IF ever the producers of the next Bond film are looking for sneaky ways to bump off the baddies, they should simply look at a recording of last night's 638 Ways to Kill Castro.

Actually, they would probably dismiss the majority of them as being too preposterous to even contemplate.

Who, for example would think that an exploding cigar would ever succeed in knocking off one of the most famous political figures of the modern era.

Four's documentary was both fascinating and at times farcical as a collection of would-be hitmen went through the various ways they tried to assassinate Cuba's leader.

At times it was like watching the Roadrunner cartoons as hapless assassins tried more and more ludicrous ways of disposing of him. I half expected to see a parcel from the Acme Corporation being delivered.

Where the programme failed was that it did appear to let Castro off the hook. There was no real analysis of his human rights record or real questions as to why so many people appeared to have wanted him killed off.

And, the thing that all these failed assassins don't appear to have realised - the more you try and dispose of someone, the more popular they become.

Look at Ronald Reagan. He survived just one assassination attempt and was never more popular.

As entertaining as the methods used were, the hired hitmen themselves all looked like extras from The Sopranos and most didn't even seem to think there wasn't anything wrong with trying to bump off world leaders on their CV.

Still, it made for fun viewing.