Michael Gambon: The arresting and unlikely leading man who almost played Bond

With his jowly appearance and sardonic delivery, Michael Gambon wasn’t an obvious leading man. But thanks to his role as the bed-bound, psoriasis-scarred mystery writer in Dennis Potter’s TV BBC drama The Singing Detective in the late 1980s, the Irish-born character actor became a household name in the UK. It was a remarkable performance, combining sarcasm, tenderness and erotic longing.

His fame grew yet further when he replaced the late Richard Harris as Albus Dumbledore in the Harry Potter films, which were huge global hits. Years before, he had briefly been in the frame to take over from George Lazenby as James Bond. With Gambon drinking the martinis, the franchise would surely have evolved in a very different direction than it did with Roger Moore. He would have made a far darker, more mercurial Bond, for a start. But when producer Cubby Broccoli sounded him out about playing 007, he was quick to pour cold water on the notion. “I’ve got no hair. I’ve got a double chin, a fat gut and I don’t look like him [Bond] at all,” he warned the producer.