Where’s the joy gone?

Have you seen Spectre, the latest Bond film? If not, the opening sequence is terrific. Lots of action and excitement. The whole film is full of stunts and thrills. But after watching it, I realised there was something missing: joy, or joie de vivre. Daniel Craig plays Bond like an android who has spent too much time muscle-building instead of having a good time.

Contrast Spectre with From Russia With Love, one of the early Bond films. The first scene in which we see Sean Connery as Bond, he is humorous and amorous as he snogs a beautiful woman in a punt moored at the side of a river. He lifts out a bottle of champagne which he has left cooling in the water, tied with a piece of string. He tests it to see if it is cool enough. He remarks, ‘Not quite’ before going back to canoodling.

When Bond eventually gets to the offices of his boss, M, he throws his hat from the doorway onto the hat stand. Why? Just for fun! So within the first few minutes of meeting Bond, we see a man who likes wine, women and joking around. His lust for life makes the Daniel Craig version look like a mortuary attendant.

I am tempted to think that the change in the Bond films reflects a change in the national psyche. British people have become less joyful and, in the old sense, gay. Recently I found myself watching a repeat of an old cookery programme by the late Keith Floyd. He was cooking some food on a barge as it chugged through the Burgundian countryside (probably his 1987 series). His unforced jollity was a shock because you see it so rarely on TV now. He teased the cameraman and the producer. He relished frequent sips from a glass of red wine and at one point he said, ‘This is a boring bit so I suggest you look out of the window at the countryside.’