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Credit: Far Out \/ Amazon MGM Studios<\/p>\n
Fri 19 June 2026 16:15, UK <\/p>\n
Ask most James Bond<\/a> fans which movie they consider the franchise\u2019s red-headed stepchild, and there\u2019s usually only going to be one answer, and it\u2019s one that Eon Productions would fully agree with.<\/p>\n After all, there are 25 official instalments in the long-running film series based on Ian Fleming\u2019s literary creation, and over in the far corner of the room, sitting on the naughty step is 1983\u2019s Never Say Never Again, which endures as the one and only unofficial adventure for the legendary secret agent.<\/p>\n Rubbing salt into the wounds, Sean Connery agreed to return as an even older and less convincing 007, and to add further insult to injury<\/a>, it was released just months apart from Roger Moore\u2019s Octopussy. It isn\u2019t acknowledged or considered canon, so it shouldn\u2019t really be up for debate as to which film would be most likely to be swept under the rug by Bond\u2019s powers-that-be.<\/p>\n And yet, Diana Rigg has a different take. In what was a thankless task that rapidly evolved into a doomed errand, George Lazenby was given the unenviable task of stepping into Sean Connery\u2019s sizeable shoes for 1969\u2019s On Her Majesty\u2019s Secret Service, with the Scot\u2019s five-film tenure turning 007 into an icon.<\/p>\n You could have parachuted any actor into the tux, and there\u2019d have been a high chance of failure, but Lazenby hardly did himself any favours<\/a> with his behaviour and attitude, which included, but was in no way limited to, being called a \u201cprize shit\u201d by his predecessor and becoming cinema\u2019s only one-and-done Bond.<\/p>\n Narratively, it was a massive moment for the character, with Rigg\u2019s Teresa di Vicenzo getting hitched in the coda, making Bond a married man onscreen for the first and only time, before she\u2019s mercilessly gunned down and killed shortly after. Normally, that would cast a shadow that would linger for years, if not decades, of 007 adventures, but Bond\u2019s spouse has hardly ever been mentioned<\/a> since.<\/p>\n Rigg has a theory as to why, though, with the actor recalling in 2015 that she, Lazenby, and the entirety of On Her Majesty\u2019s Secret Service were thrown under the bus. \u201cI think it is quite influential now, but that\u2019s many years later,\u201d she mused. \u201cIt\u2019s quite interesting, because the Bond organisation actually turned their back on that film.\u201d<\/p>\n Further reading: Cutting Room Floor<\/p>\n With the Lazenby experiment over<\/a>, Cubby Broccoli and the rest of the brain trust scrambled back toward the drawing board, re-enlisting Connery at a princely sum for Diamonds Are Forever to help steady a ship that had started swaying for the first time, which is why Rigg believes her \u2018Bond girl\u2019 contributions were hung out to dry.<\/p>\n \u201cThey never mention it,\u201d she added. \u201cBecause it\u2019s the one film that they consider a failure, because of George.\u201d On the plus side, Rigg was right in conceding that \u201cas far as the public\u2019s concerned, it\u2019s not a failure, it\u2019s up there as one of the favourites,\u201d because it has indeed been reappraised as one of the best Bonds, and if you ask Christopher Nolan<\/a>, it\u2019s the best, bar none.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
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