Good friend Pearse Redmond invited Matt and I on his radio show to talk about our new book National Security Cinema: The Shocking New Evidence of Government Control in Hollywood.
The James Bond films, like the books on which they are based, have always pushed the boundaries of acceptable portraits of sex and violence. Documents from the British Board of Film Classification (BBFC) show how for Thunderball they reviewed the script, recommending many changes if the film was to achieve the 'A' certificate that the producers wanted.
You can’t be a real spy and have everybody in the world know who you are and what your drink is. That’s just hysterically funny.
— Roger Moore
Uncle and Aaron invited me back to drink Hoegaarden and discuss the movie Air Force One. This typically chaotic discussion focused on how the Air Force rewrote parts of the film in exchange for their support, why Hoegaarden reminds me of happy times, and how terrorists open locked doors on planes (hint: it involves plastic explosive).
Goldeneye is possibly the best of the Pierce Brosnan James Bond films, but like two others in the Brosnan period it relied on US military support. This entailed the Pentagon reviewing the script and demanding two changes - one political, one promotional - in exchange for helping to shoot one brief scene with uniformed soldiers and military vehicles.(Read more...)
From the Donald Trump school of naming things came The Second Best Secret Agent in the Whole Wide World, a 1965 spoof of the James Bond movies. Like many 1960s spy thrillers The Second Best Secret Agent was on the radar of the CIA.(Read more...)
Richard Whiteley is best known for presenting the popular afternoon quiz show Countdown, and Ricky Tomlinson is best known for starring in the popular sitcom The Royle Family. Back in the 1970s things were very different. This week we examine Tomlinson's recent allegation that Whiteley was a 'member' of the security services, due to his role presenting an 1973 documentary that influenced the trial of the Shrewsbury 24 - including Tomlinson.
It is official, Britain has gone bonkers.
Britain has over the last few decades transformed from a powerful maritime empire, to a post-imperial regional power which gave the world The Beatles, cool but unreliable cars, Prog Rock and then Punk Rock, to becoming something of a de-facto 51st state of the US, and now to something terribly odd.
Jay Dyer
21st Century Wire
A classic JaysAnalysis interview: Former Asst. Secretary of Housing, Catherine Austin Fitts joins Jay Dyer to discuss the systemic corruption that plagues the U.S. economic sphere. From the black budget to Enron to BCCI and the bailout, Fitts deconstructs how exactly we got into the mess we’re in, including the tie-ins of black markets.
What connects JFK, Allen Dulles and the CIA's invasion at the Bay of Pigs to the movies Thunderball and Goldfinger? The answer is the relationship between the CIA and James Bond. In this episode we look at Fleming's decades-long relationship with American intelligence, from the OSS through to the CIA, and how Dulles' friendship with Fleming allowed the Agency to quietly improve their public image via the James Bond novels.
