Snookering you tonight — Casino Royale

In this episode we celebrate Daniel Craig’s first film in the role of James Bond: Casino Royale.

If you sat a panel of film critics in front of all 25 James Bond films and asked them to pick the best — not their favourite — but the best, there’s a good chance that most would pick Casino Royale.

Craig was a controversial casting as James Bond, which led to an ineffective (although much publicised) boycott threat from online Bond fans. But Craig proved to be a hugely popular and authentic 007.

He was also the beneficiary of an almost flawless production that completely revitalised the James Bond franchise. From the beginning, the film departed from the realm of invisible cars and diamond-encrusted satellite lasers of Die Another Day, opting for a more gritty, violent, and emotionally complex James Bond movie. It drew heavily from contemporary spy thrillers like The Bourne Identity and anchored itself in the original source material, Ian Fleming's novel of the same name, which had not been adapted previously as an official James Bond film.

In Casino Royale, the audience bears witness to the development of 007. We come to understand why he is who he is through his relationship with Vespa Lynd (Eva Green). Their love affair proves to be a cornerstone of the Craig films and lifts Casino Royale from an action romp to being a film of substance.

Such is the departure from previous Bond films that it is still not universally popular among Bond fans. Nevertheless, Casino Royale was a huge box office and critical success and welcomed a new cohort of fans from demographics that normally would not call themselves such. It does all this while remaining an identifiable James Bond movie with some truly unforgettable, and on one occasion eye-watering, moments.

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