Now retired from the movie business and settled near Southampton, William P Cartlidge was part of two major milestones in James Bond’s history on the silver screen.

In 1967 he was assistant director for You Only Live Twice, the first film made after original writer Ian Fleming’s death.

And he returned to Bond in 1977 as associate producer on The Spy Who Loved Me and Moonraker, two films made back-to-back which rebooted the franchise after poor returns for The Man With The Golden Gun in the US.

Cartlidge joins stuntman Paul Weston and art director Paul Inglis in a celebration of the world’s most famous spy at the Duke Of York’s on Sunday. Representing the new school of Bond movies is special effects supervisor Chris Corbould, who worked on Skyfall, starring Daniel Craig (above).

Speaking to The Guide from his home in Ambourne, Cartlidge is clearly a man still firmly in love with the movie business.

And looking at his CV it’s not surprising, having spent more than 40 years behind the scenes working on movies including Alfie, Educating Rita and Born Free, as well as directing Oscar Wilde’s An Ideal Husband in 2000. His route into Bond came through director Lewis Gilbert, who he worked with on Alfie, and who brought him along when he was asked to direct You Only Live Twice.

“What was interesting is that with You Only Live Twice the franchise changed up a gear in terms of production values – the gadgets, sets and everything else,” says Cartlidge.

“It was the first one that didn’t follow Fleming’s book [a gritty tale of vengeance following straight on from On Her Majesty’s Secret Service].

“Other than that the book had a sequence in Japan, the script was essentially an original screenplay, written by Roald Dahl.”

Dahl had adapted Fleming’s story for children, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, making him a natural choice for the job.

Cartlidge’s job as assistant director was to ensure everything came together on set by working out production schedules.

The difference between You Only Live Twice and Dr No could be seen in the ambitious set used in the climactic battle – Blofeld’s secret volcano base.

“[Producer Albert R] Cubby Broccoli used to say the cost of the volcano set was the whole budget of Dr No,” says Cartlidge.

But when Cartlidge returned to Bond as associate producer the stakes were set even higher. With designer Ken Adam, he was tasked with creating the biggest soundstage in Europe to represent the inside of villain Karl Stromberg’s super-tanker – which had to house a submarine inside. The soundstage, which took six months to build, is still used today in major Hollywood blockbusters, including the Batman movies.

“At the time it was given planning permission as a temporary building as it was on the green belt,” says Cartlidge. “It morphed into a permanent building, [even though] it was only supposed to be there for ten years. It is a bit too close to the M25 – you can sometimes hear the traffic noise.”

Again, like You Only Live Twice, the two movies were a world away from Fleming’s original stories – the first, arguably his worst novel, told from the point of view of a woman rescued from two thugs by the dashing secret agent, and the second a tale of industrial espionage on the South Coast.

“The truth of it was the books were not big enough for the films,” says Cartlidge.

“The Spy Who Loved Me re-kick-started the franchise. It was Broccoli’s view that the movies were getting slightly cheaper. He thought they should go back to the big productions.”

As Gilbert was back in the director’s chair for both The Spy Who Loved Me and Moonraker, Cartlidge was invited to join him for the two movies. He felt Gilbert’s mark on the movies was to play to Roger Moore’s strengths (pictured below left).

“He admits himself that he’s not the greatest actor in the world,” says Cartlidge. “What Moore has is his charm and the film genuinely played to that for the first time.

“In his early Bonds [Live And Let Die and The Man With The Golden Gun] he was probably a bit uncomfortable and always in the shadow of Sean Connery, who was a very different character and person.

“The films were a lot of fun. If you watch them there are lots of musical references to other films such as The Magnificent Seven and Close Encounters.”

He still has some misgivings about Moonraker, however. “Although it was very successful, I always felt slightly uncomfortable that we were following a trend rather than setting one,” he says. “The big thing about Moonraker was going up into space – which was because of Star Wars and all those other films at the same time.”

It could have also been knocked off the tracks by Michael Cimino’s attempt to reimagine the Western – one of the biggest film flops of all time.

“Heaven’s Gate nearly closed down United Artists while we were making Moonraker,” remembers Cartlidge.

“At the time there was a serious possibility we would have to stop pre-production on Moonraker because of Heaven’s Gate.

“It’s one of the problems with movies – once they’re under way nobody wants to say ‘Can it.’”

He admits he moved away from Bond because he didn’t want to be typecast as a producer. “If you’re not careful and you’re British you can get typecast as someone who is good at spending lots of money,” he says.

He went on to work with Gilbert again on the 1982 low-budget masterpiece Educating Rita and ran into the problem low-budget UK films face when they try to crack the US.

“Today it costs as much to distribute a movie as it does to make it,” he says.

“When we took Educating Rita to show Columbia distributors they had these great ideas for releasing the film in the US, which would cost $20 million. When they asked how much the film cost to make initially we couldn’t tell them it was only $4.5 million.

“It is difficult for small-budget movies, especially in Britain. Every year maybe two or three break out, whereas the British film industry makes about 100 movies a year, most of which are rarely seen.”

  • Bond On The Big Screen is at Duke Of York’s Picturehouse, Preston Circus, Brighton, on Sunday, October 7. Starts 1pm, tickets £12. Call 0871 9025728