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To millions Sean Connery will always be the ultimate 007, but the most famous Bond girl believes nobody does it better than Daniel Craig.

As Pussy Galore, Honor Blackman frequently locked horns – and lips – with Connery in 1964’s Goldfinger.

But, despite this, the 89-year-old insists Craig delivers a more multi-dimensional character than Connery ever could.

“I’m sorry to say he’s a better actor – but I think Sean would acknowledge that,” she says. “I think Dan is terrific. He’s capable of so much more.

“Sean was perfection as Bond only as Ian Fleming wrote it. He was a Mr Universe entrant, he was handsome and very, very sexy and had that ridiculous accent.

“Now it’s no longer like Ian Fleming, it’s more like The Bourne Identity. It’s a different kind of film.

"But that doesn’t make any difference to the fact they’re super films and Daniel is probably the best actor that ever played Bond.”

But Honor qualifies her praise for the new style of Bond movies, Casino Royale, Quantum of Solace, Skyfall and Craig’s fourth outing in Spectre, due to be released in November.

And her views are not politically correct these days.

She says: “You’re talking to somebody who is terribly biased.

"Ian Fleming wrote a certain character and it was fun when we accepted he was a ­misogynist and a brutal fellow, but we loved him just the same.

"But nowadays, unfortunately, we find that totally unacceptable. Now he has to love somebody, he has to care about women, he has to do all the things Fleming never intended.”

She believes the Bond franchise has evolved so much that the door is open to more radical changes – including a black 007.

With hunky Luther actor Idris Elba in the frame, it’s a topic that sparked controversy, when former Bond, Roger Moore, appeared to suggest he wanted an “English-English” Bond.

Moore later clarified he wasn’t talking about the ethnicity of a future 007.

Honor is unequivocal. “I think he can be anything he likes,” she says.

“Why can’t he be a black man? You have to be a good actor and you’ve got to be a very ­attractive man – that’s half the battle – otherwise you can’t play Bond.”

Honor turns 90 this summer but her mind is still as razor sharp as Pussy Galore’s claws – and her views are always forthright.

The mere mention of plastic surgery sends her into a mocking frenzy.

“Some people’s eyebrows keep going up and up, don’t they?” she says, laughing.

“It’s terribly worrying, I suppose if it goes on long enough they disappear into their hairline.

“I think everybody is much more conscious about everything – whether they’re sexy, whether their eyelashes are long enough, whether they should have a nose job, whether they should replace their bosom or get a bosom.

“It drives me insane. I haven’t had any work done. It’s a bit late – if you looked at my wrinkles you’d know.

“You do see people looking like a ­chipmunk with great fat cheeks and you know it has to be false because nobody of that age would have that amount of flesh on their cheekbone.”

Then there are those like Joan Collins – who is a decade younger than her – who still look glamorous despite saying they’ve never gone under the knife.

“Joan is a sort of one-off,” says Honor. “She’s depended on her looks and her clothes and being a sex symbol all her life.

"That’s been the most important thing – acting has been secondary. I should ­probably get hit for that.”

So, if Honor cares what anyone thinks, she certainly isn’t letting it show. These days the glamorous gran has bigger ­problems to contend with.

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She’s battling scoliosis, a crippling back condition that gradually twists the spine and can leave sufferers with a hunchback.

As a result Honor is set to bring her long and ­distinguished career to an end as she fights the agonising illness.

“By the end of this year I’ll probably chuck it in,” she says.

“It’d be a great regret because my career has been so interesting – some of it fun, some of it torture – but it has filled my life.

"It’s an effort at this stage of life. And since nobody is forcing me to make it, I don’t see any point in putting myself through it.”

Though Honor has struggled for years with the condition, her scoliosis has deteriorated to the point where it ­drastically limits the roles she can accept.

“It makes it hell for me to walk any distance,” she says.

“I might just become a hunchback I think, me and Richard III. I am doing my pilates and if I didn’t I think I would turn into a hunchback.

"When I leave pilates I am striding about, ­unfortunately it doesn’t last that long.

“I don’t have a wheelchair now, I expect I probably will, it depends if I make the effort to keep my back in shape.

"The thing I fear is my back becoming worse and worse and not being able to get around.”

(Image: Gold)

Born in London’s East End, Honor’s aspirational father, a statistician, gave her the best start in life by sending her to the ­Guildhall School of Acting.

He also paid for elocution lessons – her 16th birthday present instead of a bike – which would banish any Cockney tones in favour of the more plummy sound of her peers.

She married at 23 to businessman Bill Sankey though they had no children and divorced after eight years.

She wed again to actor Maurice Kaufmann in 1961 and the couple adopted two children, Lottie in 1967 and Barnaby in 1968.

They divorced in 1975 and Honor says she is happily single.

Perhaps because of her humble start in life she has distinctly left-of-centre views.

In 2002 the republican turned down the offer of a CBE. Though she’s a traditional Lib Dem voter she says her sympathies could lie with Labour.

“The Conservatives bend like mad to the money and they can’t help it – they’re all those kinds of people,” she says.

Honor also sympathises with Labour leader Ed Miliband: “He’s been hammered an awful lot and if everybody shut up and let him got on with it, and gave him ­confidence he’d be a far better man.”

But Honor, who lives in Notting Hill, West London, doesn’t agree with the mansion tax.

“People are living in houses that didn’t cost the earth, but now they do and far beyond anything they expected.

They don’t have the back up if they start slamming the tax on it. It makes much more sense on salaries and corporation tax.”

Despite her origins she went on to enjoy a glittering career.

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She gained small roles in TV shows and films up to 1962 when she landed the role which would make her a household name in the UK – leather clad karate-chopping action girl Cathy Gale opposite Patrick Macnee in The Avengers.

In 2000 she and former Avenger Joanna Lumley received special Bafta awards for their performances.

But Goldfinger made her an international star.

For the next 25 years she appeared in stage shows including The Sound of Music and TV dramas ranging from Columbo to Doctor Who.

In 1990 she was introduced to a new generation by playing man-eating mum Laura West in family sitcom The Upper Hand with Joe McGann and Diana Weston.

The hit series ran until 1996.

Since then Honor has taken small parts in TV dramas, including Casualty and ­Corrie.

Her latest role in Gold’s comedy You, Me & Them pivots on characters Ed and Lauren, played by Anthony Head and Eve Myles, who, despite a 26-year age gulf, are crazy about each other.

Honor appears in tonight’s episode as Ed’s eccentric mother Rose.

What made her take the role? “It looked like fun and it’s not very taxing,” she says.

“I hardly accept anything. I’m not on the breadline so I don’t have to work, it’s a question of: Is this a pleasure?

(Image: Kobal)

“The whole atmosphere is much more fun in a comedy. I suppose after I did The Upper Hand it led me into a world that is more amusing and more pleasant to go to work in.

“To be honest people don’t rain scripts on a lady of my years because there aren’t that many parts.”

She also admits she hasn’t got anything else coming up, so it may be the last time we see her on our TVs.

“Oh there’ll be floods of tears...” she says, mocking the idea that we will be sad to see her disappear from our screens. She might just be surprised.