I didn’t want to ruin the idyllic image, but I reminded Cliff of a story he had told me when I was working at Pinewood a few years back. It was about a night shoot for the opening sequence of Goldfinger, where Bond, wearing a seagull on his head, infiltrates a South American drug warehouse and destroys it in his own inimitable style. It's either a grin or a grimace that crosses Cliff'’s face as it all comes flooding back.

“What a terrible night, nothing went right. It was all shot on the small tank on the back-lot where the 007 Stage now stands. It was pouring with rain and for some unknown reason the producers had decided to invite a crowd of dignitaries to watch.”

This unannounced audience did not please Sean Connery one bit as Cliff pointed out: “The opening shot was Sean with that rubber bird on his head, which he hated. He really hated it. He couldn’t get it off quick enough when the shot was completed.”

A bad start to the evening and things were not going to get any better. The next sequence involved the piton gun that Bond uses to scale the wall.

“One of the guys from special effects was on the set with the gun he had made to fire the rope and hook over the wall.”

Another happy grin from Cliff: “I can see him now, standing there, telling Sean, ‘Now you’ll have to brace yourself because this has got quite a kick to it. It’s compressed air, so keep your arm well tucked in when you fire it.’ Of course Sean is already annoyed about the bird thing and the ever-watching audience of big wigs. So reluctantly he gets into position, the cameras roll, the director, Guy Hamilton, shouts action and Sean pulls the trigger and the hook just barely falls out of the barrel. The compressed air had leaked. That was it, Sean threw the gun down and stormed off the set. What a night!”

But, it wasn’t just flaccid piton guns and rubber seagulls that made that night so memorable, Cliff carried on: “It was also the night that the matte cameraman and I nearly got fried when Johnny Stears set off this huge explosion. About 40 to 50 yards away from where we were positioned there were these three big 50 gallon drums of petrol that Johnny was going to blow up. The cameraman and I were on top of the backing with our high-speed camera and Ted Moore the cameraman was down on the floor with the main unit camera. So we’re sitting on top of this backing, getting nastily wet waiting for this thing to go off. Then suddenly we hear a lot of hammering. Having told us that we were fine on top of the backing, Ted’s having a huge protective hide built over his camera. Well, when Johnny let this explosion go, Wallop! It practically blew itself out of frame, so we had to quickly pan up with it, but then it started to come towards us and it got very hot for a while before it dispersed. That was a real bad night,” Cliff chuckles.

Even in those days Cliff liked to relax away from the studios with a round of golf. It was while working on Goldfinger that he was regularly joined out on the course by Sean Connery – at that time a fledgling golfer.

“He only had one piece of dialogue. He’d ring me up and say ‘Ave yer got yer sticks?’ That’s all he’d ever say in that lovely voice of his. This would usually be around half past four, five o’clock of a summer's evening. I would say ‘Yes’ and he’d say ‘See yer’ and I knew that would mean we’d be playing at nearby Denham golf course within 20 minutes.”

Cliff remembers how Connery used theses impromptu trips to get back at a production manager that had upset him.

“Sean disliked this production manager and if he said to Sean at half past four, ‘I think we’re finished with you today, Sean.’ That would be Sean’s cue to ring me and we’d be off up to Denham. On one occasion, this production manager came looking for me the following day and asked, ‘Did you see Sean last night?’ Word had obviously got round where we’d gone and I would say ‘Well, I’m not sure really…’ and this irate production manager would go on, ‘Twenty to six last night, we were looking for Sean. We wanted to do another close up and we couldn’t find him anywhere.’ Sean couldn’t give a damn. He disliked this guy so much. It stemmed from the scene where Bond is handcuffed in the back of the jeep to Oddjob and they’re driving up to Fort Knox. Well these handcuffs were the real McCoy, not props, and after a days filming, Sean’s wrists were very badly cut and he blamed the production manager for not supplying prop handcuffs and never forgave him.”

I asked Cliff what Sean was like as a golfer.

“In those days he had just taken it up and he was pretty good, but as he got more and more famous, so he got more and more advice. Then on later Bond films, when we’d go out together he’d say that he’d been told to have grip like so and so, to pull his left leg back a bit, do this, do that… Well, he was tying himself up in knots. In my opinion, he wasn’t anywhere near as good as he was in his early days when he was a natural ‘whacker’ of the ball.”

In 1967 Connery and Culley teamed up to play in a local golf society tournament, which they won. Sean because of other commitments couldn’t hang around to pick up his award, but asked Cliff to send it on to him. The award was duly packaged up, addressed and Cliff’s wife, June, took it down to the local post office to send it. The postmistress behind the counter took one look at the name on the parcel, Mr S. Connery, and with an edge of sarcasm in her voice said, ‘007 I suppose.’ To which June replied, ‘Yes it is actually!’

Cliff hasn’t seen that much of Sean since those days when he was a mere superstar. Now that he’s the nearest thing the Scots have to royalty, a quick round of golf after work is out of the question.

“If we ever met at Pinewood, Sean would always acknowledge me with his customary, ‘How’s yer game?’, Cliff smiles and adds, ‘But he’s a big star now and very difficult to get close to.”