Not much fun for mini-Bonds

We arrived at the Imperial War Museum with at least one of our party in a high state of anticipation. Having just turned eight, George has seen three Bond films and has been known to dress in a jacket, tie and shirt and dart around the house playing spies.

The exhibition was billed jointly as an "Ian Fleming and James Bond" exhibition, and it has been directly targeted at a younger audience. How disappointing to find it was a 20-minute walk through Fleming’s life, celebrating the centenary of his birth — interesting to fans of the books perhaps but offering nothing to capture the imagination of the many mini Bond fans queueing to get in.

The organisers tried to cover themselves by handing out questionnaires to the youngsters as they entered, which tested how well they read the exhibition blurb. George took a leaflet, though I failed to procure a pen, Alice, six, looked nonplussed and Joe, three, threw himself out of the buggy in front of Fleming’s original writing desk, wailing "I want to go home!"

The space felt dimly lit and small and apart from one random inter-active roulette wheel, it was devoid of anything youngsters could touch. Instead of Bond music there were book covers and instead of action movie clips a clutch of mainly old movie props.

Granted, the latter were well-displayed and you had to tap the glass above them for the description to pop up, which was quite fun. "But why is there a lipstick?" asked George, peering at the lipstick-turned-spy gadget. "James Bond would never use that!" Indeed.

By the time we got to the miniature Bond car by the exit — a former toy of Prince Andrew’s — I had the impression this was an exhibition put on without the full support of the Bond film industry, and yet someone was making a packet f logging toy cars and posters from the Bond movies at the museum shop.

This one is for Fleming fans only. Under no circumstances take uninterested girls or three-year-olds. The day was saved by heading for the brilliant free permanent exhibition on the ground floor, where the children spent the next 45 minutes clambering on bunks, listening to underwater noises and peering through portholes. It was worth venturing to Lambeth just for that.

Booking to 1 March 2009. Information: 020 7416 5439.

For Your Eyes Only: Ian Fleming And James Bond
Imperial War Museum
Lambeth Road, Elephant & Castle, SE1 6HZ