The Secret Life of Ian Fleming (1990) (TV)

Director:

Ferdinand Fairfax

Writer (WGA):

Robert J. Avrech (written by)

Release Date:

5 March 1990 (USA)

Genre:

Adventure | Biography

Tagline:

Bond is back . . . in the untold story of the original agent 007.

Plot:

The Secret Life of Ian Fleming follows the exciting life of a dashing young Ian Fleming, the mastermind...

Plot Keywords:

Jamaica | Secret Service | Espionage | British Secret Service | Creator

Cast

Jason Connery	...	Ian Fleming
Kristin Scott Thomas	...	Leda St Gabriel
Joss Ackland	...	Gen. Gerhard Hellstein
Patricia Hodge	...	Lady Evelyn
David Warner	...	Adm. Godfrey
Colin Welland	...	Reuters editor
Fiona Fullerton	...	Lady Caroline
Richard Johnson	...	Gen. Halmsden
Julian Firth	...	Quincy
Marsha Fitzalan	...	Miss Delaney
Arkie Whiteley	...	Gallina
Tara MacGowran	...	Daphne
Ingrid Held	...	Countess De Turbinville
Geoffrey Chater	...	Lawyer
Edita Brychta	...	Maya

Also Known As:

007 Spymaker: The Secret of Ian Flemings (Philippines: English title) (theatrical title)
Spymaker: The Secret Life of Ian Fleming

Runtime:

100 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Eastmancolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Certification:

Iceland:12 | Finland:K-12 | USA:PG

Filming Locations:

Bamburgh Castle, Bamburgh, Northumberland, England, UK

Company:

Turner Pictures (I)

Trivia:

Jason Connery plays Ian Fleming, the creator of James Bond. Sean Connery, Jason's father, famously played James Bond.

Quotes:

Leda St Gabriel: She's a spy!
Ian Fleming: I know.
Leda St Gabriel: How?
Ian Fleming: Her lips were cold.

Movie Connections:

Follows James Bond: The First 21 Years (1983) (TV)

The very model of a super spy

The impact of James Bond, 007, on 20th century popular culture is such that we deserve to know something of his creator. The details of the character and the situations into which he is thrust suggest that it would be beyond anyone's imagination to conjure up in a vacuum. Clearly Bond must have been based on a model, and this film leaves us in doubt that Fleming's own life forms at least part of the myth.

The film is of course a hokey collection of picaresque adventures that strain the credulity of the 90's viewer (unlike the 60's spectator who was only too ready to accept the then-novel portrayal of romance and derring-do of our nations' finest), but it is strangely satisfying in at least giving us some insight into the shadowy world of the spy and his typical background.

The choice of Jason Connery as the eponymous hero was certainly an exercise in the bleeding obvious, and transparently the casting decision of a cynical producer seeking a large audience of the curious; but Connery was arguably the perfect actor for the role. No doubt his looks owe more to the young Bond than the young Fleming, but he makes a plausible philandering wastrel from the British upper classes, the victim of a well-connected domineering mother struggling to find something useful for him to do that might engage his attention long enough for him to become respectable and self-sufficient. Unlike so many of that breed whose very existence repulses the less favoured, his larrikin spirit is engaging and sympathetic and we cannot help ourselves from wishing him well.

A good supporting cast, with Patricia Hodge as his mother and Kristin Scott-Thomas as Leda St Gabriel, the initially cool and eventually hot colleague and love interest help to suspend the disbelief - and there are OK performances by David Warner as his boss, presumably the model for 'M'; and Julian Firth's college chum Quincey leaves us in no doubt that he was the basis for the eccentric inventor 'Q' of the Bond films.

If there is a grain of truth in the events portrayed we have an insight into the genesis of the 007 phenomenon, and while we are spared the interminable periods of inactivity and boredom that probably are the lot of the average 'spy', we have a sense of the influences that make it possible for some to dare to take on the enemy alone.