Opinion - BOND: Jack Lowden or Callum Turner? Possibly neither as the media will be backing the wrong ‘Horse’ . . . again!

He’d been told to wear a suit or tuxedo, but decided not to bother. Then he refused a screen test and told Producer Cubby Broccili that he could ‘take it or leave it’. It was only when a stunned Broccili looked out of the office window and watched Connery cross the road on his way to catch the tube that the deal was done. Connery moved like a stalking panther.

By this point they’d seen pretty much every eligible actor in London after first deciding that the usual chestnuts at the time - Rex Harrison, David Niven, Trevor Howard and James Mason - were all too old and too posh.

This was the time of the Angry Young Men, the rise of the working classes in British Film and Theatre, and suddenly actors needed to be ‘real’.

Albert Finney had already said no, Terence Stamp was deemed too skinny, Michael Caine too Cockney and Peter O’Toole - the then darling of the West End - was stuck in the Sahara Desert on a two-year stint filming Lawrence of Arabia. Connery was completely unknown, but he got the gig based almost entirely on the way he walked.

Moving forward almost 45 years, up rolled Daniel Craig, almost completely off-guarding the National media at the time. He was speed-boated into a press conference to meet awaiting journalists - floppy haired and arrogantly chewing gum.

They were not impressed - collectively labelling it ‘the end of the Bond franchise’. Craig had to really prove his mettle ahead of Casino Royale in 2006. A year in the gym ahead of filming went a long way, but Craig’s Bond immediately looked like he could ‘rip you a new one’ and spank you at poker, just after you’d discovered him in bed with your wife/girlfriend.

It was that look in his eye, that contemptuous look that said: “Bond. James Bond. And yes, I am better than you.”

The press initially hated Craig because they hadn’t called it, because the announcement blind-sided them. They’d hated Timothy Dalton for the same reason. They thought they were getting Pierce Brosnan. They did eventually, but they had to wait.

That, for me, is why the current claims that the next Bond is a two-horse race between Slow Horses star Jack Lowden and Capture actor Callum Turner are speculative nonsense.

Bond auditions are done in secret, in back street hotel rooms involving the director, producer and head of casting. And nobody else. They are as clandestine as the working life of the principal character.

There are no such things as ‘final audition’ weekends. You need to look at the media language. They say ‘reportedly’ a lot. This means ‘we don’t know’. Company insider - ‘we’ve made it up’. Bookies’ favourite - ‘that’s what they’re saying down the pub’.

And this has been endless for the past decade. Tom Hiddleston when the Night Manager first came out - because it’s about spies. James Norton - because Tommy Lee Royce is seriously bad-ass in Happy Valley. Aaron Taylor-Johnson - he was a very scary assassin in Bullet Train.

And some of it's just plain silly. Could Idris Elba be the first black Bond? – because we all like Luther. Is Jack O’Conner in the running for Bond role? - because he’s in something about the SAS. Has Jacob Elordi been added to the Bond shortlist? - because he’s fit.

Trust me! They don’t know. They just want you to think they do . . . because you might just click.