Q

Though few vehicles have achieved that status more completely than the cars of James Bond, the world's most enduring cinematic spy.

From the silver curves of the Aston Martin DB5 to the wild gadget-laden creations of Q Branch, Bond cars aren't just movie props, they're storytelling instruments, technological fantasies, and symbols of an era.

And tonight, Automotive History Live steps directly into that legacy.

You're absolutely right, Eric.

That's an example that we will know what the other vehicles did.

My point was a lot of people may know, may not know listening to this, that as an example, as a parallel, Dukes of Hazzard, there were hundreds of chargers that were the general lead.

Well, for instance, the Q boat, the world's not enough.

There was 13 of those.

And I finally got around to trying to re-engineer, re-architect.

What kind of architecture? How would that break down from a functional capability? How would I build that if I were getting at my lab guys to do that? And then once I kind of figured out the architecture of how it could happen, I wanted to say, okay, why did it happen? What did they want to do with this program that could basically move anywhere, hack into any place and stay invisible? And so I kind of put on my James Bond Q hat and and started thinking about all the things I'd want my perfect spy program to do.

And I went to a friend of mine who was a film producer.

And I said, hey, Jack, I've got this really cool idea for a movie.

Yeah.

I guess with Persis and Q, um, even I can't get around to calling him Major Boothroyd, but I just think that they're interesting characters because they do state it.

There's a lot of it where we read into somebody like Rebus or Bosch, that relentlessness, they, they don't state it.

It's like, it's the job, but you're as a reader, you're like, no, you're going extra steps further for justice.

And then we started building the character up from there, from all the operatives that I've worked with.

So for the people who haven't yet heard about the movie, the movie is about this former special ops guy who is kind of, I don't know, he's like James Bond and Q rolled into one.

Like he's developing weapons.

He does his own thing.

I've just realised what I'd be in the whole structure.

I'd be one of the background gags in Q Branch getting blown up.

You really would as well.

Or tested.

Wow.

That's something that nobody's thought about.

There's only three, but Tim McInerney was the Q character in the second one, I think? Yes, correct.

This is not where I thought this episode was going to go, the Johnny English trivia test.

that.

I'm sure Q is waiting for you.

Oh, and Dr. Tan asked to see you as well.

Look for a sign that says tax him.

Does he go and see Q? You can't wander about and speak to people.

Is

Q this way? Or that's Q?

That's not

It'll be interesting to see what this James Bond will be.

Well, actually, I think that book is actually about Q. I think the spin that they were taking was Q, the gadget guy, I'm pretty sure that Vaz's book is actually, from the point of view of Q, Major Boothroyd, I think his name is, the character's name.

So I think he's doing that.

And also, you know, Raymond Benson, he's doing a new serialization based on Felix Leiter.