Simon says
Put a shine on the halo. MARION MCMULLEN looks at how The Saint turned the future 007, Sir Roger Moore, into a TV action hero 60 years ago
HE was suave, debonair and deadly and was also around to lend a helping hand to those in need of his expertise when it came to dispatching villains.
Long before Sir Roger Moore became 007, he was best known to TV viewers as Simon Templar in ITV’S The Saint.
The action thriller was based on the bestselling books by Leslie Charteris and he also composed the show’s distinctive theme tune.
He would often write Simon Templar’s initials, ST, on his manuscripts to save time and it led to the name The Saint. Leslie originally thought of David Niven to play his hero and The Prisoner’s Patrick Mcgoohan was also offered the part before Roger Moore was cast.
The series launched this month in 1962 and went on to run for 118 episodes. The early black and white episodes saw Roger talking directly to the camera as Simon Templar with a bright little halo then appearing above his head.
Lois Maxwell, who went on play Miss Moneypenny in the James
Bond films, had been classmates at drama school with Roger and she went on to make two guest appearances with him on The Saint.
The hour-long episodes later switched to colour and Roger also directed nine episodes over the years. The
ITV series about the charming adventurer ended up being sold to 63 countries around the world with the programme’s publicity declaring: “When The Saint plays with fire... other people get
burned!”
Roger was busy filming The Saint when the first search for James Bond got under way. “Since I was involved with The
Saint I would not have been available,” he said, “although Cubby (producer Cubby Broccoli) told me later that I had been on the short list.”