LET the countdown begin to seeing Pierce Brosnan dancing around in spandex and singing ABBA tunes. The film version of the musical Mamma Mia! opens in London on June 30, with U.S. audiences finally getting a view on July 18.

Mamma Mia! is undoubtedly going to be one of the film events of the summer, given the huge popularity of the live musical around the world. Brosnan feels his voice and his feet are more than up to the task, though it took a while to build such confidence seeing as he never properly did either on screen before.

"In this movie I sing 'When All Is Said And Done.' I've never done anything as orchestrated or musically complex in my life," Pierce told the Scottish Daily Record. "At first, I just made noises. Then I went to London and trained in the studio with Benny Andersson and Bjorn Ulvaeus from Abba."

Still, he needed practice, and more practice. So he loaded up his iPod with ABBA's unforgettable songs and took long walks on the beach.

"Then I went to New York for the first rehearsals, and I sounded dreadful. I quietly freaked out, and with my new-found bravado, I made a pig's ear of it. So I went back home and listened and sang some more," he said.

But practice makes perfect, and Pierce, an amazingly handsome 55 years young, can now call himself a professional singer.

"In the end, they liked it so much they added a verse to my big song," he said.

The role as one of the three possible fathers of the girl who's getting married was certainly a stretch for Brosnan, best known for his four star turns as James Bond. He was strangely dumped from the part after the huge success of Die Another Day in 2002 in favor of the younger Daniel Craig, and he still admits the shock of losing such a plum role cut deep.

"Losing Bond hurt me like mad. It was painful and unexpected," says Pierce. No one contacted me to tell me anything. No reason. Nothing. What do you do in circumstances like that?

"I was disappointed because I'd put so much into the role. And it would've been nice to get an explanation as to why and how it was coming to an end."

Perhaps if he was still contracted to Bond, the Mamma Mia! part would have never come along. And, with it, the chance to smooch Meryl Streep.

"There's a sequence when we're all wet," he said. "Meryl grabbed for my shirt and ripped off the buttons, at which point I grabbed her with the wildest embrace and relished every moment of it.

"I know most actors say otherwise, but I like sex scenes," he added. "Bond was supposed to be this great lover, but I always found the love scenes in those movies a little dull. It's lovely to work out the fantasy of it all in celluloid and then go home to my wife."

Mrs. Brosnan, Keely, is mother to the couple's two sons Dylan, 11, and Paris, 7. They spend a good chunk of the year at their oceanfront retreat in Hawaii, where they get staked out by the paparazzi every now and again, particularly Keely, who proudly wears a bikini despite her rather full figure.

And that's the way Pierce likes it. "I love my wife's curves," he says. "Family is my stability and comfort."

Pierce was in Maui last week to collect an award from the local film fest organizers. The setting, he says, always reminds him of his native land. Hawaii, Pierce reckons, "is a little bit like Ireland, with the heat turned up."