Simon Templar is The Saint

Today I received my copy of The Saint Steps In . . . To Television, the DVD from Amazon.

Previously parts of this film were only available with the best-selling The Saint and Return Of The Saint DVD boxed sets

Now this series of highly acclaimed documentaries has been revised and expanded with new interviews to form one feature-length documentary. The Saint Steps In . . . To Television is the definitive look at the series’ production for Lew Grade’s I.T.C. company, as told by those involved in its creation.

It covers the full story of how Simon Templar came to the small screen in the early 1960s, the series’ evolution into colour and its revamping and reformatting to fit the shifting trends of a late 70s audience.

Featuring extensive contributions from Roger Moore, Ian Ogilvy, Robert S. Baker, Johnny Goodman, Patricia Charteris and many more, this two hour documentary is the final word on Simon Templar’s time at I.T.C.

This programme had a long and distinguished run in the mid, to late sixties and starred Roger Moore as Leslie Charteris’ adventurer and some time criminal investigator Simon Templar.

This television programme bore little resemblance to Charteris’s novels and yet could not be classed as anything but authentic as he himself was involved in the production. This was an updated creation based on his earlier work, more in style than content but nevertheless bore many trade mark touches, such as style and panache and a taste for adventure. Not to mention a theme song including his own trade mark Saint signature tune.