What a bonanza this past week has been for Bond fans with the premiere of his 20th film.
Every other television programme, it seems, was about 007 and the great phenomenon he has become over the past 40 years.
It is not, however, widely known that Thunderball was to have been the first James Bond film. Because of legal problems, it had to be postponed until 1965, when it became the fourth.
Dr No was substituted and became the first, in 1962, with From Russia With Love released in 1963. Goldfinger hit our screens in 1964. Sean Connery made his fifth appearance as 007 in 1967's You Only Live Twice and his final "official" Bond film was Diamonds Are Forever, in 1971. He reappeared in 1983 for Never Say Never Again.
In spite of there being a further 14 Bond movies and four other Bond actors, to most people Sean Connery is James Bond.
-Michael Parker, Lewes Road, Brighton
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