The name is Bone; James Bone. The anecdote this 37-year-old copywriter from South London is telling starts thus: ‘When I was on top of that cable car in Rio…’.
He never quite finishes it, though, because his older brother Joey, a 43-year-old electrician and black cab driver, has his own series of tall tales involving grapples with snakes that could crush humans in seconds, deep sea dives, hairy moments on speedboats and Aston Martins.
Each story is more far-fetched – and more far-flung – than the last, and if the Bone brothers attempted to tell them down the pub, everyone would assume they’d been indulging in too many vodka martinis (shaken, not stirred).
And yet they are entirely true. The Bone brothers are two of the 18 contestants who spent the guts of a year filming a new Bond-themed TV show that it is being billed as the biggest and blingiest contest ever made.
It’s quite hard to define what sort of entertainment extravaganza 007: The Road to a Million is.
The name is Bone; James Bone (left, pictured with Joey Bone, right). The anecdote this 37-year-old copywriter from South London is telling starts thus: ‘When I was on top of that cable car in Rio…’
The Bone brothers are two of the 18 contestants who spent the guts of a year filming a new Bond-themed TV show that it is being billed as the biggest and blingiest contest ever made
The contestants of 007: Road To A Million at the show’s premiere in London this month
The phrase ‘unscripted documentary series’ has been used, but it’s effectively part reality show, part quiz, part global quest involving nine pairs – including siblings, friends, married couples and a father-and-son combo – competing to win a life-changing £1million prize.
Think Who Wants to Be A Millionaire meets Race Around The World meets any of those gung-ho survival shows that involve contestants not only remembering their passports but going on an inner ‘journey’ too.
What makes it rather unique is that it’s a bona fide James Bond spin-off, made for streaming giants Amazon Prime but in conjunction with the Bond movie franchise team and involving Bond producer Barbara Broccoli. It’s the first time the Bond team allowed the hallowed franchise to be used on TV.
The show has been filmed – using movie and documentary techniques, with all the associated off-the-scale costs – in the very same exotic locations used in iconic Bond films. Contestants are given missions that involve them being sent to the Swiss Alps, to Venice, Rio de Janeiro or Jamaica.
Actual Bond props are used, as are actors who have appeared in real Bond movies (Bond geeks may well recognise the casino croupier in one scene; yes it is the same one who faced off with Daniel Craig in Casino Royale).
While there are no major Bond figures in the show – the creators thought it would be too confusing if Judi Dench’s M popped up at the airport – there are nods to them.
There is a Blofeld-like puppet master called The Controller, played by Succession’s Brian Cox, who sets questions and watches proceedings remotely from his lair.
Cox took on the role as a bit of ‘fun’ after Succession. ‘Now I can finally say I’ve been in a Bond production,’ he says. ‘I always thought I’d be a good villain, but nobody’s ever offered.’
There is a Blofeld-like puppet master called The Controller, played by Succession’s Brian Cox, who sets questions and watches proceedings remotely from his lair
Cox took on the role as a bit of ‘fun’ after Succession. ‘Now I can finally say I’ve been in a Bond production,’ he says. ‘I always thought I’d be a good villain, but nobody’s ever offered’
The situations contestants find themselves in are ones that any Bond fan will be familiar with – abseiling down a mountainside, running across the roof of a train, playing roulette in a casino, negotiating a tightrope to get from one building to another down a dusty side street in Istanbul, strolling across a golden beach in a tux channelling their inner Daniel Craig
The situations contestants find themselves in are ones that any Bond fan will be familiar with – abseiling down a mountainside, running across the roof of a train, playing roulette in a casino, negotiating a tightrope to get from one building to another down a dusty side street in Istanbul, strolling across a golden beach in a tux channelling their inner Daniel Craig.
‘We got to keep the tuxedos,’ beams Joey. Alas the Aston Martins, helicopters and catamarans did not make it back to London with them.
Rather hilariously each episode concludes with a stern warning to viewers about not attempting the stunts themselves at home, so those considering replicating the train roof run on the West Coast Avanti service to Preston might want to reconsider.
The show was filmed over the course of a year. While contestants were allowed to return home between ‘missions’ everything still had to be top secret, which is easy-peasy when you are James Bond.
Less so when you are James Bone, with have friends and family asking where on earth you’ve been, and why the tan?
Rather hilariously each episode concludes with a stern warning to viewers about not attempting the stunts themselves at home, so those considering replicating the train roof run on the West Coast Avanti service to Preston might want to reconsider
The show was filmed over the course of a year. While contestants were allowed to return home between ‘missions’ everything still had to be top secret, which is easy-peasy when you are James Bond
One of the most unlikely couples involved are Kamara, 30, and Josh, 42, (pictured together) from South east London who are married with small children aged six, five and four
‘We weren’t allowed to tell anyone where we were or what we were doing. We weren’t even allowed to take our phones so my wife had mine. She just had to make excuses about where I was,’ says Joey. ‘By the end the other mums on the school run thought we were getting divorced.’
The programme makers say they were absolutely not looking for textbook James Bonds when they were choosing contestants, but wanted to give ordinary souls the chance to see if they could find their inner Bond.
One of the most unlikely couples involved are Kamara, 30, and Josh, 42, from South east London who are married with small children aged six, five and four.
They work together – as youth workers – so had to tell their bosses they were involved in filming a secret project, but Kamara says colleagues simply thought they were going on an extraordinary number of mini breaks.
‘One trip was around my birthday so I remember saying Josh was taking me away somewhere and I didn’t know where I was going,’ she tells me.
When she got home, she failed to mention that she’d actually been in the Atacama Desert in Chile, the driest in the world. One of her challenges, in an Italian valley, was recreating the scene where Bond climbs a crane (in Casino Royale).
For someone who doesn’t even like heights, this was a personal achievement. ‘It was about finding your inner badass,’ she laughs. And she clearly did.
Why on earth did they do it? ‘We’d be lying if we said the money wasn’t an attraction,’ she says. ‘It’s life-changing’. (Actually, the full prize fund is £9million, because as well as aiming for the top £1million prize, along the way couples are able to win smaller, but still significant, prizes). Also, they simply wanted adventure.
When she got home, she failed to mention that she’d actually been in the Atacama Desert in Chile, the driest in the world. One of her challenges, in an Italian valley, was recreating the scene where Bond climbs a crane (in Casino Royale)
And they remained married, even after being dropped off in the Alps with Josh having to use his fingers to work out his north, south, east and west! ‘It actually strengthened our marriage,’ says Kamara
‘One of the reasons we got married was because we both loved travel and wanted to see the world together,’ explains Josh.
‘Then we had our children quite quickly, and very close together. And of course then came the pandemic. We just hadn’t been able to travel.
‘We didn’t really know what to expect, but it turned out to be the best year of our lives. We got to have experiences you really couldn’t buy – even if you did have the money.’
And they remained married, even after being dropped off in the Alps with Josh having to use his fingers to work out his north, south, east and west! ‘It actually strengthened our marriage,’ says Kamara.
‘Doing all the challenges together involved working as a team, remembering what our strengths were.’ Josh nods. ‘It was a journey of discovery, reigniting the love we almost were beginning to lose.’
It was only this week that the couple were able to tell their children what they’d actually been doing on their jaunts. As you can imagine, their little eyes widened in shock. ‘They think we were actually saving the world,’ says Josh. ‘They think Mummy is a super-hero.’
It was only this week that the couple were able to tell their children what they’d actually been doing on their jaunts. As you can imagine, their little eyes widened in shock
One of the most impressive couples on the show are friends Jen, 41, (right) and Beth, 46, (left) both nurses. They met when Beth interviewed Jen for a job but between them have worked all over the world, and in some of the most challenging environments
‘We didn’t actually know about the James Bond theme when we applied – it was just described as an ‘adventure series’ – so when we discovered that I watched all the films again and kind of revised my James Bond,’ says Jen
One of the most impressive couples on the show are friends Jen, 41, and Beth, 46, both nurses. They met when Beth interviewed Jen for a job but between them have worked all over the world, and in some of the most challenging environments.
Jen first worked as a prison nurse, then joined the RAF reserves, working in Afghanistan 2010, bringing injured soldiers home.
She has real-life (and non glitzy) experience of clambering in and out of helicopters, and once thought she was going to die in one, when an engine failed. She has also worked in a medical clinic in Kabul, in Guyana, and in , where she worked on Christmas Island with asylum seekers.
Meanwhile, Beth has worked expedition medicine with ultra-marathon runners in the Amazon and the Arctic Circle.
They tell me that while they were confident about the travel and survival aspect, they were also aware that a key part of the contest involves general knowledge questions (which are plucked out of a silver suitcase which has to be found, sometimes deep in the ocean).
‘We didn’t actually know about the James Bond theme when we applied – it was just described as an ‘adventure series’ – so when we discovered that I watched all the films again and kind of revised my James Bond,’ says Jen. ‘My dad is a huge Bond fan and we had watched most of them together.’
They also swotted up on other subjects. ‘We kind of carved it up. ‘You do world wars’ sort of thing.’
These two weren’t fazed by much. ‘Someone did say to us ‘you are quite calm’,’ says Beth. ‘That’s the job. Everything can be falling apart around you but you have to say calm. We call it the swan effect.’
Hilariously, their most terrifying moment didn’t come while Jen was trying to haul herself across a narrow rope strung between buildings, but when they were handed the keys to an Aston Martin. ‘I love cars and it was so lovely to drive that I felt it should be mine,’ says Beth, ‘we were pressing all the buttons and marvelling at the gadgets.’
‘But the terrifying part was that we knew how much the car was worth – millions,’ says Jen. ‘And when we were driving it, people wanted to have a look. They were stepping out in the road in front of us.’
The idea for this show did not start with James Bond. David Glover, founder and CEO of 72 Films says his team were knocking about ideas for an epic adventure show where locations leapt from, say, Venice to Brazil
Mr Glover said: ‘When we were developing the idea, we were always referencing Bond films – without dreaming that it would actually end up being a Bond show. From the very beginning. We didn’t expect that they (the Bond franchise holders) would want to do it to be honest, but then we sent it to Barbara Broccoli and she loved it’
The idea for this show did not start with James Bond. David Glover, founder and CEO of 72 Films says his team were knocking about ideas for an epic adventure show where locations leapt from, say, Venice to Brazil. A la Bond, obviously. ‘When we were developing the idea, we were always referencing Bond films – without dreaming that it would actually end up being a Bond show.
‘From the very beginning. We didn’t expect that they (the Bond franchise holders) would want to do it to be honest, but then we sent it to Barbara Broccoli and she loved it.’
The scale of this show is epic, the cinematography extraordinary. Ben Allen, the series producer, says, ‘To the best of my knowledge, this is the most ambitious series anyone has ever tried to do within this genre.’
Filming involved multiple set-ups all over the world. Every journey we filmed was its own little shot. Then they were the wildly ambitious locations.
‘We had multiple safety teams, worked with Formula One, and filmed on Sugarloaf mountain and other places that are hard to access.
‘We planned 80 or 90 bespoke journeys that were all very intricate and on top of that involved Bond props. Productions I’ve worked on in the past, might have one or two big set pieces in the series and we were doing these every day. It was intoxicating.’
The scale of this show is epic, the cinematography extraordinary. Ben Allen, the series producer, says: ‘To the best of my knowledge, this is the most ambitious series anyone has ever tried to do within this genre’
Contestants Sam and James in a scene from the show. Filming involved multiple set-ups all over the world – with wildly ambitious locations
One scene involved the crew hiking £1million of gold from the Royal Mint up a mountain. ‘We managed that then the safety guy came in and said “there is a storm coming in”.
‘The wind was 120 mph and it was minus 22 degrees. The gold nearly got blown off the side of the mountain,’ says Allen.
Filming on the iconic Sugarloaf Mountain was a particular challenge. ‘Not many people have filmed there, and nobody, as far as I know, has film there in the way that we did since Moonraker in 1977 so to be able to get access to climb the mountain was one thing then to get access to the cable car and then hang out of the cable car was quite another.
‘We had to shoot the whole sequence before they opened to tourists at 9 am so we were there at sunrise.’
So what was it like, on top of that cable car in Rio, actually living the ultimate James Bond moment? Back to the Bone brothers. ‘Quite hairy,’ says James.
‘It weren’t that glamorous at that moment, to be honest,’ says Joey. ‘I hadn’t seen a toothbrush in 24 hours and we’d had about an hour’s sleep.’
Still what a thing to tell the grandchildren, one day? ‘If they will ever believe us,’ says James.
007: Road To A Million is on Prime Video.