Hugh Dennis reveals how he came to cameo in No Time To Die as he explains he turned down opportunity to work for MI5 in real life because ‘spying isn’t being James Bond’

Hugh Dennis has opened up on how he arrived to cameo in James Bond and revealed he as soon as turned down an possibility to be a actual lifestyle spy.

The comic, 62, amazed viewers by earning an unanticipated cameo as a scientist in the 2021 movie No Time To Die, sparking response from lovers and critics alike.

One admirer tweeted at the time of the flick’s launch: ‘SPOILER Notify. Hugh Dennis in a Bond movie? What the f**k?’

Whilst his position was also referenced by various critics, with Sky Information referencing his ‘rather random’ casting and The Guardian noting the ‘sullen, bickering scientist’ Hugh performed.

Regardless of only showing up in the film briefly as Dr Hardy prior to staying shot in the head, Hugh admitted it was ‘one of the finest times of my life’.

Speaking to Kate Thornton on her podcast White Wine Concern Time, he claimed that he imagined his casting experienced been down to Phoebe Waller-Bridge, who experienced assisted generate the film’s screenplay.

He spelled out: ‘Well, I never know. She denies it, but I suspect that it must have been in there somewhere I would have imagined, but she explained no.

‘She instructed me that she hadn’t, but I do not know. I was on a listing somewhere of comedians that could form of act vaguely, I suppose. 

‘I don’t know, I actually really don’t know how it came about, but I am delighted that it did arrive about.’

Kate questioned the actor how quite a few days he had been on set for his compact scene, with Hugh admitting: ‘Not incredibly quite a few, actually, due to the fact all I have got to do is hand more than the secret that threatens the world and then get shot in the head. 

‘I assume we did three, but 1 of them was a exercise day wherever I was in a massive drop up coming to the sets exactly where I was practicing. 

‘They could not make a decision irrespective of whether I was going to be shot in the head or shot in the chest, but they did know I was heading to be shot, so I had to observe diverse varieties of death so that I was all set when it arrived to it.’

He continued: ‘You do it with the type of stunt coordinator who will say if you might be shot in the chest, you might be heading to slide backwards marginally, but if you happen to be shot in the head, it is really like having the light-weight switched off.

‘So, if you might be shot in the head, you just go straight down, you are not even informed it’s occurred to you, and you collapse vertically. We experienced to exercise a good deal of that.’

Hugh then additional: ‘Probably one of the greatest times of my lifestyle, I imagine, was when this happened it was a head shot in the conclude, despite the fact that you never ever observed it, so all this was pointless. 

‘The stunt coordinator was observing the scene, I get shot in the head, I go down vertically, they shout cut, and he was an extremely great Frenchman, this stunt coordinator. 

‘He arrived up to me and he tapped me on the shoulder, and he went, “Great death”.

In an ironic twist, Hugh also revealed that he experienced after been approached by MI5 to turn out to be a spy himself, but turned it down.

He described that he had been approached whilst researching at Cambridge University and went for an interview out of curiosity.

But Hugh reported that he grew to become aware that working in espionage was not like ‘being James Bond’ and decided that he desired to do a career ‘where I can be noticed’.

He recalled: ‘It was a rather distinct planet, now you apply for careers in MI5, you basically have to go reply to adverts and issues. 

‘But in that time, this was like the mid-80s, I suppose you bought approached by your tutor or whoever. 

‘There was definitely a network of people who were being inquiring, and I was approached, and I went down due to the fact, yet again, you imagine it can be form of a little flattering, don’t you? 

‘Or you happen to be imagining that’d be attention-grabbing, I ponder what an interview for that will be like.’

He went on: ‘So, I went down, and I had this job interview at the finish of which I imagined, this definitely isn’t really me I never feel. 

‘On the just one hand, it is type of flattering to be approached mainly because you consider, “Oh, I ponder what they’ve seen in me”. But then on the other hand, spying just isn’t getting James Bond. 

‘Spying, as much as I could see, was about disappearing into a crowd and no just one at any time actually noticing you, and I consider deep inside me, I imagined, no, basically, I want to be observed I believe I need yet another variety of vocation wherever I can be discovered. 

‘It was never ever a significant factor, but I went, just to see what it was really like. It truly is wonderful that was the process, even though, is not it?’

Hugh talked additional about Phoebe, 38, and how ‘amazingly grateful’ he was to the actress and author for casting him in her vastly effective and critically acclaimed demonstrate, Fleabag.

The Mock The 7 days star performed the Bank Manager in the award-successful series for both seasons, but admitted that he doesn’t know how it occurred.

He claimed: ‘I just got asked to go and do the examine as a result of, and Phoebe found who my agent was and asked me to go.

‘At that stage, it was at the phase of in which they had been selling it to BBC Two. It was sort of do you want to arrive to an aged church corridor in Bloomsbury and examine as a result of this issue in entrance of the commissioning editor of BBC Two? 

‘And you essentially go, “properly, yeah, that’d be great”, for the reason that I normally go, “that is terrific”, but you could similarly nicely go, “oh, appear on, which is a long way, is not it? And I don’t know”.

Hugh then went on: ‘Fleabag was incredible and I am a form of amazingly grateful to Phoebe for thinking of me and inquiring me to do it. 

‘It was a seriously, definitely great detail for me, for the reason that it was the form of aspect that was kind of funny and it was kind of tragic all at the very same time the only issue I hadn’t definitely finished right before.’

He famously also starred in beloved relatives sitcom Outnumbered, from 2007 to 2016 as Pete Brockman, and stated that encounter persuaded him to constantly give issues a go.

He explained: ‘The identical was legitimate of Outnumbered, when they did the type of taster movie for that. They went, “Do you want to occur and do this on Saturday morning? You can find virtually no cash and can you carry your individual clothing, and we will film it?”

‘It’s a seriously very good lesson in the sense that I type of function on the principle that you ought to really significantly normally go, “yeah, that appears definitely fascinating, I’ll do that”.

Kate Thornton’s White Wine Dilemma Time is obtainable to listen to on all podcast platforms.