When Ian Fleming sat down in 1952 on the terrace of his Jamaican house, Goldeneye, to write the opening of his first spy novel, Casino Royale, he was unaware that he was creating the most successful literary and cinematic character of the century.

Fleming wanted the fullest-sounding name for his hero, and picked it from the author of a book of birds on hi bookshelf. The author was James Bond. 007 was born, and Fleming used his own experiences of intelligence work during the war to fuel his book.

Casino Royale was to be followed by 13 other Bond books before Fleming's early death in 1964. The books were transformed into the most successful movie series ever, and made international stars out of Sean Connery, Roger Moore, and most recently, Timothy Dalton.

The story of Ian Fleming's extraordinary life, from wartime agent in 1941 to successful new novelist in 1953, is the basis of Goldeneye, a new movie made by Anglia films, the film-making arm of Anglia Television.

The film, which is scheduled to screen on TV shortly, has been shot on location in England and Jamaica, and uses the original Goldeneye, which has changed little since Fleming's time.

Goldeneye shows Fleming as a dangerous wartime secret agent who undertook deadly Bondian missions. Don Boyd, the director, says: "I am certain Ian Fleming was involved in espionage, and the he probably killed people in the line of duty."

Charles Dance plays Fleming, and I caught up with him during shooting on a very hot afternoon at Grip House studios, improbably situated in the middle of an estate in Greenford, Middlesex.

I watched Dance shoot a scene where Fleming, early in the war is evaluated as possible agent by the legendary head of British security co-ordination in New York, Sir William Stephenson, who is played by veteran Australian actor Ed Devereaux.

This particular sequence features a real-life situation when Stephenson ordered Fleming to assassinate an enemy agent. In the film, Stephenson hands the gun to Fleming and says: "Kill him." Fleming hesitates, and Stephenson takes the gun back. "Alright then" he says, "watch me kill him." Stephenson then shoots the man five times.

The "enemy agent" then stands up, and the gun is revealed to have been loaded with blanks. It is a ploy to test Fleming's ability to kill in the line of duty. Fleming apologizes for his failure. "Don't worry,"says Stephenson, "we'll make an agent out of you yet."

Even in the studio, surrounded by the crew and props, it was easy to believe that Dance really was Ian Fleming - such is the physical likeness between the two men.

"He is quite remarkable," says producer Brenda Reid, confirming that Dance was the first choice for the role. "He looks like Fleming, and every movement he has is absolutely right."

When the scene was finally finished, Dance retreated from the stuffy studio to take refuge in his slightly cooler caravan. I joined him there and, over a cup of tea, asked him what had appealed to him about Goldeneye.

"It was the quality of Reg Gadney's script really, and Fleming's fascinating story. The story of Ian Fleming is more interesting possibly than the story of James Bond. He's a fascinating man. Enigmatic."

Was he familiar with Fleming's work?

"I'm familiar with the Bond books and examples of his journalism. But I was not familiar with the man himself before I started work on this project. I knew nothing about Ian Fleming at all."

Dance is familiar with the Bond movies; he made an early film appearance as a minor villain in the 1981 Roger Moore Bond film, For Your Eyes Only.

The parallels between Fleming and Bond are obvious, particularly when it comes to their relations with women. Producer Brenda Reid says: "Fleming was a devastatingly attractive man and, to the women to whom he was attractive, he was utterly irresistible. A tremendous number of women would have died for him. He certainly didn't treat his women well. He was an old-time male chauvinist pig."

Chares Dance agrees: "He was ruthless with women bit I think possibly no more so than a lot of men at the time."

Given the similarities between the two, I wanted to know t what extent the star and writer of Goldeneye believed Ian Fleming and James Bond were the same man.

"Fleming wasn't James Bond," says Reg Gadney, "but James Bond was almost him. It was really rather late in his life when he wrote the Bond books and the events of his life formed what went into the books. But he certainly didn't go round drinking martinis with Pussy Galore."

"The character of James Bond is Ian Fleming's fantasy of himself," says Charles Dance. "It's himself taken on a few more places."

The production team agree with me that Timothy Dalton is by far the closest we have yet seen to Ian Fleming's idea of James Bond, and with Licence To Kill still fresh in the minds of millions, Goldeneye, which is timed to coincide with the 25th anniversary of Fleming's death, is an intriguing look at the man who started it all nearly 40 years ago.

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