Brian Cox has defended classic instalments of the Bond franchise amid today's ever-changing and unpredictable landscape of political correctness.
Bond has faced calls to be more "diverse" in recent years, with an intelligence expert earlier this month calling for a "black" or "female" or "black and female" Bond to take on the part from Daniel Craig.
The classic spy movies have also faced criticism for their earlier depictions of women as Bond's love interests as well as Bond behaving in a supposed sexist and chauvinistic manner.
While the wait for Bond 26 continues and the race to find Craig's replacement continues, Bond will be able to catch a fresh take on Ian Fleming's spy thanks to Amazon Prime.
Cox is the face of the new series titled 007: Road To A Million in which nine pairs of contestants "must face Bond-inspired challenges from across the globe", according to the show's synopsis.
It adds: "The Controller (Brian Cox) has hidden 10 questions around the world for each pair. To reach these questions, the pairs face Bond-inspired challenges, which push their physical strength and mental reserves to the limit.
Daniel Craig left the role of James Bond behind in 2019 following No Time to Die METRO-GOLDWYN-MAYER STUDIOS, COLUMBIA PICTURES, DANJAQ, LLC"Each question is worth an increasing amount of money, and if answered correctly, they bank the cash and continue to the next question. If they get it wrong, their journey is over."
Contestants in 007: Road To A Million are all in with a shout to claim the seven-figure prize pot if they complete all of Cox's The Controller's challenges successfully.
Now that Cox has stepped into the Bond universe, he's weighed in on the aforementioned reception to classic Bond and whether or not bosses should change his makeup to bow down to the woke ways of 2023.
"(Daniel Craig) inhabited Bond brilliantly," Cox said as he reminisced about the franchise. "But lately I’ve been looking back at the Bond films from the 60s onwards, which has been wonderful.
"They have a style that was really endearing and mapped a particular period of my life," he added to Radio Times.
When the publication queried whether or not Cox felt if it was okay to show old Bonds to new audiences at the risk of not being politically correct, Cox had no fears.
He brilliantly surmised: "Yeah, I think that’s okay because the only way we can understand who we are is by acknowledging our history.
"Look what’s happening in the world today: if we had a real sense of who we are, we wouldn’t have had the idiotic clown from Eton [Boris Johnson] or the Pink Pinocchio [Donald Trump] or Borsch and Tears [Vladimir Putin].
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Brian Cox was speaking to Radio Times about the Bond films
RADIO TIMES
"People have disclaimers now on some older programming which is fine, but at the same time, it’s a wonderful tradition that we try to carry on.
"We don’t muck around with Shakespeare; we shouldn’t muck around with James Bond," he explained.
Cox isn't the only famous face in recent weeks to fiercely defend the iconic spy character despite the calls to make major changes to the franchise.
Former UKIP leader Henry Bolton unleashed a passionate rant in defence of keeping Bond as he is during a recent debate on Patrick Christys' GB News show.
