Live and Let View: When 007 joined ITV

How do you like your Bond viewings – on the big or small screen? The James Bond franchise has epitomized all the larger-than-life thrills and visual glamour we often associate with big-screen cinema, but it is important to remember that generations of 007 fans were raised on 007 through catching ‘Bond on the Box’.

Once upon a time (believe it or not!), British TV viewers were faced with just a choice of three main TV channels: BBC-1, BBC-2 and ITV. While the latter had some regional variations in its programming, all the ITV regions usually shared the main scheduling, especially when it came to movies, and if you were a film fan the screening of a James Bond adventure created genuine excitement and a real sense of special anticipation. It was an ‘event’, especially if it was being given a TV premiere.

The recent summer 2024 season of classic 007 films on the UK’s ITV network was a nice way to spend the weekends and various weekdays (if you could stomach the occasional harsh cuts made by the network’s over-enthusiastic censors). But it was also a reminder that the Bond films have now been around on British TV for an astonishing 49 years. Indeed, many of today’s Bond aficionados were introduced to the franchise by avidly following 007 on the small screen, which in turn often created a thirst to see Bond in action on the big screen.

It is also worth reflecting that, three-four decades or so ago, the premiere of a Bond film on the small screen was treated as a major occasion, with wide media coverage, preview adverts and even special posters put up in major shopping and retail areas. That kind of excitement has also been milked over the years by British TV when the latest entry in the 007 franchise has been due for cinema release: ITV has ensured that this has coincided with some TV screenings of 007 in order to wet one’s appetite.

When it was Time To View ‘No’

The rights to the early James Bond films were sold to the UK’s ITV network in the mid-1970s, after a furious bidding war; in 1974, ITV paid the then eye-watering sum of £850,000 for the first six Bond films. When news of this broke, a number of critics predicted in a doom-laden way that this would be the end of James Bond. How wrong they were!

The first James Bond film to be premiered on British TV was Dr. No on Tuesday, October 28th, 1975, and a Thames TV Executive commented with glee: ‘The night’s ours as far as viewers are concerned’. He added: ‘We’ll knock spots off the BBC’. ITV, as an advert-funded network, we especially pleased at the prospect of Bond drawing in vast numbers of viewers. Indeed, all the commercial breaks during and on either side of the TV premiere of Dr. No were booked two months in advance. BBC-1 seemed to admit defeat and just had an episode of their weekly drama Oil Strike North in opposition. It was truly Bond’s night.

The media certainly saw it as one of the TV events of the year in Britain, although there was some puzzlement over why a weekday slot was chosen instead of a weekend one. But numerous magazines could not contain their excitement. The weekly Look-in magazine, to give just one example, proclaimed to its readers that the ‘very first Bond film is being shown on television… Dr. No is both tense and exciting – a sure-fire success that inevitably paved the way for further action-oozing 007 movies’. The magazine added enthusiastically: ‘Make sure that you don’t miss out on the action when James Bond hits the television screens for the first time in his first film – this Tuesday at 8 o’clock’.

As well as various other magazine and newspaper articles previewing Dr. No‘s premiere on British TV, the ITV network’s own weekly listings magazine, TVTimes, offered a real bonus for dedicated James Bond fans: a three-part magazine series on the history of the Bond franchise up to that point. This included some very ‘seventies’ artwork, with images of all the Bond actors, plus a representation of the ‘fictional’ Fleming version of Bond. An issue of the magazine also made available a double-page photo of Ursula Andress. To both young and older Bond fans alike in the mid-1970s, that was double-o heaven.

Perhaps one of the best insights on Dr. No on ITV was provided by EON producer Albert ‘Cubby’ Broccoli himself, as he was preparing to go solo on the production of The Spy Who Loved Me. In media interviews given in 1976, a year after James Bond had been premiered on ITV, Cubby – looking back on the ingredients of 007’s general cinematic success – said: ‘It all came together with Dr. No‘. He remained incredibly proud of the movie, and felt it had stood the test of time, and still did so on television. He also strongly dismissed the idea that Bond on the small screen had damaged the franchise.

The ITV screening of Dr. No in October, 1975, was seen in more than 10,000,000 homes in the UK, one of the highest viewing figures up to that point in British TV history. Interestingly, the second time Dr. No was shown on ITV came on a weekend day – Saturday, July 24th, 1976, at 7.15pm. Similarly, when From Russia With Love was premiered on ITV it also received a weekend time slot – Sunday, May 2nd, 1976, at 7.55pm. Yet when Goldfinger was premiered on ITV, it was back to a weekday slot – Wednesday, November 3rd, 1976, at 8.00pm.

If you ignore the adverts, and can tolerate the cuts or the irritating TV voice-overs that often appear over the end-credits, the answer to whether Dr. No still works on the small screen can only be a resounding… yes!

Did You Know?

When Roger Moore’s debut 007 movie Live and Let Die (1973) received it’s ITV premiere on January 20th, 1980, it was seen by an astonishing 23 million viewers, a British TV ratings record for a Bond movie which still stands today.