James Bond is a "severe" alcoholic and should have been provided with professional help by MI6, according to an academic study.

Public health researchers at the University of Otago in New Zealand analysed 24 Bond films and concluded that the martini-swilling secret agent suffered from "chronic" alcohol use disorder.

They wrote: "There is strong and consistent evidence that James Bond has a chronic alcohol consumption problem at the 'severe' end of the spectrum."

The analysis, published in the Medical Journal of Australia, found Bond sipped a drink 109 times, or an average of 4.5 times in each film.