Thunderball (novel) "Daily Express" strip was cut short on the order of its owner, Lord Beaverbrook, after Ian Fleming signed an agreement with "The Sunday Times" to publish a short story. On screen, "Thunderball" was released in 1965 as the fourth film in the Eon Productions series, with Sean Connery as James Bond. The second adaptation, "Never Say Never Again", was released as an independent production in 1983 also starring Connery as Bond and was produced by Kevin McClory. BBC Radio 4 aired an adaptation in December 2016, directed by Martin Jarvis. It starred Toby Stephens as Bond and Tom Conti as
No. 1 of the Secret Service with those films. With the continued popularity of the James Bond films starring Roger Moore in the mid 1970s, talk of Sean Connery reprising his 007 role in the planned "James Bond of the Secret Service" and the delay in the production of Eon Productions’ "The Spy Who Loved Me", Shonteff thought he would return to the imitation James Bond field with his own film. The original title of "008 of the Secret Service" was replaced by "No. 1 of the Secret Service". Perhaps to avoid rights difficulties with producer James Ward, Shonteff replaced the name of "Charles Vine" with