The genuine Bond

iAN FLeMiNG was specific — James Bond was slim with straight, black hair and blue/grey eyes. He was white,

in his mid-30s, 6ft tall, etoneducated and British.

Daniel craig gave us a blond Bond, but film portrayals of Fleming’s famous secret agent haven’t so far strayed too far from the original description.

now we hear talk of black actors, Americans and even women, taking on the role, totally ignoring the author’s intentions and, effectively bastardising the Bond novels.

tV viewers recently saw the BBc making a muddle and asset-stripping some of charles Dickens’ best-loved novels, ‘stealing’ the characters and mixing them up into a totally new storyline.

It will have created confusion and doubt about the author’s original masterpieces for a new generation of readers.

now we’re being subjected to a new ‘ adaptation’ of Shakespeare’s A Midsummer night’s Dream featuring gay romances, a lesbian kiss and the death of a central character to bring it into the ‘real world’ (Mail). It’s all rather pathetic.

If the writers of these ‘rip-off’ versions of the classic originals can’t be bothered, or are unable, to come up with an original work of their own and are reduced to vandalising the works of some of our greatest authors, they should consider a career change.

Ransacking the work of others is, surely, the lowest form of ‘creativity’.

these plagiarists should write something original of their own and leave the classics alone. And that particularly applies to 007. TONY EDWARDS, Ockham, Surrey.