When Daniel Craig was finishing his run as James Bond in 2021, Sir Keir Starmer was asked who was his favourite 007. ‘I don’t have a favourite Bond…’ he replied ‘but I do think it’s time for a female Bond’. This from a man who, at the time, struggled to define what a woman even was and whose party has never elected a female leader.
It is telling that Starmer couldn’t even name his favourite 007, but still felt the need to opine that the next one should be a woman
But what the future prime minister’s response typified was a certain bien pensant belittling of Bond that goes back decades. Ian Fleming once described his creation as a hero for ‘warm-blooded heterosexuals’. To many on the left that was Bond’s original sin, for which the franchise has never been forgiven.
The calls for a female Bond are as lazy as the calls for a black Bond, and are invariably made by people who don’t personally care about the franchise at all. They merely see it as another staging post on their ruinous march through Britain’s cultural institutions. It is telling that Starmer couldn’t even name his favourite 007, but still felt the need to opine that the next one should be a woman.
So thank heavens Sir Idris Elba has a better grasp on Bond’s enduring appeal than Starmer. The British actor, who is frequently cited by those who argue it’s time for a non-white Bond, told GQ that the character ‘was written how he was written for a reason’, and that ‘Bond is big all over the world. And (audiences) won’t go for a black male, an African male, playing Bond. That’s not what they like in their culture. Period.’
