FIRST OFF . . .

The Prince and Princess of Wales--Charles and Diana--were among the star-studded crowd attending the world premiere of “The Living Daylights,” the latest James Bond epic, in London Monday night. The glittery audience paid a total of $400,000 to see Welshman Timothy Dalton shoot and flirt his way through the latest escapades of Agent 007, 25 years after the series was launched. British film critics generally praised the new Bond-er: “This is no bed-hopping Bond,” the tabloid Star said in a review; the paper praised the film’s “safe sex” conscientiousness. The Daily Telegraph agreed: As played by Dalton, Bond was “as dry as his martinis and, post-AIDS, contents himself with falling in love with the girl rather than taking her to bed. . . . Indeed, a dependable Britishness has returned to Commander Bond.”