James Bond filming (c) Neil Sinclair 2012

The latest James Bond thriller landed on terra firma at Greenwich on Friday 6^th January when filming for Skyfall, 23^rd movie in the Bond franchise, took place at the Old Royal Naval College (ORNC).

We can’t reveal too much about the plot, otherwise there may be even more dead bodies in Greenwich than those in the make-believe morgue set up this week in the undercroft beneath the ORNC’s magnificent Painted Hall.

Eight coffins draped in union jack flags and arranged in two neat rows occupied the vaulted ceilinged room which normally houses the elegant tables and chairs of the King William Undercroft restaurant.

MI6 chief M, played for the seventh time by national treasure Judi Dench, was filmed in the undercroft, surveying the gruesome aftermath of a mass assassination of her agents. Thankfully, although entirely predictably, James Bond – portrayed for the third time by Daniel Craig – was not among them.

Earlier in the filming, a solemn procession of black hearses carrying flag-draped coffins was seen driving slowly along College Way, the main road which bisects the Old Royal Naval College, and past seated mourners.

In the finished film, due for release around November or December, will this be a street in Whitehall near the Ministry of Defence and the Foreign Office perhaps?

Skyfall director Sam Mendes knows, of course. But do we expect him to reveal plot lines and real location of the morgue? No, but we do expect Footprints of London and Greenwich guide Neil Sinclair to confess a few more juicy details while hosting the 90 minute Lights, Camera Action! tour  on Sunday 8th January and Sunday 15th January.

The ORNC at Greenwich has just starred in the BBC TV Christmas screening of Great Expectations and will have a bit part in Iron Lady, the Maggie Thatcher biopic which opens in UK cinemas this week.

Join Neil Sinclair as he points out exactly where iconic scenes from these and many other blockbusters were shot and reveals some of the off-camera secrets of the stars.