While we're waiting for details of the new Bond film to start leaking, The Barbican are celebrating what would be author Ian Fleming's 100th birthday with a weekend dedicated to the suave legend. The full list of Bond films was voted down to 4 by Barbican website users and they've just announced that the winning films are 'Goldfinger', 'From Russia With Love', 'Casino Royale' and 'Dr No'. Showing on the weekend of 7/8 June,......

It's that time of year again. Time for Christmas shopping, panto and end-of-year pub quizzes. Ah, December. In their last film pub quiz spectacular or the year, the You're Gonna Need A Bigger Boat team has pulled out all the stops, and you'd best brush up on your film trivia. If you've not been to one of these amazingly fun nights before, and have an otherwise boring Wednesday night lying in front of you,......

The might of the Church of England has been unleashed upon reality television and dumb programming in general. Its members point out that Big Brother, Strictly Come Dancing and even Little Britain aren't very good. In fact they are accused of lowering standards of behaviour and exploiting the humiliation of human beings: There were complaints about everything from BBC news bulletins undermining respect for the prime minister by referring to him only by his......

He might have seen off Goldfinger, but James Bond was yesterday defeated by the cold shoulder. A first edition copy of Casino Royale failed to reach its undisclosed reserve price at a London auction. "It's very disappointing. But the fact that it's an auction means you never know what's going to happen," said Richard Caton, a spokesperson for Bloomsbury Auctions. Surely they should have offered it as a prize in a game of Texas......

Now that Scotland Yard have handed their files on the Litvinenko investigation over to the Crown Prosecution Service, the BBC are hazarding a guess at who done it - former KGB officer Andrei Lugovoi in the Mayfair hotel with the radioactive teapot. Mr Lugovoi met Mr Litvinenko on the day he fell ill, and radioactive polonium-210 has been found in a string of places he had visited in London. But Mr Lugovoi has said......

It's the time of year that sends compulsive list makers in to a frenzy, and this girl is no exception. It's the Notes From The City Official 2006 End Of Year Things-That-Laura-Liked Summary - catchy! It's as much a list of things I really think everyone should check out as a list of my favourite things from the year, so follow the links at will... Top 10 Albums 1. The Eraser - Thom Yorke 2.......

When secret agent James Bond is not busy neutralizing evil geniuses who live in really cool houses, he becomes sometimes concerned about the welfare of troubled children. Or at least his tux does. Or at least one of the prop tuxes that Daniel Craig wore when he portrayed James Bond in Casino Royale does. At a recent auction to raise money for the children's charity ChildLine, the tuxedo, worn during the shooting of the......

This Day In London’s History 1911: Prolific film director Val Guest is born in Maida Vale. Although probably most renowned for directing (and co-writing) sci-fi classics The Quatermass Xperiment and Quatermass II in the mid 1950s, the cinematic career of the man who was born Valmond Maurice Grossman on December 11th 1911 in Maida Vale was long and varied. Since his early twenties, he had tried his hand at acting, scriptwriting and even composing,......

Looks like the next Bond movie will be made here in London despite earlier reports that the franchise could be moving somewhere cheaper: Broccoli has mellowed, and is keen to keep 007 in London - with DANIEL CRAIG starring again following his critically acclaimed performance in CASINO ROYALE. She says, "We'd like to do another two or three with Daniel and we'd like to film the next one in London." We saw Casino Royale......

Last week Londonist attended a celebration of the collaboration between Harrods and everything Casino Royale. After being treated to more than one Vesper martini from the wonderful people at Smirnoff we asked if we could offer a drink or two to you the readers and we are happy to report that we now have five bottles of Smirnoff Black to give away. That should get your Christmas party off to a right Royale start.......

This week - Bond is back (Casino Royale) and two magicians go head to head in Edwardian London, (The Prestige). Bond is here! Well... on he will be on Thursday. We watched the last Bond installment last night on ITV2. We had forgotten how gash it was. We'd forgotten about the scene with Madonna in it. It's best to forget. But it looks as if there is a hope.... Bradshaw gives Casino Royale 4/5!......

Time to brush up on your Surrender Monkey for a peek at Casino Royale:......

Our worries about Daniel Craig not being the best choice for Bond were turned up a notch over the weekend when we read that he was crap at the old fisticuffs: While filming his first fight scene in movie remake Casino Royale, actor Daniel Craig had two of his teeth knocked out by a villain. Shocked Daniel staggered backwards with his hand up to his bleeding mouth... Shocked? Staggered? Now we know there's supposed......

A round of applause please for the Daily Record and what must be the most contrived story of 2006 so far. BOND PLOT MIRRORS 7/7 KILLING screams the headline: The plot of James Bond's latest movie mirrors the real life killing of the Brazilian shot by police in London after the 7/7 terror bombings. A leaked script reveals 007 shoots a suspected bomber only to discover later that he got the wrong person and......

If you haven't already seen this splashed all over the front page of tonight's Standard then brace yourselves: Two daredevil base jumpers risked death after leaping off the top of the 330ft high Hilton Hotel in London's Park Lane. The unknown pair's astonishing stunt was caught on camera by a film location manager taking shots for the new James Bond film Casino Royale. It's amost too perfect isn't it? The Bond employee, a Mr......

Bond is back. Well, on his way at any rate as filming on Casino Royale just started in Prague, but so far the world's most well know secret agent is flying solo. There's a problem finding the right Bond girl. "They're talking to three to four girls right now... Every week I read there's a new Bond girl, and I call them and they say, 'No, you idiot'." Poor old Paul Haggis. Nothing like......

All we wanted from the broadsheet reviews this week was to be told that Flightplan is a great film. To be honest, we're going to see it over the weekend whatever the critics say, because even though we know the plot will be ludicrous and it will boil down to Panic Roon on a Plane, we just fancy a bit of high-concept nonsense. But question is: will it be good high-concept nonsense? Well you'd......