In the newest episode of James Bond & Friends, Dr. Lisa Funnell raises the question whether spy entertainment has evolved beyond James Bond.
You could make the argument that things have regressed since the 1960s spy craze.
In 1965 alone, you could go to a movie theater and see the likes of Thunderball (the fourth James Bond movie and definitely on the escapist end of the spectrum) as well as The Ipcress Files (produced by Harry Saltzman with Bond film crew members along for the ride) and The Spy Who Came In From the Cold (based on a John le Carre novel).
That’s a lot of variety for a single year.
On British and American television, you could see series either affected by Bond (The Avengers and Danger Man) or started because of the spy craze (The Man From U.N.C.L.E., Get Smart, I Spy and Mission: Impossible).
Today? Well, Matthew Vaughn’s Kingsman series was influenced by early Bond movies as well as U.N.C.L.E. and The Avengers.
Le Carre novels continue to be adapted but they often appear on TV mini-series.
The 1960s was the decade of the spy craze. The 1970s was a barren time for spy TV. It has waxed and waned since then.
Filed under: James Bond Films, The Other Spies | Tagged: Danger Man, Get Smart, I Spy, James Bond & Friends, John Le Carre, Matthew Vaughn, Mission: Impossible, The Ipress Files, The Man From U.N.C.L.E., The Spy Who Came In From the Cold |
The Spy Command 
In terms of the evolution of spy entertainment, let me point out my 2005 Beyond Bond: Spies in Fiction and Film(Praeger Pub.) which traced the evolution of books and movies from well before Bond to the then present. I did the same thing for Spy Television (2003) which also traced how spy TV reflected, decade by decade, our cultural taste in spy entertainment.