The name's Bond. James Bond. Everyone's favourite spy has been serving up the guns, the glamour, the girls and the gadgets on the silver screen for 60 years, and we're celebrating... In a slightly unusual way. Emily Knight is taking the iconic characters from the Bond world and re-casting them, from the animal kingdom. Which of our animal cousins would make the best 007? Who do we cast as the Bond Girl? In nature, who comes equipped with the best gadgets? Who are villains, bent on world domination, and who are the henchmen, just following orders?

In this episode, bring your razor-rimmed bowler-hat, your cigarette-torpedo, and all the explosives you can fit in a specially designed pen-lid, as we discuss the gadgets in the world of Bond. The Quartermaster, better known as 'Q', is the genius behind the gadgetry which seems to get 007 out of even the tightest of scrapes. He has a top secret M15 bunker to work in, testing beds, lab-coated staff, and a seemingly infinite budget. What has nature got that can compete with that? Well, only around 3.7 billion years of evolution. Animals have been waging war on one another from the moment the first proto-microbe decided to consume the second, and the weaponry has become increasingly sophisticated.

With Bond expert Ian Kinane from the University of Roehampton, and Marc-Olivier Coppens from UCL.

Presented and Produced in Bristol by Emily Knight Show less