My favorite James Bond is dead.
I have just got the news about the death, at the age of 89, of Sir Roger Moore.
To me, it feels like losing a favorite uncle.
I grew up with Roger Moore on television.
The highly apocryphal but fun adaptation of Scott’s Ivanhoe.
The Saint, of course.
And then The Persuaders, that really was a cornerstone of my generation’s culture and attitude. So sue me, there were worse models.
And then the movies – a lot of adventure and war movies.
He even was Inspecteur Clouseau in a (alas, pretty lame) Pink Panther movie – and in that lame movie, his was certainly the best bit.
And then the James Bond movies.

Live and Let Die
The Man with the Golden Gun
The Spy Who Loved Me
Moonraker
For Your Eyes Only
Octopussy
A View to a Kill

Of these, three are in my Bond Top Five.
Moore was no Connery, nor he tried to be – his Bond was lightweight, comedic, over the top and elegantly self-deprecating.
It was “my” Bond, because these were the Bond movies in the cinemas when I was a kid.

Roger Moore had class, irony and elegance, and he was a great, often underrated actor.
He will be missed.