The Saint: The Complete Colour Series DVD – Kate O’Mara , Roger Moore

All 47 colour episodes of the classic television adventure drama, comprising the fifth and sixth series. Roger Moore stars as Simon Templar, aka ‘The Saint’. A suave and sophisticated conman, Templar only steals from rich criminals and helps the forces of law by making sure they’re thrown behind bars. For Chief Inspector Teal (Ivor Dean) however, Templar is nothing more than a common crook, and one he’d like to see behind bars himself. Episodes are: ‘The Queen’s Ransom’; ‘Interlude in Venice’; ‘The Russian Prisoner’; ‘The Reluctant Revolution’; ‘The Helpful Pirate’; ‘The Convenient Monster’; ‘The Angel’s Eye’; ‘The Man Who Liked Lions’; ‘The Better Mousetrap’; ‘Little Girl Lost’; ‘Paper Chase’; ‘Locate and Destroy’; ‘Flight Plan’; ‘Escape Route’; ‘The Persistent Patriots’; ‘The Fast Women’; ‘The Death Game’; ‘The Art Collectors’; ‘To Kill a Saint’; ‘The Counterfeit Countess’; ‘Simon and Delilah’; ‘Island of Chance’; ‘The Gadget Lovers’; ‘A Double in Diamonds’; ‘The Power Artists’; ‘When Spring is Sprung’; ‘The Gadic Collection’; ‘The Best Laid Schemes’; ‘Invitation to Danger’; ‘Legacy For the Saint’; ‘The Desperate Diplomat’; ‘The Organisation Man’; ‘The Double Take’; ‘The Time to Die’; ‘The Master Plan’; ‘The House on Dragon’s Rock’; ‘The Scales of Justice’; ‘The Fiction Makers (Part 1)’; ‘The Fiction Makers (Part 2)’; ‘The People Importers’; ‘Where the Money Is’; ‘Vendetta For the Saint (Part 1)’; ‘Vendetta For the Saint (Part 2)’; ‘The Ex-King of Diamonds’; ‘The Man Who Gambled With Life’; ‘Portrait of Brenda’; and ‘The World Beater’.

Stepping into the role of Leslie Charteris’ “modern-day Robin Hood” Simon Templar (formerly played in films by smoothies like George Sanders), Roger Moore swiftly struck the right poses, adding a raised eyebrow to the character’s established trademarks–a stick figure with halo, a whistled theme (co-composed by Charteris himself) and a quixotic commitment to adventure rather than decency. More clean-cut than the vigilante of the novels, Moore’s Templar is a reformed thief (with an accent on reformed) whose adventures invariably involve a beautiful girl in trouble, an exotic locale established by stock shots and pantomime-level barroom sets with revolving fans on the ceiling, and “foreign” villains, played by familiar British character actors in false moustaches. The Saint ran from 1962 to 1969. Connoisseurs reckon the earlier, black and white shows are superior to the later colour seasons. From 1979 to 1980, there was a follow-up, The Return of the Saint, in which sufficiently ironic Ian Ogilvy donned Templar’s polo neck, but the format seemed outmoded in comparison with The Sweeney and The Professionals. Volume One contains: “The Talented Husband” in which a playwright is found dead in suspicious circumstances, with guest star Shirley (Goldfinger) Eaton; and “The Latin Touch” which concerns a kidnapping in Rome, with Suzan Farmer and Warren (Alf Garnett) Mitchell. –Kim Newman