Princes use Bond night to focus on real heroes

But never has it been more vividly brought to life than when serving soldiers, Princes William and Harry, used the royal world premiere of the new 007 film to throw the spotlight onto Britain's real action heroes.

The young royals were cheered loudly as they arrived for last night's launch of Quantum of Solace.

It was their first movie premiere in their own right. (They attended Spiceworld: The Movie in 1997 with their father Prince Charles.)

You could call it a genuine excursion by the brothers In Her Majesty's Service. And it had a serious motive.

The aim was to raise more than £500,000 from the evening for two military charities, The Royal British Legion and Help for Heroes.

A Clarence House spokesman said: "The princes chose these two great causes because they are linked to Remembrance Day, but most importantly because they want to make the point that this is a film about a British action hero, but the money is going to our country's real heroes who put their lives in the line of fire day in, day out, in Iraq and Afghanistan."

Guests and the film's stars including Judi Dench in a low-cut black dress with 007 stuck in glitter on the back of her neck ended up waiting patiently for two hours as William, 26, and Harry, 24, gave their attention to 200 servicemen and women, veterans and their families who had been invited to the premiere.

Prince Harry was reunited with Royal Marine Mark Ormrod, whom he met previously while touring the Headley Court Rehabilitation Centre.

Corporal Ormrod, who had originally trained alongside Harry, later lost both legs and an arm after treading on a landmine.

He said: "It's great to see Harry again. We are on first name terms, we are mates. He's just one of the lads."

Harry revealed to one former soldier his favourite James Bond actor. "There's only one Bond, and that's Sean Connery," he told a former 9th Para Battalion member Stan Pepper, 88, from Fulham.

Afterwards, Colin Salmon, the actor once tipped as a future Bond, said it had been "moving" to see the princes talking to the soldiers and being so at ease with them.

"I think Harry would make a great James Bond," he added. "He's suave and dangerous."

Certainly William and Harry showed a capacity to charm not only the military. On being presented to new James Bond girl Gemma Arterton, 22, in the official cast line-up, Harry joked: "What took us so long to get down this end?" After the premiere, the princes were almost the only guests not to travel to Battersea Power Station for a party rumoured to have cost £1million.

Bob Geldof, theatre impresario Cameron Mackintosh, composer Andrew Lloyd Webber, head of ITV Michael Grade, art dealer Jay Jopling and his estranged wife, artist Sam Taylor-Wood, were among the hundreds who nibbled quail's eggs, risotto and gold-decorated chocolates downed with quantities of champagne.

Other guests included Grace Jones, who was earlier furious when she was refused admittance pending the royals' arrival at the premiere, Nicky Clarke, the hairdresser, and sometime Moneypenny Samantha Bond.

Daniel Craig, 40, took central stage despite a less than heroic arm strap following surgery to his right shoulder for injuries incurred during filming.

Adrian Wootton, chief executive of Film London, said Battersea Power Station had "come into its own" as a film location during the making of Quantum of Solace. The building is used as offices for Judi Dench's M.

"This is the biggest and the best movie franchise in the world and it's wonderful it keeps coming back to its roots.

"All may change elsewhere, but they always come back to London, " said Mr Wootton.

Tim Pigott-Smith, who makes his James Bond debut as the Foreign Secretary in scenes with Dame Judi, said: "Doing James Bond's very special. It has a glamour about it."

The film is released this week.