million miles from the slightly dippy blonde in the feature film (who can’t even read out a display on a console correctly!), and Mark Holden’s sound design is an integral part of the story.

Verdict: The first proper adaptation of Fleming’s tale (the Daily Express comic strip took various liberties but was gospel compared to the movie!) shows the tale’s strengths and weaknesses but makes for a strong outing for Toby Stephens’ 007. 8/10

Paul Simpson