Ian Fleming shares a special Bond with Agent 007

Dominic Cooper plays author Ian Fleming in BBC America's 'The Man Who Would Be Bond.' / Vermes Kata, Ecosse Films

In the four-part, BBC America miniseries, Fleming: The Man Who Would Be Bond (Wednesday, 10 p.m. ET/PT), author Ian Fleming has more than a bit in common with James Bond, the British secret agent of his best-selling spy novels who has been played on film by an array of leading men from Sean Connery to Daniel Craig. This Fleming is a mix of biographical facts, embellishments the author might have liked and aspirations tied to 'this guy who he was writing. That's the person he saw himself being in the future and what he was desperate to be,' says Dominic Cooper ( Captain America films), who plays the naval intelligence officer-turned-novelist. 'This is not an absolute interpretation. We were making somebody we felt would be exciting to watch and who he would have liked to be.'

The similarities - and differences - are plentiful.

Title/job:

James Bond: Secret agent 007 in the British intelligence service known as MI6; Royal Naval Reserve commander.

Ian Fleming: Royal Navy Commander working for British Naval Intelligence during World War II; author who later created James Bond and wrote 12 Bond novels and two short-story collections. He died in 1964.

The personality

Bond: 'The real James Bond in the novels is a dark, cold character, the essential anti-hero,' director Mat Whitecross says. Some traits, such as his hostility toward women and his snobbishness, can make him 'quite dislikable for a supposedly heroic figure.'

Fleming: 'Fleming definitely had some (Bondian) elements in his life, the way he treats women, the way he treats other people, his cynicism and intelligence,' Whitecross says. 'In terms of heroics and action, he didn't get to do that. That was wish fulfillment.'

The villains

Bond: Foes sometimes work for SMERSH, a Soviet counterintelligence agency, in the Cold War-era novels.

Fleming: As the German side collapses near the end of World War II, the British intelligence officer travels behind enemy lines to prevent Nazi nuclear secrets from falling into Soviet hands, coming back to colleagues with a story worthy of a novelist. On the domestic front, his domineering mother Eve (Lesley Manville) 'was terrifying,' Whitecross says.

At work

Bond: M, a stern boss who admires Bond's ends even if he is at times appalled by his means, and his secretary, Miss Moneypenny, who longs for the spy.

Fleming: M is said to be based on Admiral John Godfrey (Samuel West), who recruited Fleming to Naval Intelligence, appreciating his talent but disapproving of his impulsiveness. His hard-edged secretary, Lieutenant Monday (Anna Chancellor), becomes Fleming's somewhat reluctant and definitely platonic ally.

At play

Bond: The agent is a playboy, cavorting with numerous women. Some became renowned as 'Bond girls' in the films. Lasting love is evasive: when he finally commits, getting married in On Her Majesty's Secret Service, his poor bride is killed hours later.

Fleming: The author, too, has an eye for the ladies, alternately bedding the daring and beautiful dispatch rider Muriel (Annabelle Wallis), a prototypical Bond girl on a motorcycle, and the married Ann (Lara Pulver) in an on-again, off-again love affair that would eventually lead to their marriage.

Social style

Bond: A ladies man with a brutish side.

Fleming: Fleming is a playboy who dismisses conquests when they bore him and can get rough, physically and verbally, with those closest to him.

Kill skill

Bond: Double-0 agents hold that infamous 'license to kill' and 007 freely exercises the privilege. (Asked whether he would be interested in playing Bond himself, Cooper says, 'Who would ever say no?')

Fleming: It's another British military officer, not Fleming, who invokes the phrase 'license to kill' in criticizing a Fleming-created intelligence unit. Fleming, however, had difficulty performing that same task. 'When he was entering that world to become a spy, he failed that test,' Cooper says. 'He couldn't kill a man.'

Drink of choice

Bond: His libation has gone through various incarnations in the books and films, but essentially breaks down to: vodka martini, shaken not stirred.

Fleming: The author-to-be goes into exacting detail at a bar: 'Martini, three measures of Gordon's, one vodka, half a Kina Lillet, shaken, not stirred, served in a Champagne goblet.' Fleming 'loved all the details' of consumption, 'like having the right cigarette,' Whitecross says.

Fondness for cards

Bond: Bond embraces the gambling lifestyle in Casino Royale, Thunderball, Goldeneye â?¦ Oh, it would probably be easier to list the books and films where he doesn't find himself in a casino.

Fleming: During a wartime trip to Lisbon, Bond ends up at a baccarat table, wagering government funds against a German foe.

Auto interest

Bond: 007 has been behind the wheel of many cars, some customized with weapons, but he's most associated with the Aston Martin.

Fleming: Fleming gets around wartime Europe in a Rolls Royce, the car of choice for Bond baddie Auric Goldfinger.

Action sequences

Bond: Films frequently open with the secret agent on death-defying missions on land, in the air, under water and even in the snow.

Fleming: The miniseries opens with Fleming involved in what appears to be an undersea spear-gun attack in the Caribbean, followed by a frantic ski race down an Austrian slope.

Sharpest image

Bond: The film character makes use of all manner of gadgetry, from electronic tracking devices to projectile-shooting cigarettes, often presented to him by the perpetually annoyed research and development chief, Q.

Fleming: As the war progresses, Fleming has a growing affinity for spy devices, such as a camera hidden in a lighter and a pen that secretes knockout gas.

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