Hello and welcome to the History Hour podcast from the BBC World Service with me Max Pearson the past brought to life by those who were there

This week a terrifying jumbo jet passenger flight when all the engines failed.

Plus the mental and physical scars left by a bomb attack in 1990 South Africa,

the birth of the Sony Walkman, a device that changed listening habits forever and a shift in British policy

towards society's less fortunate. That's all coming up later in the podcast, but

we begin this week with a truly iconic British success story.

This is a cultural phenomenon and billion dollar film franchise

which has achieved exceptional global reach.

The name is Bond, James Bond.

And Alex Last has delved into the BBC Archives

to hear how the author and former intelligence officer Ian Fleming

created his fictional super spy. People do connect me with James Bond

because I happen to like scrambled eggs and short-sleeved shirts

and some of the things that James Bond does, but I certainly haven't got

his guts, nor his very lively appetized.

But there were elements of Ian Fleming's life that would reappear in Bond.

Ian Fleming was born in London into a wealthy banking family in 1908.

Though his father was killed in the First World War, Fleming grew up in the privileged world of the British upper classes.

As a young man, he spent time in Austria and Switzerland where he enjoyed mountaineering and skiing.

He failed to get into the foreign office but did briefly work for Reuters, including as a correspondent

in Soviet Russia, before becoming a stockbroker in London.

Tall, handsome and sociable, he was a hit with women,

...