Pierce Brosnan has backed Daniel Craig to play James Bond into his 50s but said there is an age where he must say “enough’s enough”.

The former 007 star said Craig was “brilliant” in the role and urged him to continue starring as the famous spy amid doubts over his future with the film franchise.

Brosnan was 49 when he last played Bond in 2002 film Die Another Day – the same age as Craig is now.

Asked if there was an age limit to play Bond, Brosnan said: “There is a definite point where you have to say enough’s enough for sure. I’m not going to put a number on it.”

On Craig’s future as Bond, he added: “It’s his for the taking for sure. Go for it man. He’s brilliant.”

Craig recently overtook Brosnan as the second-longest serving actor to play Bond after Roger Moore.

But the Casino Royale star said after 2015 film Spectre he would rather “slash my wrists” than reprise the role.

Brosnan has appeared in a string of films since departing the Bond series including 2008 musical Mamma Mia! and 2010 political thriller The Ghost Writer.

He is now starring in his first television series in 30 years, playing the lead role in the Western drama The Son, based on the Pulitzer Prize finalist novel from Philipp Meyer.

The 10-part series traces the rise of Texas’s oil-rich McCullough family over 150 years, with Brosnan playing patriarch Eli Mc-Cullough who was kidnapped as a child and raised by the Comanche Native American tribe.

The Son begins its run on AMC on April 18.