James Bond should not lose his flaws in modern reboot

They have the rights to the franchise and they will deliver a new film, but not the next day, which is a shame for Amazon.

There has been much discussion about who should play Bond.

Some have said he should be played by a non-white actor.

Some have said Bond should be a woman.

Now Trina Parks, who played the assassin Thumper in Diamonds Are Forever in 1971, has a note for the writers.

She'd like Bond to be monogamous.

Parks says the new Bond should "reflect the modern world", that women in the films shouldn't "just roll over" into bed with him.

Is that what the modern world is like?

I’m too old to know from personal experience but it feels like we’re less chaste than we used to be.

I know I sound like an old man complaining about the shortness of shorts that women wear these days, but you take the point.

Steve Allen says that James Bond does not need to be virtuous (Image: Steve Allen)

James Bond has, across 27 films and 14 novels, demonstrated very few conventional virtues.

He drinks like he’s trying to forget the plot of Quantum of Solace, which wouldn’t take many.

He used to smoke until the franchise quietly dropped that in the 90s when it became bad optics.

At least he didn’t start vaping.

Bond has, as his Soviet adversary Anya Amasova once recited from his dossier, a "licence to kill, and has done so on numerous occasions."

He has actually killed people and yet we’re worried that he’s not going steady with these women before he takes them to bed.

Parks also wants Bond's female counterparts to be stronger characters, which has been happening for decades.

We have had Nomi in No Time To Die, M played by Judi Dench in many films, and even Parks’ character, Thumper, was an assassin who just tried to beat up Bond while doing backflips.

Spoiler alert: She didn’t win.

The point in this story is that James Bond doesn’t have to be virtuous.

He’s not a perfect hero.

He’s a flawed character, as all interesting characters are.

He doesn’t have to be a saint.

He just looked like one from Live and Let Die to A View to a Kill.

If we make Bond a clean-living, non-smoker, non-drinker, he’d basically end up an 1800s Mormon.

The irony is, then he could have more than one wife.

• Steve Allen is a comedian, broadcaster and author, for more from Steve, listen to his podcast ‘Steve N Allen Almost Daily’.