When I saw this story at the end of the news bulletins last night, that a statue of Bridget Jones was going to be unveiled in Leicester Square, to be honest I flew into a momentary huff. Why a statue of Bridget Jones but not James Bond? Surely Bond is a much bigger film star? But then my brain got into gear: Firstly, how do I know there isn’t one of Bond already there? I haven’t really explored that area. More importantly though, the fact is that Jones is a quintessentially London-based character but Bond isn’t. 007 may have his base here, but he flies to all kinds of exotic places all over the world – that’s part of his appeal. If you were selecting film characters which celebrate London, you probably wouldn’t choose 007. Then there’s the obvious question of which bond would it be a statue of? If you were going to make a statue depicting Bond, which actor would you choose? Connery? Brosnan? Six actors have portrayed cinema’s greatest spy, so whoever they opt for it’s bound to get caught up in debates over favouritism. On the other hand, the Bridget Jones films are set in and are about life in London; and a statue celebrating them would only need to look like Rene Zellweger.

Thus, on reflection, it isn’t a simple question. While I think it would be cool to have some kind of monument celebrating the Bond films here in London, it’s such a well known, popular series, whatever they do would be controversial and debated endlessly.