The conductor leading the sold-out Bond and Beyond Prom at the Royal Albert Hall on August 25 has revealed which composers might have written a good Bond theme. Daniel Bartholomew-Poyser, who will lead the BBC Concert Orchestra through 74 years of James Bond musical history, suggested Shostakovich, Prokofiev and Ralph Vaughan Williams as potential candidates.
He said: "Shostakovich might have been good, although he probably wouldn’t have enjoyed doing it. Prokofiev - although the credits would have gone on for a long time. Ralph Vaughan Williams. Actually, you know, he's maybe too pastoral - you need a bit more edge for Bond. I just like Ralph Vaughan Williams a lot."
Radiohead's 'Spectre' and Bond's musical range
Don’t worry, Bond devotees, the lifelong 007 fan, who conducts the San Francisco Symphony, Toronto Symphony Orchestra, Symphony Nova Scotia and the National Arts Centre Orchestra, says next Tuesday’s sold-out Prom will delight fans and purists alike - with no experiments, just lots of brilliant surprises.
Bond and Beyond will see him lead the BBC Concert Orchestra through the greatest hits from Skyfall, The Spy Who Loved Me and many more, with special guests still to be announced. He has also promised a genuine rarity, a song written for 007 that never actually made it into the films.
Daniel, who was named Music Director of the National Youth Orchestra of Canada for 2026 and 2027, says: "I'm very, very excited that we're going to be performing Radiohead's 'Spectre'. This is a Radiohead song they wrote for Spectre that ended up not being used and they released the song anyway."
Part of the appeal, he says, is that the Bond songbook is far richer and stranger than just everyone’s favourites. He continues: "It's all the different moods that are in these songs. They're not all the same. Some are more rocky, some are more sultry, some are slower ballads.
"There's a whole world of music inside the James Bond theme song and I love that they were able to really expand what a theme song could be. You have some of the world's best singers. The most notable, Adele, Tina Turner, Shirley Bassey, Paul McCartney, Radiohead - all these people bringing music to this idea.
"This character that Ian Fleming wrote up on a beach in Jamaica, just to have something light for people, this idea has captivated our imaginations for 74 years. Everybody thinks spies are cool, the secrecy, the mystery, a pen that becomes a nuclear weapon or whatever. The suits and the classiness and the sensuality."
Gadgets, Aston Martin and the next Bond
Daniel has no interest in any Bond gadgets but, as a self-confessed 'car guy,' he knows what he would like from the films. "I could really use a brand new Aston Martin," he says. "A brand new Aston Martin, latest model, with the oil slick feature behind, which I don't think I would use very often. But it would be nice to have it."
Production on the next Bond movie is expected to begin in 2027, with the film targeting a 2028 release - although no-one has been cast so far.
Daniel says: "There’s been a lot of talk of Callum Turner, and I think that I would probably right now go in that direction. There's also been talk of Gillian Anderson.
"She said that she wanted to do Bond, to be James Bond. Gillian Anderson as James Bond, just the intensity. I think they would only ever do it in a one-off special, but she'd be all right."
Breaking barriers and a first Prom memory
Daniel is confident that next week’s Bond concert will open the doors for people who have not been exposed to classical music before - as well as traditional fans.
He says: "I've never placed artificial barriers on what the orchestra can do. Even Beyoncé's Lemonade quotes Tchaikovsky. Orchestral instruments are in reggae, in calypso. There are many people in the Caribbean who know 'Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring' as a piece of steelpan music, not a piece of orchestral music."
His love of music and his broad taste come from a background formed in the Caribbean, North America, and the UK. Daniel says: "My mum did her midwifery here in England. She moved from Trinidad and Tobago to England, did her midwifery here, became a nurse here. As a result of her upbringing, in Trinidad and then in England, she always had a love of classical music.
"I ended up growing up hearing Calypso and classical music in the same hour, and reggae - all this sort of stuff mixed with Bach, Beethoven and Brahms my entire life."
The spark came at 10, when a friend pressed a recording on him, and it was the opening of Beethoven's Ninth that floored him - not the famous choral finale but the storm at the very start.
Daniel says: "My friends said, oh, you should check this out, and I remember one of my teachers saying, fantastic stuff, listen. So I got it, and it just went in.
"Retrospectively, did I realise, oh wow, I was chomping up these symphonies at a young age and really getting into orchestral music? Nobody made a big deal about it, and everybody encouraged it. I'm fortunate that I had the opportunity and the access, and people didn't put barriers in my way. We don't know what's going to happen, but let's remove barriers from people. See what happens."
No stranger to London’s Royal Albert Hall, two years ago Daniel made his Proms debut there, conducting the BBC Concert Orchestra through Everybody Dance! The Sound of Disco, a night built around the sound of late 1970s New York and Studio 54, with music by Chic, Gloria Gaynor, Diana Ross and Boney M.
Daniel says: "You never forget your first Prom. There's nothing like the energy of coming into the Royal Albert Hall when it's full of people. One of the musicians, a violist in the BBC Concert Orchestra, took me aside and they said, 'you know, Daniel, when you get in there the energy is absolutely incredible, make sure to enjoy it.'"
The moment he walked out, he understood exactly what they meant. Daniel says: "You don't look out at the audience, you look out and up, and they're all around you. On the video you can see me coming in and just looking around being like, 'oh my God.' Not in a scary way, but it's absolutely the most incredible feeling."
The Proms began in 1895, founded by impresario Robert Newman with conductor Henry Wood, who wanted to open up concert hall music to a wider audience through cheap tickets and an informal atmosphere.
The BBC has run and broadcast the festival since 1927. This season runs across eight weeks, with 86 concerts in total. Twenty international ensembles will appear alongside 41 orchestras and choirs from across the UK, with the BBC's own orchestras and choirs making 42 appearances between them. The season also includes 20 premieres, among them 17 BBC commissions and co-commissions.
Fourteen Proms will be staged outside London, including residencies at Bristol Beacon and the Glasshouse International Centre for Music in Gateshead. The first ever Prom held in Mold, North Wales. Daniel adds: "It's hard work for people to arrange and pay for the babysitter, or whatever you have to do for a night out, but it’s worth it when you get there and you come out different than you entered.
"You can't get that in your car, you can't get that sitting in your living room. That's the power, the restorative, healing power of live music."
The Bond and Beyond concert is live at the Royal Albert Hall in London at 7pm on Tuesday 25 August and can be listened to live on BBC Radio 3 or via BBC Sounds. It will be shown on BBC2 on Saturday 29 August at 7.30pm and will be available on iPlayer.
