FILE PHOTO: An assistant poses with the James Bond 007 Special Issue 2020 UK Seven-Kilo Gold Proof Coin, the largest coin ever made by The Royal Mint, in London, Britain, March 2, 2020. REUTERS/Henry Nicholls/File Photo
LONDON — From scaling mountains and cranes to coming face-to-face with crocodiles and snakes, contestants travel the world tackling James Bond-inspired challenges in new TV adventure series “007: Road To A Million” in the hope of winning 1 million pounds ($1.2 million).
Nine pairs of participants, including nurses, retired police officers, siblings, friends and a married couple, seek to scoop the prize by answering 10 questions set by “The Controller”, portrayed by Scottish actor and “Succession” star Brian Cox, and hidden around the world.
“The idea is really to put ordinary people into a James Bond adventure and we didn’t quite know how that would work out,” executive producer David Glover told Reuters.
“It’s thrilling because… they’re really not James Bond but they have heart and they’re lovely and… they’re heroic in their own way.”
In the show, Cox watches the contestants from afar face daunting stunts to get to the briefcase carrying their questions, each worth increasing amounts of money.
Cox said that when he first heard about the “007” show “I went ‘oh, maybe they’re going to ask me to do a villain’ and I thought ‘no they can’t do that because they haven’t got a James Bond yet’.
“So it was a flight of fancy for a while and then I realised it was this thing and… I thought ‘well maybe if I do this, it’s probably the nearest I’ll ever get to (being a Bond villain),'” Cox said.
The series begins with brothers James and Joey Bone, who are the first to wade through a loch in the Scottish Highlands in search of their starter question.
“It is a bit of a cliche, but it’s just once in a lifetime… we couldn’t imagine doing anything like this,” James Bone said.
Bond film producers Barbara Broccoli and Michael G. Wilson are executive producers on the show, which launches globally on Prime Video on Nov. 10.
Asked about the search for the new James Bond after actor Daniel Craig wrapped his tenure as the suave spy, Broccoli said: “Not that at the moment. Watch this space.”