Look out for past simple use of the helping verb did throughout the article. Did appears in negative sentences and questions.
Yesterday the producer, director and lead actors involved in the new James Bond film held a press conference. It all looks very good for the future because the producer, Barbara Broccoli has chosen a classy director and a fantastic cast, including Javier Bardem, Judi Dench, Ralph Fiennes and Albert Finney. These big names from the actor world didn’t agree to do the project until they had seen the script. So, that probably means that they thought that this is going to be a killer Bond movie. Or as Daniel Craig said: “It’s going to be a Bond with a capital B”
However, I’m a bit disappointed that the producers didn’t choose me to be Bond this time round! Why didn’t they think I was right for the role? I’m English, I’m in shape, I can run fast, I can drive fast, I can drink martini shaken not stirred, I look good in a suit, I will happily accept any free gifts from Rolex and the ladies go crazy for me. Oh hold on…that’s where it goes wrong, isn’t it! Sh*t!
Anyway, the press conference was good for photos and soundbites, but they didn’t reveal anything about the content of the movie. They didn’t even say what the Bond girls’ characters will be called. Why didn’t they just give us a name…just one little name to whet the appetite of the excited fans? But maybe they have decided to make the famous film franchise grow up and get serious, because the director introduced the Bond girls as Bond Ladies!
They didn’t tell us the reason for the name of the movie, SKYFALL either. They only said that the title refers to ‘some emotional context’ in the film.
So what did they say? Well, they confirmed that Javier Bardem will play the baddie. And despite earlier press reports that they didn’t plan to have any action and only concentrating on the dialogue and serious drama, the director confirmed that there will be lots of action scenes in London, China, India and Scotland. For the female fans, the producer promised that Daniel Craig is going to be taking his top off in the movie!
Why did they pick Daniel Craig to be the world’s most famous secret agent, James Bond in the first place? Well, because they wanted to revamp the series and make the films closer to the true spirit of Bond from the original books by Ian Fleming. In those novels, he was an ex-military, tough b*%stard, without any super gadgets and Craig brought back that spirit to his first two Bond movies, Casino Royale and Quantum of Solace.
DID
In affirmative/positive sentences about the past, notice that we DON’T use the helping verb did. In a positive past simple sentence we only use the past simple of the verb.
Look at the first positive past simple sentence for example:
Positive: They held a press conference.
NOT: *They did held a press conference
NOT: *They did hold a press conference
Negative: They didn’t even say what the Bond girls’ characters will be called.
Question: What did they say?
