Despite neither Fleming nor a Bond film crew having ever visited the Caribbean’s largest island, it plays a key role in numerous 007 books and films. Fleming was fascinated by but fearful of Cuba, his feelings towards the place shifting dramatically across the book series for reasons that have never been clear. And the way the country has been shown on screen raises some interesting questions around representation. After decades of wanting to visit, I headed to Havana in search of ‘the real Cuba’.

Diamonds Are Forever may be one of the more bizarre Bond films but the early drafts by Richard Maibaum make the finished film look quite sane by comparison! Granted access to the Eon archives, film scholar Tom Mason shared with me the uncut gems he’d uncovered: possible versions of Diamonds Are Forever which are, by turns, ahead of their time AND positively deranged. You're not going to believe what Diamonds might have been!

It’s not every day you find out your home town was at the centre of an espionage scandal, with a British MP turning communist spy to live out his James Bond fantasy.

If Dorothy in the The Wizard of Oz is to be believed, there's no place like home. But what if that home is Skyfall? In his 50th anniversary queer odyssey, 00-Dorothy doesn’t just kick back against traditional notions of home and family; along the way he creates a unconventional family to replace the one he lost and blows up his childhood abode with dynamite. Talk about cathartic!

60 years ago, when the movie Bond began, England’s most popular actor was Dirk Bogarde, a closeted gay man. Dirk was even approached to play Bond. But big Bogarde fan Callum McKelvie is glad the matinee idol never donned 007’s tux (although he would have looked great in it).

Bond isn’t the marrying kind, but is his devotion to the mission the only reason for his lack of long-term attachment? In her latest warm and witty piece, Fenna Geelhoed (our agent in Amsterdam) relates how Bond’s disinterest in romance helped her be okay with not feeling ‘normal’.

There are so many pitfalls when it comes to creating a gay character who is realistic, sympathetic and unstereotypical that it’s probably not surprising that most writers don’t even bother trying. With Joseph Dryden, the first gay Double-0, Kim Sherwood shows everyone how it should be done.

Callum McKelvie joins me for a special Spectre-al episode taking a light-hearted look at the horror elements in the Bond films and novels. We uncover the spookiest skeletons in Bond's closet and get very personal when exploring why queers like us are drawn to the macabre.

I am joined by Ian Fleming Publications’ Managing Director Corinne Turner and Publishing Manager Simon Ward, following their announcement that they will be bringing the publication of all Ian Fleming titles ‘in house’ for the 70th anniversary of Bond. We discuss what this means for existing fans, their plans for attracting new audiences, the diversity of Fleming aficionados, new cover concepts and lots more. But first of all, I ask them to name their favourite Fleming books…

Dr Brendan J. Dunlop, a Principal Clinical Psychologist in the NHS, clinical lecturer and author of The Queer Mental Health Workbook, helps me analyse James Bond’s mental health experiences and suggests ways he could find some more solace.

Of the five senses, smell is not something we talk enough about in relation to Bond. This is somewhat ironic considering that this is the very first sense Fleming triggers, setting in motion decades of olfactory curiosity, especially when it comes to 007 and gender.