Kristian

The latest choice, Mr Danny Craig, is so crap it got me thinking on the age-old question.

The stock answer for most is Connery. For me, however, it's Brosnan. Controversial, I know! Here's my thinking : When Connery stepped up to the plate he could make the character his own and didn't have the pressure of being one of the most iconic figures in cultural history. The problem all post-Connery Bonds have faced is having an audience know they're actors impersonating Bond - which means they're unconsciously less believable to us. Yes, yes, we knew Bruce Willis was an actor in Die Hard etc, but you are profoundly aware in the case of later Bonds. So new Bonds have the pressure of living up to an icon and the need to "get the character right" before an unforgiving fan-base who know they're impersonating a character. Connery had zero pressure and we'd never seen Bond before, so we believed he was the real bond (just like we believed Willis was his real character in Die Hard).

I think Connery had better movies which helped too but, on the whole, he became less believable as the years progressed, getting fat and out of shape. Brosnan had Bond down from the get-go and kept it up (pun intended) right to the very end.

What do you think?