Reviews

I really enjoyed the first series (and am enjoying it again on DVD), but it never really stood a chance in the UK. When it first started it had the Saturday tea-time slot (after the sports results and before the evening schedule). I'm not sure about the other regions, but on Granada (NW England) part way through series 1 it stopped being weekly - on one week then missing the next. Then it stopped completely. Some time later it reappeared on Saturday afternoon (going against the BBC's main sports programme Grandstand) and picked up from where it had left off. It then disappeared again. A year or so later, HTV (the ITV franchise for Wales, which I also received) started showing series 3 on Saturday afternoon's, which was seriously confusing for someone who hadn't seen series 2, but they didn't show the complete series. Granada subsequently showed a couple of shows from series 2, but not at a regular time and not for very long. I hope they release series 2 and 3 on DVD just to see what I missed when they were(n't) first shown.

I remember watching the first season of this when it came out and absolutely adored it. Powers Boothe's portrayal was just right. It was around the same time that Jeremy Brett's Sherlock Holmes first aired, so we were spoilt for quality detective drama. If I recall correctly, it was part financed by London Weekend Television (part of the ITV network at the time) and shown on ITV in prime time. I recall them announcing that, even though the show was popular, they would not be making any more after the initial five due to it being so expensive. Nearly every item in the show was a genuine period piece, with very little being reproduced. This, and the fact that it was shot in the UK, made it extremely costly. The second series was never shown properly in the UK. Odd episodes would turn up in the early hours of the morning and, although the production values were not as good, the shows were still enjoyable. Hopefully someone will produce a restored version of the shows on DVD (previous comments claim that the quality is not too good). I also think it's time for Marlowe to appear again. James Caan's version in "Poodle Springs" didn't quite work as I thought he was a little too old for the role. Ideally, Marlowe should be in his late thirties/early forties: young enough to take (or throw) a punch, but old enough to have "been around the block" a few times. Ten years ago, Harrison Ford would have been ideal, but now I'm not sure. Any ideas .... ?

If this had been called anything else, it would have been damned as a poor "Mission:Impossible" rip-off. As it is, apart from the main characters name, it had nothing to do with "The Saint". I've enjoyed most versions of The Saint over the years (except the poor Simon Dutton version of the late 80's) but this stank. I'm not saying that they should have produced a carbon copy of what had gone before, but there's enough of the old material around (books, films, TV, radio) to have at least given the creators a feel for the character. Val Kilmer proved, with his portrayal of Bruce Wayne (though not Bat Man), that he can portray the "playboy-adventurer" but he never got the chance with this script. I hope that when someone has another go, they ignore this when looking for reference material. In an era when audiences like franchises, and studios like safe options, this was a big opportunity missed. I still believe there is a place for Simon Templar, unfortunately this wasn't it.