While I was chatting to the girls that I worked with one day one of them told me that she had to go on the set to deliver some sandwiches to some workers who had to work their way through lunch. She came back saying that they were rehearsing the scene with the Egyptian dancers in the café and that the music was lovely. So the next time I saw Roger later that day I remarked to him that the music was good, he pulled a face and said “If you like that sort of thing”, I wished I hadn’t said anything as I didn’t like it very much either. It was nowhere near as good as the theme song “Nobody Does It Better” by Marvin Hamlisch and sung so beautifully by Carly Simon, which is my all time favourite song, and every time I hear it I can see Roger’s handsome face in my minds eye.

So the days and weeks passed with me spending all my free time on the set watching the filming. In one scene Roger and Richard Kiel (Jaws) were fighting on the train, which was being rocked from side to side by eight strapping young men on the outside and hidden from the cameras. Roger had to hit Jaws on the shoulder with a champagne bottle and I was so close to them that I got wet!! Then when the whole of Atlantis, the underwater world, was flooding the water just gushed out and Roger and Barbara Bach were nearly washed away and it was only Roger’s quick thinking that saved Barbara from a nasty fall and they kept that in the film. Well I don’t think that they wanted to set that all up again. I think every one on the set were surprised at the force of the water as it went right over one of the cameras as well and I had to run to safety to avoid getting wet. John Glen asked Barbara afterwards if she couldn’t have done the scene without getting her hair wet!! He was only joking. On another occasion when they were supposed to be on a boat on the Nile and Barbara had to blow some powder into Roger’s face to drug him, the powder went right into his eyes and he turned up at the restaurant with his eyes all bloodshot and streaming, it was lucky it didn’t do any permanent damage to them.

On another occasion there was some sort of official dinner in the restaurant, (not being filmed) so instead of all the tables being dotted around the restaurant we had to arrange them on one long line right down the centre. We then had to walk the whole length of the table with the sweet trolleys. I had one side and one of the other girls had the other side. Obviously I chose to have the side that Roger was sitting on. I must have been feeling very brave, as when I passed by behind Roger I put out my hand and ran it all along his shoulders, I walked on by not looking back until I reached the end of the table then when I turned he was looking at me and I had such a silly grin on my face that he roared out laughing. There was another occasion when there was a press interview after the normal working hours and I was asked to work late to supply tea and biscuits for about thirty members of the press who were there for press releases. All the guests were seated at a large table when Roger walked in in his Commanders uniform, he apologised for being late, although it wasn’t his fault the filming never finished exactly on time, and he added that he hoped that he didn’t outrank anyone. He did look extremely handsome in the uniform. I really felt weak at the knees just looking at him and knowing again that he was so close to me. At times like this I really appreciated that fact that I had met him and felt so honoured that he seemed to recognise my feelings and always made me feel at ease whenever we met.

Then one day he told me about the making of “Shout at The Devil” in Goa, the hotel they stayed in having wall to wall cockroaches! Then he asked me if I was married!! I thought my luck had changed. I told him yes so he asked if my husband was the jealous type as an Italian fan of his used to kiss the television screen every time the Saint was being shown and one day her husband got so fed up with it that he kicked her backside and pushed her head through the television screen. They were now getting a divorce and naming him as co-respondent I assured him that this would not happen in my case and that he had nothing to worry about. I also managed to get my husband on the set to see the film being made and introduce him to Roger. Len was impressed with the three submarines and we climbed up the scaffolding that held the high cameras to get a better view and got told off by one of the officials as we were not supposed to even be on that set at all, that was a close shave.

Roger Moore with Doreen and her daughter Lisa

While waiting on the set one day, Roger was having his hair fixed by a makeup girl and very quietly David Niven, who was filming on another set, walked in behind him, he saw me standing there and put his fingers to his lips, he then took the comb from the girl and combed Roger’s hair himself, Roger must have felt the difference as he turned round and David said “Will there be anything else Sir?” That was a very interesting and amusing moment as I was also a fan of David’s. More memories for me to store in my memory box. Another time I took my mother to meet him and he obliged her with a kiss and a photo. I also took both my son and daughter to meet him too so eventually he met all my family. I had a photo of Roger with myself and Lisa, my daughter, but not with my son which is a great disappointment to both of us, although Roger did ask him what it felt like to meet James Bond and what he would tell his school friends when he next saw them. Leo remembers the scene that was being filmed when he was on the set it was the one where I got wet when Roger had to hit Jaws with the champagne bottle and afterwards his double, John Woods, was held up to the ceiling by Jaws while Leo and I had our little chat with Roger. We also discovered at that time that John Woods thought that he was the most important person on the set as he was so rude to anyone who dared to speak to him, he was completely the opposite to Roger and all of the other stars of the film. He really thought that he was the bee’s knees. He didn’t look at all like Roger, nowhere near as handsome but his physique was the same so that from a distance or from the back he could pass for Roger, although as far as I could make out they didn’t use him very much as Roger did a lot of his own stunts.

P. 5