Daniel Craig felt a 'weight on his shoulders' for a long time after No Time To Die was delayed

Daniel Craig felt a "weight on his shoulders" for a long time after No Time To Die was delayed.

The actor's final outing as James Bond was delayed for many months owing to the coronavirus pandemic, and finally received its premiere on Tuesday night (Sept 28).

And Daniel is well aware of the importance of the movie's release for the whole of cinema and history and he is glad that the "weight of that" has been lifted off him now.

Speaking to BBC Radio 5 Live on the red carpet, he said: "This is incredibly important to cinema and to history, and the weight of that has been on my shoulders for a while... I've been incredibly lucky."

Daniel previously described his role as James Bond as "everything" to him.

He said: "It's everything. It's been close to 16 years of my life, and it's been incredible to do these films.

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"Bond films don't get made very often so to have this opportunity has been the biggest thing in my professional career obviously, but also one of the biggest things in my life, so it is very emotional. I am glad I am ending it on my terms - I am grateful to the producers for allowing me to do that - but I will miss it."

He quipped: "I will probably be incredibly bitter when the new person takes over!"

Producer Barbara Broccoli recently revealed Daniel only agreed to play Bond if he could be involved in "every part of the process", and he took some "persuading" to take on the iconic role.

She said: "It took some persuading but eventually he sat with Michael and I, and he said, 'Well, If I am going to take this on, I want to be an integral part of the process. I want to be involved in the scripts, I want to be involved in every element of the filmmaking.' And we said, 'Okay, let's do it.'"