It’s hard to believe that Sir Roger Moore is 80 because he’s as sharp as a knife and as self-mocking as ever.

"I was sitting next to Michael Winner’s fiancée at a party recently," he tells me, "and I couldn’t remember her name.

"But she turned and said ‘don’t worry at all. We can’t remember things because we have so much information in our brains at this age it just takes longer for them to come forward," he laughs.

And while he may always have one eyebrow raised, Sir Roger is ridiculously modest to an irritating degree.

Sure, he’s full of wonderful anecdotes and fabulous stories, but will he take any credit for his meteoric fame, rise or success?

"I was always told that in this line of work it's 33 per cent talent, 33 per cent looks and 33 per cent luck. I say it's 99 per cent luck because you might just be in the right place at the right time when no one else is around."

So, being spotted as a teenager in a crowd of extras and singled out above everyone else by the director in Caesar and Cleopatra, was that luck? "Oh my toga was probably shorter than everyone else’s or my spear taller," he laughs. See what I mean?

He must be the luckiest man alive then, because this Stockwell policeman’s son became not only a bona fide Hollywood film star but also the longest running Bond to date, with seven 007 films under his belt, the last, A View To A Kill, filmed while he was an impressive 57.

But you soon realise, on reading his autobiography My Word Is My Bond that Roger Moore was an obvious candidate for Bond because he was already living the life.

Fine wine, food and women were part of his everyday existence (he has been married four times), oh and the odd sports car thrown in for good measure, such as the Volvo P1800 in The Saint or the Aston Martin DBS in The Persuaders with Tony Curtis.

"But yes I did play myself. I always did. I never got given a character part where I had to wear a special prosthetic nose or anything because I was always playing the hero," he says slightly whimsically.

"And yes I do love cars, but comfortable ones now. I can’t be swinging in and out of sports cars, so something easy to step in and out of, like a people carrier," he laughs.

"But I didn’t drive fast and I didn’t carry a Walter PPK with me, so I never took Bond home. I mean, if you were playing a murderer you wouldn’t, would you?" he asks.

Judging by some of the scrapes he got into while filming, I’m not surprised.

In Live and Let Die he nearly got snapped up by crocodiles, cracked his teeth when his boat crashed and had to conquer his fear of snakes, while in the Man With the Golden Gun he had to cope with some huge explosions.

"We were filming on this island and all the explosives were going off and I turned round and saw the rest of the crew disappearing out to sea in a boat," he recalls.

"I always figured they were trying to kill me off to get the insurance money and find a better Bond," he says.

"But they were always fun to make. Besides I don’t like working in an atmosphere of tension so I like to make jokes and generally make a nuisance of myself," he adds gleefully.

"Although getting out of bed is a stunt these days. But yes, it was dangerous, especially the sex scenes," he laughs.

You might begin to suspect that Roger Moore doesn’t take anything seriously, until you mention UNICEF for whom he has worked tirelessly over the past 19 years, a role which Audrey Hepburn introduced him to "and for which I will be eternally grateful. She was my neighbour, but she should have known I’d be an easy catch."

Sir Roger divides his time between Monaco and Switzerland, due to tax reasons, so crossing between the two worlds must be difficult.

"Every plate has two sides, one clean and one dirty. And I have travelled to many of the countries I used to work in when my biggest worries were ‘what’s for lunch' and 'have I got a dry shirt’.

"But you never get immune to poverty and I was delighted to be asked, and do the job as well as I can."

So with all this under his belt, you would imagine that getting a knighthood was just another feather in Roger Moore’s cap. And yet he was terrified, even though he had met the Queen on many occasions.

"Well I had to go up there on my own," he protests.

"When I got my CBE there were 12 of us, but this time I had to go it alone and I was worried that when I kneeled down I wouldn’t be able to get up again," he says — roaring with laughter.

"So I phoned Michael Caine and asked what to do and he said there was a rail you could use, but in the end I didn’t need it."

So is he proud looking back over his career? "Well I always knew what I wanted to be. And when I went for my audition at Rada I said to myself ‘this is really what I want to do with my life’. I wanted to be Stewart Grainger.

"But there were many despairing days when I thought I’d never make it in the early days. I lived in Streatham and had to get into London to do the casting rounds, and often I’d have enough money for either five Lucky Player cigarettes or the bus.

"So some days I would walk," he chuckles. No doubt he had that half smile on his lips and one eyebrow raised all the way there.

Sir Roger Moore will be at Borders in Oxford signing copies of his autobiography My Word Is My Bond at 1.30pm tomorrow