My introduction to Bond was through the Roger Moore films. I love the Connery Bonds. But I saw them only on VHS and now DVD. I guess those who began with the Sean Connery films found everyone else an imposter.

What do I love about Bond? Oh, everything. Right from the gun barrel, opening pre-title sequences, to the snazzy titles, the action, the set pieces, the locations, the OTT villains.

And of course, the suave intrepid superspy who we all want to be. In the face of certain death, he’s still got a glint in the eye and looking for a way out. Something big has come up, he says with his arm around a girl and I wonder whether he’s talking about the case.

Did I forget something? No way, just saved it for the last. The girls. And their guilty pleasure names. Pussy Galore, Plenty O’Toole, Kissy Suzuki, May Day, Xenia Onatopp, Holly Goodhead and the one that began it all. Ursula Andress in Dr No, Honey Ryder coming out of the water. And in that scene where she’s given a shower to be cleaned of radioactive radiation, was she wearing anything at all. I ruined my first (then expensive) VCR trying to find out.

Are the girls bimbos? Well, some of them perhaps, but they are also skilled professionals and got spunkier as the movies progressed. Pussy Galore was a pilot and my favourite Barbara Bach was a spy who was more than a match for Bond.

... contd.