The News

July 10th, 2008: The Best of the Saint
Coming this November...

Volume 1 has an introduction by novelist Ken Follett and the following Saint adventures: The Man Who Was Clever, The Policeman With Wings, The Lawless Lady, The Inland Revenue, The Charitable Countess, The Star Producers, The Art of Alibi, The Simon Templar Foundation, The High Fence, The Elusive Ellshaw, The Miracle Tea Party and The Affair of Hogsbotham.

Volume 2 has an introduction by Sir Roger Moore and the following Saint adventures: The Covetous Headsman, The Angel's Eye, The Rhine Maiden, The Golden Journey, The Loaded Tourist, The Spanish Cow, The Latin Touch, The Patient Playboy, The Talented Husband, The Reluctant Nudist, The Lovelorn Sheik, The Pluperfect Lady, The Sporting Chance, The Better Mousetrap, The Prodigal Miser, The Hopeless Heiress.

July 3rd, 2008: The Saint Gets Delayed
Crain's Detroit Business is reporting that shooting on the pilot of The Saint has been delayed until "at least August because of a possible actors strike",

July 1st, 2008: Donald James
Sadly we are able to confirm the passing of scriptwriter Donald James. An ITC stalwart he contributed to shows such as The Avengers, The Champions, Department S, Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased) and three episodes of Roger Moore's incarantion of The Saint ('The World Beater', 'The People Importers' and 'The Organisation Man').

As Booktrade noted:

"...he will be remembered for the bestselling novel The Fall of the Russian Empire (1982), which anticipated in uncanny detail the fall of Soviet Communism, and the three acclaimed thrillers Monstrum, The Fortune Teller and Vadim (1996-2000), set in a futuristic Russia of 2015 where totalitarianism had returned, and featuring his greatest fictional creation, Inspector Constantin Vadim. Donald lived in France with his third wife for many years and in the novel Walking the Shadows (2003), he explored the ghostly legacy of the Vichy years of World War 2. There followed Donald's two autobiographical memoirs of his childhood. He is also the co-author of the classic reference work, The Penguin Dictionary of the Third Reich (new edition 2002).

Donald's novels are imbued with a rich humanity, a wry sense of humour and a sharp eye for injustice. He was blessed with an ever youthful, inquisitive mind, always open to fresh ideas and experiences. He was also totally self-effacing, never talking up his own accomplishments; in fact many of his closest friends didn't know of his family's straitened past until they read about it in his memoirs."

June 10th, 2008: The Welsh Saint
With curious timing icWales is running this piece noting the 80th anniversary. All we can say is that if he thinks the Kilmer movie was rock bottom, well he should see Andrew Clarke in the role, or Jean Marais. And we note with fascination that "the first Saint movie was planned for 1933". Erm, no. The first Saint movie was always planned to be The Saint in New York, which was written in late 1934...

May 27th, 2008: Roger Parkes
The Unmutual is reporting the death of scriptwriter Roger Parkes. Although he's best remembered for his episode of The Prisoner he merits our attention for he came up with the story for an episode of Return of the Saint (Yesterday's Hero). Plus he was a damned good scriptwriter and a really nice chap who was quite happy to talk about his work...

May 27th, 2008: The Saint at Cannes...
The Saint was represented at Cannes recently by Arsenal Pictures who had the rather nice teaser artwork you can find on the front of this web site and the following synopsis:

Simon Templar is part of a secret organization known as 'Knights of the Templar'. He's responsible for enforcing the group's code of ethics against the criminal underground of the world. Those familiar with 'Knights' know Simon Templar by one name: The Saint. His current assignment has him in Montenegro, rescuing captive children from being sold on the black market. When the operation is finished, Templar discovers that one of the children is missing. An orphan once himself, he vows to rescue the lost boy, no matter what the cost. Waiting for him in Paris is Patricia Holm, an intelligence specialist and Templar's lover. She has information that a crooked businessman named Carger is responsible for the children's abductions; however, the Knights learn that Carger is now into much bigger things. The Saint is ordered to find Carger and steal a treasured relic that, if made public, could ignite a spectacular holy war. When he discovers Carger has also been keeping the missing orphan as his own son, Templar must decide between his own personal convictions and his duties as The Saint.

May 5th, 2008: Coming this July from Umbrella...

THE SAINT - WITH SIMON DUTTON
1989 TV
566 Mins - TBC
RRP: AUS $39.99

Suave, chivalrous & Utterly Heroic!

In 1989 the cult British spy series, The Saint, was again welcomed back to TV in six feature-length episodes staring Simon Dutton as Simon Templar-aka The Saint. In a role immortalised by Roger Moore in the 60s, Dutton plays the suave, debonair super sleuth who is adored by women, feared by his adversaries and remains a constant thorn in the side of police forces everywhere.

An Australian/British co-production from 1989, this was the final remake of the cult British spy series originally starring Roger Moore - Ian Ogilvy starred in the 70s vehicle, The Return of the Saint. The entire series on 3 Discs - six, 2 hour movie versions of the hugely popular British TV series

May 5th, 2008: The Saint on TCM
Turner Classic Movies - the US version, not the European variants--have schedule the old RKO Saint movies for airing this month:

May 10th: The Saint in London at 10am and The Saint's Double Trouble at 11:15am
May 17th: The Saint Takes Over at 10am and The Saint in Palm Springs at 11:15am
May 31st: The Saint's Vacation at 10am and The Saint meets the Tiger at 11:15am

May 1st, 2008: A Homicidal but Saintly Reunion
Jay Tobias is production manager on The Saint. His CV includes stints as director on Homicide: Life on the Street, first assistant director on Spenser: For Hire, first assistant director on Law & Order SVU and location manager on Porkys II. Ah well, we all have to start somewhere...

Irene Burns is post-production manager on The Saint. Her CV includes stints as post production supervisor on Oz and a long stint in the same role on Homicide: Life on the Street.

Jim Finnerty is line producer on The Saint. He was coexecutive producer and unit production manager on Homicide: Life on the Street.

And don't forget three of the principal producers, Jorge Zamacona, Barry Levinson and Tom Fontana also worked on Homicide.

April 28th, 2008: Saint John Goldsmith
Scriptwriter John Goldsmith--who did some splendid work on Return of the Saint and The Saint with Simon Dutton--has a new show in production. Stormworld, created by John, is an Australian/Canadian production currently shooting on location in Oz. From the press release:

Brightlight Pictures Inc of Vancouver will co-produce the live action 26 x ½ hour series with Great Western under GWE's WiKKiD.tv brand. Joining the adventures of Canadian teenage characters Jason and Lee on Stormworld, is Singapore's TheatreRed.

Principal photography will take place in Perth, Singapore, Vancouver and the Kimberley coast in North-Western Australia.

The series is supported by ScreenWest, Film Finance Corporation (FFC), the Media Development Authority of Singapore (MDA), TheatreRed, Lotterywest, the Nine Network, ABC-TV, the Disney Channel Australia, Daro Film Distribution and Canada's CTV (Space Channel).

The series has already been sold to Ireland, Romania and Hungary and will be launched at MIP in April 2009.

Stormworld was created by UK writer John Goldsmith and Paul Barron. The Canadian co-producers are Stephen Hegyes and Shawn Williamson of Brightlight Pictures, with Ian Hogg of TheatreRed as Co-Executive Producer. The series will be directed by Edward McQueen-Mason and BAFTA award-winning director Mark DeFriest. Series writers include David Ogilvy, Robert Greenberg, Kelly Lefever, Coral Drouyn, Vanessa Yardley, Bryan McQueen-Mason, Alex Burrows and Victor Gentile. The series is scheduled to enter Principal Photography in January 2008.

April 28th, 2008: The Saint on DVD...part oh-we'velost-count...
Word reaches us (again!) that Umbrella Entertainment are planning to release The Saint with Simon Dutton on DVD in July this year. And since the word came from Umbrella themselves we won't be quite so cynical about this. All 6 movies--no sign of Saint Andrew Clarke unfortunately--are schedule for release. No word, as yet, on any extras.

April 24th, 2008: Shooting the Saint
Shooting on the 2 hour pilot starts May 28th in Budapest and from there will move to Detroit, USA for five weeks interior shooting.

April 23rd, 2008 : The Saint on DVD
Dutch company Lime-Lights Pictures will be issuing their first volume of The Saint with Roger Moore on DVD on May 8th. Volume 1 contains the first 12 B&W episodes, with volumes 2 and 3 to follow on August 21st and December 4th this year.

Hands up who thinks the cover art looks vaguely familiar?

April 23rd, 2008 : A Saintly Icon?
Is The Saint an English icon? You can vote here...

April 22nd, 2008 : A Saintly iTune
Media Guardian report that ITV plan "to make a range of classic programmes" available through iTunes at prices from £1.89 per episode. Scheduled for later this year is The Saint. Presumably the Roger Moore version, but we'll see.

April 2nd, 2008 : A Saintly Instinctive
Variety reports that Instinctive Film have joined as co-producers of the 2 hour pilot.

March 26th, 2008 : Cast of Characters
Casting has started for the 2 hour pilot and notes have been sent out to various agencies. Breaking them down reveals the following characters will be in the pilot - descriptions are as in the casting requirement!

Claude Eustace Teal : 40s. An inspector at INTERPOL. Lean, strong, "a man of no vices". A brilliant tactician. American. Happily Married. Series Regular

Patricia Holm : Striking, Tall, lean, maddeningly sexy, dirty blonde, extremely fashionable (very New York ). Has an exotic accent, "hazy mix of Spanish, Creole, and Dutch". Her relationship with Templar is unique and can often lead her into the path of danger. Series Regular

Baldwin Aleppo : 30s, handsome. Middle Eastern. Mystical. Has a long history with Templar that has formed a friendship that is often fraught with conflict. Series Regular;

Jerome Creedy : 60s. The director of INTERPOL. Toupeed. Bureaucratic, a pain in the ass. A bad temper. Recurring;

Hollis McCarthy : 50s. Lantern-jawed, square, "not to be f**ked with" Ex-military. Dark-souled. Spiritual. Recurring;

DeLano Carger : 50s, pale, poisonous, deluded, brilliant, charming, self-righteous. Short but lethal, i.e. Napoleonic Complex. President of Apollyon Antiques. Manages the human trafficking of children displaced from the Tsunami and other disasters. Guest Star

Emma : Carger's assistant. Young, petite. Horribly abused and embarrassed by the unspeakable treatment she faces from Carger;

Jasper Wells : 30s. Lean, imposing, a stone-cold killer. Works for Delano Carger. Sells children into slavery and sex-slavery for Carger;

Lydia Carger : 20 years younger than her husband, Delano Carger. Very attractive;

Agent Lena Owensby : 30s. African-English. Very Pretty. Speaks before she thinks

Siri : 20s. Green eyes, beautiful. Stoic and anguished over the kidnapping of her son

Paolo : 3-5. Siri's green-eyed boy;

Jakrule : 30s. Of Indonesian descent. A criminal

Weiland : 40s. A Baltic Mutt. A criminal

Nino : 30s. With the Italian Naples mob. A criminal;

Puglas : 50s, an Asian-Hungarian fat man. "A sweaty, hairy mass". A criminal;

Old Drunk Man : Panhandling at the waterfront during the first scene with Simon ;

Guard : Heavy-set. Guards the waterfront

Metz : "A hulking thug born of parents who were probably related". A criminal;

Agent Grimes : Works for INTERPOL

Agent Zemanski : Works for INTERPOL

Ticket Agent : Male, French. Works at the train station in Paris . Sells Templar a ticket

French-Accented Woman : Asks Templar for Directions at JFK airport

Cyclist : Races with Templar down a running path.

Doorman : At Carger's Townhome;

Carpenter : At Carger's Townhome;

Guard #2 : At Apollyon Antiques when Templar and Baldwin try to enter under disguise;

Hans : The Head guard at Apollyon Antiques.

March 10th, 2008 : The Return of the Saint
Okay, the cat's out of the bag...this is from the Hollywood Reporter:

"New take for 'Saint' series

"The Saint" is marching back to television via a contemporary take on the Leslie Charteris' books, with James Purefoy in talks to topline as the debonair international thief Simon Templar.

Producers Barry Levinson and Tom Fontana, writer Jorge Zamacona , feature producer Bill Macdonald, Roger Moore -- who played Templar in the 1960s British series -- and his son Geoffrey Moore are all involved in the project.

Levinson is set to direct the two-hour TV movie/backdoor pilot, which will be produced independently and then shopped to the networks.

The project is backed by Nehst Studios, a financing, production and distribution company that recently partnered with Lexicon Filmed Entertainment to share $250 million from private-equity sources to finance features, TV series and Web series.

Macdonald has been associated with "Saint" on and off for 17 years. In 1991, he acquired the rights to the books for producer Robert Evans. The two went on to produce the 1997 feature starring Val Kilmer as the dapper adventurer.

In 2004, Macdonald teamed with Zamacona and Roger and Geoffrey Moore to bring the "Saint" franchise to television. The four formed Templar Entertainment Group, through which they acquired the TV rights to Charteris' novels.

The new "Saint" series was created by Zamacona, who penned the pilot script, and Macdonald. The project was originally set up at TNT, which announced it as part of its 2007 development slate last March (HR 3/13).

TNT later passed on it, and the rights reverted to the producers. Macdonald and Zamacona might have gone the traditional route -- trying to find a new network home for the show -- if it hadn't been for the writers strike.

With development activity in Hollywood screeching to a halt and Macdonald and Zamacona joining the picket lines, the producers began to mull producing the pilot and the potential series independently and seeking a network partner later. They were well into raising financing for the project when the strike ended.

"The strike changed our strategy because no one knew how long it was going to be, but producing the project independently gives us a lot more creative freedom," Macdonald said.

During the strike, Zamacona approached Levinson and Fontana , who had given him his first writing job on "Homicide: Life on the Street." The two came on board to executive produce "Saint" with Macdonald, Zamacona and Geoffrey Moore , and Levinson agreed to direct.

"One of the things we lost a little bit of in the movie but want to bring to the TV series is that Simon Templar is very funny character with great lines and situation humor, and I don't think there is anybody better than Levinson to tackle that," Macdonald said.

The producers then went after Purefoy, who recently starred on the HBO/BBC series " Rome ," which was co-created and executive produced by Macdonald.

Casting is under way for the other key parts in the pilot: Inspector Claud Eustace Teal, the Interpol agent in charge of tracking Templar; Templar's romantic interest/assistant, Patricia Holm; and his enemy-turned-partner in crime, Baldwin Aleppo.

Filming on the two-hour telefilm, whose script was reworked after the strike, is expected to begin in April in Budapest , Hungary , New York and Puerto Rico .

The project is funded for seasons to come, Nehst founder and chairman Larry Meistrich said.

"We are committed to financing the pilot and deficiting the potential series," he said.

Added CEO Ari Friedman, "I think it's a really good time for a project like this, and we are confident we can find a home for it."

The two-hour movie/backdoor pilot model was used successfully to launch an updated version of another classic action-adventure series, "Knight Rider," which is expected to be picked up to series by NBC after the movie scored big ratings last month.

"Saint" was packaged by CAA. Levinson is repped by ICM.

Roger Moore starred on, produced and directed several episodes of the original British "Saint," which ran on ITV from 1962-69 and in syndication in the U.S. from 1963-66 and as a summer series on NBC from 1967-69.

In the past 10 years, there have been two attempts by broadcast networks to remake the series. In 2000, UPN teamed with director John McTiernan and ATG, while ABC took a stab at the franchise in 2004 with writer Stephen Nathan and "American Idol" producer FremantleMedia North America, which owned the rights at the time.

February 27th, 2008 : The Saint in Hungary
News reaches us that Hungarian cable TV channel Filmmuzeum is showing the Roger Moore series of The Saint at 8pm every evening.

February 26th, 2008 : De Saint
International bibliographer Jean-Marc Lofficier has updated his web site with a 4 page article by Rinus Daane on the Saint's adventures in Dutch publishing.

January 17th, 2008 : El Santo on DVD
Suevia Films in Spain have recently released all the color episodes from the Roger Moore series (minus the 2 two-part stories) in one DVD box set. You can buy it for just under 40 euros here.

December 19th, 2007 : The Saint and the Pulps
The Saint features in a new collection of pulp stories out just in time for Christmas. The Black Lizard Big Book of Pulps is an anthology of what its editor Otto Penzler has subtitled “The Best Crime Stories from the Pulps During Their Golden Age--The '20s, '30s & '40s”. It features the tale of 'The Saint and the Invisible Millionaire' which originally debuted in Follow the Saint (January 1939) and was last seen in the 1974 anthology Saints Alive

December 5th, 2007 : Meet the new Simon Templar!
We can confirm that pre-production has started on a 2 hour pilot film for a new series of The Saint. It will star James Purefoy as the Saint and will shoot in Berlin and Australia in April next year. Film will be produced by William J. Macdonald, Geoffrey Moore and Jorge Zamacona .

November 8th, 2007 : The Return of the Jaguar XJ-S
Mike Smith has sent us these photos of the newly restored Jaguar XJ-S. it is one of the originals that was used in Return of the Saint.

November 8th, 2007 : New Saint books
The Saint Club Christmas letter has broken the news that there are three new Saint books due next year.

Hodder & Stoughton will be publishing two Saint anthologies in the Autumn of 2008. Unoriginally entitled The Best of the Saint (volumes 1 and 2) they'll feature a selection of stories from across the Saint's career (including one which has never appeared in an English paperback before); each volume will also have an introduction from a notable Saint (or Saint fan) plus some additional material by Ian Dickerson . Current plans are for each book to have a yellow jacket cover, along the lines of the old H&S style.

Next year will also see the publication of the definitive history of the Saint's television adventures. Currently and unoriginally entitled The Saint on TV , it's written by Ian Dickerson and if you thought the story of the Saint on TV started with Roger Moore, well this book will show you otherwise. It starts in 1940s Hollywood and this book follows the Saint on TV right up to the present day and the new show in development.

Amongst other things it provides a unique episode guide to all three Saint TV series detailing plots, cast, crew, filming locations and critical reaction. It also comprehensively details what many of the cast and crew have been up to since they met the Saint. And tells the full story behind The Saint in Manhattan and The Saint (with Simon Dutton) using exclusive interviews with many of the cast and crew involved on the productions to analyse what went wrong.

November 8th, 2007 : Website problems
You may have noticed that this site's not been available for a while. Please bear with us--we've just changed hosts and are currently putting everything back together. All pages should be up now, with just a few pictures missing here and there.

August 23rd, 2007 : The Saint's 20 Cigarettes
Simon Dutton is currently starring in 20 Cigarettes at the Soho Theatre, 21 Dean Street London, until August 30th.

August 23rd, 2007 : The Saint is Not Going Out
The second series of one of the few shows on TV that makes us laugh, Not Going Out, starring comedian Lee Mack returns to BBC 1 on Friday September 7th. In one episode Simon Dutton plays the boyfriend of his landlord's younger sister...

August 17th, 2007 : The Saint's Web Site
Ian Ogilvy has started a web site devoted to the literary adventures of Measle Stubbs. He's also started a blog....

August 17th, 2007 : The Saint Goes Dutch
Dutch Saint fan Jeroen van Geffen has compiled a rather splendid web site featuring covers from the Saint's Dutch publications

August 6th , 2007 : Study the Saint
News reaches us here at Upper Berkley Mews that an Australian student is writing a thesis on 'Ideology and Heroism in the Early Novels of Leslie Charteris' based on the view that the political and social views Leslie articulated so strongly in the early books are in fact a dimension of the Saint's heroism, and as such mark him out from the heroes of other thrillers of the day (as well as making Leslie's books distinctive within the genre).

July 16th, 2007 : Leslie Charteris - A Saintly Centennial
This is a 30 minute programme looking at the life and times of Leslie Charteris and will be broadcast on BBC Radio 4 on Tuesday July 31st at 11:30am . It's narrated by Sir Roger Moore and interviewed for the programme were Bill MacDonald, Burl Barer , Ian Ogilvy, Robert S. Baker, Patricia Charteris Higgins and Dan Bodenheimer amongst others.

June 3rd, 2007 : Simon Dutton
Is currently starring in Blithe Spirit at the Watford Palace Theatre until June 16th. You can read reviews of it here (love the comment that " This production forsakes the temptation of casting a big name or two, and triumphs with an excellent cast, regardless of the relative lack of TV soap appearances between them.") and The Stage have also been to see it.

June 2nd, 2007 : An Open Letter to the Editor of Book and Magazine Collector:
You know despite poking fun at your inability to write an accurate cover headline we do understand the problems involved and we've always held your magazine in sneakily high regard, for whenever we've purchased it we've always learnt something new and always been entertained, not necessarily for the right reason but hey, we're easily amused.

We'd not read it in quite a while though, so it was with more than our fair share of eagerness that we picked up the June 2007 edition, admittedly with the intention of learning more about "100 years of the Saint"--oh, okay, sorry. We'll behave. Promise.

Simply acknowledging Leslie's centenary puts you light years ahead of virtually every other publication on the planet, but to make so many errors of fact and demonstrate a distinct lack of research is, quite frankly, very disappointing. To whit:

On the first page the articles states that "The books sold in their tens of thousands…". This seems more than a little uncharitable when we can pull down a Hodder 1964 paperback of The Saint in New York from our shelves and discover from the back cover that over 8 million Saint books have sold in British editions, over 8.5 million in American editions and over 5.5 million in French editions. That's an awful lot of tens of thousands.

The article goes on to state that “In 1919 Dr Yin decided to send his son to England to complete his education.” Erm, no. In 1919 it was Leslie's mother and brother Roy who accompanied him to England . Dr Yin stayed in Singapore . Read in to that what you wish, you probably won't be far from the truth. Dr Yin had nothing to do with the decision.

By the end of the second page the magazine alleges that “…it was in 1923 whilst still at Rossall that he had his first story accepted by a professional magazine”. From Leslie's 1965 article I'm No Saint, "In the field of fiction, I tore off an average of one short story every day, and sent them on the rounds of every imaginable magazine. I sold the first one at 17 and the next at 19, so I doubt if they even paid the postage on the ones which nobody wanted.” Now let's see, he sold his first one at 17. He was born in 1907. You do the maths.

A paragraph later we learn that “Leslie was sent to study at King's College Cambridge where his father hoped he would consider becoming a doctor…” Unlikely, given that he started a law degree at Cambridge . Now I admit that by this time his paternal relationship was probably strained at this stage but still, if your son's studying law at Cambridge it's unlikely he's going to end up a doctor.

The paragraph finishes with “The idea appalled his parents and they withdrew their financial support”. Erm, no. That was just his father. Leslie continued living with his mother and brother in London sporadically over the next few years, so I think it's terribly unfair to say she withdrew her financial support when she obviously didn't.

The next paragraph starts with “Changing his name to Leslie Charteris Ian by deed poll in 1926…” No, he changed it to Leslie Charteris, no Ian on the end. Splendid name though it is.

The article mentions ‘The Uncritical Publisher'…”a story that has never been included in any UK Saint collection” and points "British completists" towards the original Empire News of November 11th 1933 or The Saint Mystery Magazine of November 1960 if they want to read it. What about The Orion Book of Murder published in 1996 which also carried the story? Or The Saint Club one-off publication of the story?

The article then goes on to the RKO years stating that “In 1938 the first Saint film, The Saint in New York was produced by RKO…Later that year a second Saint film was released, this time starring George Sanders …” Erm, no. Sanders' first Saint film was The Saint Strikes Back which was released March 1939 (which a simple check on any number of online sources would have validated).

It goes on to say that “Sanders was succeeded by Hugh Sinclair, who took over for two films made in 1940 and 1941”. Again a couple of minutes on this pesky easy to use internet-thingy would have shown that The Saint's Vacation starring Sinclair was released in May 1941 and The Saint Meets the Tiger, also starring Sinclair, was released in December 1943.

This delightful piece of research then goes on to tackle the magazine years by stating that “In 1954 Charteris began to edit the Saint Mystery Magazine …” So shall we just ignore the Spring 1953 of The Saint Detective Magazine edited by Leslie Charteris? (Granted it was the American edition but that doesn't mean American's can't produce or read magazines. Oh, wait a minute…). November 1954 saw the first UK publication of The Saint Detective Magazine edited by Charteris but it didn't become a mystery magazine until January 1960.

Finally we get to television and learn that “In 1961 the Saint was given a boost when the character's adventures were transferred to television.”. Well, okay, according to producer Robert S. Baker it was December 1961 when he flew to Florida to see Leslie Charteris about optioning the TV rights so you could argue that it was then that the Saint transferred to television, but we find it hard to believe contracts would have been signed in December, what with Christmas and all that. And the show didn't air until October 4th, 1962 so I'm afraid we disagree.

And then there's the old chestnut where it says “The series ran for eight years during which time 116 hour long episodes and two feature length films were made”. Blimey. Which means when we helped with the release of 118 episodes on DVD last year we must have conjured up two extra ones from nowhere. Or maybe we released them all, but two stories which were two parters got feature film releases. So perhaps we should agree at 118 episodes, but only 116 stories… ? And about that eight year run...the series ended its original UK transmission in 1969. By our count 1962 to 1969 does not equal 8 years.

Then there's the bibliography: The Saint and the People Importers was apparently a “novel adapted by Fleming Lee from his own Saint TV script”. The implication, if nothing else, is false. Check out the actual TV episode—now available on DVD we hasten to point out—and you'll see it's credited to Donald James. Read LC's intro to the book and other Saint reference books that your article makes mention of and you learn that Fleming Lee indeed had the original idea and wrote the book. But he didn't get the final credit on the TV episode.

The co-author of The Saint in Pursuit— Fleming Lee --doesn't rate a mention whilst almost all the other co-authors do.

Send for the Saint is apparently “Two novellas adapted by Peter Bloxsam…”. Peter Bloxsom's lesser known cousin obviously.

And then there's Salvage for the Saint. Which despite being listed under adaptations by other writers doesn't actually mention the other writer. It's that Bloxsom fellow again.

Finally Crooked Gold gets a mention as a non-Saint title. Okay, so they didn't credit Leslie as the author but they did keep Simon Templar as the hero, so please explain how it's a non-Saint story?

And you know what, writing this has nothing to do with us wanting to demonstrate our knowledge of the subject. We are quite simply utterly disappointed and very let down that what we previously thought of as a well-edited, informative journal would publish such an inaccurate and badly researched piece of writing.

March 29th, 2007 : The Saint on Wheels
If you wondered why you hadn't seen much of Saint Simon Dutton over the last few years, this could be why.

From a pool hall in Portobello, via a dressing room in Glasgow to the mountains of Provence . Wheels within Wheels is the journey, actor Simon Dutton took in search of Tom Simpson, a sporting hero.

A documentary made over a 4 year period. It chronicles Dutton, who, in a mid-life crisis decides to go off in the tracks of Simpson, the legendary British racing cyclist who tragically died in the 1967 Tour de France.

The film follows Dutton on what turns out to be a pilgrimage… of sorts. Along the way expect humour, pathos, shaky camera work, vintage footage, and a few facts, all backed by an eclectic musical soundtrack … saddle up and enjoy this well oiled chain of events!

March 26th, 2007 : Les Aventures du Saint; an update
The French Saint web site has just undergone a massive update.

Four new pages are now devoted to the French edition of LE SAINT DETECTIVE MAGAZINE which feature all 154 issues and index all the Leslie Charteris et al. stories published therein (with the same information then added to the Bibliography page), with more cover scans to come.

It turns out that there were FOUR stories published in LSDM not collected in book form: (i) The Noble Sportsman, (ii) Le Saint et les Prospecteurs, a Michel-Tyl adaptation of a NYHT strip, (iii) Amours, Gadgets et Colonel, of which nothing is known at this time, and (iv) The Power Artist, a Fleming Lee collaboration, which was, however, later retranslated in the Livre de Poche Saint on TV collection. In particular, (ii) and (iii) are the first time these stories have come to the attention of Saint fans everywhere!

It also turns out that the Charteris original The Uncritical Publisher was never translated after all, although there is a 1945 French-Canadian edition of The Saint Intervenes.

Our Cover Gallery Page 7 now includes additional covers of rare 1950s Saint reprints, the Fayard "Omnibus" volumes, and the Lefrancq reprints of the mid-1990s.

Finally, fans of French cover artist Bernad will enjoy additional cover scans of the Fayard NERO WOLFE and TOFF series.

March 10th, 2007 : Saint Raymond Austin
Writer, producer, actor and director Raymond Austin now has a web site. It contains absolutely loads of superb photos from his long and varied career including some from his time on The Saint.