James Bond Jr.

It is probably the nostalgia over memories of being ten years old again and waking up early every morning during the summer holidays to watch this show but I do have a soft spot for 'James Bond Junior', not least because it had a very catchy theme tune! The cartoon sees teenage James Bond Junior, the nephew of the famous MI6 spy, attending Warfield School, along with his classmates IQ, the grandson of Q, the beautiful niece of Miss Moneypenny and Felix Leiter's son Gordo. Of course, the kids always find themselves embroiled in plots that see them fighting against SCUM (Saboteurs and Criminals United in Mayhem), a criminal syndicate of terrorists, psychos and mad scientists.

A far cry from Charlie Higson's darker young Bond novels, 'James Bond Junior' sounds cheesy because it is cheesy. But for a cartoon show aimed the under twelves', it provided a light-hearted introduction to the James Bond franchise (which was needed at a time when we were lumbered with Timothy Dalton as Bond- the man is a great actor but he just wasn't right for the role). It was a nice homage to Bond and certainly much more entertaining than the dumbed down pap that kids are stuck with these days. At least in this show, you didn't have adults pretending to the sixteen and fighting paper mache aliens like you see in the never-ending 'Power Ranger' series.