THE NAME’S HIGGINS... MARK HIGGINS
OK, it may not be as catchy as James Bond, but Mark’s the man behind the wheel for some of 007’s greatest stunts
DRIVING through the Vatican at 95mph in an Aston Martin is all part of the job for James Bond stuntman Mark Higgins.
The 45-year-old from Abermule in Powys has starred as stunt double for Daniel Craig – but you’ve probably never noticed him.
It was his near-100mph chase sequence through the Eternal City that stands out for Higgins.
“We were there for 28 days,” the dad-of-two said. “For five scenes we closed off the road every night.
“Going through the Vatican sideways at 95mph was quite cool.”
The Pope was even in while he did it.
“Everything on the film was done for real, there was no CGI,” the three -times British rally champ said.
“Going up the wall was done for real, as well. We worked on that for a long time.”
That saw Bond and baddie Hinx, at the wheel of a Jaguar C-X75, drive up a river embankment yards from the River Tiber before Bond’s gadget-laden car spewed flames at the Jaguar.
“When we closed Rome off all night we worked from 6pm until 6am,” Mark said.
“At the start it was great but after three weeks there were horns beeping.
“There were a few things in the paper, but Rome got a good showing out of it.”
Some scenes demanded he pilot a so-called “pod car” – specially-built versions of the cars which he drove from a cage on the roof.
They allow Craig to sit inside and act while the car travels at high speed.
Higgins said: “It feels like you’re going to fall over all the time because your centre of gravity is so high.
“It’s very different. We don’t like it because it’s not the same as driving a normal car. It seems to work very well for the films.” The stars didn’t mingle much. He said: “We didn’t see a lot of them because they were on the main unit and we were on the second unit.
“Daniel and I did some work in the cars together and he is a really nice guy.”
Higgins was nominated for a Taurus stunt award for work on Quantum of Solace.
On Skyfall he was part of a team to win one for Best Work with a Vehicle.
That saw him at the wheel of a Land Rover Defender – apparently driven by Naomie Harris’ Moneypenny – dodging VW Beetles being pushed from a moving train by a crane.
“They chucked the Volkswagen Beetles off the train, that was quite cool,” Mark said.
“Though sometimes what can look quite straightforward can actually be quite tricky.”
A lapse of concentration could be fatal.
“Everything can go wrong. Things can be a bit close.” But it was “not scary”. Higgins said: “You’re adrenalised. Your heart rate goes up when you’re about to go into something and you want to make sure you do it right.”
He did not see Skyfall until four months after its release. “I was away working,” he said. “The Bond films are always great. I suppose when you know how it works it spoils some of the parts in a way.
Skyfall was his favourite film and Spectre the one he liked working on best.
He said movie work is “a bit surreal”.
“You think you’ve hit the big time, but you’re just working like everyone else. There is a lot of hanging around.”
He got into driving after taking up karting aged nine.
“My mother was my first codriver, and I went professional in 1990,” he said.“I have been working in cars and vehicles for 26 years now.”
There is one more thing Higgins would like to do.
“Drive a Formula One car upside down,” he said.
“It’s got so much down force it should be able to do it. It’s finding a piece of tunnel to do it in. It would probably cost about £5m to do it.”