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The Bondstars Christmas Party 2011
Pinewood Studios, London, England - Sunday November 27th 2011
Sunday November 27th was a bright sunny autumnal morning, and one on which Pinewood Studios once again played host to the Bondstars Christmas Party.
A full day from 9.15am until 6pm comprised welcome refreshments, a dealers room, celebrity signings, round one of the 2011 Mastermind quiz, a visit to U-Stage and some Bond locations in the studio gardens, a delicious buffet lunch and a packed afternoon of entertainment:
Actor Michael Chance premiered the first act of his ‘Ian Fleming: The Man With The Golden Pen’ one man show live on stage; followed by our quizmaster Jenny Hanley introducing the top four scorers from round one of Mastermind, to face the spotlight and black chair for 90 seconds of quick fire questioning on 007. A special fifth set of questions was saved for 2nd Unit Production Manager (and self confessed clown) Terry Bamber to answer – although he stated he wouldn’t be able to answer any of the questions, he soon realised that every single one of them had the same answer: his name. Everything from ‘who dropped Roger Moore’s sandwiches when he was a runner on The Man With The Golden Gun?’ to ‘who did John Barry name as his stalker?’ to ‘who has a Facebook page dedicated to him by people he drives mad?’ ...
Tom So
Britt Ekland
Philip Hawkins was appointed ‘Bondstars Mastermind 2011’ having scored the most correct answers in both rounds of the quiz, and was presented with a special trophy, a goodie bag worth over £100 and a bottle of Bollinger. The three runners-up also took away a goody bag and a bottle.
In an on-stage Q&A, Bond alumni Vic Armstrong (2nd Unit Director and stunt co-ordinator) shared a few tales of his nail-biting times on set co-ordinating action sequences, whilst Executive Producer Anthony Waye described some of his more interesting headaches such as diverting a plane (with crew on board) bound for Vietnam to Bangkok when filming permission on Tomorrow Never Dies was withdrawn at the last minute. Actors Pavel Douglas and Tom Chadbon then described some comical exploits on set Goldeneye and Casino Royale.
Afternoon cream teas were served, before optical cameraman Alan Church presented a world premiere of his personal filmed footage of Maurice Binder at work, designing his main titles for Licence To Kill. Alan offered a commentary throughout the 30 minutes of amazing film, and described how they achieved certain effects and shots. He also revealed he filmed the last traditional gun barrel sequence, which was with Timothy Dalton for The Living Daylights. It was without doubt both an insightful and emotional study of one of the true greats in cinematic history, Maurice Binder.
Alan Church
Shane & Sheila Rimmer
With everyone well fed, entertained and weighed down with goody bags (which included a limited edition For Your Eyes Only 30th anniversary artprint especially produced for the event) & signed photographs, the day drew to a close.
Anthony Waye
Terry "Mastermind" Bamber
Thank you to everyone who attended and we look forward to seeing you all again next year to celebrate the 50th anniversary of 007's first cinematic outing - Dr No!
We must thank all of our special guests...
Vic Armstrong, Britt Ekland, Anthony Waye, John Moreno, John Wyman, Joseph Millson, Jack Klaff, Alkis Kritikos, Terry Bamber, Béatrice Libert, Samantha Weinberg, Shane & Sheila Rimmer, Alan Tomkins, Peter Lamont, Tom Chadbon, Pavel Douglas, Keith Hamshere, Margaret Nolan, Doug Robinson, Alan Church, Michael Chance, Louise Jameson and the wonderful Jenny Hanley for doing such a wonderful job compering the Mastermind quiz.
And the following friends for their invaluable help...
EON Productions, David Wight and all at Pinewood Studios, Stefan Löerchner, Florian Stucki at www.digital-vandalism.com, Tom and all at Class Act, Vipul Patel, Andy Lucas, Sue Griffiths, Paul Marchant-Smith, Adrian Head, Bernard Vandendriessche, Fabio and all at Couture, Panalux, Mark Mawston, Chris Dugdale, Dave Worrall, Niclas Elvingsson, Andrew Freeman, Matthew Field, Robin Harbour, Elaine Tweedy, Chris Yeates, Chris Winwood and Remmert van Braam.
Bondstars will return in 2012All photos (c) Mark Mawston 2011. Not to be used without permission
