As the latest Bond movie, Die Another Day, opens in cinemas this week, Steve Pratt looks at how, after 40 years, Ian Fleming's creation is still leaving audiences shaken and stirred.

"MY name is Bond, James Bond". With those words of introduction, one of the cinema's most enduring characters announced his arrival. Forty years later, 007 is still leaving audiences shaken and stirred as his latest adventure Die Another Day opens in cinemas.

Ian Fleming's creation has proved himself to be one of the screen's most popular heroes. He's the leading man in the longest-running, most successful film franchise in the history of popular cinema. It's been estimated that the 20 official movies have taken more than $1bn and that half of the world's population has seen a Bond movie at one time or another, if you include TV showings and video.

Some of us are even old enough to remember seeing the first Bond film, Dr No, in the cinema back in 1962. I asked my mother to take me because the film carried an A-certificate which, in those days, meant you had to be accompanied by an adult if you were under 16.

The heady mix of sex and violence certainly made an impression on this schoolboy, and sent me scurrying to read the novels. The first, Casino Royal, has appeared in 1953 with Eton and Sandhurst-educated Fleming using his time in British naval intelligence during the Second World War as background material for the stories. American President Kennedy gave the novels an unexpected boost when he named From Russia With Love among this favourite ten books.

British production company Eon, run by Harry Saltzman and Cubby Broccoli, bought the rights to most of the novels. Dr No was not an expensive film, costing just £1m, and opened with no particular fanfare on the same day that The Beatles' first single was released. But the audience "found" it, perhaps attracted by the exotic locations and glamorous women, which were a sharp contrast to the gritty realism of the British social dramas occupying cinema screens in the early 1960s.

Dr No set the formula of guns, girls, gadgets and a madman out for world domination. Within a year the second film, From Russia With Love, was on release. By the time the third, Goldfinger - still considered by many to be the best of the series - premiered, Bond was unstoppable although sadly Fleming died shortly before its release.

The films have survived comings and goings in the leading role, the changing fads of cinema audiences, and even the end of the Cold War that provided the basis for many of the plots. Bond is still big box office. Imitations have been and gone, and rival Bond movies such as Casino Royale and Never Say Never Again have been written off. The last picture, The World Is Not Enough, was the most successful yet, financially speaking.

James Bond may have blown his cover as a secret agent years ago but, unlike the megolomaniac villains he constantly battles, it seems as if he might just be able to take over the world.

* Die Another Day (12A) is premiered at the Royal Film Performance in London on Monday and goes on release in cinemas on Wednesday

* Steve Pratt interviews the stars of the new Bond film. See 7DAYS on Thursday.