Sir Roger Moore received a standing ovation when he left the stage at the New Theatre, having spent several hours recounting anecdotes and fielding questions from an adoring audience who had come from all over the world to see him in the flesh. His allure and charisma may have dimmed slightly over the years now that he’s in his 80s, but everyone knew they were in the presence of a great, and they don’t make greats like that any more.

Accompanied by his friend and biographer, Gareth Owen, there as a prompt more than anything — Sir Roger being prone to going off on tangents and then forgetting what he was talking about — gently led the living legend via his early life as an actor, treading the boards in rep and slowly climbing the greasy pole towards the ever alluring heights of Hollywood courtesy of The Saint and The Persuaders to films such as Wild Geese and, of course, Bond.

Having starred in seven films as 007, Sir Roger didn’t begin discussing his role as Bond until the second half, when the audience visibly sighed with relief, because that was what we were there for, and once released, he seemed to settle into himself, the stories flowing thick and fast: his dislike of Grace Jones, his favourite gadget — the magnetic watch — the strange sexual appetites of Herve Villechaize, who played Nick-Nack in The Man With The Golden Gun, his favourite leading lady, Maud Adams, catching fire during a gun scene with Christopher Lee, running on crocodiles in Dr No. And we lapped it up.

That we were in the presence of an old man was, however, obvious from the beginning — even his walk was stooped, and sitting down on the placed chairs on stage obviously difficult. Yet Sir Roger’s rapier wit was still evident, his flashes of humour as dry as ever.

The most fun part of the evening was the Q&A session. There was an emotional section to the evening as well; former Bond girl Fiona Fullerton was in the audience and had a brief chat, then a young woman stood up saying she’d brought her father Eric, who used to do Roger’s hair and make-up. He couldn’t hear very well but wanted to pass on his best wishes. “Is that you Eric?” Roger Moore said in delight, scanning the audience.

“We are the only ones left,”

Eric replied.

As these two partially deaf, elderly men swapped memories and felicitations, we felt enormously privil-eged to be there, because even at the grand old age of 86, Sir Roger Moore still had the desire to get out on stage and perform, perhaps for the last time.