The Saint (TV series) 1962/69
The Saint (TV series)
Jump to navigation
Jump to search
The Saint is a British ITC mystery spy thriller television series that aired in the United Kingdom on ITV between 1962 and 1969. It was based on the literary character Simon Templar created by Leslie Charteris in the 1920s[2] and featured in many novels over the years.[2] He was played by Roger Moore.[3]
Templar helps those whom conventional agencies are powerless or
unwilling to protect, often using methods that skirt the law. Chief
Inspector Claud Eustace Teal
is his nominal nemesis who considers Templar a common criminal, but
often grudgingly tolerates his actions for the greater good.
NBC picked up the show as a summer replacement in its evening schedule in 1966 because of the strong performance in the United States of the first two series in first-run syndication. The programme, therefore, ended its run with both trans-Atlantic primetime scheduling and colour episodes. It also proved popular beyond the UK and US, eventually airing in over 60 countries, and made a profit in excess of £350m for ITC.[4][5][6] With almost 120 episodes, the programme is exceeded only by The Avengers as the most productive show of its genre produced in the UK. As with The Avengers, the colour episodes were originally broadcast in the UK in black and white before the advent of colour transmissions on ITV.
| The Saint | |
|---|---|
Titlecard of the black and white episodes
| |
| Created by | Leslie Charteris |
| Starring | Roger Moore |
| Theme music composer | Edwin Astley (B/W) Edwin Astley and Leslie Charteris (colour) |
| Composer(s) | Edwin Astley |
| Country of origin | United Kingdom |
| Original language(s) | English |
| No. of series | 6 |
| No. of episodes | 118 (list of episodes) |
| Production | |
| Executive producer(s) | Robert S. Baker Monty Berman (B/W) |
| Producer(s) | Roger Moore[1] |
| Running time | 49–51 minutes |
| Production company(s) | New World (B/W) Bamore (colour) |
| Distributor | Independent Television Corporation |
| Release | |
| Original network | ITV |
| Picture format | 35 mm 4:3 Black and white (first 71 episodes) Colour (last 47 episodes) |
| Audio format | Mono |
| Original release | 4 October 1962 – 9 February 1969 |
| Chronology | |
| Followed by | Return of the Saint |
NBC picked up the show as a summer replacement in its evening schedule in 1966 because of the strong performance in the United States of the first two series in first-run syndication. The programme, therefore, ended its run with both trans-Atlantic primetime scheduling and colour episodes. It also proved popular beyond the UK and US, eventually airing in over 60 countries, and made a profit in excess of £350m for ITC.[4][5][6] With almost 120 episodes, the programme is exceeded only by The Avengers as the most productive show of its genre produced in the UK. As with The Avengers, the colour episodes were originally broadcast in the UK in black and white before the advent of colour transmissions on ITV.
Contents
Series overview
He was reportedly offered the role of James Bond at least twice during the run of the series, but he had to turn it down both times due to his television commitments. In one early episode of the series (titled "Luella"), another character actually mistakes Templar for Bond. Moore accepted the Bond role after The Saint ended its run.
Moore had a few recurring co-stars, especially Ivor Dean, who played Templar's nemesis, Inspector Teal. In three early episodes, Teal had been played by Campbell Singer, Norman Pitt, and Wensley Pithey; Dean featured from the episode "Iris" (7 November 1963) onward. Teal's relationship with Templar was broadly similar to that depicted in the novels, but in the series, he is often depicted as bungling, rather than merely Charteris's characterisation of him as an officious, unimaginative policeman. When in France, Templar had a similar relationship with Colonel Latignant (Arnold Diamond). Latignant is depicted as being even less competent than Teal, and is even keener than Teal to find Templar guilty, though Templar repeatedly helps him solve the case. Unlike Teal, Latignant did not appear in Charteris's novels. In all, Inspector Teal featured in 26 episodes and Colonel Latignant in six.
The Saint began as a straightforward mystery series, but over the years adopted more secret agent- and fantasy-style plots. It also made a well-publicised switch from black-and-white to colour production midway through its run. The early episodes are distinguished by Moore breaking the fourth wall and speaking to the audience in character at the start of every episode. With the switch to colour, this was replaced by simple narration. The pre-credit sequence usually ended with someone referring to (and/or addressing) the Saint by name – "Simon Templar"; at this point, an animated halo appeared above Templar's head as the Saint looked at the camera (or directly at the halo). Some episodes, such as "Iris", broke away from this formula and had Templar address the audience for the entire pre-credit sequence and referring to himself by name, setting up the story that followed.
Many episodes were based upon Charteris's stories, although a higher percentage of original scripts were used as the series progressed ("Queen's Ransom" was both the first colour episode and the first episode not to be based on a Charteris work). The novel Vendetta for the Saint, credited to Charteris but written by Harry Harrison, was one of the last Saint stories to be adapted. Some of the later scripts were novelised and published as part of the ongoing series of The Saint novels, such as The Fiction Makers and The People Importers. The first of these books, which gave cover credit to Charteris, but were actually written by others, was The Saint on TV, and the series of novelisations continued for several years after the television programme had ended.
.jpg)
The Saint's car used in the series
Moore and guest star Earl Green in "Interlude in Venice," 1966
The black-and-white series were first syndicated in the US by NBC affiliate stations in 1967 and 1968, and 32 of the 47 colour episodes were broadcast by NBC from 1968 to 1969, and have since played in syndication in the US for many years after (the '70s sequel Return of the Saint aired to high ratings on CBS in 1979–80). Most series are available on DVD in North America. Two two-part episodes from series 6, "Vendetta for the Saint" and "The Fiction Makers", were made into feature films and distributed to theatres in Europe, and often show up on late-night television in America. They are also available on DVD.
In the UK, ITV4 has broadcast colour episodes. In the US, FamilyNet and RTV have aired both the black-and-white and colour episodes. Me-TV has also broadcast the series. In March 2015, the CBS-owned Decades digital cable network aired a "Series Binge" marathon of the show as part of "Countdown to Decades", a soft-launch prelude to the network's official launch in May 2015. The marathon featured every episode of the series aired back to back. The marathon began on 30 March at 5 pm Eastern Time and ended on 3 April at 11 pm. The broadcast network This TV has been running three or four episodes in a block on Saturday evenings since April 2018, starting at either 11:00pm or midnight (depending on the running time of the movie scheduled to air ahead of it). In October 2018, This TV added a two-episode per weekday run at 7:00am, independently sequenced of the continued Saturday night airings. Neither includes the two-part episodes referenced in the previous paragraph.
Comments
Post a Comment