The 007 devotees
Broadcast Date: July 25, 1963
James Bond has quickly become one of the biggest characters in the history of popular fiction. The books are bestsellers and there's a devoted fan following. There's even a James Bond club in Toronto, where middle-aged men drink vodka martinis (shaken, not stirred) and generally just pretend to be Bond (without the gunplay and sex). So, what makes Bond so popular? CBC broadcaster and 007 reader Lister Sinclair offers his thoughts on the great appeal of the great spy.The 007 devotees
• Aside from the James Bond club, Toronto also once had the St. James-Bond Church, which was created when the Bond Street Congregational Church merged with the St. James Square Presbyterian Church in 1929. Bond creator Ian Fleming was just 21 years old at the time and still years away from writing the first Casino Royale.• The character of James Bond is based, at least in part, on Sidney Reilly, a famous British spy who operated in the early 1900s. Known as the "Ace of Spies, " Reilly's exploits were sensationalized in a British newspapers, including a serial in the London Evening Standard. The name "James Bond" comes from an American ornithologist of the same name. Bond creator Ian Fleming said "I wanted the simplest, dullest, plainest-sounding name I could find.'
• Bulldog Drummond, to whom Lister Sinclair refers in this clip, is the title character in a series of novels and films. Drummond is a hard-boiled British detective who is Bond-like in many respects. He's described as having "the appearance of an English gentleman: a man who fights hard, plays hard and lives clean."
The 007 devotees
Medium: Television
Program: 701
Broadcast Date: July 25, 1963
Guest(s): Lister Sinclair
Announcer: Percy Saltzman
Host: Alan Hamel
Duration: 6:49
Last updated:
March 24, 2011
The 007 devotees.
The CBC Digital Archives Website.
Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.
Last updated: March 24, 2011.
[Page consulted on Feb. 13, 2012.]