Lewis Gilbert directed more than 40 acclaimed films, including Reach For The Sky, Alfie, You Only Live Twice and The Spy Who Loved Me. Now, at 90, in his new book All My Flashbacks, he shares some of his secrets. In this exclusive extract, he reveals how he had to tame war hero Douglas Bader and coax a reluctant Bond beauty to deliver her lines.
Reach For The Sky was my first big hit. It was the story of Douglas Bader, the brave RAF pilot who, despite losing both legs in an accident before the war, went on to become a squadron leader who played an important role in the Battle of Britain.Very early on, we had to think about who was to play Bader. When your hero actually exists, getting the casting right is even harder than usual. Laurence Olivier turned us down and even suggested Bader play the part himself. We didn't go for that and tried Richard Burton. He was interested enough but a big Hollywood picture, Alexander The Great, came up and off he went to do that.
At this point, we started talking about Kenneth More. Kenny had left the Navy with no idea of what to do with himself. All he knew was that he had enjoyed reading the news for his ship's radio station because he had been able to throw the odd joke in.
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