Exclusive – Goldfinger voted best James Bond film ever by RadioTimes.com readers

1964 film Goldfinger has been crowned the winner after scoring 40 per cent of the vote in the final round, with more than 11,500 votes having been cast across five rounds of the poll.

The closest challenger was 2006's Casino Royale – the first outing for current 007 Daniel Craig – which secured 31 per cent of the vote, while The Spy Who Loved Me (1977) took third spot after picking up 16 per cent. Languishing just behind in last fourth place was The Living Daylights, which managed 14 per cent of the votes.

All four films had already fought their way through a previous round to make their way to the final, with the four earlier polls having focused on different eras of Bond.

The first round saw the six Sean Connery films and the only George Lazenby picture go head to head, while the second poll pitted all seven Roger Moore movies against each other.

Next up was a battle between the combined films of Timothy Dalton and Pierce Brosnan, before the focus shifted to the four Craig-era films in round four.

Last year we ran a similar poll to determine the best actor to play the iconic double-00 agent, and Sean Connery was voted as the comprehensive winner – so perhaps it's no great surprise that a film from the late actor's tenure emerged victorious this time around.

Goldfinger was Connery's third film in the role following Dr. No and From Russia With Love, and saw Bond assigned to investigate a notorious gold smuggler who it turned out has a grand criminal ambition – to attack Fort Knox's gold reserves.

Alongside Connery, the film starred German actor Gert Fröbe as villain Auric Goldfinger, Honor Blackman as iconic Bond girl Pussy Galore, and Shirley Eaton as Jill Masterson.

If our poll has whetted your appetite for more Bond while we continue to wait for the release of No Time to Die, don’t forget to check out our guide for how to watch the James Bond movies in order.

Looking for something else to watch? Check out our TV Guide.