THE spectacular closing night screening of Goldfinger on Friday, marking the end of this year’s eighth annual Oxford Mail film festival, left movie goers and Bond fans alike both shaken and stirred.

It proved once and for all that the magic Disney wields for children is no different to the catnip James Bond provides for adults.

Staged every year at the Phoenix Picturehouse cinema in Walton Street, Oxford, this year’s festival focused on the six actors who have played Britain’s most celebrated export.

Those who attended were treated to a spectacular 50-year celebration of glamour, gadgets, car chases and megalomaniacs.

And if you made sure you were carrying a copy of that day’s Oxford Mail, you got in for half price. It was a fact that did not escape Bond aficionado Luka Milkovic and his friend James Gillespie from Headington who watched Pierce Brosnan in Goldeneye. James said: “It’s such an excellent deal to get in half-price, we thought it was too good to miss.”

As the festival continued, it was clear more and more of those attending were being emboldened by the idea of fancy dress.

During Friday’s closing speech by Oxford Mail features editor Jeremy Smith, himself armed with a suspiciously ‘mechanical’ white cat, it became immediately clear that competition for Daniel Craig’s current defence of the title might be sorely threatened.

Jim (James) Walker, aged 64, together with his wife Tricia Walker from Whitecross, near Abingdon, dressed up for the occasion.

Mr Walker said: “I grew up reading all the James Bond books in Glasgow. I distinctly remember going to see Dr No in 1962, and for me Sean Connery is unquestionably the best Bond. It was impossible not to dress the part for an event as special as this.”

The audience agreed and the couple walked away with a Champagne dinner for two at the Randolph Hotel.

During the six-day festival, prizes of Bond collectables, dinners for two at Brasserie Blanc and bottles of fizz courtesy of The Big Bang restaurant were given away, as well as family tickets to see the Bond-in-Motion exhibition at Beaulieu.

Mr Smith said: “We thought if we’re celebrating Bond, we’d better make sure our prizes matched his reputation.”