A Broken Bond

Debbie McWilliams joined the James Bond juggernaut in the early 1980s as casting director, picking actors from the top of the bill to the bottom. Her first film was Octopussy in 1983, her last No Time to Die in 2021. That is 38 years of experience and it was McWilliams who, alongside the Bond supremos Barbara Broccoli and Michael G. Wilson, cast Timothy Dalton, Pierce Brosnan and Daniel Craig. To many, McWilliams was the real M — the brains behind the man we got to see on screen.