Reviews

An Afternoon with Roger Moore (Tour – Salford)

Julia Taylor enjoys spending time with a former James Bond at the Lowry

An Audience with Roger Moore
An Audience with Roger Moore

If you've ever envied James Bond and his prowess with women, forget it!

Addressing a packed audience, Sir Roger Moore said: "Scenes with lovely ladies are shot on a Monday morning in the middle of winter when the heat has been off all weekend.

"You go on a cold stage, get in between cold sheets and try to be romantic. Electricians shout ‘Go on, give her one!' which doesn't help."

Those attending An Afternoon with Sir Roger Moore hear inside stories about being 007 and anecdotes from his time as Simon Templar in The Saint and Lord Brett Sinclair in The Persuaders.

The event takes the form of a chat with Gareth Owen, who assisted him with writing My Word is My Bond and Bond on Bond.

He recalls that on the first day he was being filmed in Simon Templar's Volvo P1800, a copper came up and accused him of faking the plate of the Chief Constable of Stirlingshire!

Between 1973 and 1985, Sir Roger starred in seven Bond movies including Live and Let Die, The Spy who Loved Me and For Your Eyes Only.

We enjoy his take on his close friend Tony Curtis and others.

The son of a policeman, he left school at 15 to become a junior animator for war office films. At RADA, as one of only four boys studying with 16 girls, he "learned a great deal about sex but nothing about acting!"

Since 1991, Sir Roger has been a Goodwill Ambassador for UNICEF. His sad stories about disadvantaged children contrast with his own glamorous lifestyle and show him to be a man of compassion.

But please Sir Roger, when you appear at the New Alexander Theatre in Birmingham on Wednesday, November 6th, turn the mikes up. We couldn't all hear you.

– Julia Taylor