Sunday Times 2
Licensed to booze… 007 was an alcoholic
His ability to dodge the enemy’s bullet is the stuff of legend, but James Bond was far more likely to die from liver disease or a drunken car crash, say doctors.
They claim Bond’s skilled exploits in the field of espionage – and the bedroom – were all the more remarkable in light of his drinking habits.
While on Her Majesty’s Secret Service, Bond was putting away more than 90 drinks a week – four times the recommended limit.
Astonishingly considering his prowess with the gun, it is claimed that his fondness for a vodka martini ‘shaken not stirred’ may have been the result of his hands shaking from alcohol-induced tremor.
Doctors who carried out a study of his unhealthy lifestyle conclude 007, most recently played by Daniel Craig in Skyfall, was a ‘functioning alcoholic’.
The last thing you’d want him to do is dismantle a bomb or give you a lift home, they argue.
Patrick Davies, from Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust, and a colleague read all 14 Ian Fleming novels over a period of six months.
They totted up Bond’s alcohol consumption and found he was way over the recommended limit for safe drinking by men.
The NHS recommends no more than three or four units a day – 28 units a week – while Bond was drinking on average between 65 and 92 units a week.
The researchers said the stress of ‘working with international terrorists and high stakes gamblers’ may have driven him to drink excessively – before getting into his Bentley.
The novels reveal he was more in danger of dying in a road accident or from liver disease than an enemy’s bullet, say the researchers in the British Medical Journal Christmas issue.
Dr Davies, from Nottingham University Hospital, said ‘James Bond is a functioning alcoholic, which really isn’t very consistent with his ability as a spy.
‘You wouldn’t want a high functioning alcoholic having to dismantle a bomb.
‘In Casino Royale he drinks more than 39 units then jumps in a car (his 1930 Bentley 4.5 litre) and has a high speed chase, crashes and then spends 14 days in hospital.’
This would be eight pints of beer followed by eight glasses of wine, while his weekly consumption, 92 units, is approximately one and a half bottles of wine a day. Dr Davies added: ‘In one sitting it would be a two litre bottle of whisky, three glasses of wine and two pints of beer.
‘In real life a normal person wouldn’t be able to function like that, it would be impossible.
‘You wouldn’t be able to stand straight, let alone having the clarity of thought.
‘Despite his alcohol consumption, he is still described as being able to carry out highly complicated tasks and function at an extraordinarily high level.
‘This is likely to be pure fiction.’ In all 14 books, 123.5 days were described, though Bond was unable to consume alcohol for 36 days because of being imprisoned by hostile forces, or recovering from injuries sustained while on duty.
Out of the 87.5 days on which he was able to drink, he abstained on just 12.5 days.
The most Bond ever drank on one day was almost 50 units in From Russia with Love.
‘We suspect that the famous catchphrase ‘shaken, not stirred’ could be because of alcohol induced tremor affecting his hands’, say the doctors.
In real life, he would have been prey to alcoholic liver disease, cirrhosis, impotence, and other alcohol and smoking-related health problems. ‘In reality he would be at high risk of sexual dysfunction too, which totally goes against the image of the character’ says Dr Davies.
© Daily Mail, London