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John Cleese played Q after the death of Desmond Llewelyn in 1999. In The World Is Not Enough, he played Q's assistant "R", and then officially became Q in Die Another Day. Cleese also lent his voice to Q in the video games The World Is Not Enough, 007 Racing and Everything or Nothing. His first connection with the franchise was in "A Very Public Service Message", a Bondian spoof advert created to promote the 1989 film Licence to Kill and the beverage Schweppes.

Outside of the Bond franchise, Cleese is most famous for his work as part of the popular comedy troupe, Monty Python, and his portrayal of the short-tempered Basil Fawlty in the BBC sitcom series, Fawlty Towers (which he created with his then-wife Connie Booth).

Bond Involvement[]

The World Is Not Enough (videogame)[]

TWINE follows the plot of the movies with footage of briefings in-between the levels. These are imparted by M, R, and Moneypenny, but only Cleese reprises his role from the movies.[1] Throughout the game his character provides you with over 20 Q-lab gadgets and weapons while having an attitude of sarcastic contempt versus the protagonist.

007 Racing[]

First game of EA on PlayStation, here the player (as Bond, played by Tim Bentinck in the cutscenes) must race some of the classic cars from the films. The cars have Q-Branch's gadgets and weapons and Cleese has some lines on the gameplay segments. Lines like, "For the sake of the car, 007, return fire!" or "Sometimes I swear you enjoy raising my blood-pressure, 007!".[1] The game also includes live-action footage of him from the film The World is Not Enough.

Agent Under Fire[]

CleeseRAoF

Cleese's likeness in early stages of Agent Under Fire's development.

He was near to reprise his role of "R" from the video game The World Is Not Enough, he had previously done R in the two versions of The World Is Not Enough and in 007 Racing and the production footage showed his likeness.[1] But at the end because the producers decided that there wouldn't be any celebrities Cleese was replaced and his lines were redone by Miles Anderson, who had imitated Desmond Llewelyn's Q in previous titles. Cleese did however appear in the commercials of Agent Under Fire.

Selected Filmography[]

Year Title Role Other notes
2002 Die Another Day Q Released
1999 The World Is Not Enough R Released

References[]

  1. 1.0 1.1 1.2 Hans ten Cate. Daily Llama - NEWS 2003 (en). Daily Llama. Archived from the original on 2024-01-23.
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