Licensed to thrill

FOUND a spare £3 million stashed somewhere behind your sofa? If you're planning on blowing it on the world's most famous car, you've missed your chance.

The Aston Martin DB5 used by Sean Connery to chat up girls in Goldfinger and Thunderball has just been flogged off at auction for a cool £2,912,000, and word is it's off to Ohio to become the centrepiece of a privately-owned collection there. So it means another iconic bit of our movie-making heritage is being shipped away from British shores.

Don't worry though, because if you do what I've just done and pay a visit to the picturesque town of Keswick, you can clock not one, but two spot-the-difference DB5s sat in museums up there. Anyone who's ever been up to the Lakes on a rainy day is probably already familiar with the one sat in the town's Cars of The Stars Museum, but it's the much newer Bond Museum, a ten minute walk to the other side of the town, that's really worth the visit. If you've ever seen a Bond film - and I know of only one person who hasn't - it's an absolute gem.

Obviously you get a silver DB5 thrown in - it is THE James Bond car - but you also get to see the aquatic Lotus Esprit once used to transport Roger Moore's eyebrows around, the invisible Aston from Die Another Day (although this particular gadget wasn't working that day) and just about every other prop Pinewood Studios had lying around.

But my own particular favourite had to be the actual car used to escape from some annoyed Czech police officers in The Living Daylights, even though I was convinced it'd been blown up as part of the car chase across a frozen lake. It is the real star from my favourite Bond film of all, even though Timothy Dalton was also the best actor to play Bond. There, I said it.

Whether you're a petrolhead or not, if you've ever enjoyed any James Bond film you're going to love this museum, which is well worth the visit on your next walking holiday in the Lakes.

Complaints from Sean Connery fans to the usual address, please.