He waited on his Bond girls like a teaboy

MARY STAVIN: Octopussy (Bond girl) 1983; A View To A Kill (Kimberley Jones) 1985

BOND is remembered for his martinis – shaken, not stirred – but off camera, it was Roger who waited on us. Whenever he saw me sitting with other Bond girls Maud Adams and Kristina Wayborn, all chatting away in Swedish, he’d come up and ask if we’d like coffee, milk, sugar and he’d bring the drinks to us. There aren’t many stars willing to be a teaboy.

I’d won the Miss World contest and appeared in a couple of plays when the producers asked me to be in Octopussy and naturally I was intimidated by the thought of acting opposite Roger Moore, but he immediately put me at ease.

He was such an amazing, sensitive man – and the only person I’ve ever known who I’ve never heard anyone say a bad word about. I had no hesitation when they asked me to come back for A View To A Kill. That was where I had my first screen kiss – and it was with Roger Moore! In the scene, he’s chased by gunmen on skis down a mountain into a lake where I’m waiting in a submarine. It was a very nice kiss but we were both fully clothed in ski gear, so we weren’t exactly ripping our clothes off.

I have an Octopussy poster on my wall, and two years ago Roger signed it. He wrote: ‘Dear Mary, why did I get bigger billing than the lovely Mary Stavin?’ That was Roger. Modest to the end.