Hello again.

Here we are on the eve of shooting and I'm back with Gary Powell, stunt co-ordinator, and his team who are working out final moves with Daniel. Prague is bitterly cold in late January and there are enormous flaming heaters in the chilly rehearsal halls. But, as I walk through them, above the roaring noise of the blowers, I can hear shouts and visceral grunts. This is where Daniel is doing his training.

I call it training but that gives too frivolous a concept of it. There's no Fiji water and upbeat music here - it's more like a boxing ring in the East End of London. Jovial but deadly serious about the work.

Instead of easing gradually into the more physical scenes, which is often the approach on other productions, the film-makers have decided to get right into the action scenes. So no effort is being spared to get ready. Next door, there's an intermittent rattle of machine gun fire as the cast playing Nambutu embassy guards get familiar with their Kalashnikovs. (And no, you didn't miss that lesson in geography, it's a fictitious country). Their shots serve as a staccato reminder that the clock is clicking down to the first take.

Call sheet #1 Monday January 30th - and we're off again. Sebastian Foucan, who plays one of our villains, Mollaka (more on him another day), is hammered by Daniel through the Nambutu embassy set on stage 11. Director Martin Campbell is taking the cast and crew right into the thick of it. Although it is good to start with a bang, as Daniel Craig has already realised, it is all in a day's work:

"It just helps everybody, focuses everybody's mind. It is a big sequence but actually it's not by far the biggest so we're kind of breaking in gently, I think."

And watching Daniel, the training is paying off - this is a much more aggressive looking Bond we're seeing already. Physically confident and easy with the work. Comparisons are being made with the early Bond films but I think we're seeing something new in the Bond canon. And Martin Campbell agrees:

"He's pretty terrific you know, he looks fantastic, he's worked up, he's muscled up and he's got a short haircut, he actually reminds me of Steve McQueen at the moment, that can't be a bad thing"

This is only day one of a six month shoot but if we're going to keep up this pace, maybe I should get down to the gym too!

Until next time
YARBOROUGH