KINGSMAN: THE SECRET SERVICE

Meet James Bond’s anarchic cousin...

Director Matthew Vaughn Starring Colin Firth, Taron Egerton, Mark Strong ETA 29 January

Everyone knows that Ta rantino wants to make a Bond movie – he’s certainly told us enough times – and we can probably all imagine how he’d twist the formula to make it the funniest, coolest, most violent Bond movie ever made. But should QT ever get his wish, it’s hard to see how he could make a movie to outstrip

Kingsman: The Secret Service.

Not that this latest from the Kick-Ass team of Matthew Vaughn, Mark Millar and Jane Goldman is a Bond film, of course. It is, though, a nod to the franchise’s vintage years, back when it revelled in gadgets, gags and OT villains with a penchant for elaborate lairs.

Colin Firth looks killer as Harry Hart, a superspy in a bespoke suit who plucks Cary ‘Eggsy’ Unwin (Taron Egerton) from a council estate and enters him on a training program to qualify for the titular league of gentlemen agents. Does he have what it takes? And can he complete his Pygmalion-with-guns makeover before megalomaniac Valentine (Sam Jackson) takes over the planet?

Looking lithe on set after months of fight training, Firth recalls how he grew up with Bond movies. “I loved when the credits started and the music kicked in,” he smiles. “The gadgets, the suaveness, the confidence… all of it.”

Now 54, Firth confesses that his inner kid clicked with Vaughn’s inner kid while making

Kingsman: The Secret Service. “Matthew’s this wonderful mixture of savvy, sophistication and maturity,” he says. “He knows exactly how he wants to be entertained. ‘Do you like explosions? Well, wait until you see this explosion! Do you like spies silhouetted in a cool suit? Well, we’re really going to go for that.’ He loves the cars, the aeroplanes, the glasses, the cigarette lighters, the jackets, the shirts, the shoes.” Chances are, you will too.