BBC Radio 4 - James Bond Radio Drama, The Man With The Golden Gun

First broadcasted on March 14, 2020.
Toby Stephens returns as 007 with Cuban-American star Guillermo Diaz. Bond must eliminate international assassin, Scaramanga. But he has a conscience. In cold blood? Can he do it?
Ian Fleming’s psycho-political Cold War thriller, written in 1964 and dramatised by Archie Scottney. James Bond’s obit appears in the Times. But suddenly he’s back in London with murder on his mind. Brainwashed by the Russians?
M gives him one more chance - terminate international assassin, Francisco Scaramanga.
Bond infiltrates the killer’s Jamaican HQ. But 007 has a conscience. Can he eliminate the butcher in cold blood? Will his cover be blown?
A stellar cast includes Toby Stephen's return as 007. Cuban/American star Guillermo Diaz excels as psychopath Scaramanga and Janie Dee returns as Moneypenny, with John Standing as M and Moira Quirk as a feisty Mary Goodnight.
Martin Jarvis directs and is the voice of Ian Fleming in a dazzling Caribbean soundscape with specially composed music by A-Mnemonic.
Cast:
James Bond ….. Toby Stephens
Scaramanga ….. Guillermo Diaz
M ….. John Standing
Chief-of-Staff ….. Lloyd Owen
Moneypenny ….. Janie Dee
Townsend ….. Simon Templeman
Professor Gillian ….. Lisa Dillon
Tiffy ….. Monica McSwain
Mary Goodnight ….. Moira Quirk
Paradise ….. Seamus Dever
Gengerella ….. Tim Dekay
Hendricks ….. Matthew Wolf
Binion ….. André Sogliuzzo
Garfinkel ….. Darren Richardson
Ruby ….. Anna Mathias
Leiter ….. Josh Stamberg
Nicholson ….. JD Cullum
Doctor ….. Gilbert Glenn Brown
Matron ….. Inger Tudor
Cargill ….. John Cothran
Telephonists ….. Anna-Louise Plowman, Paula Jane Newman, Anna Lyse Erikson
Newsreader ….. Brian Perkins
Fleming ….. Martin Jarvis
Other parts by members of the cast
Specially composed music: A-Mnemonic.
Sound Design: Mark Holden
Dramatised by Archie Scottney
Director: Martin Jarvis
Producer: Rosalind Ayres
A Jarvis and Ayres production for BBC Radio 4
DISCLAIMER: I do not own the rights to this radio drama. All rights go to BBC Radio 4 and all its contributors.
ENJOY!

[@eddherring4972]

I’ve only know Toby as Gustav Graves and Lieutenant/General Dodd from Sharpe. Being as both characters are very similar I’ve had a one dimensional view of Toby’s acting. I’m very pleased to see that there is far more to him than those two characters and to be honest his portrayal of Gustav Graves would not be unlike Flemings 007 with regards to attitude. I think Toby would have made an excellent Bond similar to Dalton, who I regard as the best.

[@kendraklasek9278]

If you want the true measure of Toby Stephens’ range, you NEED to watch Black Sails. Career best performance and possibly the best character on television ever.

[@eddherring4972]

@@kendraklasek9278 thank you I’ll certainly give it a go...

[@KiwiBen75]

I wouldn’t mind if he played Bond

[@eddherring4972]

I have watched Black Sails and on that basis other work specifically and I’ve rewatched all the Sharpe series and I can confirm that I really do rate Toby Stephen’s as a fine actor, I am so pleased to admit that I was completely wrong in my initial thoughts.

[@Colicab83]

@Edd Herring that's respect. You cone back a year later and update! Hell yeah. Glad you liked Black Sails!

[@ravenrose5712]

The opening sequence is brilliant! Toby Stephens absolutely killed it.

[@clarencebeeks1528]

Another class upload. Toby is a superb Bond.

[@davelawday6609]

Brilliant..thanks for sharing.. thoroughly enjoyed this drama.. top notch..regards Dave 👍👍👍

[@sinatrasmoke9448]

One of my favourite Bond novels next to On Her Majesty's Secret Service!! These radio dramas are fantastic. Thank you for uploading them.

[@ToylandChairman666]

The Roger Moore film is a serious guilty pleasure, even though it's a borderline in name only adaptation.

[@lukasnummer1]

Thanks for uploading! These radio adaptions are always so well-made.

[@mannymacvela3877]

This is the recent James Bond Radio Adaption as of 2024! All that's left for Toby Stephens to play Ian Fleming's James Bond are, Casino Royale, For Your Eyes Only, From a View to a Kill, Quantum of Solace, Risico, The Hildebrand Rarity, The Spy Who Loved Me, You Only Live Twice, and Octopussy and The Living Daylights, The Property of a Lady, and 007 in New York. And hopefully the post Fleming James Bond novels like Colonel Sun, Licence Renewed, For Special Services, Icebreaker, Role of Honour, Nobody Lives for Ever, No Deals, Mr. Bond, Scorpius, Win, Lose or Die, Licence to Kill (Novelization), Brokenclaw, The Man from Barbarossa, Death Is Forever, Never Send Flowers, SeaFire, GoldenEye (Novelization), Cold, Blast from the Past, Zero Minus Ten, Tomorrow Never Dies (Novelization), The Facts of Death, Midsummer Night's Doom, Live at Five, The World Is Not Enough (Novelization), High Time to Kill, DoubleShot, Never Dream of Dying, The Man with the Red Tattoo, Die Another Day (Novelization), Devil May Care, Carte Blanche, Solo, Trigger Mortis, Forever and a Day, With a Mind to Kill, and On His Majesty's Secret Service. Pray for more James Bond 007 radio dramas someday.

[@susanstanton2156]

Bravo, thanks for posting this! What a great series, BBC4 does such a fantastic job.

[@naughtydog1617]

Most welcome😉

[@jwg5774]

Man With The Golden Gun is touted as Fleming's final novel but many experts believe that Fleming only completed a rough draft of the story before his death and that Fleming's publishers brought in a ghostwriter to polish the manuscript. This is evidenced by the fact that there are many sections of the novel that read nothing like Fleming's prose style, the tighter, more fluid flow of the narrative, and the lack of Fleming's grandiose descriptives. Some believe it was Fleming's brother, author Peter Fleming who was brought in to finish his brother's book, while others think it may have been writer Kingsley Amos, who wrote the first post Fleming Bond novel Colonel Sun (under the pseudonym Robert Markham) who finished the book.

[@jamesatkinsonja]

Kingsley Amis was paid to review the manuscript but his suggestions were ignored and they did publish Ian Fleming's original draft. Apparently Fleming would do a rough draft to get the story outlined, then go back and add the detail which is why this doesn't resemble the other Bond's very much [a bit like watching a 'rough cut' of a film without the post production work].

[@2msvalkyrie529]

@ JW G I always thought Leslie Charteris - author of the Saint - was a far superior writer to Fleming . The Bond novels had all the ingredients for movie success to be fair - far more spectacular ! But Charteris was both wittier and more stylish.

[@unclesporkums]

Wow! Mo from Nickelodeon's GUTS played Mary Goodnight. Didn't see that coming. She'd also previously did the voice of spy girl Jane Bonded in a Johnny Bravo cartoon.

[@tonybutcher8141]

Thank you for some great radio dramas .BOND is great.

[@deacondavis5098]

Toby Stephens SHOULD be the VERY NEXT screen 007!!

[@thefonzkiss]

Deacon Davis Don’t be stupid he’s 51 now. Way too old for a modern Bond starting out.

[@deacondavis5098]

The Fonz NO he is not! He’s the right age! James Bond is not ageless! You should go back to the Fleming novels and you’ll see just how old 007 is!

[@richardeckman9273]

Deacon Davis ...actually, I’d love to see either Aidan Turner or Matthew Goode become the next cinematic James Bond. Both are young enough & in great shape that they could handle the physical aspects of the role & last for several films. And they’re both very handsome & have the acting chops to be convincing in the role.

[@susanstanton2156]

What about Toby as the new M?

[@richardeckman9273]

Susan Stanton That’s a good idea! He’d make a good M. Although I confess I also love the job Ralph Fiennes, Ben Whishaw, Rory Kinnear, & Naomie Harris have done as M, Q, Bill Tanner, & Moneypenny, respectively.

[@By_Esther]

41:06 seamus Dever. Amazing voice

[@anton1990]

I love these radio dramas. It’s been almost five years since the last production… I sincerely hope we will get Casino Royale and You Only Live Twice some day. And it would be nice if they dramatized the short stories in For Your Eyes Only as well. I would even like a dramatization of The Spy Who Loved Me (even if that novel is very unconventional amongst the other Fleming novels).

[@spikemcnock8310]

Listened again.

[@philnewton-england7795]

Thank you so much for uploading - These are great versions & always slightly different from the novels (in a good way)

[@paulharris9268]

Thanks. No one else has uploaded these as far as i know

[@adamcollins915]

The man in the picture looks like a good Bond.

[@nicknewman7848]

Nice one.. missed this on the radio and couldn't find it on the app. Cheers

[@michaelwilkins5841]

THANK YOU!!!

[@TBK1966.]

Brilliant.

[@ricardocantoral7672]

Mary Goodnight was smart and dependable in this story. She was the total opposite in the movie. SPOILER: I like the set-up with the Goodnight mannequin and the derringer. You would assume Scaramanga would be straight forward instead of pulling skullduggery. Definitely the most inspired bits from a largely mediocre story.

[@carolewilson1311]

Brilliant ty so much

[@russdawson9875]

Thanks for this and the audiobooks posted a few months ago. I don't suppose you plan to post the four Damian Lewis short stories from Radio 2 back in 2006. I have heard The Living Daylights and A View to a Kill but never heard The Property of a Lady or For Your Eyes Only. Keep it up...

[@retrogambit7101]

Toby played a better Bond than his bond villain in Die Another Day. That movie was so bad. Lol

[@Niala8419]

I thought the ice sea para surfing at the end was very realistic. Also the break up of the plane at the very end was convincing. Disappointed that Madonna never got an Oscar. Her performance was spell binding. 🙃

[@ABMultimediaDesigner]

Nice to hear the new audio drama, least this is something to keep with until the new Bond film til November Now we need Casino Royale and You Only Live Twice to complete the entire set, unless there are other I've missed out

[@epaddon]

There was an earlier production of "You Only Live Twice" in 1990 or thereabouts. I wonder if that's why they skipped it, since chronologically it should have followed "On Her Majesty's Secret Service" (in the literary timeline).

[@naughtydog1617]

@@epaddon I highly doubt they would skip it. They have always done the radio dramas out of chronological order for whatever reason. They started the series with Dr. No after all: the 6th novel.

[@epaddon]

@@naughtydog1617 True, but the earlier adaptation might well be why it's "postponed" at minimum. I'm not familiar with the BBC doing a second dramatization of a work they've previously adapted.

[@richardeckman9273]

epaddon I dearly hope they DO adapt YOLT. These radio dramatizations of the original Fleming novels have been marvelous! I have listened to the original BBC Radio adaptation from 1990, and sadly I find it sorely lacking. Michael Jayston made a distressingly dreary & unremarkable Bond, and the whole thing seemed to drag along. I would LOVE to hear Toby Stephens’ intense 007 facing off one last time against Alfred Molina’s terrific Blofeld & Joanna Lumley’s Irma Bunt!

[@kaijudirector5336]

@@richardeckman9273 I'm hoping that they also do the short stories. If they do, the cast and crew'll have the honor of having adapted all of Fleming's canon. There's not a lot of people who can say they've done that for ANY literary character, and even EON Studios can't boast that.

[@sabimegeorges7629]

To tell you the truth, I was looking for it.

[@Niala8419]

Oaft, this is not the best. Not a patch on the abridged version read by Richard E Grant. Best unabridged version is the one read by David Rintoul. I get this is a dramatisation but the performances are a bit ott to the point of parody. Also...it's Sit James Maloney, not John. Ruby is a man in the novel not a woman. And the hoods are not friendly at all to Mr Mark Hazard. It's surely pronounced 'Gang-garella' not Gange-garella'. I could go on lol

[@angieb7572]

The David rintoul unabridged one is fabulous. I had it from the library on cassette many years ago.

[@sserpent21]

Awesome.

[@Onlinesully]

Sounds like Judy Dench in one of the parts ?

[@CJJC]

I fell asleep during this and dreamed that, towards the end, Bond received a telegram that just read “Bond, you c*nt”, to which he replied “there’s no need for that” and then just ignored it.

[@2msvalkyrie529]

That scene would have been an improvement !

[@TheBlindDM]

Kevin Smith & other guest voices

[@58christiansful]

The story is SO childishly silly, it beggars belief. Scaramanger eating raw boa indeed. (Among the other idiocies.)

[@ricardocantoral7672]

Fleming struggled to think of new Bond stories at this point.

[@58christiansful]

@@ricardocantoral7672 I am no Bond fan but, in the light of what you say, would be interested to compare the early Bond to the late one. But, honestly, the idea of anyone swallowing this drivel…

[@ricardocantoral7672]

​@@58christiansful Among the books, I would say Moonraker and From Russia With Love were easily the best Bond adventures. None of them were realistic but some were better constructed than others.

[@58christiansful]

@@ricardocantoral7672 Thank you. Will give Moonraker a chance. I don’t look for realism in Fleming, heaven forbid- but some of his inventions and plot turns are too puerile. Read the latest Fleming biography, that’s very interesting, the life more fascinating than the oeuvre.

[@ricardocantoral7672]

@@58christiansful I never read his bio but I will check it out, thanks.

[@HenryMcGuinnessGuitar]

Is that the very miserable-sounding Brian Perkins reading the news at the start? Dear me..

[@alexanderbain223]

Pretty interesting but Scaramanga is way overacted. He’s also supposed to sound more or less American. Branagh did a much better job in the audiobook.

[@2msvalkyrie529]

M was right ! Toby Stephens is a tool !

[@thejacksonsferenclisztlisz3364]

I hate James Bond movies . The moral of the story Never invite the BBC around your House or NeverLand Home like Martin Bashir Documentary about Michael Jackson. The BBC doesn't know that half the Great Britain will not listen or watch their disgusting T.V and Radio. It's 2022 now BBC Technology Rules you are History now !! In 2080 you would have been history in 2060.