Labels: 2010, CD, Edwin Astley, Roger Moore, Soundtrack

Labels: 2009, Roger Moore

A defining moment in the career of the film producer Robert S Baker, who has died aged 93, was the day he met Leslie Charteris, the author of a series of novels featuring the gentleman thief Simon Templar, alias the Saint. It was 1961 and Baker, in conjuction with the producer Monty Berman, had already made dozens of British B-movies of varying quality, including several films in the Hammer horror tradition, the most commercially successful being Jack the Ripper (1959), which the pair also directed.

Charteris had been seeking a tele-vision deal for the Saint for some time, but nobody had managed to persuade him that they would do the stories justice. As Baker acknowledged: "He protected the Saint like a bulldog – and many offers had fallen flat on their face." But thanks to a recommendation from John Paddy Carstairs, who had struck up a friendship with Charteris when he directed The Saint in London (1939) for RKO Pictures, the writer agreed in principle to give Baker and Berman the rights for a series.

The deal was clinched after Lew Grade of Associated Television agreed to allow a healthy budget of £30,000 an episode and to shoot the series on film rather than the cheaper teleciné, which would make it easier to sell to the US. In fact the series was eventually sold to 63 countries and reaped a profit in excess of £350m.

For the lead role, Grade suggested Patrick McGoohan, who had been a great success as the secret agent John Drake in Danger Man (1960-61). But Baker and Berman felt McGoohan lacked the lightness of touch that the character of Templar needed, and opted for 34-year-old Roger Moore, who had taken the title roles in the TV series Ivanhoe (1958-59) and Maverick (1959-61).

Moore starred in 118 episodes of The Saint (1962-69). Return of the Saint (1978-79) revived the suave and witty character, this time embodied by Ian Ogilvy, and was reprised in a few different guises over the years, with Baker profiting from holding the rights.

Baker was born in London and became interested in photography from an early age, winning several competitions. When the second world war broke out, he joined the Royal Artillery in north Africa during the El Alamein campaign. He then got himself transferred to the Army Film and Photographic Unit, becoming a combat cameraman in Italy, Belgium and Germany. During that time he met Berman, who was also filming battles.

After the war, the pair set up Tempean Films, their first production being A Date with a Dream (1948), a modest comedy about a wartime concert party's reunion. It starred Terry-Thomas and Jeannie Carson, with Norman Wisdom making his screen debut in a small role.

The company was soon turning out second features at a rate of about four a year to fill up programmes during the 1950s, most of them directed briskly by John Gilling or Henry Cass, and starring what seemed like a Who's Who of washed-up American actors, including Forrest Tucker, Mark Stevens, Alex Nicol, Scott Brady, Arthur Kennedy, Rory Calhoun, Rod Cameron, Dale Robertson and Larry Parks.

Then, from 1958, the duo moved into slightly more mainstream territory with Sea of Sand, a familiar north African war adventure, directed by Guy Green and starring Richard Attenborough; The Siege of Sidney Street (1960), which vividly recreated the London of 1911; and The Treasure of Monte Cristo (1961). The latter two were directed by Baker and Berman, along with the period swashbuckling adventure The Hellfire Club (1961), which was written by Jimmy Sangster and featured Peter Cushing, both regular Hammer habitués.

In fact, Baker and Berman, inspired by the success of Hammer, made their own gothic horror movies. However, these were released in two versions, one for the UK and US markets with their strict censorship and ratings systems, and another for the more liberal, continental European and Japanese markets, where audiences enjoyed extra blood and sex.

They had that aplenty in Blood of the Vampire (1958), with Donald Wolfit hamming it up as Dr Callistratus, who has returned to life to run a lunatic asylum after being executed, and Jack the Ripper, both films written by Sangster. The poverty and filth of 19th-century Edinburgh is well evoked in the atmospheric The Flesh and The Fiends (1960), with Cushing as Doctor Knox, and Donald Pleasence and George Rose as the grave-robbers Burke and Hare. After Gideon's Way (1964-66), a workmanlike police drama series based on the John Creasy books, with John Gregson as the Scotland Yard detective, Berman branched off to produce and write several of his own television series.

Baker and Moore then formed Bamore, a company that produced The Persuaders (1971-72), starring Moore and Tony Curtis as wealthy playboy adventurers, and the film Crossplot (1969), a swingin' London thriller with Moore finding himself in a psychedelic disco, a vintage car race and a helicopter chase. Baker and Moore had a long association, with the actor describing his friend as "one of the kindest men I have ever had the privilege of working with".

Baker is survived by his two daughters.

Labels: 2009, Robert S. Baker, Roger Moore, TV

Labels: 2009, Dougray Scott, Roger Moore, TV, William J. MacDonald

Labels: 2008, Amazon.com, Hodder and Stoughton, Ken Follett, Leslie Charteris, Roger Moore

Labels: 2008, Roger Moore

Labels: 2008, Barry Levinson, Bill MacDonald, Cat out of the Bag, Geoffrey Moore, James Purefoy, Roger Moore

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 me. 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 me (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 perhaps of more interest to you lot, 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.

There's loads more in it but I'm not spilling all my beans here. If you want to know more about it, or the two reprints, keep checking www.lesliecharteris.com because that's where the latest news will be.

Labels: 2007, Ian Dickerson, Ian Ogilvy, Roger Moore, Simon Dutton, The Saint Club, TV

Labels: 2007, Hollywood, James Bond, Roger Moore

I'd known Lois from the beginning of my acting career, we were both drama students at Rada in 1944 and 1945.

We first played opposite each other in Pride and Prejudice. I was Darcy, she was Elizabeth. She was a very fine actress with a great sense of humour.

I think it was a great disappointment to her that she had not been promoted to play M. She would have been a wonderful M.

Lois was wonderful, absolutely perfect casting. It was a great pity that after I moved out of Bond, that they didn't take her on to continue in the Timothy Dalton films.

She had a tremendous sense of humour. She used to sing dirty songs, from the Canadian women's army in which she'd served.

We'd done a number of episodes of The Saint and The Persuaders together, so over the past 60 years I'd seen a great deal of her. But unfortunately, not over the last couple of years.

She had a quite a wide range of parts before she went into the Bond franchise. I'm afraid she got sort of typecast as Miss Moneypenny, that's what producers do, unfortunately, they put people in categories, they don't seem to move people out of them.

At the National Movie Awards, I presented an award to [Bond producers] Barbara Broccoli and Michael Wilson. It's a pity the timing was so bad, we really could have given her a tribute then.

• Wikipedia Entry for Lois Maxwell
  
• Times Obituary
  
• MI6 Obituary
  
• Google News

Labels: 2007, James Bond, Lois Maxwell, Roger Moore, Susan G. Komen, Wikipedia

Labels: 2007, Amazon.com, DVD, Roger Moore

Photoshoot and trailer for German TV. Sir Roger Moore has taken part in a photoshoot and trailer for German television channel Das Vierte to promote "The Persuaders" and "The Saint" being shown on the network from 1st September 2007. The shoot took place in Monaco, where Sir Roger also gave a comprehensive interview which will be shown on the channel on 2nd September 2007. A German translation of the transcript is on the network's website. Source: MI6

Labels: 2007, German, Google, Roger Moore, The Persuaders

Labels: 2007, Burl Barer, James Garner, Maverick, Roger Moore, Wikipedia

Leslie Charteris -- A Saintly Centennial
Listen Online

Roger Moore celebrates the life of Leslie Charteris, the creator of The Saint, one of the longest-running characters in detective fiction.

Programme details

More about Moore

Your memories of the 1960s

Labels: 2007, BBC, Leslie Charteris, Roger Moore

Labels: 2007, Barbra Paskin, BBC, Leslie Charteris, Roger Moore

Roger Moore, who starred as Simon Templar in the original TV series, celebrates the centenary of the birth of popular fiction writer Leslie Charteris, famous for his adventures featuring the character better known as The Saint. The programme includes rare interview footage of Charteris along with contributions from his family, actor Ian Ogilvy and Charteris biographer Ian Dickerson.

We are experiencing severe technical problems, and regret that many programmes are unavailable. We are working to restore normal service. See station websites for alternative links.

Labels: 2007, Barbra Paskin, BBC, Ian Dickerson, Ian Ogilvy, Leslie Charteris, Roger Moore

Mike Reid, 'the great storyteller' and comedian, dies at the age of 67

Mike Reid, the actor and master of the politically incorrect joke, died yesterday, aged 67.

His agent, David Hahn, told the BBC that the stand-up comic was in Marbella, Spain, where he owned a villa, when he suffered a fatal heart attack while apparently in good health.

"Mike was in fine fettle. Only a couple of weeks ago we were having dinner and Mike went to see his consultant that day, had a full medical and they gave him a clean bill of health."

Reid played Frank Butcher in the BBC soap opera EastEnders and starred in the British gangster film, Snatch. Born in Hackney, London, he began his career as a stuntman, working on films such as Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and Spartacus, as well as on The Saint as a stunt double for Roger Moore.

Rising to fame on London's comedy circuit, Reid worked as a stand-up comedian in the 1960s in clubs and cruise liners. His big break came in the seventies in a popular television series, The Comedians, that consisted of short slots by mature comedians.

Reid had a daughter by his first marriage and two sons by his second wife, Shirley Collins. Last night, Mr Hahn said of Reid's wife: "Mike was her life."

The entertainer Russ Abbot said Reid was a great story-teller who had a great sense of comic timing. "There are certain comedians who do one-liners, but Mike was a story-teller and a great deliverer," he said.

Reid's close friend and fellow comedian Frank Carson, speaking in Spain, said his death was "absolutely devastating".

Labels: 2007, Mike Reid, Roger Moore

This year marks the centenary of the birth of popular fiction writer Leslie Charteris, best known for his many books chronicling the adventures of Simon Templar, alias The Saint.
In this special programme, actor and Saint portrayer Roger Moore explores the life and legacy of Charteris and reveals a world of adventure, torment, insecurity, failed marriages and enormous success as a thriller writer.

The adventures of The Saint have appeared continuously since 1928, making Simon Templar the longest-running character in contemporary detective fiction. But there was more to Charteris's literary acuity than The Saint alone. He was fluent in several languages; he had a monthly column in the epicurial delight, Gourmet magazine; and he devised a pictorial sign language which he called "Paleneo" and wrote a book about it. He was also one of the earliest members of Mensa.

Despite his film-star looks, with a hint of exoticism, Charteris suffered from a long-standing insecurity about his appearance, arising from his mixed racial origin. In later years he dated some of Hollywood's most beautiful women, among them Marlene Dietrich and Jean Harlow.

It wasn't until 1963, when Lou Grade cast Roger Moore and filmed the first television series of The Saint, that Charteris at last felt he'd received the final seal of approbation that had eluded him for 30 years.

Among those exploring the world and psyche of Charteris are Dan Bodenheimer, who runs the official Saint website; Burl Barer, author of The History Of The Saint; and Charteris's biographer Ian Dickerson.

Labels: 2007, Barbra Paskin, BBC, Burl Barer, Ian Dickerson, Leslie Charteris, Roger Moore

Labels: 2007, DVD, Roger Moore, The Fiction-Makers

Back to the point, look around today and we have no heroes on television. We have sociopathic psychos with badges who ram guns down people's throats and yell "Suck THIS, pal!", and they are usually some sort of recovering addict, be it alcohol/drugs, sex, or gambling. We have characters who kill as easily as they sneeze. Stealing is perfectly acceptable, as long as no one gets caught. No damsel needs rescuing, and if she does it's usually a setup to try and kill the protagonist. It is entertaining for him to slap/hit/threaten her, usually while screaming her marked resemblance to a female canine at the top of his lungs. Lie, cheat, steal, hurt, no matter; it's okay, the end justifies the means. Results are what count, not the methods to achieve them, and if you don't believe that, take a close look at the Business World today.

Heroes should be above the crowd; polished but not effete, superior but not snide, capable but not arrogant, strong but not uncaring.

Special.

Today, we have no Bogart, or Gable, or Cooper. We don't have a Gardner, a Bacall, a Hepburn.

Hell, we don't even have a Saint anymore…

Labels: 2007, Roger Moore, TNT