"More cuts than a pizza": James Bond fans mock hilarious edit for ITV's Tomorrow Never Dies airing

ITV has been airing the James Bond films again recently as a nice bit of gentle Sunday afternoon viewing. The problem is that every film since 1989's Licence to Kill is rated 12 (12A in cinemas) or 15, and contains sexual and violent content that can't be shown on TV before the 9pm watershed.

That means that ITV has had to edit the films for these repeats, and the results have been pretty funny for fans of the film franchise.

A fan uploading a clip of yesterday's airing of 1997's Tomorrow Never Dies, the second Pierce Brosnan Bond film in which 007 takes on Jonathan Pryce's media mogul Elliot Carver. In the scene, Bond is supposed to be being strangled while flying, but that's not how it happens in this edited version...

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As the fan who uploaded the clip noted, "Cutting the guy strangling Bond so now it just looks like Brosnan is screaming in terror at the plane shooting at him".

They dubbed it "one of the best censorship edits ever", and others agreed, pointing out just how 'funny' this and other edits to the film all looked.

"Dr Kaufman appeared to just collapse with an electrocuting phone. No gunshot to the head," someone else noted, while another said: "I nearly pissed my pants. This is one of the funniest things I've ever seen!"

"More cuts than a pizza", someone quipped, while a further fan cheekily dubbed the film "Tomorrow Never Unalives".

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One reply referenced the joke from Community where character Shirley sees an edited version of Pulp Fiction on a plane and, not knowing the original, thinks that it's "a thirty-minute film about a group of friends who like cheeseburgers, dancing and the Bible".

Other fans pointed out that ITV had edited GoldenEye scenes with Xenia Onatopp and the snake scene from Live and Let Die, and they weren't happy, stating: "I don't know why they even bother showing older films on tv anymore, everything censored out."

"Its becoming so bad that ITV shouldn't be allowed to show Bond films anymore if this is what they're intent on doing", reads another complaint. Another fan suggested that if ITVX had to carry these edited TV versions, "you should be told clearly at the outset if it's been edited. And then viewers can vote with their remotes".

Some channels can get away with showing uncensored content pre-watershed, as evidenced by how Sky shows repeats of titles like Game of Thrones and films rated 12 or higher uncut in the daytime. The reason it can do this is because users need to enter a PIN between 5.30am and 9pm, while ITV does not have the option.

Certain James Bond films can be streamed via ITVX now.

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Joe Anderton is a freelance news writer at Digital Spy, having worked there since 2016. In his time, he's covered a host of live events and interviewed celebrities big and small. A big fan of TV and movies both mainstream and obscure, Joe also enjoys video games and in particular PlayStation. Joe currently does not use Twitter, but he only ever used it to tell people to watch the film Help! I'm a Fish.