Roald Dahl's James Bond film script on display

Sean Connery at the helm of the autogyro Little Nellie, which is reminiscent of Roald Dahl's experience as a fighter pilot in World War Two

The original first draft manuscript of a James Bond film has gone on display at the Roald Dahl Museum and Story Centre.

The screenplay of You Only Live Twice, written by the author in 1967, is on temporary loan at the museum in Great Missenden, Buckinghamshire.

The film, based on the book by Ian Fleming, was produced by Albert Broccoli and starred Sean Connery as the British spy.

Head of collections at the museum, Will Phillips, said that Dahl "was a close friend of Ian Fleming and was tasked with turning a first draft around in eight weeks".

The author Roald Dahl in his writing hut in the garden of his home in Buckinghamshire, circa 1990

Museum director Steve Gardam said that Dahl was a fighter pilot in World War Two and was working for British intelligence in Washington when he first met Ian Fleming, who also worked in intelligence.

He said that "they were similar characters, they were irascible, witty and caustic, and both were interested in writing".

After Ian Fleming died in 1964, producer Cubby Broccoli contacted Dahl in 1967 and asked if he could write a script in eight weeks.

"He drew on his experience as a fighter pilot in World War II and his subsequent role in espionage, supplying intelligence from Washington to Prime Minister Winston Churchill," said Mr Phillips.

"The scene in which Bond is flying autogyro Little Nellie and under fire from four SPECTRE [a criminal organisation in the story] helicopters is hugely reminiscent of Dahl's own experience as a fighter pilot in the Battle of Athens.

"He describes the dogfight in his autobiography Going Solo as 'an endless blur of enemy fighters whizzing towards me from every side.'"

Head of collections at the museum, Will Phillip,s holding the manuscript for You Only Live Twice

The museum's archives feature more than 100 boxes of Dahl's personal possessions.

The new temporary display included a photograph of the writer on set with the film's director, Lewis Gilbert, and Roald Dahl's own souvenir 007 tie.

The display also featured Dahl's personal set of boules, along with his own invention of a magnet on a string, which Dahl used for picking up each boule.

Mr Phillips said it was "clear to see that the same mechanism he designed for lifting his boules also appears in the film where the Japanese secret service picks up SPECTRE's henchmen with a magnet suspended beneath the helicopter".

He added that Dahl's inventiveness came up in his children's books and the Bond screenplay.

"The suction boots which appear in his first book, The Gremlins, and his last book, Billy and the Minpins, also make an appearance when Sean Connery's Bond is descending into Blofeld's volcano lair," he said.

The manuscript will be on display at the Roald Dahl Museum and Story Centre until 31 January 2026.