Leaf and let die! 007 Craig faces order to fell 65ft tree
PICTURE the scene. James Bond, just back from a deadly mission in the Urals sorting out some double- dealing supervillain, is called in to MI6 headquarters by M.
‘Don’t sit down 007. We’ve had Camden Council on the phone. Your neighbours are worried that your plane tree and that nice bit of clematis at the front of your house is causing their home to crack up. Sort it out.’
It’s hardly the stuff of a Bond classic, but that’s the issue shaking and stirring up Daniel Craig’s world this week.
The 48-year-old star and his actress wife Rachel Weisz, 46, have found themselves at the centre of a row with their neighbours – bankers Alasdair Nisbet and his wife Eliza- beth – who say their terrace home in North London has been left riddled with cracks because of the roots from Craig’s trees.
They have applied to the local council to chop down a 65ft plane tree at the end of the stars’ back garden, as well as a hornbeam tree, clematis and wisteria.
The Nisbets have supplied reports from experts who put the blame for their subsidence issues firmly on Craig’s roots. But it looks like there will be quite a fight if the axe is to be wielded. Other residents are appalled at the plan. Neighbour Colin Jacobson described the threat as ‘upsetting and unnecessary’ and another local said felling the tree would be ‘unforgivable’.
Mr Jacobson said: ‘This tree has been part of my family’s life since 1966…It has been a feature of our children’s growing up, always there as a reminder of the beauty of nature in a dense central urban area.’
When approached, the Nisbets refused to comment. Craig and Miss Weisz were unavailable for comment.
It is still unknown whether Craig will return as 007 in the latest instalment of the spy franchise set to be released next year – but if he does perhaps it could be, er, Treefall?