Freddie Flintoff says Roger Moore looked like a 'creepy old bloke' as James Bond

Freddie Flintoff has described Roger Moore’s version of James Bond as “a creepy old bloke you’d warn your daughter about”.

The Top Gear star said he’d had a “rethink” about the spy after watching the old movies again and realising how “out of date” the character was.

The 43-year-old said: “People I thought were heroes of the silver screen when I was growing up… I’m not so sure now.

“I’ve been watching the old James Bond movies, all the way through to the more recent Daniel Craig films.

"I watched Casino Royale and you believe Craig could do something in a fight. He looks capable, he looks quite hard and the type of bloke a woman might fancy.

Freddie said Bond was a creepy old man you'd warn your daughter about (PA Archive/PA Images)

The Top Gear host isn't a fan of Roger Moore's portrayal of 007 (Kobal Collection)

“I’ve realised I don’t really like Bond but then I think sometimes I rebel against popular things for absolutely no reason."

The TV star went on: “But here’s the reason I had a rethink: it hit me when I was watching the movies from the 1970s that this was a creepy old bloke who you’d warn your daughter about.

“I watched one – Roger Moore in Octopussy. He’s on this bed with an aquarium in the background and a girl in her mid-20s. He must be 50-odd, with his hairy back and he’s getting on to mount her. Giving a little wink to the camera, like everyone’s in on it and it’s all right.

“I was taken aback by how out of date it was and how I reacted. How can anybody defend that now? It wasn’t on.

Freddie thinks Roger looked like a 'creepy old man' (Corbis via Getty Images)

“Then he’s fighting with someone who he’s completely out of his depth with. Jaws would have ripped him apart, limb by limb. It’s total nonsense.”

Six actors have portrayed 007 over the years and the franchise has steadily changed the way it portrays women – with no female characters seduced or tortured to death in this year’s No Time To Die.

In 1964’s Goldfinger, Bond pins Pussy Galore (Honor Blackman) to a barn floor and kisses her against her wishes. And in Thunderball, a year later, the spy forcibly kisses a nurse before blackmailing her into a sauna with him.

The character started to become a little more self-aware in 1995 after Judi Dench’s M branded 007 a “sexist, misogynist dinosaur” in GoldenEye.