For those viewers beginning to suspect that this whole James Bond thing is taking itself far too seriously comes the magnificently titled espionage parody OSS-117: Cairo, Nest of Spies. Based on a series of French spy novels that pre-date Bond (and were adapted into movies in the 1960s) this goofy dead-pan thriller somehow channels the spirit of Top Secret, Get Smart and Austin Powers as it follows the globe-trotting adventures of the Gallic superspy Hubert Bonisseur de la Bath (the comedian-turned-actor Jean Dujardin), aka OSS117.

More Connery than Craig, Dujardin’s hero takes familiar Bondian traits such as confidence and suave self-assurance and pushes them over the edge into arrogance and preening vanity – you haven’t lived until you’ve seen Bonisseur waltzing through an Egyptian hotel lobby in a tuxedo, gormlessly grinning and hopelessly in love with himself.

It is set in 1955, and the narrative hook is that Bonisseur has been sent into Cairo to discover the whereabouts of missing Russian weapons, to neutralise the religious extremists and to single- handedly “restore peace to the Middle East”. “No problem,” he says, before heading directly into a squirmingly embarrassing culture clash. “What stupid religion would forbid alcohol?” he says in disbelief, David Brent-style, during his first night in Egypt at an hotel bar with his local contact, the ravishing yet devout Larmina El Akmar Betouche (Bérénice Bejo).

His initially antagonistic relationship with Larmina, it must be noted, is more convincing than anything Daniel Craig attempts in Quantum of Solace. In fact the whole movie – the character work, narrative chicanery and production values (an underwater peril sequence is brilliantly staged) – has impeccable standards, far above anything you’d expect from the parody genre (see the recent Superhero Movie, or, actually, don’t). A huge hit in France, it’s hardly surprising then that a sequel – OSS117: Rio Isn’t Answering Any More – is already in production.

12A, 99 minutes

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