- The Observer, Sunday March 25 2001
Samantha Bond seems to have specialised in playing a brilliant second fiddle. Best known for playing Moneypenny to Pierce Brosnan's Bond since she took over Lois Maxwell's role, she has also acted with three of the foremost actresses of the preceding generation: Claire Bloom in Channel 4's Family Money and Dame Maggie Smith and Dame Judi Dench in the West End.
This month, however, the charismatic actress with the luminous, turquoise eyes and the husky voice is tackling high profile roles in two big-budget TV dramas, ITV's The Hunt and the BBC1 production NCS: Manhunt .
In The Hunt, a country saga which concludes on Wednesday night, she plays a bitter lady of the manor to Adrian Lukis's lusty and adulterous Lord, the Hon. Hugh Whitton. Her distant grandeur has held the lurid plot together like a rod of ice.
In Manhunt, a two-part thriller about the work of the National Crime Squad which starts tomorrow night, Bond takes the role of Detective Sergeant Maureen Picasso, who plays a key part in unravelling the mystery behind a violent kidnapping.
While playing something of a second fiddle again, this time to David Suchet's DI John Borne, the part is likely to propel her into the company of those heroines of detective TV, Helen Mirren and Amanda Burton.
Bond herself comes from thoroughbred theatrical stock, being the daughter of actors Philip Bond and Pat Sandy. Her sister Abigail is also an actor, as is her husband Alex Hanson. Commonly billed as the next Judi Dench, Bond, who is rather more statuesque, admits they have 'the same laugh'.
She has also starred with the Royal Shakespeare Company in Stratford and had a frustrating near miss when David Hare decided not to cast her in his award-winning play Skylight. The playwright made it up to her later with the role of Amy in Amy's View, a role which earned her plaudits on Broadway.
NCS: Manhunt is on Monday and Tuesday on BBC1; The Hunt is on ITV on Wednesday.
Five things you need to know about Samantha Bond
1. She loves puzzles and completes all the broadsheet crosswords every day.
2. She suffered terrible stage fright before her first season at Stratford.
3. She is not the topless model.
4. Her father Philip starred in the 1970s TV series The Onedin Line .
5. Pregnant, she quit as Rosalind in As You Like It but came back to play Celia.
