The Saint

Buy The Saint on DVD

The Complete Monochrome Series (1962-1966)
The Complete Color Series (1967-1969)
The Saint (1997 Motion Picture)

 

October 4, 1962 – February 9, 1969
(118) one hour episodes (6 seasons)
in B&W (seasons 1-4) and Color (seasons 5-6)
on ITV (the 1st network in the U.K.)
Created by: Leslie Charteris series of books from the 1920s
Produced by: Robert S. Baker

CAST

• Roger Moore — — Simon Templar
• Ivor Dean — — Inspector Claud Eustace Teal

The Saint only had two regular recurring characters (above),
the following list of actors appeared in 6 or more episodes:

• Leslie Crawford — — Chauffer
• Justine Lord — — Galaxy Rose
• Larry Taylor — — Alicron
• Ricardo Montez — — Carlos Segoia
• Suzanne Lloyd — — Claudia Molinelli

Opening Theme

Composed by: Edwin Astley

Opening Narration

Roger Moore would usually address the viewers during the credits and give some sort of brief description about that episode.

Later in the series the following narration was heard over the credits:

Join The Saint as he deals in danger, dices with death and always surrounded by a galaxy of gorgeous girls.
Whether its girls or guns, The Saint can handle the situation.
Follow that roaring adventurer, Simon Templar through the scenery and cities of the world

STORYLINE

Simon Templar (Roger Moore) nicknamed The Saint is a high class, suave, well polished thief. But not so fast, he is not your ordinary thief, he steals from criminals in such a way that they get caught with their hands dirty by the law. The law in this case is Inspector Claud Eustace Teal (Ivor Dean) who willingly locks up Templar’s victims but also relentlessly tries to lock him up. During this process he manages to keep whatever he stole from the criminal for himself which has made him enormously wealthy. If the criminals put up a fight he is quite efficient with a gun or at hand to hand combat.

Templar prefers to solve things less violently by using his considerable charm, wit and good looks. These attributes also land him beautiful women by the scores, which he seems to love and leave because there were very few recurring women characters. The women, the clothes, the car, the travel to exotic locales all created a sophisticated modern day Robin Hood.

The series originated in the U.K. based on a considerable number of books written by Leslie Charteris. The first couple of seasons were almost exact screen plays of the books but later on the writers took some more license and expanded the Templar character into a sort of quasi secret agent.
It hit the U.S. as a syndicated show but did so well in syndication that it was picked up by NBC and run in prime time.

Roger Moore was asked to play the part of the first James Bond in Dr. No but turned it down because of his commitments to The Saint. Coincidently Moore was not the first choice for The Saint, Patrick McGoohan who had just finished the Danger Man series was contacted first.

Video Clip of The Saint

                                         

Passings

Ivor Dean died in 1974 he was 56 years old

TRIVIA: The producers of The Saint originally wanted Templar to drive a Jaguar but when they were turned down by Jag for a promotional car they contacted Volvo. Volvo supplied at least a half a dozen cars to them over the shows six year run and felt that it was the best advertising that they had ever received. Volvo was also chosen to be the car in the 1997 Saint motion picture with Val Kilmer.