Inspirations For James Bond - Inspiration For "007"

Inspiration For "007"

The 007 number assigned to James Bond may have been influenced by any number of sources. In the films and novels, the 00 prefix indicates Bond's discretionary 'licence to kill', in executing his duties.

Bond's number—007—comes from the English spy and polymath John Dee, who would sign his letters to Elizabeth I with 00 and an elongated 7, to signify they were for her eyes only. The number was also assigned by Fleming in reference to one of British naval intelligence's key achievements of World War I: the breaking of the German diplomatic code. One of the German documents cracked and read by the British was the Zimmermann Telegram, which was coded 0075, and which was one of the factors that led the US entering the war. Subsequently if material was graded 00 it meant it was highly classified and, as journalist Ben Macintyre has pointed out, "to anyone versed in intelligence history, 007 signified the highest achievement of British military intelligence."