Resht in peash, Shir Sean. And I hope Shaint Peter understandsh your acshent.
Living in Portobello, Edinburgh’s beach suburb for ten years I never heard anybody spik like Sir Sean.
But maybe thatsh moviesh!
First Porty of call
Portobello: And Porty is as good a place as any to talk about Sir Sean’s sets.
Because it was here in his hometown, and as a lifeguard at Porty’s outdoor swimming pool that he had his first stage.
The pool is now a five-a-side football complex, and we have both moved on.
Visitors to Edinburgh rarely go any further out of the city than Leith where the Royal Yacht Britannia is kept.
But they should. Porty is bohemian while still being grounded “, and if you can’t get to those beaches Bond did you can walk in Sean’s sandsteps here.
Bahama Mamma
Bahamas: And it’s fitting that Sir Sean saw out his days in the Bahamas.
He clearly enjoyed the island lifestyle as much as Ian Fleming who penned the spy which would propel Connery to fame just down the road in Jamaica.
We’ve all, of course, been reminiscing about who until today was the second Greatest Living Scot (it’s Billy Connolly now).
And my old pal, Rebecca Lee, who I sent out to the Bahamas reminds me of how she stayed at the hotel where he still played the tables.
And was beloved by the locals which is as it should be.
Jordan and crusaders
Jordan: Sir Sean was always unmistakably Scottish… all Jocks look like movie stars after all.
And share his dry wit.
Sir Sean upstaged Harrison Ford in the Last Crusade, the climax of which is staged at The Treasury in Jordan.
Hardly surprising that proud nationalist Sir Sean should star in an Indy film!
Untouchable in Chicago
Chicago: And the film for which he won his Oscar as Best Supporting Actor above the wooden acting of Kevin Costner.
You can truly believe Sir Sean as a gritty Chicago cop.
So we’ll pass over that he’s meant to be Irish.
Murder on the Orient Express
Istanbul: The Albert Finney version of course where Sir Sean plays Colonel Arbuthnot.
And Istanbul is the terminus for the Orient-Express, although we all know that Poirot and his fellow passengers were on their way back to London.
And an example of how less is more… with Sir Sean, the upstanding stiff military man rather than than the dashing, reckless Bond.
From Russia (really Istanbul and Venice) With Love
Istanbul and Venice: And this being released in the mid-60s and in the middle of a real Cold War the filming was done in the West.
There are some iconic scene in this my favourite Bond.
I love Commie kicker Hleb’s kickathon with Bond and who can forget Bond and Tatiana sailing under the Bridge of Sighs in Venice.
There’s definitely something about James… or should that be something about Murty!
