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The Saint's Blog devoted to news and rumors about The Saint and Leslie Charteris. Simon Templar, alias The Saint, was played by Roger Moore in the 1960's TV show featuring the Volvo 1800.
Please e-mail any current news and rumors about The Saint to: 
Tuesday, June 15, 2010
 Saint (The): Original Soundtrack: Network DVD
Never previously released and compiled from the original master tapes, this four-CD set comprises the varied themes and incidental scores for the colour editions of The Saint, containing over 200 pieces of music and songs which were especially composed for the series.
Composer Edwin Astley's distinctive take on Leslie Charteris famous literary character – and his familiar musical motif – leads into danger across the world for gentleman adventurer Simon Templar.
In Geneva, he is approached by a young lady to rescue her defecting father from the soviets. In Wales, he finds death stalking the misty countryside in the form of a giant ant. In Vienna, he aids a young woman found standing over a murdered prince with a gun in her hand. In Amsterdam, he acts as bodyguard for the transportation of a priceless diamond. In Britain, he is hired to join a group of mercenaries masquerading as an army unit.
Two feature-length tales see him tangling with the bizarre SWORD organisation which has sprung from the pages of a thriller novel as well as seeking revenge for the victim of a Mafia killing while on a visit to Naples. Added to this are songs and tunes to fit the flamenco dances and calypsos of bars in South American and the West Indies, as well as the night clubs, hippy parties and pop scene of swinging Sixties London.
Including extensive liner notes from archive television historian Andrew Pixley, this set is an essential purchase for all ITC aficionados.
A Saintly CD Collection -- Network has recently released a beautiful and complete soundtrack collection of The Saint. The four disc CD audio collection features original music and cues from the color episodes of the Roger Moore series as well as the two films. It also included notes by esteemed TV historian Andrew Pixley. You can order it directly from Network if you're in the UK, or if you're in the USA you can order it from Screen Archives Entertainment.
ID: Network Catalog 7959011, Barcode 5027626901134, NETWORK5027626901134Labels: 2010, CD, Edwin Astley, Roger Moore, Soundtrack
Tuesday, June 08, 2010
Last weekend, Ian Dickerson was interviewed on The Tainted Archive's TV Cop Weekend about his forthcoming book, The Saint on TV.
We're very excited about this forthcoming book coming from Hirst Books in October 2010 (preorder today!), as Ian has had unprecedented access to Leslie Charteris, family, and friends over his many years at the Honorable Secretary of the Saint Club. The interview gives a brief glimpse into the behind-the-scenes stories that Ian has managed to unearth during his years of in-depth research and own Saintly detective work. These stories include the Hollywood years of the 1940s and 50s when The Saint first became a topic of discussion with TV producers, the fantastic Roger Moore series of the 1960s, the Return of The Saint with Ian Ogilvy in the 1970s, the 1980s efforts, and the latest attempts to revive The Saint to television audiences around the world, The Saint on TV is coming soon, and hopefully not just in book form!
The Saint on TV by Ian Dickerson  The path to TV Heaven for the Saint and Leslie Charteris started in 1952, but the signposts to it had been planted in the 1940s: Vincent Price, during his spell as the Saint on the radio, had observed that the Saint’s creator Leslie Charteris “wanted to play it in every media” and in late 1948 Charteris had been approached by an Argentine company wishing to produce a series of Spanish-language Saint shorts—that is to say a series of films lasting twenty-five minutes, not an item of Saintly apparel. He refused them point blank. Even in the media intensive 21st Century Argentinean film and television productions are not know for the international sales and recognition that Charteris felt his creation deserved.
It wasn’t until 1952, with the American TV industry still very much wearing its nappies, that Charteris began to seriously study ways to put the Saint on television; the blossoming small screen industry seemed the perfect next step for the adventures of Leslie Charteris, as creator of the Robin Hood of Modern Crime.
Earlier that year he’d renegotiated the contract for the Saint radio shows retrieving control of the TV rights, which had previously been bundled alongside the radio rights as TV hadn’t really kicked into gear. He was now determined to develop a TV show for the Saint and penned a number of scripts, designed to show how a half-hour Saint TV show would run.
He set to work with an LA based producer packaging the scripts and offering them as “a series or program of motion pictures for use exclusively on television and radio” targeting David Niven for the lead. It never made it in to production and with the benefit of hindsight it can be suggested that no one was willing to risk engaging Charteris, who had absolutely no experience in producing or directing a TV show.
Some verification of this theory was offered over a year later when Ted Ashley, of the Ashley-Famous Agency had tried to sell the Saint on TV. He summarized the problems they were encountering;
I regret having to advise you that the general opinion has been that the scripts are not sufficiently interesting and particularly, not of the proper type, in terms of general content for a motion picture television film.
...we have indicated that you would write scripts or have them written under your supervision...
...there are many indications that a pilot film and possibly a commitment assuring the production of a minimum of 13 pictures can be obtained, if you would be willing to limit your relationship to that of general advisor on scripts, casting, direction and production...
By 1960 the Saint was still to conquer television. Continue reading at The Tainted Archive...Labels: 2010, Ian Dickerson, Leslie Charteris, TV, Vincent Price
Saturday, June 05, 2010
In the hopes that no news is good news, there has not been anything new to report on the forthcoming television revival of The Saint. It's still in the works, and there have been a few changes in the plans, but we're still hopeful that some official news will be on the horizon shortly!
The official website of Leslie Charteris still holds out the tantalizing clue that, "There are unseen TV producers at work..."Labels: 2010, TV
Wednesday, May 26, 2010
 While not technically the soundtrack just to The Return of the Saint, there is a collection of the greatest music from a number of ITC television series, The Music of ITC. There are 133 different tracks on 2 CD audio discs (158 mins), and beautifully illustrated booklet with liner sleeve notes. Disc 1 features Edwin Astley's music from the original Saint TV show, starring Roger Moore on tracks 23 to 31. The Edwin Astley songs have been on CD before; the real news is the songs from The Return of The Saint, starring Ian Ogilvy! Those have not been on CD before, and they appear on the second disc as tracks 45 through 52! Disc 1
1-6 Danger Man (half hour series)(Edwin Astley)
7-13 Danger Man (hour series)(Edwin Astley)
14-15 Gideon's Way (Edwin Astley)
16-22 The Baron (Edwin Astley)
23-31 The Saint (Edwin Astley)
32-37 Man In A Suitcase (Ron Grainer / Albert Elms)
38-44 The Prisoner (Ron Grainer / Albert Elms / Robert Farnon)
45-53 The Champions (Tony Hatch / Edwin Astley / Albert Elms)
54-61 Department S (Edwin Astley)
Disc 2
1-6 Randall & Hopkirk (Edwin Astley)
7-13 Strange Report (Roger Webb)
14-17 The Persuaders (John Barry / unknown)
18-25 Jason King (Laurie Johnstone)
26-33 The Protectors (Mitch Murray / John Cameron)
34-36 The Adventurer (John Barry / unknown)
37-44 The Zoo Gang (Paul McCartney / Ken Thorne)
45-52 Return Of The Saint (Brian Dee / G&M De Angelis)
45 - Main Title Theme by Brian Dee and Irving Martin
46 to 50 - various Incidental cues by Brian Dee and Irving Martin
51 - Taking It Easy (European Theme) by Guido and Maurizio de Angelis / performed by Oliver Onions
52 - Closing titles by Brian Dee and Irving Martin So yes! To answer the most pressing issue of the day, the elusive European theme song Taking It Easy by Oliver Onions is indeed included in the collection! Labels: 2010, Amazon.com, CD, Edwin Astley, ITC, Oliver Onions, Return of The Saint, Soundtrack
Wednesday, May 12, 2010
Happy birthday to Leslie Charteris today. He was born on May 12, 1907 so therefore would have been 103 this year! Cheers, and I'm sure we'll all be reading a Saint story tonight in his memory.Labels: 2010, Leslie Charteris
Saturday, May 08, 2010
Now open for business is The Saint Club’s online shop.
You can find it at www.lesliecharteris.com/shop and hopefully the site is fairly self-explanatory. You can pay via PayPal or simply via credit card if you don’t have a PayPal account. Or you can send us a cheque.
It is a small shop at the moment but will grow over the next few weeks as I sort everything out.
Any problems or queries please let us know!Labels: 2010, Ian Dickerson, The Saint Club
Friday, April 16, 2010
Burl Barer, the Edgar-Award-Winning author is currently writing RETURN OF THE SAINT!
Burl writes:A new Simon Templar adventure, RETURN OF THE SAINT, is in the works, and my previous SAINT novel, Capture the Saint, is now available in a Kindle edition. Yes, Bill Macdonald is still doing his best to bring the world a new SAINT TV show, and he's got a few angels on his shoulder -- Roger Moore, Ian Dickerson, and some fellow named Burl Barer. I'm sure it will all work out. Watch for the Sign of the Saint... Labels: 2010, Burl Barer
After many years of hosting The Saint and Leslie Charteris on our own servers, we have moved the blog to a new Google server at http://blog.saint.org/
You will notice much faster performance, and the Saint Blog Team will now be able to have their posts go live instantaneously without any of the problems that have kept them from more frequent posting. By the way, if you are interested in becoming a content contributor to this news blog about The Saint and Leslie Charteris, please drop us a line.
For feed subscribers, there is no need to update your feed subscriptions. The Feedburner service has been updated, and you will continue to receive new articles as they are posted.Labels: 2010, Blogger, Google
Wednesday, January 27, 2010
 Burl Barer's wonderful addition to the Saint saga, Capture The Saint, is now available in e-book format for Amazon's Kindle!
The price is just $1.99 and all Kindle Books include wireless delivery - you'll be reading Capture The Saint on your Kindle within a minute of placing your order.
Capture The Saint, is the first all new Saint novel approved by the Estate of Leslie Charteris, and finds the famous Simon Templar encountering beautiful women and dangerous criminals in the Emerald City of Seattle, Washington. Written by Burl Barer, Edgar Award winning author of The Saint: A Complete History, and The Saint: A Novel; Capture The Saint has been described as "Fast, Funny and blissfully faithful" by Dick Lochte of the Los Angeles Times and "Wonderful entertainment" by the Washington Post.Labels: 2010, Amazon.com, Burl Barer
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