Lois Maxwell peers at a picture of the new James Bond actor Daniel Craig and arches an eyebrow. "Hmm," she says. "He's not as handsome as Roger or Sean, is he? He has what you'd call an interesting face... "Perhaps the make-up girls could do something to him - maybe give him a wig."

Lois knows her Bonds. She played the original Miss Moneypenny in 14 Bond films, as 007 mutated from Sean Connery via George Lazenby into Roger Moore. For the 23 years she was the classily sexy secretary who never quite scored with the dashing agent. And news that film-makers have axed Moneypenny - most recently played by the aptly-named Samantha Bond - from the next movie Casino Royale has appalled Lois.

"Bond without Moneypenny is a travesty," she says in her familiar baritone. "It's the end of an era. "I don't want to sound immodest, but I don't suppose I can be replaced. It's hard for another actress to step into my shoes."

Lois actually created the sizzling chemistry between the secretary and the spy that endured for decades. She explains: "Sean and I agreed that we wanted to give Bond and Moneypenny a background. So over a cup of tea we agreed that they'd had a marvellous affair when she was in the typing pool. But it had to end when he became an agent and her heart was broken "And we never did get round to giving her a first name."

Despite only ever uttering 200 words and appearing on screen for a total of one hour, Lois's role as the poised PA - which began in 1962 with Dr No and lasted until View to a Kill in 1985 - has become the stuff of legend. Now 78 and living in Freemantle, Australia, the grandmother-of-two is frequently recognised. "It's always nice and very flattering that someone can see my younger self in me now," she says.

Miss Moneypenny may have spent her lovelorn years stuck behind a typewriter, but Lois's real-life adventures would have made a Bond girl blanch. A few months shy of 16, the second daughter of a teacher and a nurse ran away from home in Toronto, lied about her age and joined the Canadian Army.

"My parents were furious," she grins. "I enrolled as a soldier but was part of the Army Entertainment Corps, doing music and dance shows. We toured all over Europe in the back of a truck."

Lois's real age was discovered while she was in London and, to escape extradition, she knocked on the doors of Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA) and begged to enrol. She was offered a scholarship to the prestigious drama school and became good friends with a classmate called Roger Moore. At 20 she won a Hollywood contract and made her screen debut opposite Ronald Reagan. "He was absolutely lovely," beams Lois. "A darling. One of the few people in Hollywood who was genuinely nice."

Lois won the Most Promising Newcomer Golden Globe award in 1947, and posed for "Life" magazine with other promising young starlets, including Marilyn Monroe.

Three years later, tired of Hollywood Lois jumped on a cruise ship and ended up in Italy. "The next five years in Rome were the most perfect time of my life," she says. She made a string of films with some of the top European actors and directors, became an amateur racing driver - and had her heart broken by a prince. She met TV executive Peter Marriott at an airport in Paris and romance bloomed. They married in 1957. "He was wonderful, 6ft 6in tall with exquisite manners and good looks," smiles Lois. "We had a happy life."

They moved to Mayfair, London, and had daughter Melinda, now 47, and son Christian, 46. But four years into their marriage, ill health shattered their idyll. "Peter had a massive double coronary," says Lois, sadly. "He was too ill to work, so that's when I became the breadwinner. "I was destitute. So I desperately phoned all my director friends and said I needed to work."

Bond producer Cubby Broccoli offered her the Miss Moneypenny role. "I said I'd take the part but only if they didn't put my hair in a bun," she says. "My hair was my crowning glory and I didn't want it to be scraped back. I didn't want horn-rimmed glasses or a pencil behind my ear either."

She was guaranteed only two days' work on each production and was paid a paltry daily rate of L100 for the films that became a phenomenon across the globe. "When my agent asked for an extra L50 a day, producers threatened to change the actress," says Lois, sniffily.

"So when I read that Daniel Craig was getting L3.5million for his first Bond, I thought Sean would be jumping up and down with rage under the palm trees in Barbados. I think he was paid L36,000 per film."

Connery has a special place in Lois's heart. "He is a marvellous man," she says. "He doesn't accept idiots gracefully, is fiercely loyal and immensely private. A unique man."

Roger Moore is also a great friend. "We've known each other since I was 17, and I adore him. We did five episodes of The Saint together, so we know and like each other very much. He's super duper."

However, she is hard pressed to choose which Bond she found most attractive. "I would have preferred to marry Roger, but have Sean as my weekend lover," she giggles.

The real love of Lois's life, her husband Peter, died in 1973 aged 51. "I never considered re-marrying. I just concentrated on bringing up my kids," she says.

Lois returned to Toronto, where she wrote for a newspaper under the Miss Moneypenny pseudonym and became a businesswoman, importing fabrics and then, bizarrely, supplying crowd control barriers.

In 1994 she returned to England to be near her daughter and settled into a cottage in the sleepy village of Frome, Somerset. "I loved my gorgeous house with its walled garden," she says. "And I consider England home."

But once again illness ruined her bliss. In 2001 she underwent surgery for bowel cancer and six months later left the UK to live with her son's family in Australia.

Today she is working on an autobiography, which will doubtless be filled with sexual innuendo that would make Bond blush. Her first book was called "I Was Born A Hooker" - Hooker was her real name.

Over the years she has acquired a pilot's licence, gone on safari and sailed to Singapore armed with a machine gun to see off South China Sea pirates. But one thing she won't do is watch the James Bond films she appeared in. "They're too painful for me," she sighs. "It's quite upsetting to see myself when I was young and attractive with long blonde hair.

"Bond's success is all down to Daniel Craig now. And I wish him all the luck in the world." "I don't want to seem immodest, but I don't think they could find another actress to fill my shoes 'Who's sexiest? I always said I'd have Roger for a husband but Sean as a weekend lover.

 

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