Daniel C raig set hearts pounding when he revealed his finely honed pecs this week – then broke those same hearts by confirming he has made his last James Bond film.
But one woman who won’t be pining for him as 007 is former Bond girl Britt Ekland.
While the 77-year-old actress admires the success of Craig’s 21st century movies she wants the next Bond to be a lot more like the late screen icon, Sir Roger Moore.
A man who can deliver a cheeky double entendre with a twinkle in his eye is preferable to one with a well worn gym membership, she reckons.
“Daniel is not my Bond,” declares Britt, resplendent in a pink Zandra Rhodes dress when we meet at London’s Richmond Theatre, where she is starring in the thriller The Cat And The Canary.
“He is what young people want today. Roger Moore is my Bond. I like that kind of Bond — suave, elegant, well spoken, cheeky.”
Even so, she does admit to being impressed by 52-year-old Daniel’s body after he peeled off to pose for April’s GQ magazine.
Britt says: “Although my idea of Bond will always be Roger Moore, it’s refreshing to see Daniel looking so well defined — just as you’d expect a modern Bond to be.
“Roger was a charmer, Daniel looks every inch the killer spy. He is a perfect Bond for the people of today.”
Swedish-born Britt starred as secret agent Mary Goodnight alongside Sir Roger in the 1974 Bond film The Man With The Golden Gun.
She was a sex symbol through the 1960s and 1970s, hitting the headlines for her four-year marriage to Peter Sellers and then dating Rod Stewart.
She knows what she likes in a man — and has very clear requirements for any actor who fancies taking over the Bond role.
Britt says: “I don’t think he can be so young. My personal preference is that he should be tall, not an extraordinarily buff body, just fit enough.
“He should have brown hair, slightly longish, slightly below the ears. He should look approachable and have a cheeky, chappy look in his eyes.” ‘I don’t enjoy women being superheroes’
What is clear from speaking to Britt is that she doesn’t align herself with the modern woke generation.
Born in Stockholm in 1942, she has little time for political correctness or feminist calls for a woman to take over as 007.
She says: “Ian Fleming wrote the James Bond books and that’s the answer to who he should be. I don’t enjoy women being superheroes.
“Everything is too serious today. People go to the theatre because their lives are so boring, everything has been taken away from them.