10 Biggest Mistakes The James Bond Series Ever Made

It's easy to see why introducing the second actor to portray James Bond was considered a big deal. It was a very bold move at the time, and established the new approach which would ensure the longevity of the series.

Of course, as we all know, it proved to count for little, as the almost completely inexperienced George Lazenby would relinquish the role after his first and only Bond performance in On Her Majesty's Secret Service. As misguided as the model-turned-actor may have been, he did a largely respectable job as the only one-and-done 007 to date; and the film itself is rightly held up to this day as one of the best of the series.

However, given Lazenby's brevity in the role, his introduction as Bond seems all the more overblown. Opening on a car chase, we get only brief glimpses of his face revealed in rapid edits, building a sense of anticipation to the new 007's reveal. Once he's finally revealed, it's a kind of visual crescendo - and, credit where it's due, Lazenby does his own thing with the role rather than simply imitating Connery.

The problem is, going in with the knowledge that On Her Majesty's Secret Service is the actor's sole outing in the role, all this dramatic build-up seems utterly misplaced. This feeling is only worsened by what has to be one of the worst fourth-wall breaking moments of the series: as Diana Rigg's Tracy dashes to her car leaving 007 high and dry, Lazenby murmurs, "this never happened to the other fellow," with a smile direct to the camera.

Yes, knowing humour has always been part of Bond, but this was a bit much. Small wonder, then, that when Roger Moore took over in Live And Let Die, he did so with no aplomb whatsoever, everyone just acting as though he always had been Bond and getting on with the story.