Craig: My word is my Bond

Daniel Craig is baring scars if not his soul. Our girl Sunita Patel interrogates the world's top film spy - for your eyes only

Daniel Craig has been tackling villains in Panama, Italy Chile, Mexico and Austria - and has the scars to prove it.

But don't rule out James Bond in Brierley Hill, Bilston, Burntwood or Bearwood. While Quantum of Solace has clocked up more overseas locations than any of the other Bond movies in the franchise's 46-year history, Craig said he would not be averse to bringing production crews closer to home.

Quantum of Solace film trailer

"If you find a location that looks right then who knows. We could shoot anywhere. There are plenty of places in the UK that we could utilise. If the credit crunch hits the movie business, who knows?"

Make no mistake Craig is a serious man. Barely a smile flickers across his lips and he means what he says. In short, his word is his Bond. When the Express & Star catches up with him he is sitting in a London hotel with his right arm in a sling.

It's hardly surprising given he insisted on doing as many stunts as possible in the latest Ian Fleming title. Gone are the high jinks plots and gadgets. What we have instead is a ruthless, killing machine.

Bond is back with a vengeance - and Craig's injured right shoulder is testimony to his dedication to meet the toughest of physical challenges to deliver his more gritty reinvention of the iconic character.

But the blond, blue-eyed, burly star plays down his on-set heroics.

"The action is central to who Bond is. It is a huge part of what a Bond film is. You can't have one without the other," he explains.

"I didn't push myself any further. I was involved with the action sequences of this film a lot earlier.

"We had to rehearse them for about two months before we set up, but only because I wanted to get them right. It wasn't harder, in certain aspects it was easier because I kind of knew what I was doing.

"But we had time constraints on this film. We had to finish on a certain date. There was a potential actors' strike happening, so I had to film and then in the evening rehearse so that was what made it more physically challenging than the last one."

The new movie picks up immediately from where Casino Royale left off and sees Bond take on an environmentalist who discovers an invaluable natural resource in the middle of the Bolivian desert. Craig's broody Bond is a secret agent suited to this generation. For the world has changed. It is a darker and more dangerous place.

No-one can be trusted, and nothing is going to stop the new bullish and brutal Bond in his pursuit of the killers of his lover Vesper Lynd - and the powerful, secret organisation they work for.

This introspective reincarnation of Bond delves into the super-spy's psyche and his bleeding heart.

His is still fantastical, but his inner emotional turmoil is there for all to be seen for the first time.

AND he still doesn't care if his vodka martini is shaken or stirred.

Craig explains: "I just think it just makes for more interesting viewing.

"I kind of nicked a lot from Ian Fleming. Bond is very psychological, thinks about things.

"He is morally ambiguous. He is an assassin, he kills people for a living, but he always gets his man. He always goes after the bad guy."

Scarred by Vesper's betrayal and as M puts it, "blinded by inconsolable rage", Bond struggles to tell his friends from his enemies.

The latest installment explores their prickly relationship further.

"I think it is a really important relationship," says Craig.

"Certainly what we took on from Casino Royale was this whole theme of who to trust, who your allies are and who your friends are. Felix Leiter and M are the Bond allies we know, so solidifying those relationships was very important and I think we have got to a really good point now where anything is possible."

Despite the war cries from Bond purists that the 40-year-old, Chester-born actor would not survive the first movie, the gamble has paid off. He is committed to four Bond films, including Casino Royale and Quantum of Solace.

But what next for the British super-spy? Does he continue with the same steely resolve? Or do we head back to the Bond we have grown to love over the years - oozing wit, charm, cheese and sex appeal?

"I am certainly not going to get the blue swimming trunks out for a giggle," quips the star. "I am enjoying playing him. There is the potential to do anything in the next Bond movie.

"We can introduce Moneypenny and Q back into the roles. I just think we have got to offer them to the best actors we can find and ask them to do the best job.

"It is hard to believe that there is a generation of people who don't know Bond movies. They have never seen them, they don't watch them, they don't watch them the way I've watched them growing up.

"Just saying the lines and introducing the characters and expecting them to understand who they are I think is the wrong thing to do. We have to re-introduce them and earn the right to have them."

In the meantime, Craig plans to put his feet up and among other things, watch Shropshire's Oscar-nominated movie star Pete Postlethwaite tread the boards in King Lear at Liverpool's Everyman Theatre.

"Everybody is really excited about it but you can't get tickets for love nor money," he enthuses.

Surely James Bond could pull a few strings? "Oh. I don't know. I don't have the contacts I used to," he laughs.

Craig's MI6 boss M in the new film is yet again played by Dame Judi Dench and he described how their off-screen relationship is burgeoning. "Judi does like a joke and we try to keep things as light as possible on set. They're long days, you're working with people very intensely and I think you've got to keep things fresh.

"One of the biggest things about doing this movie is we're away from home for a long time and everyone's missing their families and you've got to keep things happy. If it's not a happy set, it's sort of silly, so I crack jokes," he says.

As for risking life and limb again as Bond in future, Daniel says he would love to make another film, but admits he doesn't know how many more times he'll reprise the role.

"I would just love to do another one, but maybe I'm just superstitious, or just stupidly pessimistic, I don't know, I'm just going to see how it goes.

"I'm only borrowing the character. This is great, but someone else is going to come along and probably, hopefully do a better job than I've done and move it on, so it's not mine, it's Ian Fleming's and the Broccoli's.

"I want to say something like I'm the caretaker, but that's a really naff thing to say," he continues, with a laugh.

"I'm enjoying playing it and I do think we can do anything in the next movie."

Before that though, Daniel is rightly due a very long holiday - and a good night's sleep.