The time James Bond was a black, gay, immigrant woman, just like in the books

An expensive casino in sophisticated Monte Carlo. The clientele is wealthy, attractive and powerful.

We settle on a Baccarat table. Men wear elegant dinner jackets. The women, stunning evening gowns.

A black woman wears an impeccably cut dinner suit, she sips a dry martini – shaken not stirred, of course.

Another woman watches her intently as they play the game.

After a while, Bond opens her cigarette case, glances up at the other woman and introduces herself.

“Bond,” she says, with a small smile, “Nthanda Bond.”

The introduction of the world’s most famous spy in little seen first film in the Bond franchise The Mask of Deception’s Mask.

“I have mixed feelings about it,” said director Sheridan Monkhouse in a 1973 Wogan interview.

“I’m proud that we made such an outstanding picture, but I’m also terribly disappointed that the franchise changed direction so radically with Dr No.”

Mr Monkhouse recalls his first encounter with the Nthanda Bond series of books.

“I was wintering in Aruba with Tommy Cannon, he said to me ‘Sheridan, you must read this terrific spy novel,’ Well, I’d barely read to the end of the first page and I knew it was something special.

“I immediately cancelled my dinner plans with Tommy, Princess Margaret and a roller-skating snake charmer we’d met earlier.

“By the time I’d finished the book, I knew I had to make the picture. Nthanda Bond was an outstanding character.

A teenager in the Windrush generation, Bond’s intelligence, ruthlessness and physical prowess see her courted by MI6.

She leaves her girlfriend and begins a journey that sees her go on to become Britain’s top spy.

“People loved the picture. Was it controversial to make a spy picture about a black, gay, immigrant woman? Possibly. I suppose there are a vocal group of nutters who get angry about that sort of thing, but most people couldn’t care less if the whole affair is exciting and features Ursula Andress in a bikini.”

However, producers disagreed, and thought that if they made the character a working-class Scotsman, it would be more appealing to people.

“It was a betrayal of everything that made Nthanda Bond special,” spits Monkhouse.

“Oh sure, they made him a repressed homosexual desperate to cover his sexuality with womanising, but it wasn’t the same as the overt lesbianism of the original character.”

Dr No followed a few short years after The Mask of Deception’s Mask, became a hit and set in motion the Bond franchise we know so well today.

But for true fans of Bond, the only answer to ‘what is your name?’ is ‘Bond, Nthanda Bond,’ just like in the books.