Dir: Jack Cocker | UK Doc 90
Who was your favourite Bond?. If the answer is Roger Moore (1927-2017) then this new BBC-commissioned documentary offers fascinating insight into the real man behind the legend.
Directed by Jack Cocker, the film traces back to Sir Roger Moore’s modest early life in South London revealing how his innate charm charisma, along with his acting skills, would make him an international star and a much loved household name in a career that spanned over thirty years.
After training at RADA in 1945 Moore made his professional debut in Perfect Strangers alongside Robert Donat and Deborah Kerr. After a stint as a knitwear model in the early 1950s, Moore headed Stateside to take on television roles until he signed with MGM in 1954 with a string of support performance allowing him to rub shoulders with the likes of Lana Turner and Kirk Douglas. The 1958 TV series Ivanhoe, shot in England, was a great success, but the role of Simon Templar in The Saint from 1962-69 would mark his transition to international stardom with an idiosyncratic raised eyebrow becoming his hallmark. He then played alongside Tony Curtis in The Persuaders! until James Bond took over in the Seventies and early1980s. His final role was in Janos Edelenyi’s 2016 drama The Carer alongside Emilia Fox and Brian Cox.
From Roger Moore with Love is enlivened by Moore’s own diaries, family photographs and ample footage from his early childhood right through to his final interviews on TV chat show ‘Parkinson’ shortly before his death at 89. The film describes his early marriage to South African dancer Doorn van Steyn, his turbulent life with famous singer, Dorothy Squires, and how he eventually become a family man with Italian actress Luisa Mattioli and their children Geoffrey, Deborah and Christian, who talk about happy times with their parents’ A list celebrities and friends. Moore finally married heiress Kristina Tholstrup and served as a goodwill ambassador at UNICEF for 27 years. Talking heads include his close friends Joan Collins, Pierce Brosnan, Nanette Newman, Christopher Walken. Jane Seymour who were clearly very fond of him.
So Roger Moore was naturally suave and genial but he also emerges as polite, considerate and possessing the same tongue in cheek humour as Cary Grant, never taking himself too seriously, but never losing sight of the right opportunity to progress his career. One contributor recalls having so much fun on set when Moore was involved they had to build in more time, even when the set caught fire during The Spy Who Loved Me in 1977. @MeredithTaylor
FROM ROGER MOORE WITH LOVE – in UK cinemas 13 DECEMBER