“It was very weird,” the actor smiles wryly. “It was my first-ever scene in my first-ever Bond film, and it was happening at three in the morning in the National Gallery. I didn’t know what was going on. As Q, you have all these complex names to recite. I can learn Shakespeare easily enough, but trying to say some of Q’s lines in the early hours of the morning was very tough indeed. I still remember going up to Sam at five in the morning feeling like my eyeballs were falling out. I just put my hand on his shoulders and said, 'Help me!’ ”