The cinematic character of James Bond has changed with the times since the first Bond film Dr No was released back in 1962. We have seen Bond as a chauvinistic womaniser, a fun-loving bon vivant, and, more recently, a sometimes brutal yet three-dimensional character, capable of empathy and sorrow.
Most obviously, the face of Bond has changed over the years, with six actors – seven if you include David Niven in the first Casino Royale – playing the coveted role. All these actors have been white – leading to discussion over whether a future Bond could be another ethnicity. However, while Bond’s race or even gender might change in the future, there is one aspect of his portrayal that I believe will be unlikely to shift: his accent.
Granted, there is some degree of accent diversity with the various Bond actors. Sean Connery’s Scottish tones occasionally creep through, for instance. But overall, these are brief moments. All the actors who have played Bond used an upper-class British “Received Pronunciation” (RP) accent – whether more “pure”, such as that of Roger Moore and Daniel Craig, or one which went to lengths to remove regional features, such as Connery’s.
