Radio Australia Today Editorial

Sir Roger Moore. James Bond and Beyond.

25 November 2008

That was one of the catch-l;nes for one of Roger Moore’s Bond films, maybe the one in space, Moonraker.

Bond and Beyond.

In the case of Roger Moore though, he did go beyond his action hero superstardom, by becoming a UNICEF ambassador, travelling the world and (as he says) making a general nuisance of himself, trying to get governments and corporations to help fix the problems for the world’s kids.

We’re interviewing Sir Roger a bit later today here in the studio, and in preparation for the chat, I read his new autobiography, My Word is My Bond. It was full of all the funky stuff, like how he was nearly eaten by a crocodile on the set of Live and Let Die, or how a rabid fan tried to pull his pants down when he was playing TV’s Ivanhoe.

For me though, the highlight of the book came in the last 100 pages, when he talked about the UNICEF role. The stories that come out are startling. He tells of meeting a South American man who was forced to watch his daughter being raped, later finding out his whole family was murdered. This was an event that was an eye-opener to the English policeman’s son, and a realisation that the rule of law only applies in some places and some of the time. Moore also saw children dying for want of a lack of a teaspoon of iodine. He devotes many pages in his book to his meetings with some of the world’s despots and through his fame as James Bond, convincing them to iodise their salt.

One gets the feeling from the book that being James Bond, Simon Templar, a Persuader or Ivanhoe means little to him compared to what he has been able to do with this fame as a UNICEF ambassador. Obviously the Queen agrees, having first given him an OBE, then a knighthood for all his charitable work.

It makes you think about the nature of fame. People here are agog that Roger Moore is going to be coming in this morning. They’re agog purely because he’s the guy who walked on the screen through a gun-barrel in seven Bond films and saved the planet from Drax and Jaws.

I think they should be agog because he saves real lives.

But then there is no shortage of people who are working across the world right now tending the sick, collecting food for the starving and training the helpless.

They’re real superheroes. As is Sir Roger Moore.

All that said, I’m really excited about meeting James Bond too.

– Phil