Five questions to Ian Dickerson, author of "The Saint on TV", 2012
What inspired you to write this book?
Marc Scott Zicree’s book "The Twilight Zone Companion". I absolutely loved "The Twilight Zone" when Channel 4 ran it in the 1980s and it didn’t take me long to discover the Companion. I loved it. I thought it was exactly how a book about a TV show should be, more than just an episode guide, a full look at the history and origins of the show combined with plenty of details about the people who made it.
I’ve long wanted to do something like that for "The Saint" and over the years I’ve acquired so much information and so many stories about attempts to get the Saint on TV that it became obvious that such a book would be possible. I also wanted to bring people up to date as what’s been going on with the Saint over the last few years, with the false starts and strange rumors.
So why write a book about the Saint’s TV career, hasn’t it been done before?
Well yes. And no. Most of the other books that focus on the TV Saint are nothing more than glorified episodes guides. And with the advent of the ubiquitous DVD box sets and the constant reruns everyone who wants to will have seen the show. The last thing you want is yet another detailed recount of what went on in every single episode. And as I’ve said above, I wanted to do more, to look at the production in detail and to recount what went on behind the camera as much as what went on in front.
So what new material is there in your book?
Where do I start? The first chapter is devoted, not just to filling in the back story of Leslie Charteris and the Saint, but detailing every last attempt to get the Saint on TV prior to the long-running success with Roger Moore. It looks at Charteris own attempts to get the show on the road as well as rumors attaching the likes of Louis Hayward to a TV Saint. The coverage of the first two series goes behind the scenes and includes fresh material on locations, quotes from co-stars and crew etc. The later chapters include a detailed behind the scenes look at the failed pilot starring Andrew Clarke and the six TV films that starred Simon Dutton. And the final chapter brings us up to date, detailing some of the wacky proposals that have been made in recent years to get the Saint back on TV. Plus there’s two scripts, both unproduced, one written by Leslie Charteris himself.
Who is your favorite Saint on TV?
I’m a firm believer that every Saint, much like every Bond, is a product of its times. So as someone who’s formative years were in the 1970s my favorite TV Saint is, unsurprisingly, Ian Ogilvy, for I grew up watching him on TV.What’s happening with the plans to get the Saint back on TV?
We’ve taken our time over getting the Saint back on TV because we want to get it right. All of us involved firmly believe that there’s a place in the 21st Century TV landscape for someone like the Saint, a hero who relies on wits, not weapons, a hero who’s not afraid to go out and have some fun. It’s been a tough course, the last chapter of my book illustrates some of the weirder ideas that have been thrown at us (Liz Hurley as Simone Templar anyone?) but we’ve stayed the journey and we seem to be converting financiers and network executives one by one as to the magic of the Saint (all it’s taken is some of Roger’s episodes and several of Leslie’s books). As it stands I’m optimistic we might finally see something in production later this year.
The book can be purchased at HirstPublishing.com.
OUR REVIEW
The many lifes of ST on TVThe Saint is one of those characters whose subsequent incarnations upstaged it's literary original (Charteris aficionados will be happy to find an original screenplay by the author at the end of the book). Was it because Leslie Charteris' magnificent output belonged specifically to the the stormy era between the wars? Not necessarily. The books are still a good read and are reprinted occasionally. The real reason lies behind the boom of television for it is in fact through the small screen that most of current fans of the Saint got acquaintted with the character. It's already been the case back in eighties when many of the production team of the short-lived Simon Dutton series admitted they had been spending Sunday evenings watching Roger Moore who had succesfully taken up the Saintly halo for almost a whole decade. Like it or not, the sixties marked a golden era for Simon Templar although paradoxically often not much was left off the original literary concept of the character and the stories. Yet, that's why the Saint is here with us today and that's why there have been numerous attempts over the years to re-establish Templar on TV again.
Ian Dickerson's book takes us back to the origins of the Saint to show where in fact it comes from and how it evolved as a literary character. The crucial part of the book is, however, where he focuses with detail on each and every episode of the Saint ever made for television. After an in-depth introduction to each of the series, in which he traces the many aspects of pre-production (financing, casting etc.), Dickerson concentrates on the making of the series and its critical reception. Saint followers will find there lots of interesting behind-the-scenes information about people involved in the series as well as - most valuable - contemporary comments from Leslie Charteris who had always been very concerned especially about credibility of the stories re-written with nonchalance for TV from his stories.
Actually, it's one of the most interesting angles of the book because it shows the very difficult aspect of reproducing work from one medium to another. The story of the Saint on TV proves that as much as it can be succesfull it's also often the case of a failure. Good ideas and sincere intentions often turn out the opposite. All the post-Moore TV adaptations of the Saint were somehow troubled. The Ian Ogilvy series, although well received, was cut short because of business matters. The Simon Dutton films, praised by Charteris for the leading actor, were a totally missed opportunity beacuse of the chaotic organisation of the multi-country production basis. At the same time, the obviously brilliant idea of resurecting The Saint in the mid eighties as a period piece (and with Pierce Brosnan taking up the halo) was rejected by TV moguls as too much of a risky business.
Ian Dickerson's book is a definite must for every Saint fan as it's not a laurel for the Saint on TV but a frank story of the best and the worst times in life of Simon Templar on TV. And, with the final chapter of the book following the latest happenings within the Saint franchise (a new TV series was announced few years back but hasn't so far materialised due to various problems), it gives hope for the future.
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