Coincidentally I had just finished rewatching No Time To Die and was just browsing Facebook, when I came across something called 007’s Road To A Million. I hadn’t heard that title before, so naturally I googled it and came across this. Forgive my language, but my automatic reaction was “Oh for fuck’s sake!” Amazon are apparently creating some sort of Apprentice-style gameshow: “007’s Road to a Million will see contestants competing in teams of two on a global adventure to win the ultimate prize of up to £1 million. Filmed in iconic Bond locations – from the Scottish Highlands to Venice and Jamaica – this cinematic format will be a test of intelligence, endurance and heroism.” It goes on “In addition to conquering obstacles, the contestants, who will compete in two-person teams, must correctly answer questions hidden in the different locations around the world to advance to the next challenge.”

I know that, as a character, James Bond has his flaws; he is quite an anachronism. Yet there’s no denying that the Bond films are pretty much the most successful cinematic franchises ever. Over the past sixty years and twenty-five films, we have been drawn to stories about this secret agent, with his expensive suits, luxury cars and unique way of ordering a martini. But the key component is the cinema – Bond is fundamentally a filmic phenomenon. To see that people are now trying to usurp those key components to render one of my favourite filmic franchises into some sort of shitty gameshow, just to go alongside the countless others we already have, is very, very disheartening.