Thunderball (EON Productions) 1965
The Royal Saracen’s Head Pub in Beaconsfield (just outside the M25, so forgive this inclusion as a London location) only appears for a fleeting moment as the exteriors where Major Derval is murdered. Lippe is on the phone outside, and you see a car being driven by the RAF driver who’s gone to pick up Derval.
The entrance is no longer a drive through, and serves now as the main entrance to the pub itself. The bay windows once white are now black.
There is a mention of this in Martijn Mulders On the Tracks of 007, but he has misquoted the placement of the phone box. Connery never made a phone call from here. That was in Shrublands.
I’m fairly confident that the interiors were filmed at Pinewood. Indeed this location was probably used as it lies within close proximity to Pinewood.
I’ve enquired with the staff at The Royal Saracen’s pub to see if the (supposed) studio shots resemble any interiors upstairs, which is exclusively for staff and their accommodations.
The staff that served us lunch knew nothing about the pub being used for the film Thunderball, and furthermore, there is nothing inside the pub acknowledging it’s use. Which is a shame, but not surprising.
Thunderball (EON Productions) 1965
The telephone box that Lippe used is no longer there. However, there is a red telephone box just 50 feet away facing the pub. Like every red telephone box, it’s in pretty poor nick and considerably vandalized. I don’t think this is the same box as it has a different door for the entrance.
Interestingly, there is a red circle spray on the pavement where the original red telephone box once stood.
Additional Intel
Rob and I both had a sandwich inside for lunch. I had steak sandwich Rob had the chicken and I was delicious. They gave me salad instead of chips, but perhaps the confusion was laid at my door when I bamboozled them with Bond trivia whilst ordering the food.
Full menu and bookings through their website here. PS – I’ve made enquiries as to what the pub looks like upstairs to see if it compares at all to the film. Will update in due course.
More locations below.
