JAMES BOND
NEWS

A unique fan event celebrating the 50th Anniversary of On Her Majesty's Secret Service took place in Portugal and Switzerland over the weekends of 25th/26th May and 1st/2nd June 2019. Guests were invited to explore the locations and meet some of the cast and crew of the 1969 James Bond film. The event was organised by Martijn Mulder, whose groundbreaking book and website On The Tracks of 007 has become the go-to field guide for trips, tours and events surrounding the fascinating James Bond filming locations around the world.

Both Celebrity and tour guests at the OHMSS50 event explored some of the locations in Portugal featured in the opening sequences of On Her Majesty's Secret Service (1969). Although appearing at the start of the film, the Portuguese scenes were shot at the end of the shooting schedule after the crew had completed location work in Switzerland, and interiors were filmed at Pinewood Studios. Tour guests also travelled along the coast to Lisbon, which served as the location for the scenes featuring Bond and Tracy choosing the wedding ring at the silverware shop of Joalharia Ferreria Marques in the Praça de Dom Pedro IV square, and walking in the gardens of the Palácio dos Marqueses de Frontiera, as Louis Armstrong's heartfelt rendition of ‘We Have All The Time In The World’ plays on the soundtrack.

Event organiser and guide Martijn Mulder identified the various filming locations, most of which have changed very little in the past half-century. Whilst in southern Portugal the tour guests were joined by James Bond himself George Lazenby, and actor Terence Mountain who played Raphael in On Her Majesty's Secret Service (1969). The pair recreated their memorable opening fight entrance at Praia Do Guincho (Guincho Beach) which took place almost 50 years ago to the day!

Back at the Hotel Palácio in Estoril, celebrity and tour guests attended a reception in the grounds allowing the press to utilise George Lazenby and the Aston Martin DBS for some memorable photographs.

George Lazenby was also reunited with hotel bellboy Jose Diogo, who remarkably is still working at the Palácio 50 years later, although now employed as the head Concierge.

Also whilst in Portugal George Lazenby also made a nostalgic visit to the very place where Peter Hunt (pictured below with German actress Ilse Steppat) directed the scene which the actor is most proud of. As James Bond parks his Aston Martin DBS at the roadside in the Arrábida National Park (near Lisbon) to remove the wedding garlands from his car, his new bride is gunned down by Irma Bunt (Ilse Steppat) as she speeds past the couple in a grey Mercedes driven by Ernst Stavro Blofeld (Telly Savalas).

Part 2 - Switzerland

On Her Majesty's Secret Service FACT FILE