JAMES Bond star Desmond Llewelyn has dismissed rumours that his character is being killed off.

The veteran actor, who plays gadget boffin Q in the film series, described reports of his death in the next movie as "absolute rubbish".

Desmond, 84, of Bexhill Old Town, will begin filming his scenes for The World Is Not Enough next month.

The movie sees Pierce Brosnan returning as 007 and Robert Carlyle, currently starring in highwaymen film Plunkett And Macleane, as the villain.

Desmond, a mainstay of the spy thrillers for 35 years, will be joined by an assistant, played by John Cleese, for the first time. A national newspaper claimed Q died in the film.

But the actor told the Argus: "I have been told I will go on in Bond for as long as the producers want me and the Almighty doesn't.

"We told the paper it was nonsense but they printed it anyway. There is a funeral scene which I don't attend, so they may have thought it was mine."

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