Way back when, 1968 to be precise, Roy’s band – The Move – which featured Bev Bevan and later Jeff Lynne, both afterwards of The Electric Light Orchestra, had the number one radio play smash, “Blackberry Way.”

Just before Christmas in 2011 he toured major venues in the UK with Kim Wilde and Status Quo, performing his brilliant set including the festive period hit, of course.

He used to include a few bars of the James Bond theme in concerts in the late 1970s. In 2009 he found a magical way to incorporate the jingle we all know with his first number one.

The Roy Wood Rock and Roll Band at Wembley Arena, London, UK 12.12.2009
James Bond Theme and Blackberry Way

The song Blackberry Way was written by Roy Wood and produced by Jimmy Miller. Originally at 3 minutes and 38 seconds, many have copied it in concert, but none have mastered it in quite the same manner.

This isn’t a documentary; Made in Dagenham tells the story of a strike that beat Ford back in the sixties. It brought about equal pay for women (has that arrived yet?) and changed UK legislation. While it’s a good film, the lead star didn’t even exist in real life, so what can you believe?

So what’s it all about?

It’s a dramatization of the 1968 strike at the Ford Dagenham car plant, where female workers walked out in protest against sexual discrimination.

Sally Hawkins plays the lead role that is the imagination of writer Billy Ivory starting with the belief of a machinist, building to the power of a speech maker who can thump the unions, the Ford management and the UK government with whatever they throw at her.

Dagenham is exactly as you’d imagine it was like at the time. The film makers have us believe 100% in all that we see so we don’t doubt a single element of the story.

Bob Hoskins is brilliant in all that he does and once again he commands respect from his small, yet impressive role, whereas Rosamund Pike shows she can move a long way from her James Bond days and still skate through the movie, as though she’s on ice. She provides the vital link between management and the workers.

The movie isn’t overfull of nostalgic sixties songs, with the few laid bare few and far between. You just knew Ray Davies and the Kinks would be in there somewhere.

This is a really good movie and probably better than a documentary on the same subject.

2 stars**

Where did Bond go? I went to the cinema to see a James Bond movie, but I think I missed him. You’ll always know a Bond film.:

• He always says “My name is Bond, James Bond.”
• He always asks for his Martini stirred and not shaken or was it the other way around?
• He goes and visits his friend Q to look over some far fetched gadgets and we’ll know that one or two will come in useful by the end of the screenplay.
• He’ll keep looking at attractive girls who then fall into bed with him having known him for all of five minutes and for one of two reasons; one – he’s the greatest lover ever, or two – they are a foreign spy and want to trick him, but they must sleep with him first due to reason one.
• His adversary will always be larger than life and have visions of taking over the world; he’ll always show Bond how he’s going to do that at the moment just before failure.
• There will always be comedy; Bond is a cheeky chap.
• He was very British, drinking tea in the afternoon.
• He always has a long lost love routine with the office girl and she’s loved him forever.
• And he has nice cars we get to see and admire.
• We wait with baited breath for the new Bond song.

I say I missed him because none of the above came true in this latest Bond franchise.

Here’s what a friend had to say:

Bond was good, but extremely shoot ‘em up bang-bang. At times outright scary. Pierce Brosnan used to bring the style and suaveness; what Daniel Craig brings is the 1000% raw testosterone combined with an impression of emotional vulnerability that would be his achilles heel, if he had one – which he doesn’t, because he’s Bond: James Bond. (That line was missing, by the way. I mean, why mess with the formula? It’s what we want.) I did not like the fact that they were also missing the gadget section with Q. I mean, that’s worth 1/2 the price of the ticket, but it wasn’t there. All in all, enjoyed it, but thought that Casino Royale was much better. Chase scenes were AWESOME! Bond girl was fabulosa.

So true. Daniel Craig does perform well, but he’s performing a new revitalized Bond, not the Bond we all know and admired. This follows on from Casino Royale and director Marc Forster obviously believes he has a formula in much the same way Batman films have changed.

In Quantum, Bond has gone missing and we’re left with a just above average effects movie where the screenplay is full of action and not dialogue, it’s shot too close so we can’t even really see the action and one of the main bond girls (Strawberry Fields) has such a small part I couldn’t believe she was gone so quick.

Perhaps this all explains why at least four writers were involved.

The song is easily forgetable; hopefully time will ease that thought. The sales figures look good at $450 million at the box office so far; why it’s only a hundred million behind Mamma Mia!

Yes, Olga Kurylenko was striking, but she forgot to sleep with Bond.

Quantum of Solace – Bond 007

UK release 31^st October 2008

US 7^th November 2008.

The first trailer is now available.

Long awaited, the follow up in the latest James Bond series of 22 outstanding movies, Quantum of Solace, arrives at our screens, firstly in the UK late October, followed by Europe and the rest of the world the week after.

This is the second of the Daniel Craig 007 movies. Each different Bond has taken the film a different way. It will be interesting to see if this Bond maintains his quality start from Casino Royale.

Wikipedia informs us that the first 21 films have cost just over one billion dollars to make, have taken $4.3 billion at the box office, which when adjusted for inflation equals $11.6 million in today’s terms. The money looks well spent from both movie maker and movie supporter points of view. The profits look long to continue.

Die Another Day and Live and Let Die remain my favorites, with Roger Moore my favorite Bond. I do like the way John Cleese was brought in to take over Q’s mantle, even though he’ll be missing this time along with Moneypenny. Dame Judi Dench continues the real menace of ‘M’.

We know the effects will be great, the stunt work brilliant and we’ll get exactly what we expect. It’s just a shame they can’t make one every year.

Who will sing the song? It’s better than winning the Eurovision song content.

It’ll be worth the flight ticket to the UK to see it on opening night.