20 Things You Didn’t Know About For Your Eyes Only (1981)

20. “Oh, Do You Want To Get Off?”

Roger Moore’s contract to play James Bond had initially run for three films and expired with The Spy Who Loved Me (1977). Given his fondness for that film, he accepted Cubby Broccoli’s offer to return for a fourth film, which was originally meant to be For Your Eyes Only, but became Moonraker following the success of George Lucas’s Star Wars (1977).

Moore hesitated when he was offered the chance to star as Bond for a fifth time and, during contractual negotiations, it seemed likely that he might not return (something that became a hallmark of the pre-production process on his remaining Bond films).

The casting net was therefore thrown open for a potential new Double-0 Seven, alongside which director, John Glen worked with screenwriters, Richard Maibaum and Michael G. Wilson to devise an appropriate way to introduce a new face as Ian Fleming’s gentleman spy.

The reference to Tracy Bond’s murder in On Her Majesty’s Secret Service was a natural way to achieve the appropriate continuity within the franchise, whilst Glen got the idea for a remote-controlled helicopter when he saw a boy playing with a toy car on the backlot at Pinewood Studios in Buckinghamshire.

Ironically, despite all this effort, Moore ultimately decided to return as James Bond. Nevertheless, the film’s striking opening sequence brought Double-0 Seven firmly back down to earth and into the 1980s.