The
lowdown: Roger Moore starred as Simon Templar, otherwise known
as 'The Saint' in six seasons between October
1962 and February 1969.
It was made by the prolific production house ITC and broadcast on ITV1.
The Saint often found
himself in exotic locations,
coming to the assistance of people in peril, helping old friends or assisting
the wronged to get
justice. Templar often ran
afoul of the local law, although in the TV series he generally worked with
the police rather than
against them. In the original
books by Leslie Charteris, The Saint was portrayed as a gentleman villain,
albeit one who
preferred to make a quick
buck by conning the conmen rather than innocent people.
'The Golden Journey' was
the 10th episode of the first season, and was first broadcast on ITV1 on
6 December 1962.
The episode is set in Costa
Brava, Spain and sees Templar set off on a cross-country hike with a rich
young heiress,
Joan West, in order to teach
her a lesson about life before her impending marriage. The focus of the
story is on their
efforts to survive with
limited food and water (although they are of course in no real danger).
Roger Delgado makes one
of his many brief cameos
in ITC shows, in this case as the manager of the hotel where Templar and
West are staying.
Delgado also appeared in
a 1966 episode called 'Locate and Destroy'.
The
verdict: Like many shows from the 1960s, 'The Saint' is showing
its age; Roger Moore seems impossibly young,
not surprising given that
it would be 10 years before his debut as James Bond, and the pace of the
action is very slow
compared with modern TV
production standards. Moore's practice of talking directly to the camera
at the beginning of
each episode during the
early seasons may have seemed innovative in the 1960s, but it tends to
be very annoying after
a while. However, 'The Saint'
has much more realistic plots than some shows of the era (such as 'The
Avengers') and is
still a very enjoyable series
for fans of British action-adventure shows of the 1960s.
Trivia:
Patrick
Troughton also appeared in two episodes of 'The Saint', the second season's
'The
Romantic Matron' and
a
fifth season episode, 'Interlude in Venice'.
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