Why are 007 and his girls such whingers?

No sooner had James Bond blasted his way back onto the big screen than former 007 squeeze Honor Blackman demanded we desist from patronising his female co-stars like her.

‘stop calling us Bond girls,’ she cried, ‘we are women and actresses.’

oh, please! Bond girls they are, no matter what their vintage. Always have been. Always will be.

Besides, what did Honor think when she took the part as Pussy Galore? That she’d be playing a suffragette dressed in a hessian sack?

Her not wanting to be called a Bond girl is like taking a job at the Playboy mansion and demanding not to be called a Bunny Girl.

Yet sadly, Honor’s not the only one to whinge about the part that made her famous. step forward Daniel Craig, who despite being the highest-paid Bond ever, set to earn an estimated £39 million for his latest outing, has spent much of his time in the build-up to the release of spectre bad-mouthing the part that’s set him up for life.

When not busy blasting Bond for being ‘misogynistic, sexist and very lonely’ he was telling interviewers that he’d rather slit his wrists than do another 007 film. ‘I’m over it at the moment,’ said Craig. ‘We’re done. All I want to do is move on.’

such ingratitude is as irritating as it is unattractive. Which may help explain why Craig yesterday sought to distance himself from his remarks, saying he was tired after working for two years on the film, but is now considering doing two more outings in the white tuxedo. Which is a great relief, because he is still a damn fine 007.

I’ve seen spectre and it’s everything you want a Bond movie to be — a riotous celebration of so much that we’re not supposed to say or think in this politically correct age.

What does spectre do to advance gender equality? Zilch. To counter ageism or sexism? Zip. (For all the fuss about having the oldest Bond girl ever in Monica Bellucci, 51, she’s only on screen for about three minutes: Wham, bam, goodbye Ma’am.)

As for Bond, he still has the worst chat-up lines, he drinks too much and is gratuitously violent. In our enlightened times, women should hate him, and men should disapprove. Yet he’s still the man men want to be — and women want to be with. no amount of social engineering can change that.

How sad, then, that the only people who seem to sneer at his enduring appeal are the ones who owe their whole careers to him.