Sunday Review: Fleming: The Man Who Would Be Bond (TV miniseries)

And already was

By Morris Dean

The Hollywood Reporter nails it when it comes to BBC America's recent TV miniseries Fleming: The Man Who Would Be Bond: "It's a fun romp that illustrates how desperately the dashing author wanted to live a large life – and tried his hardest." Fleming, of course, for those too young to have heard of him – even if they have seen any number of 007 James Bond movies and maybe even heard of Sean Connery – is author Ian Fleming.

Ian Fleming and Sean Connery on the set of Dr. No

    Fleming was also a British naval intelligence officer during World War II, and it's that career that the miniseries addresses in four installments. It premiered on US television on January 29, but you can find it still on one of the on-demand offerings.
    The question I had watching (and much enjoying) the series was to what extent the filmmakers had made Fleming already be Bond more than a dozen years before he wrote the first James Bond novel, for the story of the miniseries is a good deal more dramatically interesting than any of the 007 movies...and perhaps more interesting than the books, although it has been many years since I read them.
    I also wondered whether the idea of having a dead body wash up with false documents suggesting that the Allied invasion of Europe would take place somewhere else than in Sicily (Operation Mincemeat) was really Fleming's idea. Maybe I should read the novel about it: The Man Who Never Was, by Ewen Montagu. Anyway, the miniseries portrays it so, right down to Fleming and his secretary's examining the teeth of possible bodies to find one that met Fleming's requirement that the man's personal hygiene merit his having been entrusted with such valuable information. (A 2010 New York Times article about another book, Operation Mincemeat, by Ben Macintyre, does credit Fleming as having been on the team that planned the deception. Good stuff!)

    And I think Dominic Cooper is fine as Fleming, despite the NY Times reviewer's opinion that he "doesn’t have the commanding presence necessary to anchor a four-parter or the combination of charm and gravitas needed to make Fleming as intriguing as he probably was." But read that review too, if you need to be that prepared.
    Oh, and if you really can't watch a film with a lot of sex scenes, you'd maybe better skip this one. Ian Fleming was quite a ladies' man, and the plural form of that label is entirely apt.
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Copyright © 2014 by Morris Dean

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