What a spectre - Bond boys bounce around London

The hunt for the next James Bond will reportedly reach its final stages this weekend as screen tests for the role will be held in London.

People in the capital might be able to spot one of the apparent front-runners dashing about in a dinner jacket - with Jack Lowden, Callum Turner and Josh O'Connor shaking, not stirring, their way through the three components to the screen tests: stunts, camera presence and dialogue.

The actor chosen will replace Daniel Craig, who took over the role of the spy/well-dressed killer with Casino Royale in 2006.

Perhaps the three actors will be nowhere to be seen, so here are a few more sites Bond fans could visit in London. After all, you only live twice.

Ian Fleming's flat at 22B Ebury Street in Belgravia is now adorned with a blue plaque commemorating his time there.

Once fans have finished gazing at the ceramic circle, they could ramp up the excitement by visiting some of the capital's sites used in the actual films.

Die Another Day showcases the exterior of Buckingham Palace, and its surroundings, as Gustav Graves parachutes in to receive his knighthood from the Queen.

Speaking of parachuting and the Queen, add the Olympic Stadium to 007 venues, where in the summer of 2012 stuntpeople dressed as the monarch and the dashing womaniser made a dramatic entrance.

"The name's Bond. Games Bond."

Parts of London doubled as St Petersburg in 1995's GoldenEye, with The Langham posing as a Russian hotel and Drapers' Hall as the Russian Council Chamber.

Somerset House on the Strand also featured as St Petersburg in GoldenEye and was also the location in 1997's Tomorrow Never Dies where Bond pulls up for a meeting with M.

St Pancras station was St Petersburg station, and the interior of the St Sophia Cathedral on Moscow Road became a St Petersburg church.

Double-oh-heaven.

The National Gallery in Trafalgar Square featured in 2012's Skyfall, as Bond met the new Q in front of the painting The Fighting Temeraire by JMW Turner.

Fans of the franchise can also stare morosely at the oil painting of a warship being towed away for scrap, it having been bequeathed to the nation by the artist in 1851.

For a more convenient - if more expensive - bit of Bondly self-introspection, try staring at a £20 banknote, where the picture of the Temeraire (and a self-portrait of a fresh-faced JMW) is featured.

Skyfall (2012) also filmed at the Old Royal Naval College in Greenwich, used for the scene where M attends the funerals of the MI6 agents killed in a terrorist attack.

It was also the location for contenders to Q up ahead of the Laver Cup earlier this year, where a clutch of male tennis players vied to become the next love-love seven.

The River Thames wound its way through 1999's The World Is Not Enough, with Bond whizzing in a speedboat past the Houses of Parliament, through Tower Bridge to Docklands and the then-Millennium Dome.

City Hall in Southwark, formerly the home of the Greater London Assembly, appeared in 2015's Spectre as the home of the Centre for National Security.

Also featuring in the film was Freemasons' Hall on Great Queen Street.

The Secret Intelligence Service building, Vauxhall Cross, has played the home of Bond's MI6 - on screen it was attacked in The World Is Not Enough, Skyfall, and Spectre.

The Old War Office Building in Whitehall played the part as MI6 in 1983's Octopussy.

The moment in Die Another Day when Bond enters Vauxhall Cross Underground station was filmed at the end of Westminster Bridge, which also featured in the finale of Spectre.

And the oldest restaurant in London, Rules in Covent Garden, also featured in Spectre, hosting M, Q and Moneypenny.

It still maintains its reputation as a discreet meeting place, allowing customers to live and let dine.

Listen to the best of BBC Radio London on Sounds and follow BBC London on Facebook, X and Instagram. Send your story ideas to [email protected]