Bond’s first queer director creates a masterpiece in which 007 gets a new face, goes undercover as a gay genealogist and finally takes a woman up the aisle. But his happiness is, perhaps inevitably, short-lived.

Like a bottle of Phuyuck ‘74, The Man With The Golden Gun has aged… interestingly. Officially, 007 is hot on the pursuit of (*checks notes*) something-to-do-with-solar-energy. But the real drama is whether Bond will be able to save his fractured masculinity in a ‘mano a mano’ duel to the death with Francisco Scaramanga.

If it’s true that books we read as children influence us for the rest of our lives, then Thunderball, which I first read when I was eight years old, has a lot to answer for.

Is there ever a good reason to shake a Martini? Bond only does it to disguise his fragile masculinity. Here’s how to make a beautifully clear Martini which shows you have nothing to hide…

Dalton’s second and final adventure has a fated bromance driving its Shakespearean rampage of revenge, with a cold-hearted hero, a warm-blooded villain and a very capable girl with a disdain for feminine clothing. And what IS going on with that Felix Leiter cigarette lighter?

In this love letter to GoldenEye’s Xenia Onatopp, I explore what my obsession with playing as her in the classic Nintendo 64 version reveals about me, as well as what the research says about the choices we make in video games.

Returning the Bond novels as an adult, I am struck by how much of an influence these, perhaps even more than the films, had on my teenage self. If anything, they invite queer readings as readily as Scaramanga inviting 007 to join him for a long weekend.

If this is your first visit to LicenceToQueer.com, I recommend you skim your eyes over this page first. In the grand tradition of a monologuing Bond villain, allow me to explain my plan…

Daniel Craig’s sophisticated first outing as Bond is also the film where he comes out of the ocean wearing small blue trunks and ‘comes out’ in an even more significant way

Bond’s response to his interrogation at the hands of Silva in Skyfall only confirmed what many of us had known for years: Bond is a bit gay. Maybe more than a bit.

In Sean Connery’s final, official turn as Bond he gets stuck into the seedy underbellies of Amsterdam, Las Vegas and, er, an oil rig off the coast of California. Along the way, he picks up an interesting Case, gets into Plenty of action and courts the attention of a pair of ‘problematic’ gay hit men. Oh, and Blofeld is back. In drag.