Quantum Of Friendship

The 1970 Basil Dearden film "The Man Who Haunted Himself" was one of Roger Moore's last big films before playing James Bond. It is a very strange film about a man who appears to have someone stealing his identity. An alternate title for the film could have been "It's All So Frightfully Queer" given the tone and posh idiom of every conversation. Richard delights in Roger Moore's peak-poshness while Jonathan finds comparisons in spoiler-filled discussions of recent films Enemy (2013), The Double (2013) and The Prestige (2006). They conclude with an update on the next Bond film and new directions for our humble podcast.

This episode looks beyond the canon of official and semi-official James Bond movies to see the immensely broad cultural impact 007 has had around the world. You can tell by how many awful knock-off movies have been made of it. Such movies feature in the list of topics discussed here: HBO's Confederate For Your Height Only, of the Phillipines The plague In Like Flint James Bond 777, of Tollywood James Bond Junior Sherlock Holmes and the 22nd Century Licensed to Kill, with a 'd' Breaking Bad fan films Lord of the Rings fan films The Rock Looney Tunes: Back in Action Dr Goldfoot and the Bikini Machine, Dr Goldfoot and the Girl Bombs Two Mafioisi against Goldginger, of Italy Kiss the Girls and Make Them Die, of Brazil Help! It is Vengos, Visible Agent 000, of Greece The End of Agent W4C, of Soviet Czechoslovakia O.K. Connery, of Italy, starring Sean Connery's brother Neil Connery Fathom, starring Raquel Welch Unlocked and our upcoming Noomi Rapace podcast "I Hardly Noomi" From Hong Kong with Love, of France The D

After a brief message to Nazi punks (concerning their fucking off) and a look at the Iain Glen (Sir Friendzone on Game of Thrones) detective show Jack Taylor, a staple of Irish television apparently, Richard and Jonathan review Atomic Blonde. Charlize Theron is 'the living manifestation of destiny' as a badass spy at the end of the Cold War. Named Lorraine. Richard gets into spoilers and Jonathan really gets into the lesbian scenes. The depiction of bisexuality in this film leads to a discussion of how cinema treats sexuality in general. This podcast sure is the place to be if you want a male perspective on that. They generally approve of Atomic Blonde though, as an action film, espionage thriller and female-led franchise to rival James Bond.

007 also appears regularly in comic books so Richard introduces Jonathan to some recent releases; Vargr and Eidolon, written by Warren Ellis and the post-Brexit one-shot Service, written by Kieron Gillen. Service deals with white supremacists, Vargr with bionic experiments and Eidolon with double-crossing inside British intelligence. These are much more gritty and graphically violent than usual Bond fare, showing how much variation there can be in adaptations of the James Bond character.   But they run out of things to say about that so they also discuss the potential of Bond TV shows and cinematic universes, HBO's announcement of their upcoming alternate history series "Confederate" and even the promotion of the Mayweather-McGregor fight. Basically from here on out this podcast will be even more meandering than it already is. Enjoy!

In 2015, the successful spy franchise uncovered a shadowy intelligence organisation running its own operations counter to security services that had to be thwarted by attacking their Moroccan data centre then handing them over to the police in London. While Spectre was disappointing for many reasons, Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation had pretty much the same storyline and produced a more enjoyable film. We may return to the Tom Cruise franchise that seems to be producing better movies than people realise. Since Richard and Jonathan recorded this during an airshow with noisy planes passing overhead (true story), they also take time to discuss the newly released Christopher Nolan war epic/survival horror Dunkirk.

Continuing our discussion of Daniel Craig's confirmed return... to discussion on our podcast, Richard and Jonathan pick apart Spectre. Jonathan gets frustrated and tears it to pieces while Richard can only imagine an army of Michael Fassbender clone-bots ejaculating the elixir of life that creates xenomorphs. We go really tremendously off the rails in this one. We are so sorry.

It has been confirmed that Daniel Craig is... being discussed on our podcast again. We deliver our long-promised episode revisiting the Craig Era and the highs and lows of Casino Royale, Quantum of Friendship and Skyfall. Spectre is getting its own episode and it's gonna get it rough. There's also a look at the Maryam D'Abo (you know) documentary "Bond Girls are Forever" looking at the legacy and cultural evolution of Bond girls.

All set for our shagadelic episode on the swinging Austin Powers trilogy? Because Roger Moore passed away the day of recording so we of course pay tribute to him first. Eyebrows raised at half-mast for the first James Bond to die. The Austin Powers series is abound with references to Bond movies, jokes that hold up really well, others not so much and Beyoncé making an appearance that would be really beneath her in hindsight. Richard considers temporal paradoxes and the prospect of a fourth Austin Powers movie while Jonathan praises Seth Green's underrated acting, the aesthetic of the 90s and of course our Fenian dead, the Irish spy Patty O'Brien.

In 1967, the first cinematic adaptation of Ian Fleming's first James Bond novel 'Casino Royale' was released. Nestled in the final forty minutes of this infamously bizarre comedy's two-hour running time, the classic game of wits plot between Peter Sellers' James Bond and Orson Welles' Le Chiffre plays out. Except in this version, James Bond IS a code-name and agent 007 James Bond gives everyone his code name. He's played by David Niven. John Huston is in this too. So is Ronnie Corbett, Deborah Kerr, Ursula Andress, David Prowse, Peter O'Toole and even notorious child molestor Woody Allen. George Raft, William Holden, Caroline Munro and Geraldine Chaplin were also dragged into this. So many big names in this absolute mess edited together from several directors' footage. Jonathan concludes that this is it; THIS is the strangest film he's watched yet. Richard gives us a taste of this production's fascinatingly troubled history which is sadly not available in documentary form (unless we get crowdfunding going). M

The name's Bond. Jimmy Bond. Yes, the very first screen adaptation of Ian Fleming's Casino Royale was a one-hour CBS special for "Climax! Mystery Theater". This not only has an abrupt and confusing climax, it's strange and boring throughout as Barry Nelson (the hotel manager from The Shining) faces off in a deadly card game with suprisingly-nasally villain Peter Lorré. And by deadly, we do mean boring. Like so boring it's kinda fascinating just how boring it is. But then pop culture cornerstones often have strange origins as Jonathan demonstrates with the original sneeze-related lyrics for the iconic James Bond theme. This episode of musical delights also sees Richard reveal that Anthony Hopkins writes classical music now. But yeah, if you want to see whiny American James Bond, it's on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Uy5gunqCAA

Trigger warnings for the expression "Negro bar" as we hear our latest episode on the life of James Bond creator Ian Fleming. Richard and Jonathan look at three biopics of Ian Fleming that are so far from historical truth they're basically live-action fan-fiction. Dominic Cooper and Eva Green-alike Lara Pulver star in the Sky One 2014 mini-series "Fleming: The Man Who Would Be Bond" while 1990's "Spymaker: The Secret Life of Ian Fleming" features Kristin Scott Thomas and Sean Connery's son Jason Connery as Ian Fleming. It is the heightened strangeness of 1989's "Golden Eye" which captivates, seeing Charles Dance's Ian Fleming face off against a Nazi played by... Holy shit! It's Christoph Waltz! He was there from the beginning. Before James Bond was even written. Jonathan tries to convey the unsettling singing of Julian Fellowes' portrayal of Noel Coward and also informs us of Ian Fleming's appearance in "Agatha Christie's Miss Marple: A Caribbean Mystery". Richard is disappointed by the dearth of loud aerodyna

If you're expecting this to be another Bond review, then Maybe You SHOULDN'T BE LISTENING HEEEEEEEERE!!!!!!!!!!! This is our special St. Patrick's Day episode, where we look at the closest thing to an Irish James Bond; Mark Taffin. Pierce Brosnan, the star of Noble House and Remington Steele, one of THE leading men of the 80s, stars in this notoriously bizarre Irish cult film about an intellectual tennis match between evil industrialists and the loner vigilante who gets results. Taffin tells the garbled story of Schrodinger's Asshole; an immoral outcast anti-hero who is also beloved by his network of support in the small town who also hate and fear him. An early Hans Zimmer score brings us along this strangely-edited journey through anachronistic strip clubs, false rape accusations and appearances from Father Ted actors. Jonathan also touches on his recent trip to Amsterdam and naturally the conversation leads to what weed Bond would smoke, if any. Richard then ponders from where the next Bond-like franchise

Richard and Jonathan look back on the entire canon of Bond films they have now watched and try to pitch a post-credits ending for each one.

Okay, so that last episode was obviously Pierce Brosnan's commentary for Die Another Day. Now Richard and Jonathan provide their analysis, completing their consecutive watch of each James Bond film. Our longest episode yet has plenty to pick apart including a jaw-dropping realisation behind the infamous Moneypenny VR scene. But there are plenty more episodes coming soon, for podcasts never die another day. Wait.

Yes. We were surprised too. Pierce Brosnan is a fan of our podcast and he agreed to join Richard and Jonathan for their live record of watching his last film as 007, Die Another Day. To have him actually literally join us in the same room was an honour and he was affable throughout sharing fond memories with us, in person.

The phrase "Very Much Bond's Equal" was losing all meaning until Elektra King proved to be one of the best Bond villains in 1999's The World Is Not Enough. Pierce Brosnan returns, back from an unspecified war, to team up with Richard's childhood crush Denise "The Childhood Crush of" Richards. Scotland. Though this episode derails several times, it completes the James Bond canon for Jonathan; this was the first Bond movie Richard saw and the last Bond movie Jonathan saw. They extend a formal invitation to Hollywood movie actor Pierce Brosnan, to join their upcoming episode on Die Another Day. Will he accept?

The franchise that never dies sees Pierce Brosnan return as James Bond in Tomorrow Never Dies. You've heard Jonathan's bad singing; Now hear Richard's creepy singing. The music of Simple Minds, Sheryl Crow and many more await you on their tangents. Richard gives Jonathan a belated Christmas present and in return, Jonathan tells Richard about his lordship Julian Fellowes' social commentary on paedophilic entanglements.

"The world is a fucking horrible place... As of right now, at the time of recording". We hope our episode on 1995's Goldeneye finds you well. We have looked at the Fearing Effect, now consider the Joss Whedon Compromise, where women can be better written but must still be hot. This is after all a modern update of James Bond for the go-go 90s. Richard comes to terms with his waning enthusiasm for the first outing of his childhood Bond, Pierce Brosnan. Jonathan finds time to review "The World of 007", an American TV special promoting Goldeneye and hosted by pre-Austin Powers Elizabeth Hurley for some reason. Together they briefly discuss Bond video games which we'll surely return to for another episode, like the Pierce Brosnan movie Taffin.

Hear our exclusive outtakes from our upcoming festive episode on 1995's Goldeneye. Sometimes when we record Quantum of Friendship we have mental breakdowns and fits of laughter following our failed impersonations.

Can inanimate stone-statue women give consent? Can sentient stone-fish wink approvingly at your love? And just how stoned were they when they made Licence to Kill, Timothy Dalton's final movie as James Bond? Richard reveals how horrible vodka martinis actually taste while Jonathan can't help thinking the young Benicio Del Toro looks EXACTLY like Brad Pitt.