SPYMAKER

UK, 1990, 100 minutes. Colour.
Jason Connery, Kristin Scott Thomas, Joss Ackland, Patricia Hodge, David Warner, Colin Welland, Fiona Fullerton, Richard Johnson, Julian Firth.
Directed by Ferdinand Fairfax.

Spymaker is of interest to all fans of James Bond, on the page or on screen. However, whether this is a biography or not is a moot point. It is probably more, as someone noted, fiction based on fact.

Fleming has a rather Bond-like life, although it goes back to his family life, his expulsion from Eton, his work as a newspaper reporter, his derring-do in Russia as well as his work for MI6.

Jason Connery is Ian Fleming, a nod in the direction of his father, Sean Connery who played Bond seven times. Kristin Scott Thomas was at the beginning of a very distinguished career. The supporting cast comprises strong British character actors with Patricia Hodge as his mother, David Warner as the model for M, Julian Firth as an eccentric who is the model for Q (and whose character name is Quincy).

The film was directed by Ferdinand Fairfax, mainly a director of television series and some films, Nate and Hayes, True Blue and telemovies Frenchman’s Creek and In the Name of Love.

1. Ian Fleming and his reputation? Audience interest in him? His background? The origins of James Bond?

2. How did the film set up parallels between Fleming’s life and experience and those of Bond? The range of allusions to the Bond stories?

3. Britain in the 1930s, attitude towards Russia and communism, Norway, England? Reality and fantasy? The musical score?

4. The title, Fleming’s secret life, the origins of a spymaker?

5. Fleming’s background, the toy soldiers, knights and rescues? His mother, the portrait of her and her attitude towards him, neglect? M – and mother? Her coldness, no embracing, sending him to school? Attitudes towards sexuality? Going to the army? Discipline? The attitude of his mother and sending him to Reuters?

6. The Reuters boss, the truth? At work, the work with Miss Delaney – as a model for Miss Moneypenny?

7. Going to Russia, covering the trials, the guilty verdicts, wife, interview? The train – and From Russia with Love? The spy, the cold lips, the escape? The White Russians, Poland? The effect on him?

8. The admiral, shaken but not stirred? The encounter with Leda? The interview, the reaction?

9. Quincy, the model for Q, the overtones of Thunderball? The buzzer, the car and the race, the gamble?

10. Fleming being recruited for secret service? The effect on him? The training? Sharing experiences with Leda? The friendship, love? The prostitutes in the train? Deaths? Portugal and the general (and the model for Le Chiffre)? Spy, search? The betrayal?

11. Leda, in herself, snobbish attitudes, work, love, meeting his mother, her anxiety? Death?

12. Norway, the preparations, carrying out the mission, the capture?

13. The end of the war, his mother, his cousin, his career?

14. Fleming’s fiction – in his own life, on the page? The background for the James Bond stories?