After a ropey couple of outings - For Your Eyes Only is a little low-key, Moonraker is vastly OTT - the Moore era reaches its peak. Octopussy doesn't scale the heights of Live and Let Die or The Spy Who Loved Me but it certainly delivers the wit and excitement of the better Moores. A great cast of characters helps a lot. The villains are suitably dastardly, the women both sexy and smart. In Vijay and of course Q, we have two of the most likeable allies of the series. The former's death is affecting, although better Vijay than Q. Desmond Llewelyn does his exasperated uncle shtick and steals every scene, as per.

The film itself is the usual mix of good ideas and baffling moments. The good includes a Tuk Tuk taxi chase, a very rigged game of backgammon, an island of women, a nuclear bomb hidden in a travelling circus, and an early scene in which a terrified clown is hunted by two identical knife-throwing twins because he's stolen their golden egg. The less-good? Bond spends half the time playing dress-up, posing as a gorilla, a knife-thrower and, most infamously, a clown. Worst of all, at one point he swings from a vine and yells like Tarzan. We hope they left room in the grave for Ian Fleming to turn.

The Girl: Octopussy (Maud Adams)

© Rex Features

To date, Octopussy is the only Bond girl to name a film a la Dr No and Goldfinger. At one point Octopussy seems set to be the first primary female antagonist (Rosa Klebb is more ensemble) but Roger Moore's magic penis brings her to the good side. The trappings are there. She's an international jewel smuggler who lives in a woman-only private island and owns a travelling circus. Octopussy's aura is such that, although she's onscreen far less often than you might think, hers is the dominant presence of the film. The name probably helps. We can all debate whether Octopussy is a worse name than Pussy Galore or Christmas Jones but it certainly makes our Top Five. Maud Adams played Scaramanga's girlfriend in The Man with the Golden Gun and, although she isn't the only actor to play different characters in two Bonds, she's probably the most prominent. She's also one of the older Bond girls, albeit nearly 20 years younger than Moore.

The Villain: Kamal Khan (Louis Jourdan)

© Rex Features

A nicely understated baddie, well played by the late Louis Jourdan. He faces Bond at an auction, then across the backgammon table where Khan cheats using loaded dice. (Why nobody calls Kamal out on his repeatedly rolling double six is never explained.) As you would hope from royalty, Kamal is a very equanimous villain, responding to frequent thwarting by Bond with a sigh and a droll quip. Jourdan is one of the few actors to underplay a villain; it works very nicely. On the other end of the scale, Steven Berkoff's mad Soviet general parades around screaming at everyone in sight, eyes-popping, veins bulging, face a deep puce. Knife throwing identical twins and a silent Indian giant complete a strong line-up.

The Car: Tuk Tuk taxi

© Rex Features

By now the series was spicing up its chases with unusual vehicles. After the yellow Citreon of For Your Eyes Only, we now have the Tuk Tuk taxi. The Tuk tuk chase through the crowded streets of Udaipur is a real highlight, bursting with good sight gags (an actual tennis player, Vijay uses a tennis racket to fight off assailants) and decent lines. "Vijay, we have company," warns Bond. "No problem," smiles Vijay, "this is a company car." Even better is Bond's cry after a knife blade is deflected by a wedge of cash in his pocket: "Thank God for hard currency!"

The Gadget: Acrostar Jet

© Rex Features

Used in the Cuba pre-credits sequence, this tiny jet is concealed in a horse trailer (complete with fake horse bottom). Following detection, Bond whizzes around a Cuban airfield, pursued by a homing missile.

Unusually, the pre-credits has nothing to do with the rest of the film - a trait shared only with Goldfinger.

The Song: All Time High by Rita Coolidge

A rather lovely song: the Moore era wasn't perfect but it probably had the best tunes. All Time High is a wistful, yearning affair, more Nobody Does It Better than

Live and Let Die. Disappointingly the word "Octopussy" isn't featured in the lyrics. (Tim Rice, who wrote the song, also

lamented this absence.)

The Line

Delivered by Kamal Khan after Bond's upteenth reappearence. The film has many good lines but this one is especially potent - partly because it applies to literally every Bond film ever.

The Suit

© Rex Features

Bond wears several nice suits, including two tuxedos (black and white), but clown chic is all people remember. Only Moore. The jacket is cut like an oversized lounge suit jacket, bright yellow with a giant red bowtie. High-waisted trousers are held up by thick red braces. The ginger wig doesn't bear discussion. The make-up is flawlessly applied - as the seconds ticked down to nuclear destruction, Bond was hiding in a circus trailer, drawing on mascara and big red lips.

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