CALLING all James Bond fans. If you're wondering where the famous 007 hides out when he's not playing secret agent, the secret is out. Bond is a Bahamas aficionado.

As anyone who has seen all his films now knows, James has a special fondness for the good life. Connoisseur of the best that money can buy, he has been frequenting the lobby of Nassau's British Colonial Hotel, lounging around Paradise Island's private pools and piloting his speedboat along New Providence Island's most exclusive beach fronts.

How did so many James Bond films end up in the Bahamas?

"Partly because Kevin McClory, associated with the production of many of them, had a home there," confided Sean Connery. "He loves the place. In , the last sequence was actually shot around his pool out on Paradise Island."

Of course, no James Bond film ever uses just one location. Bond is a globetrotter who usually hopscotches from Egypt to Thailand by way of Rio de Janeiro.

"It's a good thing I love to travel," said Roger Moore, who played Agent 007 in among others. "Bond's escapades cover so much territory, sometimes I think they should use passports rather than theatre tickets for admission." (1977) is typical. Its plot involved two submarines ? Russian and America ? which disappear under mysterious circumstances. So action opened at an actual submarine base in Scotland.

But soon they were in the Bahamas where arch villain (and all Bond films specialise in arch villains of blood-curdling evil proportions) Curt J?rgens is determined to destroy the world and rebuild an underwater one.

What better place to create his personal Atlantis than the Bahamas where waters are so clear it's almost possible to identify a grain of sand at 100 feet.

But being a restless sort, Bond is soon off to Cairo . . . then the Aga Khan's posh Costa Smeralda Resort on Sardinia, followed by Switzerland and Baffin Island.

"That's part of what Bond is about, hopping from one instant Eden to another," author Ian Fleming once admitted.

"But I think the series has used the Bahamas more times than any place else," theorised Connery, checking productions off one by one. "Segments filmed in the Bahamas appeared in , and (which was a 1983 remake of 1965's )."

The Bond presence has left a strong impact on the islands. Join any tour by bus, taxi or boat, and your guide will offer a running commentary about filmdom's most glamorous spy. We're passing the British Colonial Hotel. You will probably recognise it from .

Bond films usually focus on already existing sites. But occasionally they build something to fit a special need. One of the most popular such innovations was the bar built at the end of Nassau's dock for . It was modestly named James Bond Bar by locals.

Of course, all this has had a beneficial impact on tourism, just as and focused attention on Hawaii in their series. "Just about everyone who comes here wants to know about the Bond locations," insisted our taxi driver.

That same driver asked if we knew they piped oxygen into the casino at Cable Beach. "That's why Bond stays so young looking. He hangs out in a lot of casinos like that."

Research proved that surprising statement true . . . they do pipe oxygen into the casino because it's such a smoke-filled room and oxygen clears the air. No wonder people are ready to go all night.

In fact, we got verification of that fact from a well-known casino resort owner. On one of our Nassau visits, we were invited to a gala poolside dinner party hosted by Merv Griffin and his guest, the late Eva Gabor. At the time Merv was owner of the Paradise Island Hotel (now part of Atlantis) and he confirmed it was indeed true.

"Anything is possible in a place where even the horses wear straw hats," kidded Connery. True, those fringed carriages hauling tourists past charms of colonial Nassau are drawn by colourfully bedecked horses.

"Obviously a man like Bond would feel comfortable in a country with a motto that reads 'Pirates Expelled, Commerce Restored'," he continued. "A few centuries back they had a Governor here who restored law and order by hanging some pirates. Isn't that pretty much what Bond does in all his pictures, only he uses a lot of space age gimmicks to do it?"

"We've often used Paradise Island as our headquarters," said McClory. "If you know it well, you can understand how much it has to offer."

Know it well? We remember those pre-bridge, good old days when it was necessary to board a boat to ferry over to the beach.

Back then they called it Hog Island, but it was even more of a paradise than now, because high-rise developments were unknown. The island was so unspoiled one felt they were on some remote location in the South Pacific.

As youngsters, on cruises with our parents, we used to frolic away an afternoon on its beaches. More recently we've stayed at Paradise Island Resort, Atlantis and the Ocean Club on various occasions and it's hard to believe it's the same island.

shark scenes were shot at Paradise Island where they kept those much feared sharks in pens. But it was pretty tame stuff compared to what happened in , starring Michael Caine and Lorraine Gary. That chiller starts in the familiar New England village of Amith (Martha's Vineyard was used for those shots) and then moves to the Bahamas.

"We filmed a lot of it at Lyford Cay which is a long peninsula jutting out into the ocean", said Caine. "And we built a village out at Clifton Point. Obviously the camera men tried to capture as much as they could of old colonial Nassau, too."

"Hollywood finds something very special about Lyford Cay," said a local Bahamian who takes those ocean views for granted. "They sure make a lot of movies out there."

True. George C. Scott and Trish Van Devere filmed in that area and a number of sequences were shot there, as well. cruised those waters and Caine was terrorised by pirates in .

Odds are good that just about any time you see dramatic underwater sequences on screen (excepted, of course!), there's a fairly good chance part of them have Bahamian origins. is an example. Remember the divers who brought up those strange looking things from the sea bottom and deposited them in an indoor swimming pool? When Don Ameche and friends later stumbled onto that scene, they thought they had discovered the fountain of youth. The Bahamas, of course.

More recently, Atlantis, Paradise Island Resort became headquarters for master thief Pierce Brosnan and co-conspirator Salma Hayek, who plan one last escapade on the island in . Hunted down by FBI agent Woody Harrelson, they utilise much of the resort and surrounding landscapes. So does the even more recent .

Where did Walt Disney World go when they wanted to be sure filming would turn out to be a conversation-stopper worthy of the Disney image at Florida's Epcot Centre? You guessed it.

Jacques Cousteau fell under the same spell and included Bahamian underwater sequences in several of his productions. His research led viewers to some of the world's most exciting, often controversial destinations.

"Plato told of a rich land beyond the Pillars of Hercules scattered and sunk in a single day," said Cousteau when we met years ago at his then-headquarters in Monaco's Oceanographic Museum. "For centuries man had searched for that Atlantis every place from Easter Island and the Canary's to Santorini and Bimini.

"In we touch on many possible locations, with some interesting theories about what is known as the Bahama's 'Bimini Road'.

"When you see the colour of that water, you sort of blink your eyes to be sure it's real. The intriguing thing, too, is their size . . . imagine a chain of seven hundred islands that stretches 750 miles clear down to the Caribbean. You could spend a lifetime exploring them."

celebrities maintain homes in these islands. Connery has long maintained a part-time residence at Lyford Cay and the late Richard Harris liked to escape to the winter warmth of Nassau. The late Raymond Burr of fame preferred to head out for the Out Islands, as does Paul Newman, because they like the sense of seclusion and privacy.

Expect to see more of the Bahamas on screen. Currently in the works is a development of a 3,500- acre studio on a decommissioned US Air Force missile base on Grand Bahama by a Toronto-based company. Also in its plans is a movie-based theme park with the total package estimated to cost $75 million.

Although James Bond had a lot to do with putting it on the map as a film location, it all started as early as 1914 with a silent film production of . In any event Bond decides on an encore film, this traveller has discovered a place he may want to hang out. The owner of the Rolls Royce dealership had a nine-car garage to accommodate his German Zimmer, Rolls Royce, Lanzerotti, etc . . . Sounds like a place James could be comfortable.

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