Roger Moore in Finland (May 2009)

Sir Roger Moore and Lady Kristina Moore at the Shopping Mall Sello in Espoo, Finland, on Sunday, 3 May 2009 at 13.00. During the three days of his book tour, everywhere the place was packed. Photo: Seppo Sirkka/Eastpress. Jorma Lehtola: "Apu vakoili Roger Moorea Suomessa", Apu 24 May 2017. In memoriam Roger Moore 14 Oct 1927 – 23 May 2017.

Bio Bristol, 3 May 2009. I had the pleasure to host Sir Roger Moore (accompanied by Lady Kristina Moore and Mr. Gareth Owen) in sold-out Bio Bristol (seating 600) for a Q & A and to introduce a screening of For Your Eyes Only (a good print with e-subtitles in Finnish by Juha Nurminen).

I met Roger Moore (born 14 October 1927) for the first time and was amazed at his high spirits and great condition. As he arrived at the stage, he had already been busy presenting and signing his book My Word Is My Bond for five hours without a break. Knowing him only from his film and tv performances (I remember him since he was Ivanhoe on tv) I was surprised how great he is as a live performer.

The rapport was immediate, the audience was cheering and laughing, and there was standing ovation. I had prepared a set of questions, and to all of the he had a funny story to tell, or he turned them into jokes ("I did all my stunts myself, but in the love scenes I had a stand-in"). Perhaps not all the stories were that funny, but he made them so. Roger Moore answered also several questions from the audience.

We got more than we expected: a great performer and humorist.

Roger Moore had visited Finland twice before as the UNICEF good will ambassador, but this was his most prominent visit, three days, mostly presenting his book, published in Finland by Like Kustannus.

P.S. 26 July 2025.

Moore was a true human being, without vanity. He saw his fame as a joke. He did his best to avoid discussing James Bond, "a secret agent whom everybody knows". He had real artistic ambition and seemed to find himself unfulfilled as an artist. He was happy to recite his favourite poem, "If—" (1910) by Rudyard Kipling. He loved his wife Kristina dearly. According to Moore, the two words you need for happiness in life: 

"Yes, dear".

RUDYARD KIPLING: IF—

If you can keep your head when all about you

    Are losing theirs and blaming it on you;

If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,

    But make allowance for their doubting too:

If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,

    Or being lied about, don't deal in lies,

Or being hated don't give way to hating,

    And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise;

If you can dream—and not make dreams your master;

    If you can think—and not make thoughts your aim,

If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster

    And treat those two impostors just the same:

If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken

    Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,

Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,

    And stoop and build 'em up with worn-out tools;

If you can make one heap of all your winnings

    And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,

And lose, and start again at your beginnings

    ⁠And never breathe a word about your loss:

If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew

    To serve your turn long after they are gone,

And so hold on when there is nothing in you

    ⁠Except the Will which says to them: 'Hold on!'

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,

    Or walk with Kings—nor lose the common touch,

If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,

    If all men count with you, but none too much:

If you can fill the unforgiving minute

    With sixty seconds' worth of distance run,

Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,

    ⁠And—which is more—you'll be a Man, my son!

Written in 1895 in tribute to Leander Starr Jameson. First published in Rewards and Fairies (1910).