Only one of the 27 James Bond 007 film adaptations (to date) is set around Christmas.
Only this James Bond film contains a newly-composed Christmas song written by John Barry and Hal David.
Only this James Bond tune was originally recorded by a Danish vocalist.
Christmas Eve at Piz Gloria. Framegrab from "On Her Majesty's Secret Service" (1969)
The Christmas song "Do You Know How Christmas Trees are Grown?" appears as source music in the film version of "On Her Majesty's Secret Service" (EON Productions 1969). The track, arranged by John Barry, is sung by Danish singer/actress Nina van Pallandt and an unnamed children's choir. Phil Ramone is credited as producer of the session which took place at CTS Studios in London.
The lyrics for the song were written by Hal David, who also collaborated with John Barry on "We Have All the Time in the World" for the "On Her Majesty's Secret Service" soundtrack. In Jon Burlingame's book "The Music of James Bond" (Oxford University Press 2012), Hal David says that in the case of "Do You Know How Christmas Trees are Grown?", he delivered a finished Yuletide poem to John Barry who then put it to music:
"I think it's the only time, with John, that I wrote the lyric first".
In the clip below, Nina van Pallandt lip-synchs to her recording of "Do You Know How Christmas Trees are Grown?" in the British TV special "Morecambe and Wise Christmas Show" (BBC 25.12.1969):
This 15 second TV spot for EON Productions' James Bond 007 film "Licence to Kill" aired on TV 2 Denmark in July 1989.
The speak was done by Kim Schumacher, a well-known Danish DJ, radio host and film translator. Kim Schumacher translated "Licence to Kill" and the previous Bond film, "The Living Daylights", into Danish for the cinema release.
Danish first edition
Original: Moonraker (Jonathan Cape 1955) Publisher: Grafisk forlag Translator: Grete Juel Jørgensen
Cover art: William Petersen
Ian Fleming's third James Bond novel, "Moonraker", was the fourth to be published in Danish. Adding to the confusion, the book was simply titled "Agent 007" in Denmark.
The author's byline on the cover has been danicized into "Jan Fleming". On the early editions from Grafisk forlag, the cover was coated with a film that unfortunately deteriorates with age, hence the faded blacks in the image above.
Later editions:
● James Bond og Tordenkilen ("Lommeromanen" nr. 410, Skrifola 1966)
● Moonraker (Rosenkilde & Bahnhof 2014)
Danish first edition
Original: Casino Royale (Jonathan Cape 1953) Publisher: Grafisk forlag Translator: Grete Juel Jørgensen
Cover art: William Petersen
Ian Fleming's first James Bond novel was the third to be published in Danish. The author's byline on the cover has been danicized into "Jan Fleming".
Later editions:
● Banko for døden – James Bond ("Lommeromanen" nr. 425, Skrifola 1966)
● Casino Royale (Aschehoug 1984)
● Casino Royale (Aschehoug/Egmont 2006)
● Casino Royale (Rosenkilde & Bahnhof 2014)
In the summer of 1989, a 15 minute special called "Mit navn er Bond ... James Bond" (My name is Bond ... James Bond) was broadcast on TV 2 Denmark.
The show featured interviews with three of the principal actors from the James Bond 007 film "Licence to Kill", which premiered in Denmark on 7 July 1989.
Timothy Dalton (James Bond 007), Talisa Soto (Lupe Lamora) and Desmond Llewelyn (Q) each recorded a brief station ID for the special. These were broadcast on TV 2 in the days leading up to the show.
Desmond Llewelyn's notoriously bad memory leads to a blooper at the end of his segment, and while the inclusion of Llewelyn's gaffe might seem slightly unfair towards the elderly gent, it is quite amusing nonetheless.
