On the trail of the SAS tough guys in all their glory
Edited by London Live TV reporter @tobyontv
This is the longest audition to play James Bond in existence, Lewis Collins’s performance as SAS captain Peter Skellen showcasing his credentials as a stone-cold 007. Which, funnily enough, was what led to him not securing the role.
Seventeen minutes of gunfire and grenade explosions in south Kensington introduced the SAS to the public, this riding on the images of those gas-masked figures to build towards a similar showdown.
Militant anti-nuclear campaigners are the villains rather than overseas terrorists, which makes it easier for Collins’s SAS operative to infiltrate their gang as they plot an outrage. The denouement is a brutal showdown; Collins is thoroughly believable as a tough-as-coffin-nails soldier, this presence exactly why Cubby Broccoli rejected him for Bond at an audition in 1986. His criticism was that Collins was “too aggressive”; sure, a too aggressive holder of a licence to kill is way too far-fetched.