''The Saint'' is a British mystery spy thriller television series that aired in the United Kingdom on

ITV ITV or iTV may refer to: ITV *Independent Television (ITV), a British television network, consisting of: ** ITV (TV network), a free-to-air national commercial television network covering the United Kingdom, the Isle of Man, and the Channel Islan ...

between 1962 and 1969. It was based on the literary character

Simon Templar ''The Saint'' is the nickname of the fictional character Simon Templar, featured in a series of novels and short stories by Leslie Charteris published between 1928 and 1963. After that date, other authors collaborated with Charteris on books un ...

created by

Leslie Charteris Leslie Charteris (born Leslie Charles Bowyer-Yin, 12 May 1907 – 15 April 1993), was a British-Chinese author of adventure fiction, as well as a screenwriter.Roger Moore. Templar helps those whom conventional agencies are powerless or unwilling to protect, often using methods that skirt the law. Chief Inspector

Claud Eustace Teal Claud Eustace Teal is a fictional character who made many appearances in a series of novels, novellas and short stories by Leslie Charteris featuring '' The Saint'', starting in 1929. A common spelling variation of his first name in reference w ...

is his nominal nemesis who considers Templar a common criminal, but often grudgingly tolerates his actions for the greater good.

NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American English-language commercial broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a division of Comcast, its headquarters are l ...

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. 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.

Series overview

Roger Moore had earlier tried to buy the production rights to the ''Saint'' books himself, and was delighted to be able to play the part. Moore eventually became co-owner of the show with

Robert S. Baker Robert Sidney Baker (27 October 1916 – 30 September 2009) was a British film and television producer, who at times was also a cinematographer and director. Born in London and serving as an artillery man in the British Army, he was posted to Nor ...

when the show moved to colour and the production credit became Bamore Productions. Most of the wardrobe Moore wore in the series was his own. He was reportedly offered the role of

James Bond The ''James Bond'' series focuses on a fictional British Secret Service agent created in 1953 by writer Ian Fleming, who featured him in twelve novels and two short-story collections. Since Fleming's death in 1964, eight other authors have ...

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. (Coincidentally this episode also features

David Hedison Albert David Hedison Jr. (May 20, 1927 – July 18, 2019) was an American film, television, and stage actor. He was billed as Al Hedison in his early film work until 1959 when he was cast in the role of Victor Sebastian in the short-lived espion ...

who appeared alongside Moore in the Bond film Live and Let Die.) Moore was eventually in a position to accept the role as Bond in 1972 after filming ITC's ''

The Persuaders! ''The Persuaders!'' is an action-comedy series starring Tony Curtis and Roger Moore, produced by ITC Entertainment, and initially broadcast on ITV and ABC in 1971. The show has been called 'the last major entry in the cycle of adventure ser ...

'' with

Tony Curtis Tony Curtis (born Bernard Schwartz; June 3, 1925September 29, 2010) was an American actor whose career spanned six decades, achieving the height of his popularity in the 1950s (Kansas Raiders, 1950) and early 1960s. He acted in more than 100 f ...

. Moore had a few recurring co-stars, especially

Ivor Dean Ivor Donald Dean (21 December 1917 – 10 August 1974) was a British stage, film and television actor. Biography With his lugubrious demeanour he was often cast as world-weary police officers or butlers, and indeed it is for the role of Chief I ...

, who played Templar's nemesis, Inspector Teal. In three early episodes, Teal had been played by

Campbell Singer Campbell Singer (born Jacob Kobel Singer; 16 March 1909 – 16 February 1976) was a British character actor who featured in a number of stage, film and television roles during his long career. He was also a playwright and dramatist. Life He was ...

, Norman Pitt, and

Wensley Pithey Wensley Ivan William Frederick Pithey (21 June 1914 – 10 November 1993) was a South African character actor who had a long stage and film career in Britain. Biography Pithey was born in Cape Town, South Africa. A graduate of the Univers ...

; 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 Arnold Diamond (18 April 1915 – 18 March 1992) was an English character actor, regularly cast in small parts on television. He graduated from RADA in 1936, and his stage work included the RSC, and three years in Agatha Christie's ''The Mo ...

). 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 Black-and-white (B&W or B/W) images combine black and white in a continuous spectrum, producing a range of shades of grey. Media The history of various visual media began with black and white, and as technology improved, altered to color. ...

to colour production midway through its run. The early episodes are distinguished by Moore breaking the

fourth wall The fourth wall is a performance convention in which an invisible, imaginary wall separates actors from the audience. While the audience can see through this ''wall'', the convention assumes the actors act as if they cannot. From the 16th cen ...

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). The scene then switched to the title card, which featured a haloed stick figure. The stick figure sometimes appeared in episodes to represent the Saint. Some episodes, such as "Iris", broke away from the 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 ''Vendetta for the Saint'' is a 1964 mystery novel featuring the character of Simon Templar, alias "The Saint". ''Vendetta for the Saint'' was the first full-length Saint novel published since ''The Saint Sees it Through'', 18 years earlier. A te ...

'', 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 ''The Saint on TV'' is a collection of two mystery novellas by Fleming Lee, continuing the adventures of the sleuth Simon Templar a.k.a. "The Saint", created by Leslie Charteris. This book was first published in the United States in 1968 by The C ...

'', and the series of novelisations continued for several years after the television programme had ended. Techno Classica 2018, Essen (IMG 9978)

Templar's car, when it appeared, was a white

Volvo P1800 The Volvo P1800 (pronounced ''eighteen-hundred'') is a 2+2, front-engine, rear-drive sports car manufactured and marketed by Volvo Cars between 1961 and 1973. Originally a coupé (1961–1972), it was also offered in a shooting-brake configurati ...

with the number plate ST1. This model Volvo is still often referred to as "the Saint's car", with miniature versions made by

Corgi The Welsh Corgi ( or Corgi, plural Corgis, or occasionally the etymologically consistent Corgwn; ) is a small type of herding dog that originated in Wales. The name ''corgi'' is derived from the Welsh words and (which is mutated to ), mean ...

which have proved popular. Volvo was pleased to supply their recently introduced car in 1962 for its promotional value, after

Jaguar Cars Jaguar (, ) is the luxury vehicle brand of Jaguar Land Rover, a British multinational car manufacturer with its headquarters in Whitley, Coventry, England. Jaguar Cars was the company that was responsible for the production of Jaguar cars ...

had rejected a request from the producers to provide an E-type. Roger Moore The Saint 1969

Unlike its contemporary rival, ''The Avengers'', ''The Saint'' was shot entirely on film from the beginning, whereas the first three series of the other series (broadcast between 1961 and 1964) were videotaped, with minimal location shooting. All episodes of ''The Saint'' were syndicated abroad. 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. Most

series Series may refer to: People with the name * Caroline Series (born 1951), English mathematician, daughter of George Series * George Series (1920–1995), English physicist Arts, entertainment, and media Music * Series, the ordered sets used in ...

are available on

DVD The DVD (common abbreviation for Digital Video Disc or Digital Versatile Disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any kind ...

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 ITV4 is a Television in the United Kingdom, British free-to-air television channel which was launched on 1 November 2005. It is owned by ITV Digital Channels, a division of ITV plc, and is part of the ITV (TV network), ITV network. The channel h ...

has broadcast colour episodes, and

Talking Pictures TV Talking Pictures TV (TPTV) is a British free-to-air vintage-film and nostalgia television channel. It was launched on 26 May 2015 on Sky channel 343, but later also became available on Freeview, Freesat, and Virgin Media. It is on air for 24 ho ...

airing the black and white episodes. In the US, FamilyNet and RTV have aired both the black-and-white and colour episodes.

MeTV MeTV, an acronym for Memorable Entertainment Television, is an American broadcast television network owned by Weigel Broadcasting. Marketed as "The Definitive Destination for Classic TV", the network airs a variety of classic television program ...

has also broadcast the series. In March 2015, the CBS-owned

Decades A decade () is a period of ten years. Decades may describe any ten-year period, such as those of a person's life, or refer to specific groupings of calendar years. Usage Any period of ten years is a "decade". For example, the statement that "du ...

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 This TV (also known as This TV Network and alternately stylized as thisTV) is an American free-to-air television network owned by Allen Media Broadcast Networks, LLC, part of the Allen Media Group division of Entertainment Studios. Originally fo ...

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). Later in October, 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.

Filming locations

In the TV series, the Saint lives in London, though the exact address is never revealed (53 Grosvenor Mews is his stated address in series 2 episode 2) and he is seen travelling to locations across London, the UK, and around the world. The entire series was shot at

Associated British Elstree Studios Elstree Studios on Shenley Road, Borehamwood, Hertfordshire is a British film and television production centre operated by Elstree Film Studios Limited. One of several facilities historically referred to as Elstree Studios, the Shenley Road ...

Hertfordshire Hertfordshire ( or ; often abbreviated Herts) is one of the home counties in southern England. It borders Bedfordshire and Cambridgeshire to the north, Essex to the east, Greater London to the south, and Buckinghamshire to the west. For govern ...

, with very few scenes shot on location elsewhere. This was achieved by making extensive use of the sets at Elstree, early blue-screen technology to simulate different locations in the background, painted or projected backdrops, and revolving painted backdrops for moving scenes. A few exceptions exist, such as the extensive location shoot on the island of

Malta Malta ( , , ), officially the Republic of Malta ( mt, Repubblika ta' Malta ), is an island country in the Mediterranean Sea. It consists of an archipelago, between Italy and Libya, and is often considered a part of Southern Europe. It lies ...

for "Vendetta for the Saint". Look-alikes were used for location shoots where the Saint is seen in the distance entering a well-known building or driving past the camera at speed. Where it was not possible to do it in the studios, some scenes were shot in North London, such as the block of flats Embassy Lodge in Regents Park Road NW3, which is shown in 5-15 The Persistent Patriots.

Fan club

''The Saint'' and its books have a fan club created originally by Leslie Charteris for the fans of the series. The club fell under the control of honorary chairmen, Sir Roger Moore (prior to his death) and

Ian Ogilvy Ian Raymond Ogilvy (born 30 September 1943) is an English actor, playwright, and novelist. Early life Ogilvy was born in Woking, Surrey, England, to Francis Fairfield Ogilvy, brother of advertising executive David Ogilvy, and actress Aileen ...

(who played Templar in the 1970s revival series, ''

Return of the Saint ''Return of the Saint'' is a British action-adventure television series that aired for one series in 1978 and 1979 in Britain on ITV, and was also broadcast on CBS in the United States. It was co-produced by ITC Entertainment and the Italian bro ...

''). The club marks events such as the publication of books or other information on the series.

Episodes

The black-and-white episodes of ''The Saint'' were made in two production runs, the first, of 39 episodes, was split into two separate series on transmission, and the second, of 32 episodes, again split into two series on transmission. Series five, the first to be produced in colour, consisted of a production run of 32 episodes. The second colour production run consisted of 15 episodes, and has a revamped theme tune, marking it out from the first batch of colour episodes. "The Fiction Makers" from series five was edited into a two-parter using the revamped theme for inclusion in series six, as was "Vendetta for the Saint". However, during transmission of series five, transmission of the episodes caught up with production, meaning repeats of some of the black-and-white episodes had to be slotted into the schedule to slow the broadcast of new episodes (this had little impact on viewers, as the colour episodes were being broadcast in black and white anyway). This series started transmission halfway through production, leading to only 26 of the episodes being screened. The three unscreened episodes plus "The House on Dragon's Rock", which in some regions was not broadcast because it was thought unsuitable for children, were then mixed in with series six for transmission.

Home media

A&E Home Entertainment, under licence from Carlton International Media Limited, released all the episodes on

in Region 1. They have released two sets of monochrome episodes: the first with three discs, the second with four. Each disc contains four complete, unedited, uncut original broadcast episodes, meaning only 28 of the monochrome episodes are available. Each episode has been completely restored from the original 35 mm film prints and digitally remastered in full colour, and was presented in its original UK broadcast presentation and their original US broadcast order. All of the colour episodes have been released in seven two-disc sets, as well as in one 14-disc "megaset". The two-part episodes are only in movie form. A&E Home Entertainment also released the original monochrome episodes on Region 1 DVD, entitled ''The Saint: The Early Episodes'', in which A&E had remastered and restored all the black-and-white episodes of the series from the original film elements. On 26 May 2015

Timeless Media Group Shout! Factory is an American home video and music company founded in 2002 as Retropolis Entertainment. Its video releases include previously released feature films, classic and contemporary television series, animation, live music, and comedy ...

released ''The Saint: The Complete Series'' on DVD in Region 1 for the first time. The 33-disc set features all 118 episodes of the series as well as bonus features. They subsequently released series one and two on DVD in a separate 10-disc collection on 13 October the same year. Series three and four were released on 19 January 2016. In Region 2, Network Distributing has released two multidisc sets, with all the monochrome episodes available in an 18-disc set, and all the colour ones in a 14-disc set. The colour set includes the theatrical versions of the two double-length stories, as well as the original 48-minute two-part versions. Also included are a 40-minute documentary and isolated music tracks. Prior to this, Carlton Video had released four separate discs, the first one with the first two episodes, and the rest with four episodes each. Also, a ten-disc set repackages the previous four discs alongside six more, containing the first 39 monochrome episodes. The monochrome and colour sets are the best out there, in terms of picture, audio quality, and special features. In France, TF1 Vidéo has released five multidisc sets, containing all the 118 episodes, in French and in English. In Region 4, Umbrella Entertainment released the entire series in Australia, in five boxed sets of six discs each. These are in PAL format, but with no region code. The boxsets feature numerous extras including a series of audio commentaries recorded in 2004 with surviving members of the cast and crew, ranging from guest stars to Roger Moore.

Revivals/remakes

* In 1978, the series was revived as ''

'', starring

as Templar. * Two further attempts were made to revive ''The Saint'' on television in 1980s. In 1987, a 46-minute U.S. TV pilot, "

The Saint in Manhattan ''The Saint in Manhattan'' is a 1987 television pilot for an Australian-filmed, US-backed revival series based on '' The Saint'' starring Andrew Clarke as Simon Templar. The pilot was not picked up for a series but on June 12, 1987, it was broadc ...

", was made starring Australian actor Andrew Clarke; and, in 1989, London Weekend Television in the UK made a series of six film-length episodes starring

Simon Dutton Simon Dutton (born 1 January 1958) is an English actor,The New York Times
best known for play ...

. * Roger Moore never played the role again after 1969, though he is heard speaking on a car radio during the 1997 film ''

The Saint The Saint may refer to: Fiction * Simon Templar, also known as "The Saint", the protagonist of a book series by Leslie Charteris and subsequent adaptations: ** ''The Saint'' (film series) (1938–43), starring Louis Hayward, George Sanders an ...

'', starring

Val Kilmer Val Edward Kilmer (born December 31, 1959) is an American actor. Originally a stage actor, Kilmer found fame after appearances in comedy films, starting with ''Top Secret!'' (1984) and ''Real Genius'' (1985), as well as the military action film ...

as Templar. The final film bore little resemblance to the books or TV series, and carried no credit for Leslie Charteris. The producers bought the rights to use the character's name from Robert S. Baker, who held the rights and had developed and produced both ''The Saint'' and ''Return of the Saint''. * In September 2009, a new adaptation for ''The Saint'' was to be remade for television by

Vancouver Vancouver ( ) is a major city in western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the List of cities in British Columbia, most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the ...

-based studio

Brightlight Pictures Brightlight Pictures Inc. is a Canadian film production and television production company based in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. History Shawn Williamson is the chairman of Brightlight Pictures. Williamson has produced more than 90 prod ...

. Scottish actor

Dougray Scott Stephen Dougray Scott (born 25 November 1965) is a Scottish actor. He has appeared in the films ''Ever After'' (1998), '' Mission: Impossible 2'' (2000), ''Enigma'' (2001), ''Hitman'' (2007), and ''My Week with Marilyn'' (2011). Early life Sc ...

was lined up to play Simon Templar, but no series came about.

James Purefoy James Brian Mark Purefoy (born 3 June 1964) is an English actor. He played Mark Antony in the HBO series ''Rome'', Nick Jenkins in ''A Dance to the Music of Time'', college professor turned serial killer Joe Carroll in the series ''The Following ...

was also considered to play ''The Saint'' in a remake, production of which was scheduled to begin in July 2011. This project also failed to materialise. * Another attempt was announced in December 2012, when Roger Moore was to be producer for a new series and to have

Adam Rayner Adam Chance Abbs Rayner (born 28 August 1977) is an English actor. He is known for television roles including: Dominic Montgomery in ''Mistresses'', Dr. Steve Shaw in ''Hawthorne'', Aidan Marsh in '' Hunted'', Bassam "Barry" Al-Fayeed in ''Tyran ...

star as Simon Templar and

Eliza Dushku Eliza Patricia Dushku (; born December 30, 1980) is an American actress. She is best known for starring as Faith in the supernatural drama series ''Buffy the Vampire Slayer'' (1998–2003) and its spin-off series ''Angel'' (2000–2003). She als ...

as his girlfriend Patricia Holm. In a promotion that was later released, it was also shown that Moore would star in the new series, as would his successor in ''Return of the Saint'', Ian Ogilvy. Production of a pilot episode was completed by early 2013. As of summer 2014, it was awaiting a broadcast time in the U.S. However, the piece underwent reshoots for the ending and add an extra prologue in November 2015, and the pilot episode was retooled as a TV film, ''The Saint'', getting an online release on 12 July 2017, two months after Moore's death.

References

External links

*
British Film Institute Screen Online

''Saint'' on TV fanpage with much information

{{DEFAULTSORT:Saint, The 1960s British drama television series 1960s British mystery television series 1962 British television series debuts 1969 British television series endings British crime television series Espionage television series Television series by ITC Entertainment ITV television dramas NBC original programming The Saint (Simon Templar) Television shows based on British novels Television series by ITV Studios Television shows filmed in the United Kingdom Black-and-white British television shows English-language television shows Television shows shot at Associated British Studios