‘Bond films sacrifice humour for sake of big money’

Comedy star and former Q actor John Cleese has criticised the later James Bond movies for their over-long action sequences and for sacrificing their British flavour to secure "big money" from Asia.

The Monty Python actor, 74, starred in two 007 movies, The World Is Not Enough, in 1999, and three years later in Die Another Day.

But he hinted to Radio Times magazine that he was dropped as gadget inventor Q partly because film bosses wanted to please audiences in Asia.