Monday 17 September 2012

Location, Bond .... Location!

Very interesting photo-gallery article in today's Daily Telegraph online - 18 of the many fantastic locations from James Bond films in London and around Britain, published as part of the 'Bond 50' celebrations for the fiftieth anniversary of the release of the first film in 1962.

Among the locations included are places Elveden Hall - scene of Pushkin's assassination in The Living Daylights; Brompton Cemetery, which stood in for the Russian church in in Goldeneye; and The Eden Project, which stood in for Gustav Grave's ice air in Die Another Day. There are also some surprising locations such as the car park at the Brent Cross shopping centre, which was the hum-drum location for the escape in a remote-controlled BMW by Bond in Tomorrow Never Dies.

Fascinating stuff, reminding one of how many iconic locations the UK has provided not just for Bond films but for many other great movies over the years.

A similar exercise - though on a smaller scale - has been done by Kees Stam, moderator of the excellent Harry Palmer Website. He has a great section on the site in which he identifies all of the main locations (many in London) from the Harry Palmer films, based on Len Deighton's 'secret file' novels from the 'sixties.

I have also started - but not yet got around to updating and adding to it - a Google Map pinpointing some of the locations not just from the Harry Palmer movies but from the Bernard Samson triple trilogy too. Readers are welcome to make suggestions and add to this map.

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