Craig makes a cheerfully bumbling Mikael Blomkvist, the crusading Swedish journalist who teams up with an abrasive pixie-punk, Lisbeth Salander (Rooney Mara), to investigate a 40-year-old murder case. We meet in a London hotel suite where he has been installed on a sofa for the day to talk about David Fincher's frosty, glossy new version of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.

(Mahogany-brown, possibly with some loose Werther's Originals clacking together in the pockets.) What else? There's the genuine embarrassment when he finds he has stumbled into mentioning his charity work. His features are as deeply etched as the grooves of a wood carving the hair is sandy-coloured and fluffy. The blue eyes, which can seem glacial in his closeups as Bond, are warm and zesty. (He is currently shooting a third, Skyfall, which will open next October, and is rumoured to have signed up for a further five.) But he goes beyond politeness: he's relaxed, even goofy, and quick to laugh, especially at himself. It isn't that you expect him to be scarred and basted and bleeding, as he is throughout much of Casino Royale and Quantum of Solace, the two films in which he has played James Bond. The surprise upon meeting Daniel Craig is his gentleness.