DANIEL CRAIG may be the first blond Bond, but he will bring back to the role the quality it most needs — darkness.

Across his career Craig has shown commendable versatility. Whether as the agonised public school warrior Guy Crouchback in the adaptation of Evelyn Waugh’s Sword of Honour trilogy, or in the earthier environment of the BBC’s drama of political corruption in Geordieland, Our Friends in the North, Craig has demonstrated the breadth of his range. But one quality marks out almost all his appearances — the sense of a character happier in the shadows.

Whether he is bringing brooding menace, or tortured introspection to his role, he is always far more of a noir figure than a matinee idol.

Which is just what the new Bond should be. Both Pierce Brosnan and Roger Moore, succeeded in giving Bond a smoothness that was never entirely true to the agent Ian Fleming created. The spy with a licence to kill was portrayed as more lounge lizard than trained viper.

But Fleming, himself a chilly customer, originally envisaged Bond as a darker, more dangerous operator. Sean Connery succeeded in conveying something of the necessary edge, and his Bond clearly had a chip of ice in his heart. Both Moore and Brosnan restricted their ice to the cocktail shaker.

If Craig is to succeed, his Bond must become closer in style to the iconic agent of the 21st century — Jack Bauer. Keifer Sutherland’s portrayal of Bauer in 24 shows how dark our heroes need to be to retain our interest. Bond will need to move out of his comfort zone, rely a little less on the gadgetry and instead take us into some of the more complicated reaches of his own soul.

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