All Good Things come to an End.

You better sit down!

James Bond is dead. Rockets blew him to smithereens. Now I said it, leaving you all alone to deal with that loss and your pain.

Chin up! You’ll get over it. The traditional British remedy, sweet tea with extra sugar, will surely help!

After 25 Bond Films, having started in 1962 with Sean Connery in that most iconic role of 007 and five re-incarnations of 007 James Bond, they finally called it quits. Only that weird and wonderful fantasy BBC-TV programme “Dr Who” (to call it Science Fiction would be a gross insult to this genre) with 12 regenerations that went through more actors than Bond itself. Daniel Craig made his final curtain call after Sean Connery, George Lazenby, Roger Moore, Timothy Dalton and Pierce Brosnan by getting himself most certainly killed. However, the filmmaker’s foresight has introduced the Jamaican beauty Lashana Lynch who, in the absence of James Bond/Daniel Craig, who happens to be in exile, is taking on as Nomi 007 Bond’s famous digits in “No Time to Die”.

Our President, Prof Dr Kurt Tiroch, standing in front of and framed by the Silver Screen, had a very great deal to be proud about.

At long last, and after several postponements due to Covid, “No Time to Die” was initially scheduled to be released in April 2020, we finally had our private viewing of this long-awaited movie. But there was more to come. In the last four months, the Austro-British Society fielded no less than 20 (twenty!) events, some of which were exclusively reserved for Corporate Members only, like, for instance, the Imperial Train Journey.

To be part of this exclusivity, all one has to do is to apply for membership, pay the membership fee and, sounds logical, turn up to the events. Only then will you receive from the hands of our President the much-coveted pin, which he precautionary advised, not to lose.

One hundred and sixty-three minutes later, without a comfort break, we found ourselves gathered in a private lounge to enticing canapés and lots and lots of sparkling wine. All served courtesy Café Ministerium.  I always feel sorry for those who couldn’t or wouldn’t make it to this memorable event.

And now, finally, a cynical friend of mine and a board member explained the unusual length (2 hours and 43 minutes) of this film. The reason, he said, was because James Bond with his British Passport is now always in the Third Country queue. I thought it was funny.

Wolfgang Geissler

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