This year's International Jim Fanning Friday took place on Friday 16th February. In 24 hours, the Licence to Queer community raised hundreds of pounds for PAPYRUS - Prevention of Young Suicide.

“MI6 needs your help. It is critical you follow 007's trail. Gather intelligence, navigate the city and solve clues in a bid to outsmart Spectre…” A treasure-hunt style experience across London guided by your phone. We give our verdict here.

The enduring appeal of Bond girls goes well beyond their status as sexual objects bringing voyeuristic pleasures to a presumed heterosexual, cisgender male audience. Or does it? In the first research of its kind, we’re investigating the reasons why Bond girls appeal to so many different demographics. Are these reasons the same for gay and straight viewers? Are people with different sexual orientations and/or gender identities drawn to different Bond girls? Here are the initial findings…

With a drought on the Bond film front, why is everyone not quenching their thirst with the Bond books? Perhaps it's because, with more than 50 continuation stories published in the sixty years since Fleming's death, it can be hard knowing where to start. Setting each other the mission of proving the case that there's a Bond book for every mood and every taste, Licence to Queer's David Lowbridge-Ellis and Mark Edlitz, author of James Bond After Fleming, have each curated a list of seven 007 continuation novels.

Stephen Bourne saw Goldfinger in the cinema in 1964 as an ‘impressionable little gay boy’. Author of one of the first (if not the first) books to see Bond films queerly, Stephen reveals how his thinking about the ‘offensive’ characters in Bond has became more nuanced since he wrote the book - and urges everyone to keep a more open mind.

What would a version of Casino Royale made in 1958 with an entirely queer cast have looked like? That was the challenge I set myself when I was invited on the Build-A-Bond podcast.

Over the last two years, the Licence to Queer community raised almost £4,000 for charity. This year we’re raising money to support the vital work of a charity whose mission is close to our hearts: PAPYRUS Prevention of Young Suicide.

Antony and David review a year of book launches, film screenings, events, trips to Bond locations at home and abroad, charity fundraisers, awards and - most thrillingly of all - making new Bond friends. The episode ends with them talking about their Christmas trip to Venice and their exclusive first reading of the new Bond novel (due out in April 2024) A Spy Like Me.

Daniel Craig emerging from the ocean was not as revolutionary as we think. In fact, it was more of an evolution of something that has always been there in the Bond series: an invitation, whatever our gender or sexual orientation, to look - lingeringly, even longingly - at James Bond himself.

In the latest instalment of their popular series uncovering how Bond films developed through the scripting process, Tom Mason and David Lowbridge-Ellis set their gunbarrel sights on The World Is Not Enough. Early versions of the script reveal significantly different locations, different action sequences, different characters and different versions of the infamous gag which brings the film to its memorable climax!

Your hosts recount their trip to Buckingham Palace to pick up David's MBE, the climactic 007GB event of 2023 and their experience of David Arnold's intimate live gig. After making a Doctor Who-themed Martini, they run through Christmas gift ideas for Bond fans, the release of Mark Edlitz's new book and finish with a discussion of Bond-tangential media they have enjoyed, including the film Saltburn and a 'shaken not stirred' Super Mario video game.