Screen star Jamie Dornan's chances of becoming the next James Bond seem to be on the way up.
The star has seen the odds slashed from 20-1 to 8-1 by leading bookmaker Coral as the actor receives high praise for his roles in Belfast and TV drama The Tourist.
But his leading contender Rege-Jean Page is the favourite at the moment at odds of 5-2.
Coral's Harry Aitkenhead said: "Dornan has shown his talent in two very different roles recently in Belfast and The Tourist and we now think he's a leading contender to be the next James Bond. We've significantly cut the odds on the Northern Irishman being the next 007."
Other stars ear marked by the bookies for the role include Tom Hardy 7-2, James Norton 5-1, 7-1 Richard Madden 7-1, and Jamie Bell 10-1.
Only last September, Jamie was given odds of 100/1 to be the next 007 but he has now shot up the favourite list.
Jamie's latest role saw him play a car-crash victim who wakes up in hospital with amnesia in in The Tourist on BBC1.
The hit program has catapulted Jamie's skills as an actor back into general discussion, not to mention his recent film Belfast, which has seen him tipped for an Oscar nomination for the Kenneth Brannagh movie.
Jamie became a household name after starring in Fifty Shades of Grey and he was widely acclaimed for his role as a serial killer in The Fall.
Some have suggested that Jamie's success could inadvertently hurt his chances of being the next Bond for the simple fact he is becoming too well-known.
Bond expert Mark O’Connell, author of Catching Bullets: Memoirs of a Bond Fan, says TV heartthrobs rarely get the role, reports The Express.
"There is always the 'bookies favourite' and it tends to be whichever good-looking actor is launching a new television show at the weekend with a clever PR team generating such rumours," he told the BBC.
" All the recent rumours of the last few years are Sunday night TV drama totty.
"James Bond has never really been Sunday night totty.”
