12. John BarryOn Her Majesty’s Secret Service

It’s my favourite Bond film but I’d argue that From Russia With Love is the best one. But On Her Majesty’s Secret Service is an oddity, isn’t it? And the soundtrack is off the fucking chart – it’s magnificent! That’s why it’s here and it never fails to excite me.

Whenever it’s on TV, I have to watch it and it’s got something very special, but the music is John Barry’s finest hour; it’s a remarkable piece of work. It reminds me of Barry’s later work on The Persuaders, which has that remarkable theme tune with that sense of melancholy that doesn’t really fit the rest of the show at all, but it’s somehow right. And there’s a lot of that here. The main title theme at the beginning is played using a Moog and that’s very distinctive. The film is such a curio. You could argue until you’re blue in the face that if Sean Connery had starred in it, then it would’ve been the best Bond film, but he was so visibly bored in You Only Live Twice that he’d have been more bored here. And for all of his shortcomings as an actor, George Lazenby’s James Bond is so vulnerable here, and that’s what makes the film.