AS THE cinema's longest running franchise, the James Bond films are surefire box office hits these days. It wasn't always that way, as actress Eunice Gayson recalled at the opening of the Bond, James Bond exhibition.

She played casino siren Sylvia Trench in the first 007 adventure Dr No and prompted him to make one of the cinema's most famous remarks. She asked the elegantly-dressed gambler his name and he replied: "Bond, James Bond". Gayson returned for a spot of canoodling in a punt in the second film From Russia With Love, giving her the honour of being the only Bond girl to provide continuous love interest in more than one film.

"When the director, Terence Young, saw the first rough cut of Dr No, he said to everyone, 'I don't know what we've got here. We've either got a huge smash hit or the bomb of all time'," she recalls. "It was a very unusual film. When it took off in such a big way everyone was more than delighted but, equally, very surprised."

Veteran British director Guy Hamilton is in an ideal position to settle the argument about who's the best Bond - Sean Connery or Roger Moore (above). He directed both of them as Bond, the former in Goldfinger and Diamonds Are Forever, the latter in Live And Let Die and The Man With The Golden Gun. He dodges the question.

"A director's job is to show off his stars to their best advantage. Obviously comparisons are going to be made so we were careful in the scripting when Roger took over to avoid scenes that were typical Sean scenes," he says. "Roger doesn't play around with martinis and all that because immediately it would bring to mind Sean. Roger is trying to bring his own personality to Bond."

He does reveal there are some things that were beyond Moore, notably running convincingly. He told the director he'd need a double for his first scene as Bond, being filmed running along an airfield. "I said, 'action' and he moved, and he waddles like a duck. Roger came back and said, 'I told you so'," says Hamilton. "But there were all sorts of other things he does wonderfully. You cash in on his strengths."

Connery's weakness, he adds, was accidentally hitting stunt men. "They loathed working with him," he says. "We rehearsed but when we'd shoot the fight, he'd lead with the wrong fist and hit the stunt man in the face.