Interview: James Bond actor Sir Roger Moore talks about Daniel Craig, living in Bexley and driving a Smart car

The smoothest of the James Bond actors, Sir Roger Moore, will host An Evening With... at The Churchill Theatre on October 2 as part of a nationwide tour.

Speaking to Vibe from his home in Monaco, Sir Roger said: “My wife wants to see a lot of England, because she’s Swedish and doesn’t know everywhere.

“She enjoys going around different parts of the UK.

And, he added: “It keeps me off the streets.”

Returning to the area should bring back memories for the actor, who moved to Bexley when he married his second wife in 1953.

He said: “I lived in Bexley for a large number of years. I don’t think today I would recognise everything. Everything has been built up. Our house at St Mary’s Mount has gone. I’ve got no idea what they have put there.

“I remember I could walk back from the station if I caught a late train from London. I would just walk across the fields and the graveyard and into my back garden.

“That was about a mile walk and there were no houses at all.

“I think I’ll have a little quick look round.”

The 86-year-old actor, who played Bond a record seven times between 1973’s Live and Let Die and 1985’s A View to a Kill, said he would be ‘happy to talk about most everything in my life’ at the shows, which will also support his latest book.

Sir Roger said: “It’s not so much a memoir as a book about people I knew. It’s called Last Man Standing. I wanted to call it One Lucky Bastard but the publishers said the booksellers wouldn’t like the words on their shelves.”

The book covers lots of stars, including screen siren Lana Turner.

He said: “She was a huge star. She taught me how to kiss. Sounds great, doesn’t it? She was a very experienced screen actress.

“I was very lucky with the leading ladies; from Lana Turner, Eleanor Parker, Elizabeth Taylor and Ann Blyth at MGM, with Carole Baker at Warner Brothers and Angie Dickinson. I was sickening lucky.”

As well as catalogue of movies, Sir Roger shot to fame pre-Bond as Simon Templar in The Saint in the 1960s. He became the highest paid TV actor in the world when he starred in The Persuaders with Tony Curtis, which reportedly bagged him £1million for the series.

But he will always be remembered for 007, and said he never tires speaking of the role.

He said: “It took up 14 years of my life.

“I had a wonderful time. I won every fight. I worked every time with some of my dearest friends.

“They were wonderful people that I was happy to spend a lot of time with, and very happy to get paid to spend a lot of time with as well."

He added: “Sean rather resented it. He really hadn’t made a name for himself until he started bond and he resented the fact that people thought he was Bond. He hated his wife being called Mrs Bond.

“He behaved like most of us actors do when we get security and we get paid, we start resenting the people who paid us. I don’t, on the other hand. I’m very grateful.”

These days, Sir Roger is rather taken by Daniel Craig’s modern interpretation of the spy.

He said: “I think Daniel Craig is completely with the current time. To me, he looks like a killer.

“Physically, he is tremendously powerful. I remember seeing Casino Royale, and after two minutes I think he had done more action than I did in seven whole films put together.

“I believe him. He gives a terrific performance.”

After all these years, Sir Roger is still happy to be recognised by fans - even if he sometimes fails to live upto the Bond legend.

He said: “In Monaco, the garage spaces are not that enormous. Driving down into a garage, you have got a lot of sharp bends and with a large car it can prove to be difficult.

“So we have bought a Smart, which is absolutely wonderful. They whip around quite smoothly in Monaco, you can park anywhere.

“The other day, an Irish friend and I were having lunch at the Cafe de Paris, which is opposite the Hotel de Paris and the Casino. Of course, it attracts a vast number of visitors curious to see the old Monte Carlo. I always get the casino doorman to park my little Smart.

“I came out and was got in it. My Irish friend called me later and said there were two herberts from Manchester who were saying ‘What’s bloody James Bond doing in a tin can?’.”

An Evening with Roger Moore is at The Churchill Theatre on October 2. Go to atgtickets.com/Bromley or call 0844 8717620.

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