The Quantum of Solace doesn’t have novelty in its corner (the film will be the 22nd official James Bond instalment), it is never going to surprise (fast cars and faster women are guaranteed), and yet excitement mounts as the movie’s debut at next month’s London Film Festival inches nearer.

But who are we to throw logic in the way of a film frenzy? We’d much rather add to the flurry, so let’s start by checking out Daniel Craig, Dame Judi Dench and, yes, the smouldering new Bond girl Olga Kurylenko in the trailer. I challenge you to find a two-minute clip that contains more explosions, gunfire and brooding looks.

What the film is unlikely to offer is belly laughs. For a helping of those, you need to watch Mitchell and Webb’s interpretation of what would happen if James Bond existed in the real world. It doesn’t go well for the poor fella. No one wants him at their parties after the time he turned up at a barbecue dressed in a tuxedo, demanded a Martini when offered a choice of beer or wine, and then threw a fellow guest through a plate-glass window.

Before Eddie Izzard devastated the population by swapping stand-up and ladies’ clothes for acting and muted suits, he also had a crack at the world of Bond. Here he marvels at the agent’s gadgets and invents a few of his own: trousers that turn to jam, a watch that transforms into a hamster and a hat that doubles as a bicycle.

But let’s not get lost in the laughter and forget that there are serious Bond issues at hand. For instance, what will the Quantum of Solace theme song, recorded by Alicia Keys and Jack White of the White Stripes, sound like? And while the pair are unarguably talented, how will they set the phrase Quantum of Solace to music? Perhaps the answer is here, where the Cuban song Guantanamera has undergone a little remake.

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