A year that left us shaken and stirred
MARION MCMULLEN
THE name’s Moore, Roger Moore. It was 50 years ago that British actor Sir Roger Moore was announced as the new James Bond who would be taking over from Sean Connery. He used to joke: “My acting range has always been something between the two extremes of ‘raises left eyebrow’ and ‘raised right eyebrow.’”
The success of Dirty Harry had led to Clint Eastwood being offered the role of 007, but he insisted Bond needed to be played by a British actor.
Roger Moore was 45 when he made his Bond debut in the movie Live And Let Die – making him the oldest actor to play writer Ian Fleming’s famous agent.
“When I was playing James Bond it was the best job in the world,” he said. “I mean it was hard work, all that filming and travelling and tedium on set, but I earned a lot of money and it was not a taxing job. I just had to say ‘Shaken, not stirred’”.
Elsewhere, Mafia movie The Godfather, starring Marlon Brando and Al Pacino, was making cinema audiences an offer they could not refuse. It was one of the biggest hits of 1972 and went on to win three Oscars. Director Francis Ford Coppola later said: “The Godfather changed my life, for better or worse.”
Marlon Brando’s controversial movie
Last Tango In Paris was causing a headache for censors while film musical Cabaret with Liza Minnelli won eight Oscars.
She said: “We’re trying to show the dirt and decadence and the perverse atmosphere of Berlin when the Nazis came to power.”
British viewers were laughing at sitcoms like Steptoe And Son and Love Thy Neighbour on the telly while dramas like Colditz kept them gripped. Mastermind also began putting contestants in the infamous black chair for the first time and Nicholas Parsons was giving away prizes on Sale Of The Century. John Craven’s Newsround began bringing the headlines to young viewers.
The UK music chart featured eclectic offerings. One of the year’s biggest hits was nine-year-old “Little” Jimmy Osmond singing Long-haired Lover From Liverpool. He grabbed a place in the Guinness Book Of World Records as the youngest performer to have a UK number one single.
His older brother Donny was also enjoying chart success with Puppy Love and has said: “I am fine with Puppy Love. I hated it for a while, but I still sing it. I have a country version, a sexy version and a cheesy nightclub version. I am trying to infuse it with maturity. I will never escape that song. I will always be Mr Puppy Love.”
The New Seekers were also in the charts with I’d Like To Teach The World To Sing, while Nilsson brought out classic single Without You. Ex-beatle Sir Paul Mccartney also formed a new group called Wings with his wife Linda.
Words like acid rain and veggie burger entered the English language for the first time and vet James Herriot scored a best seller with his book All Creatures Great And Small.
Crowds queued for hours to see the Egyptian treasures of Pharaoh Tutankhamun’s tomb on display at the British Museum. It was the first time the artefacts had been seen in the UK and the exhibition included Tutankhamun’s death mask.
There was sporting glory at the Munich Olympics for 22-yearold American swimmer Mark Spitz who set a new record by winning seven gold medals. The 15-year-old Soviet gymnast Olga Korbut took home three golds and won the hearts of people around the world with her charming enthusiasm.
However, the sporting achievements were overshadowed by tragedy when armed Palestinian terrorists from the Black September group broke into the Israeli quarters at the Olympic Village, killing two members of the team and taking nine hostage. A shoot-out at Munich airport later led to all the hostages, five terrorists and a policeman being killed. The Games were suspended for 24 hours so memorial services could be held for the victims. Watergate was starting to cause a political scandal for President Richard Nixon in America. A botched attempt to bug an office used by the opposition Democratic Party was eventually traced back to the Oval office, forcing him to him resign from the Presidency two years later.
He said in a televised broadcast from the Oval Office “I have never been a quitter. To leave office before my term is completed is abhorrent to every instinct in my body but, as President, I must put the interest of America first.”
A NEW 007, TERROR AT THE OLYMPICS AND THE START OF A PRESIDENT’S DOWNFALL... 1972 WAS A NON-STOP BARRAGE OF NEWS. LOOKS BACK