Shirley Bassey set the template – now Billie Eilish will create the theme for No Time to Die. Are these sultry anthems, usually sung by women, actually subverting 007?
Goldfinger opens with a shot of a floating fake duck that turns out to be attached to a wetsuit-clad Sean Connery as James Bond. He clambers out of the water, shoots a climbing rope from a gun, overpowers a security guard, plants a plastic explosive and peels off his suit to reveal a white tuxedo. Bond goes on to see the reflection of a knife-wielding baddie in the eyes of the girl he is kissing and overpowers him. Cue Shirley Bassey’s immortal theme tune: “Goldfinger, he’s the man / The man with the Midas touch …”