FROM THE HOME OFFICE ON THE SOUTH BANK OF THE RIVER THAMES: The best James Bond films – ranked.

The shape-shifting nature of the James Bond franchise makes it a window on each era’s vogues. Some of these fashion statements, comic stylings and approaches to action choreography have held up splendidly; others appallingly.

When settling on a ranking for all 25 films – we’ve excluded the series outliers (the 1967 Casino Royale and the independently-produced Never Say Never Again) – it’s hard to be definitive: many people might be kinder overall on the Pierce Brosnan era, or harsher on Roger Moore.

We’ve made the case for at least one entry that’s unfairly loathed, and dinged a few that have bigger flaws than generally gets admitted. By the time the next one comes out, maybe we’d reshuffle them all over again. But for now, here they sit.

The number one and two Bond movies should be pretty obvious to anyone even vaguely familiar with the franchise over the years, but number three is an excellent choice as well, and would have likely been the best Bond ever, had it starred Sean Connery.