The Royale Treatment

It appears by The Times article today that the producers of the film series that is based on Ian Fleming’s writings of my former life in the Service have finally settled on their next entry, "Casino Royale." Admittedly, I am heartened to learn of this news, but it would be interesting to see how they will manage to pull this one off as palatable entertainment for the masses. Even to this day I shudder at the whipping I received from Le Chiffre and his twisted cane carpet-beater, so effectively applied to maximum stinging effect upon my genitals. The passage of more than half-a-century has not dulled the wincing memory of it.

Being the only novel not used for an official cinema version, the suggestion seems to be that the opportunity of working with the last remaining bonafide Fleming book title - and the first one at that - will help focus on getting things back on track, back to basics for the film series. Yes, indeed, there has been a veering off the rails for the longest time now. Poor Ian must have rolled over in his grave enough times in the last four decades to burrow a path to China. Merely hearing my own name mouthed by the succession of actors that have followed Sir Connery has increasingly struck me as belonging to that of someone entirely removed from myself as to be utterly alien to me. However, for the film to do any fair justice to things as they actually occurred, it will have to at least retain the cynicism and grimness of that mission, if none of the graphic brutality of my torture. Will I be approached to share my reminiscences for the screenplay? Not since the earliest films have the producers consulted me, "Thunderball" having been the last to include my modest input. I would be quite surprised if they sought me out for this one, but not at all disappointed if, yet again, I was ignored.

I wonder if they will finally use Rene as a character in the film. His appearance is long overdue and it would amuse him to no end to see a reasonable facsimile of his more youthful self on the screen. Featuring May for the first time also would be a nice touch. I have always felt that she would serve, if only in brief scenes, as a very human counterpoint to all of the extraordinary situations and broad characters. Perhaps dear Loelia Ponsonby as well, always sad as it is to recall the tragic circumstances of Lil’s passing. Certainly a return to basics would not be complete without a re-emergence of SMERSH - as they, after all, had never disappeared.

And Vesper. I still grit my teeth at her unforgivable duplicity and treachery. I would have thought my bitterness towards her would have diminished over time, that I would become more understanding of the nature and pitfalls of espionage to which all agents are exposed and to which some succumb, and so consequently maybe find myself think less harshly of her. But it is all still too intensely personal for me. She not only betrayed the Service and Britain, but also both my love for her and proposal of marriage by her admission to being a double agent and then taking her own life. Maybe I only thought I loved her. It is too easy to confuse lust with love when one becomes vulnerable to it. What had gotten into me back then to see her in that amourous way is either lost on me now, or I shall never know. It all feels like it happened centuries ago, but even in her present long-rotted skeletal state, she still seems to remain forever in my mind ... the bitch.