BOND, JAMES

SPECTRE, 12A, 148MINS On general release including Hollywood Plaza, Scarborough

It’s three years since Daniel Craig last appeared on the big screen, but far from sitting back and enjoying some down time between 2012 and now, he’s been busy working on Spectre – the 24th movie in the Bond franchise and the follow-up to the global smash Skyfall.

“This has been two years in the making, so realistically speaking, I went from Skyfall onto this,” said Craig.

“We wanted it to be better than Skyfall,” states Craig.

“With Skyfall, we set something in motion, and we wanted to go a bit further and experiment a bit more.”

With Spectre, he and the director Sam Mendes, who reunited following the Skyfall, felt the time was right to nod to the Bond films of old.

SPECTRE, 12A, 148MINS On general release including Hollywood Plaza, Scarborough

The newly appointed M, Gareth Mallory (Ralph Fiennes), battles with political forces, including Max Denbigh (Andrew Scott), to protect the integrity of MI6 following a merger with MI5.

A cryptic message reveals ghosts from Bond’s past and 007 (Daniel Craig) follows a chain of evidence that leads to Dr Madeleine Swann (Lea Seydoux), daughter of fugitive Mr White (Jesper Christensen), who was last seen in Quantum Of Solace. Aided by technical wizard Q (Ben Whishaw) and plucky agent Eve Moneypenny (Naomie Harris), Bond criss-crosses the globe in his Aston Martin DB10 and infiltrates a menacing organisation named SPECTRE, fronted by the enigmatic Franz Oberhauser (Christoph Waltz).