User Reviews

I have to confess to having something of a personal nostalgia for this episode of the long running series starring the then future 007 Roger Moore and that is that it was the first programme I ever saw on cable television in my own house. The new toy had 60 channels where once there were but 4 but on the day it was installed this was the one thing I found on the new stations that was in anyway watchable.

It is now barely watchable although it is not without interest as it is the last ever episode made of the programme. The final series had a new, less memorable, arrangement of the theme tune and some of the stories were more humdrum than the fanciful tales of previous series as most are set in England and have stories that are grittier than those in the preceding five series.

This story set in the world of rallying is rather different from one of the Saint's previous forays into the world of motor sport that featured women motor drivers (including Kate O'Mara sporting a really bad attempt at an Italian accent as well as a hit-man whose modus operandi recalled Kubrick's gunman in The Killing). The World Beater is far less fanciful. I would not quite say that you can smell the engine oil but this is about as near to realism as ITC's take on Templar ever got and it is none the worse for it.

The tale revolves around two feuding cousins- George and Justin both of whom have developed cars that they have entered into a rally sponsored by a millionaire named Laker ( the ever excellent George Cooper). George has hired Templar but his car is sabotaged during a test run by Justin's latest girlfriend, Kay Collingwood ( played by Patricia Haines).Laker insists, much to Justin and Kay's chagrin, that Templar take over driving duties of Justin's car known as the Sentinel

After a bit of to-ing and fro-ing Templar ropes Kay- a con artist with whom Templar has had some past, possibly romantic, dealings- into being his navigator. Templar does of course win and then reveals that he had arranged for the original Sentinel engine to be replaced by the engine from George's spare car meaning that George and not Justin has won after all.

This is pretty routine stuff and I doubt whether many people could not see the twist coming in February 1969 and there are one or two stupid moments - not least the actress playing Kay's slightly dopey personal assistant, Dilys, obviously having no idea how to type as she is hitting the same two keys throughout - but Patricia Haines is far less of a dolly bird than was usual for the show and although John Ronane is too sympathetic an actor for the role as the devious Justin he gives it some pathos the writers may not have expected. And Moore is, as he often was, fine. Not a hair out of place, debonair and better than he usually was as Bond.

There were far better episodes of this show than this one - not least the one I mentioned that had Kate O'Mara in it- and it is surprising that the producers chose it to bring down the curtain on the series ( I do not think they were sure that it would be the last episode of all). But despite the occasional silliness it is hard to dislike it.