Not any more! Since the worldwide success of the first Austin Powers movie, Myers' mercilessly exact swinging British accent has come to sound - like his emigré parents - more British than the Brits themselves. And here it is again in The Spy Who Shagged Me. This time, though, Austin Powers has his hands full saving the world and trying to get his mojo back all at the same time.

Here's what has happened. It's 1999. Austin Powers is honeymooning with the smashing Vanessa Kensington (Elizabeth Hurley) when he receives a heartbreaking surprise that returns him to single swinging status. To make matters worse, he is informed of the return of his arch nemesis, Dr Evil, who until recently had been orbiting Earth cryogenically frozen in his Bob's Big Boy rocket. Now Dr. Evil has an all-new and sinister scheme: to travel back to 1969 and steal Austin's mojo, rendering him powerless to stop Dr Evil's nefarious plot to control the modern world.

Austin is equipped by British Intelligence with a time travel machine of his own: a psychedelic Volkswagen beetle that takes him back to his groovy old pad and the era of skin-tight pants, non-stop seductions and people who just refuse to behave. Austin should be like a kid in a shag shop. His mojo should be working overtime. But, if Dr Evil has his way, Austin Powers may soon be nothing more than an extremely well-dressed square. Not to mention the fact that the world may be destroyed as well.

And all this to the sound of groovy music: Madonna's record label, Maverick Records, will be doing the soundtrack album and the star herself has written a new song, 'Beautiful Stranger', especially for the film. Also on the soundtrack are cover versions by Lenny Kravitz, R.E.M. and Mel G, aka Scary Spice.

According to Myers, Austin's alter ego Dr Evil was inspired, not just by such classic villains as Blofeld, but also by the harebrained henchmen in the Matt Helm and Our Man Flint series. "What I love is those villains who were very into exotica and would place the hero into some very elaborate yet easily escapable way of killing them," chuckles Myers. "And of course these villains would never actually check to see if the good guys were killed." Dr Evil, adds Myers, is also a psychological mirror to Austin Powers: "He's an evil-meaning boob while Austin is a well-meaning boob."

This time around, Dr Evil has found far greater powers after investing in a small, Seattle-based coffee company called Starbucks. He also has a whole new bag of tricks, including two new henchmen: Fat Bastard and Mini-Me. Mini-Me is Dr Evil's high-tech clone-gone-awry: a one eighth-sized replica of the hairless wonder that nevertheless embodies all his nastiest qualities.

The choice of time-travel machine - a Volkswagen Beetle, the de rigueur means of transport for any serious sixties swinger which has (fittingly) just been relaunched in 1999 - sort of ties the two eras together. "Did you notice how suddenly the new Beetles were everywhere?" asks Myers. "One day there were no new ones and the next day there were a gazillion. I think it was the same night that they turned Peking into Beijing. Nobody called me on that. Suddenly I was supposed to order Beijing Duck. It's the same with the new Beetle. It just sort of happened one day."