James Bond movie: How 007 films have stood the test of time – and why Bond will never die

“Bond has become part of brand-Britain,” Martin D. Brown a Professor at Richmond The American International University in London said in an exclusive interview with Express.co.uk.

“But he has a Britishness everyone can associate with, it’s inclusive rather than exclusive and that’s what makes him so globally popular,” Brown said.

Despite being so intrinsic to Britsh culture, Bond always had a fraught relationship with Britain – something perhaps only noticeable to those with the keenest of eyes tuned on Flemming’s work.

“He’s this transatlantic character, and we can see this with the martini,” Brown offers as an example.

Bond’s signature drink, the martini was likely invented around California in the 1970s, using Dutch gin and French vermouth, making it a very international drink.

“If Bond were really British, would he be drinking Martinis? The answer is no,” he said.

And yet for sixty years, Bond has been a mainstay of Britishness both at home and abroad.

Look back to the London Olympics in 2012, where you have the remarkable spectacle of the Queen and Daniel Craig’s Bond pretending to jump out of a helicopter and into the Olympic stadium.

“The very fact that you’ve got the British head of state, Queen Elizabeth the second, associating herself with this fictional character is on one level bizarre, but on another level Bond has become part of brand Britain.”

Indeed, when the Spectre was being released, British embassies around the world had Aston Martins parked outside, they were holding martini cocktail receptions promoting British Industry — “Bond is a British industry.”

But Bond is first and foremost a movie, a product, that needs to be relevant to global markets.

The Bond franchise is always reacting to global affairs and international relations, but it’s also got an eye on the movie competition.

“Moonraker is the classic example,” Brown said “Star Wars comes out, it’s a huge hit. Bang, Bond goes into space.”

Another example is the evolution of Bond’s fighting style during the Bruce Li movies of the early 1070s, suddenly James Bond is doing karate.

Is Bond being a symbol of “inoffensive, interesting, high-level global Britishness,” as Brown described it, enough to keep a character going for six-plus decades?

Probably not. But his vacuousness is.

“He’s a cultural imbecile, he seems to have no appreciation of anything apart from fine wine and food which on its own is great but we don’t know what he thinks of architecture or music or film or literature. We have no idea.”

A perfect example of Bond’s lack of cultural ties is the ever-popular Bond themes.

“The Bond themes have become part of popular musical culture and yet we don’t know what bond thinks about that, he is such a vacant vessel,” Brown said.

“In a way, he has no character it’s very weird. Here’s someone that’s lasted 60 to 70 years and the most we know about it is the obituary that M writes for the Times at the end of You Only Live Twice.”

In contrast, Brown added: “Jason Bourne’s forgotten who he is but James Bond seems to have no idea who he is in the first place.”

“You project onto him whatever you think, whatever you like, and maybe that’s also a secret to his longevity.”

Whatever it is, his emptiness or his Britishness, or both, James Bond is far from done.

As Daniel Craig prepares to step back from the role of 007 and a new actor will take over the moniker, you can be sure Bond will continue for another few decades at least.