Much as I quite like the new Bond stories they messed up giving him an origin story. How do you explain the next actor and all the actors before? To me, the name James Bond was a cover name agents took along with the 007 number (it would explain why he’s so carefree giving his name out in busy casinos).

You can even get fanciful and imagine the name ‘James Bond’ goes right back to Walsingham’s spy ring in Elizabethan days, such is its bland, eternal Englishness (perhaps Christopher Marlowe used it first?). It also neatly explains why Q and M etc aren’t phased by a new guy walking into the office every half decade.

Instead we get the Skyfall backstory. Which was alright, don’t get me wrong. But how’s that explain the next actor?