Though details are scant, Oscar nominee James Mason was reportedly being lined up to play 007 in a 1958 television adaptation of Fleming's fifth Bond novel, From Russia, with Love.Īgain, though, the project never got beyond the planning stages. (If it had, we might never have been gifted the movie franchise.) Commander Jamaica (1956) Reportedly planned as a pilot for a potential series, this Casino Royale didn't do enough to secure a long-term future for Jimmy B. Barry Nelson, the first screen Bond, is steely but lacks the charm and finesse of his cinematic successors. Produced as an episode of the anthology series Climax!, the very first screen version of Bond took rather large liberties with the character, reimagining him as an American intelligence agent who went by 'Jimmy', while Bond's US ally Felix Leiter was likewise relocated to become British contact Clarence.Ĭondensing the book into a thrifty 50 minutes, the B&W episode – originally broadcast live – has a certain lo-fi charm and features a suitably unsettling performance from Peter Lorre as Le Chiffre. Preceding the movie of Dr No by eight years, 1954's US television adaptation of Fleming's first James Bond novel is the closest we've ever come to a bona-fide 007 television series.
