HAVING not long since shelled out for two tickets and inordinately expensive popcorn at a local flea pit , I was unimpressed to hear Spectre is available from next month for home consumption on death ray or whatever it is called.

So we won't have to wait for it to be our next Christmas treat but can look forward to Danny boy going head to had with Willy Wonka on Easter Sunday.

On the day we were torn between ripped Mr Craig or Alan Bennett's take on the internet shopping boom, Woman In A Van starring Maggie Smith as your mad aunty.

The thing with a bit of 007 is that you get plenty of automotive product placement. Jaguar Land Rover once more did very well out of the film, the baddies drove Land Rover Defenders, plenty of blacked Range Rovers as MI6 staff cars. Even the Jaguar C-X75 project car gets a run out.

Bond ends up in a one careless owner Aston Martin DB10 which has been hotted up by some likely lads in the railway arches.

It is probably only a matter of time before M has him in to tell him the brave new world has arrived and villains must only be lightly tickled for their sins. Oh, and get over to see Q, he has a lovely little Nissan Leaf for you. A suitable story line would be that of an international megalomaniac planning to turn off all the world's rapid charging points.

In the meantime, now that the Defender has shuffled off this mortal coil, perhaps Toyota should get on the shortwave radio and suggest an appearance or two for its Land Cruiser.

The Land Cruiser was given a facelift for 2015 but still remains essentially a hard as nails old-style off-roader, a Mogadishu taxi and likely to turn up on the telly wherever the UN is doing a bit of light peace keeping.

Among the die-hard off-roaders and those farmers turning a decent subsidy, it remains a firm favourite. And it is not hard to see why. Today's star of the silver screen is the Invincible 2.8-litre D-4D, a massive chunk of metal and leather which comes in at £55,595 or just over half the price of a fully boosted Range Rover.

Now I am not going to suggest that it is a substitute for the Rangy's luxury status but if you spend much of your life taking sheep for emergency surgery or loaded with gundogs interior practicality becomes an important consideration.

To that end the seating can be configured for one to seven passengers while a second rear view mirror lets you monitor proceedings in the very back. And that back is huge, this is a monster truck. Do not buy one if you have limited parking.

Which is, of course, never a problem in a field and with a high-tech, self-determining all-wheel drive system which has crawl control and terrain monitors that is where it should be. You can even take it swimming up to a depth of 700mm but please don't buy one then block the traffic outside your local primary school twice a day. Get a Rav4.

People either love the interior or think the instruments and switches were fitted in the dark. For me it is perfectly functional long-distance workhorse with all the bits you need and not a television set you don't.

Pleased, because, I have places to be, do not ask me to list the standard features. There are too many. Send off for the brochure. Enough to say that with radar-controlled blind spot monitors and a huge safety package even Bloefeld won't get you. And there are enough creature comforts to keep the most finicky happy.

Obviously being the size of a small dictatorship the Land Cruiser is not quick, 12.7 seconds to 62mph allows plenty of time to make judgement calls. A combined 38.2 miles to the gallon would seem quite reasonable. Good luck in getting it in the normal course of events.

On top off all that is the name Invincible. Like the Defender it's a proper action hero name and quite fitting for a car even that hooligan Bond would not be able to break.