Daniel Craig by Sarah Marshall

Author:Sarah Marshall [Sarah Marshall]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781784189037
Publisher: John Blake
Published: 2015-01-15T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 9

A BLOND BOND?

Ending almost a year of speculation, it was announced in October 2005 that Daniel Craig would be the sixth incarnation of James Bond. Ironically, it wasn’t the production company EON who declared the news – but Daniel’s mum!

Speculation was already rife that Daniel would be named the new Bond. Although it was not yet public knowledge, he had actually been offered the part several weeks previously. It was just a matter of time before the announcement would be made. However, one bright spark at the Liverpool Daily Post decided it was their duty to make national headline news and break the story first. With a bit of investigative work they managed to track down Olivia (Carol) Craig’s home telephone number. Taking a chance, they tapped in the digits.

‘Hello?’ said Olivia, picking up the phone.

‘Hi. Sorry to disturb you but we’re calling about your son Daniel. Isn’t it fantastic news?’

Caught off guard, Olivia wasn’t sure how to react. ‘Erm, yes, it is,’ she replied.

She could have sworn the official announcement was not for another week or so! Perhaps they had brought the date forward.

‘Obviously we are thrilled to bits,’ she went on to say. ‘It has come at a very good time in his career. He has worked extremely hard all his life and this would be his biggest populist role. I think he could bring something very interesting to the part. It will be life changing.’

By this point the paper had all the confirmation necessary to run a news story. Realising almost immediately that she’d been caught out, Olivia dropped the receiver in stunned silence. She was mortified. Daniel had told her about the role in strictest confidence. Even MI5 would have had trouble coaxing it out of her and now some young upstart on the local paper had managed to break her vow of confidence with a single phone call.

Slamming down the receiver, she instantly picked it up again and dialled her son. As she explained what had happened, she was trembling. However, she needn’t have worried for Daniel knew only too well how crafty and underhand the press could be. In fact, he was far angrier that the newspaper had managed to put his mother in such a compromising position. ‘The press fucked her!’ he fumed. ‘She was mortified. She’d known I’d had the role for three weeks and had been silent. And then these cunts…’ He broke off, sensing his temper was escalating out of control. ‘Sorry, I shouldn’t go down that road! Really, it doesn’t matter. What a great story! There’s no better copy than that. But she got into a real state about it. It’s a very old trick, but they did it.’

In light of the circumstances, EON prepared an official announcement for the press. The press conference took place on 14 October in London aboard the HMS President on the River Thames. It was an overcast day. Daniel made a dramatic entrance in a speedboat, accompanied by officers from the Royal Navy, to the sound of the James Bond theme music.

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