Why Timothy Dalton Is Secretly The Best James Bond

The Living Daylights had been popular, its blunt grittiness proving to be a welcome departure from what audiences had previously grown accustomed to. Two years later, Dalton returned for License to Kill - not just his final Bond film, but his best and most thematically daring.

In it, Bond learns that his close friend Felix Leiter has been attacked, and his wife has been raped and killed. Vengeful, Bond leaves the MI6 and becomes a rogue agent, a man desperate for retribution.

The first Bond film to not be named after a Fleming novel, License to Kill also landed an age 15 rating in the UK, the only time this has happened in the series.

And it's easy to see why. Clashing with Robert Davi's drug lord Franz Sanchez, Dalton takes what made him great in The Living Daylights and dials it up to eleven. He's a meaner, colder, more uncompromising assassin than ever before, driven by his rage-fuelled emotions and unrelenting in his single-minded mission.

With License to Kill, Dalton proved to be a Bond no one was really ready for in the 80s. His lack of humour was an issue for many, his increasingly violent edge an off-putting deal-breaker for many more. Some saw his greatness straight away, but not enough to make a dent in the legacy of Connery or Moore.

Unfortunately, Dalton never got a chance to return to the role. A seemingly endless legal dispute between MGM and Eon Productions was ignited after License to Kill was released, and by the time it ended in 1994, Dalton was done with the role and declined to return, his tux being filled in GoldenEye by Pierce Brosnan.

But his influence didn't end there.

Cont.