By rebooting the series and going back to basics by revisiting an Ian Fleming novel for the first time in many years they came up with a film that features many of the traditional elements of James Bond and a few new ones too.

In addition to being fairly faithful to Ian Fleming – the plot was extended quite a bit, with all the early sequences having been written for the screen – Casino Royale introduced us to Vesper Lynd, the best Bond girl in a very long time.

While she may not portray the kind of Bond girls like Pussy Galore in Goldfinger or Ursula Andress as Honey Ryder in Dr No, she provides more depth to Bond and an enigmatic beauty. Her necklace, the Algerian Love Knot given to her by her ex-lover, underlines the mysterious side to her character.

Initially she acted rather coolly towards Bond. Described as having black hair and blue eyes with a wide, sensual mouth, she wore a black velvet dress and a thin diamond necklace at her throat and a diamond clip in the vee of her dress.

The film version of Vesper is rather different. Initially she has a bit of an attitude towards Bond, rather tan coldness; in that way she is quite similar to many of the more recent Bond girls, perhaps due to scriptwriters Purvis and Wade.

Vesper makes her appearance in the Casino in a stunning purple dress, and rather than a diamond necklace and clip she wears an Algerian Love Knot necklace throughout the film.

Following the success of his mission, James Bond recuperates – in northern France in the book and in Italy in the film. However, in Ian Fleming’s book she is very up and down during this period and seems to be slightly paranoid.

While in both the book and film she betrays Bond, in the film her suicide is less explicit. In the book they have lobster and champagne; but the next morning she is dead, having deliberately overdosed on sleeping pills. Calling London to explain the situation Bond exclaims “Yes, dammit, I said ‘was’. The bitch is dead now”.

The success of the first film was quickly followed up; From Russia With Love, Goldfinger, Thunderball and You Only Live Twice all followed in rapid succession and it was only when Sean Connery resigned from the role that there was a break of two years before George Lazenby was introduced in 1969.

And part of Connery’s frustration was that he was mobbed wherever he went, to the extent that while in Japan filming You Only Live Twice he was photographed in the toilet!

While the Bond films have always been successful, the heights of Bondmania seemed to have gone for good. However, when Casino Royale was released in 2006 a new generation of Bond fans seemed to become enthralled once again. Perhaps it wasn’t to the same degree as the 1960s, but there were several weeks when much of the entertainment news was dominated by Casino Royale.

What followed was a surge in interest by collectors for all things James Bond, including the Algerian Love Knot worn by Eva Green, as well as Daniel Craig’s polo shirt and sunglasses.

However, by the time Dr No was released in 1962, things were starting to change, and the films that followed coincided with the swinging sixties.

Despite what many would have you believe, the early Bond girls weren’t glossy bimbo types. Take Honey Ryder for example; while she makes her entrance in a bikini – a shot famously replicated by Daniel Craig in Casino Royale – she certainly knows how to stand up for herself. And while the gloriously named Pussy Galore puts up no more than token resistance for 007′s charms, she does know how to look after herself too.

It is true that many of the Bond girls from the Roger Moore era seem to serve little purpose except act as the damsel in distress, ready to be rescued and bedded by Bond. But even in the Moore years there are exceptions – think of Melissa Havelock in For Your Eyes Only for example. And by the time of Timothy Dalton the Bond girls were once again on the ascendancy, which continued throughout the Pierce Brosnan and Daniel Craig films.

Although an Algerian Love Knot doesn’t appear in the novel, a faithful adaptation of Casino Royale on the big screen was a long time coming.

The novel was written by Ian Fleming at his holiday home in Jamaica and published in 1953, introducing the world to James Bond. The book was a success in the UK, spawning the series of books that followed and Fleming sold the film and television rights to this first book quite early on.

The first adaptation to hit the screen was in 1954. This television play was part of the Climax! Series on CBS and starred Barry Nelson as Bond, although he was a CIA agent.

The rights to the other Bond films were picked up by Harry Salzman and Cubby Broccoli, who went on to start the official film series with Dr No starring Sean Connery. Meanwhile, the rights to Casino Royale were picked up by Charles K. Feldman. He discarded the idea of making a film with Sean Connery and instead decided to make it a comedy, released in 1967. The film starred David Niven, Peter Sellers and many others but is a complete mish mash of ideas.

Eventually MGM obtained the rights to Casino Royale after a lawsuit brought about by Kevin McClory. He had produced Thunderball owing to an earlier lawsuit in which it was found that Fleming had based his novel of the same name on a script that McClory had worked on.

His claim that he was entitled to produce a James Bond series backed by Sony Pictures resulted in the rights to Casino Royale being sold to MGM and when the producers of the Bond films wanted to take the series in a new direction they opted for a reboot: and Casino Royale made it to the big screen.