Fencing: The swordsman who put the Pierce in 007

A famous fencer has helped Bond live another day

Watch carefully as James Bond cuts and thrusts his way into Halle Berry's bed in the latest movie and you will appreciate that he is a bit of a swordsman. In more ways than one, as it happens. But his expertise with the rapier owes much to the man who doubles as 007.

Steven Paul has the balance and bearing of a musketeer, similar in size and stature to Pierce Brosnan, which doubtless clinched his key role in Die Another Day as stand-in and tutor for the actor in the spectacular duelling sequences. It also helped that he is a three-time Olympian, the best–qualified fencing coach in Britain and a member of the family whose name is synonymous with the sport.

Paul was recruited for the film by his own former fencing coach, Bob Anderson, the world's top swordmaster for blockbuster movies. He spent six months instructing Brosnan and doubling for him in some of the more technical and dangerous takes.

He also got to cross swords with the pop singer Madonna, who according to her latest video reckons fencing is sexy enough to take over from "boxercise" and even become the new yoga in the fitness boom as it stretches both the mind and the body.

Its image is certainly spiced up in the movie, an epic confrontation between Bond and the baddie, Gustav Graves, taking place in what is supposed to be London's Reform Club, where Madonna has a cameo as chief fencing instructor.

What starts as an orthodox fencing challenge develops into a masks-off, swashbuckling set-to which spills out into the corridors and staircases, slashing curtains and priceless paintings in the best traditions of Fairbanks and Flynn. Then it becomes a battle of broad-swords, the fight ending when Bond draws first blood by slashing Graves's chest as they splash through a fountain. The 6ft 3in, 48-year-old Paul was also involved with Ander-son in training the other doubles, all professional stunt people, in the fencing scenes. "Although it was choreo-graphed we were asked to put enough heart into it to make the fights look real. It worked, it looked exciting and the hits were good," says Paul.

It is his first film, and he hopes it will be the start of a new strand of his own cavalier-like career that has actually embraced six Olym-pic Games, three as a coach and three as a competitor. He has now retired from competitive fencing. "When I fenced, I fenced to win, and while a lot of people who quit as competitors carry on doing it for pleasure, that's not my scene, I actually never got much out of the sport, I always saw it as a competition."

Fencing, of course, is in the Paul family blood; he is part of the dynasty which began with his French-born grandfather, Leon. His father is Raymond Paul, an Olympic finalist, and to add to the sporting genes his mother is the former Olympic sprint silver medallist Jean Paul. He also has a famous fencing uncle, Rene Paul, like himself and Raymond a former British champion. Steven Paul won the title three times and is the only home winner of the prestigious Martini event, in the days when Britain ranked among the world's top three fencing nations.

The Pauls and their protégés have long dominated Britain's Olympic squads, and Steven Paul competed in Moscow, Los Angeles and Barcelona. He also lived in Australia for six years and was coach to their pentathlon team. "In Barce-lona I thought I was ready for a gold medal. I convinced myself I could win it. I was at the peak of my form and fitness. I was the only one from Britain to qualify for my weapon, the epée. I was even rehearsing my interview with the BBC in my head, but I went out in the first round. I just forgot how to fence. I couldn't believe it. I was nervous, but there was no excuse."

He says he would like to think that fencing is undergoing a renaissance, and believes the Bond glamour will enhance this. "It's eternally popular in children's minds – Zorro, the Three Musketeers, Star Wars, pirates and all that. Fencing will always have a degree of popularity, like martial arts. But it's not a spectator sport because it's so fast, and unless you've got an educated audience, they aren't going to know what's going on. There has always been a lot of romanticism about swordfighting, but modern fencing is perceived as being boring to watch. It needs to have greater crowd appeal."

Paul, who runs a fencing club in north London and an equipment company near Eastbourne, has revolutionary ideas about how the swordplay he taught in the film might bring this about. He is in the process of inventing a new weapon based on ancient swords, with a different set of rules. "The piste would be circular rather than linear, so opponents could be stalked as in the old duelling days. Competitors would be wired up and lights would flash when the blade lands on target. Like rollerball with blades.

"You could even take it to the stage where contestants are stripped to the waist and the swords have electrical pulses that could draw blood – nothing too drastic, mind, but enough to cause excite-ment, like in boxing. It may seem a bit barbaric, but the audience would love it."

Paul is assembling a set of rules which he intends to submit to the international federation. One imagines they will be shaken, if not stirred. For the time being, he is content to have helped James Bond live another day and enjoy an epée ending.