|
|
The Saint's Blog devoted to news and rumors about The Saint and Leslie Charteris. Simon Templar, alias The Saint, was played by Roger Moore in the 1960's TV show featuring the Volvo 1800.
Please e-mail any current news and rumors about The Saint to: 
 Members of The Saint Club recently recieved the annual Saint Club Christmas Letter from Ian Dickerson with some news about a couple forthcoming publications:Hodder & Stoughton will be publishing two Saint anthologies in the Autumn of 2008. Unoriginally entitled The Best of the Saint (volumes 1 and 2) they'll feature a selection of stories from across the Saint's career (including one which has never appeared in an English paperback before); each volume will also have an introduction from a notable Saint (or Saint fan) plus some additional material by me. Current plans are for each book to have a yellow jacket cover, along the lines of the old H&S style.
Next year will also see the publication of the definitive history of the Saint's television adventures. Currently and unoriginally entitled The Saint on TV, it's written by me (Ian Dickerson) and if you thought the story of the Saint on TV started with Roger Moore, well this book will show you otherwise. It starts in 1940s Hollywood and this book follows the Saint on TV right up to the present day and the new show in development.
Amongst other things it provides a unique episode guide to all three Saint TV series detailing plots, cast, crew, filming locations and critical reaction. It also comprehensively details what many of the cast and crew have been up to since they met the Saint. And perhaps of more interest to you lot, tells the full story behind The Saint in Manhattan and The Saint (with Simon Dutton) using exclusive interviews with many of the cast and crew involved on the productions to analyse what went wrong.
There's loads more in it but I'm not spilling all my beans here. If you want to know more about it, or the two reprints, keep checking www.lesliecharteris.com because that's where the latest news will be. Labels: 2007, Ian Dickerson, Ian Ogilvy, Roger Moore, Simon Dutton, The Saint Club, TV
This e-mail arrived from the Honorary Secretary of The Saint Club a few days ago. The latest merchandise catalog of Saint Club goodies is avaiable. You must have a valid Saint Club member number to order, and we're posted information about how to join The Saint Club if you aren't already a member.From: The Saint Club
Sent: Tuesday, September 25, 2007 7:34 AM
Subject: Saint Club Merchandise
Dear All,
Please find attached a pdf file detailing the latest Saint Club merchandise. This is a taster for the Christmas letter, which should be following via good old snailmail in a few weeks time.
If you wish to order anything via e-mail you can as long as you use PayPal. E-mail me for more details.
Best wishes,
Ian Dickerson,
Honorary Secretary, The Saint Club Labels: 2007, Ian Dickerson, The Saint Club
Don't forget to tune in tomorrow for Barbra Paskin's tribute to 100 years of Leslie Charteris with Roger Moore narrating. The live show is at 11:30am tomorrow, London time, with on-demand replays available for seven days after the initial broadcast.
Leslie Charteris
Tuesday 31 July 2007 11:30-12:00 (Radio 4 FM)Roger Moore, who starred as Simon Templar in the original TV series, celebrates the centenary of the birth of popular fiction writer Leslie Charteris, famous for his adventures featuring the character better known as The Saint. The programme includes rare interview footage of Charteris along with contributions from his family, actor Ian Ogilvy and Charteris biographer Ian Dickerson. There has been some recent issues with BBC Radio 4's RealAudio play back, and during testing today, this is the message that was being displayed:We are experiencing severe technical problems, and regret that many programmes are unavailable. We are working to restore normal service. See station websites for alternative links. We'll keep you posted as to the lastest links and news about this great show.Labels: 2007, Barbra Paskin, BBC, Ian Dickerson, Ian Ogilvy, Leslie Charteris, Roger Moore
Date: 2007/07/16 Mon PM 10:48:51 PDT
From: Ian Dickerson
Subject: It's back...
I wasn’t planning to do it quite this soon but since the radio documentary’s now been scheduled I thought I’d better do something.
Yup, www.lesliecharteris.com is back online. New host—apparently spam protected (but that’s not an invitation!)—and new look. Some new content…I’m sure you’ll all be whizzing over to have a look at the short interview with Jorge Zamacona, the writer of the new Saint pilot.
I still have some work to do—I’ve temporarily killed work on the merchandise page to get the web site back up, and a couple of strange html-like boxes have appeared at the bottom of every page—but I’ll get that sorted in due course.
IanLabels: 2007, Ian Dickerson, Leslie Charteris
 Burl Barer reports a few more details about the upcoming BBC Radio 4 special by Barbra Paskin on the author of The Saint, Leslie Charteris.
Leslie Charteris – A Saintly Centennial
Tuesday, July 31, 2007
11:30am - 12:00noon BBC Radio 4This year marks the centenary of the birth of popular fiction writer Leslie Charteris, best known for his many books chronicling the adventures of Simon Templar, alias The Saint.
In this special programme, actor and Saint portrayer Roger Moore explores the life and legacy of Charteris and reveals a world of adventure, torment, insecurity, failed marriages and enormous success as a thriller writer.
The adventures of The Saint have appeared continuously since 1928, making Simon Templar the longest-running character in contemporary detective fiction. But there was more to Charteris's literary acuity than The Saint alone. He was fluent in several languages; he had a monthly column in the epicurial delight, Gourmet magazine; and he devised a pictorial sign language which he called "Paleneo" and wrote a book about it. He was also one of the earliest members of Mensa.
Despite his film-star looks, with a hint of exoticism, Charteris suffered from a long-standing insecurity about his appearance, arising from his mixed racial origin. In later years he dated some of Hollywood's most beautiful women, among them Marlene Dietrich and Jean Harlow.
It wasn't until 1963, when Lou Grade cast Roger Moore and filmed the first television series of The Saint, that Charteris at last felt he'd received the final seal of approbation that had eluded him for 30 years.
Among those exploring the world and psyche of Charteris are Dan Bodenheimer, who runs the official Saint website; Burl Barer, author of The History Of The Saint; and Charteris's biographer Ian Dickerson. Labels: 2007, Barbra Paskin, BBC, Burl Barer, Ian Dickerson, Leslie Charteris, Roger Moore
Ian Dickerson reports that LeslieCharteris.com is temporarily down due to another hacker spam attack much bigger than one that occurred earlier this year. His ISP is working on the issue, and Ian is taking this opportunity to update and upgrade the website. The site should be back up within a couple of weeks with new grand re-opening. We'll keep you posted.
In the meantime, you can always view past versions of LeslieCharteris.com that have archived in the Internet Wayback Machine.Labels: 2007, Ian Dickerson
 Barbra Paskin, a British yet Hollywood-based, journalist has been commissioned by BBC Radio 4 to create a radio show celebrating the 100th year of Leslie Charteris. Barbra, who is most recently noted for her fine biography of Dudley Moore, is an excited Saint fan who has been looking forward to making a show like this for many years. As noted on LeslieCharteris.com, she's a life-long Charteris fan who grew up enraptured with Simon Templar. Her brother Simon (not actually named after Simon Templar), from earliest memory, has always called himself 'ST' and signs all his personal letters with a stick symbol and a halo.
The 30-minute show is in production at the moment and will feature contributions from such notables as Roger Moore, Ian Ogilvy, Patricia Charteris, Dan Bodenheimer, Ian Dickerson, and Burl Barer. More details, including a broadcast date and time, will be posted here as and when we know them.
There are many ways to listen to Radio 4, including online.Labels: 2007, Barbra Paskin, BBC, Burl Barer, Ian Dickerson, Ian Ogilvy, Leslie Charteris, Roger Moore
 Book and Magazine Collector's June 2007 issue features, "Leslie Charteris: 100 Years of The Creator of The Saint."
The long 13-page article was written by Norman Wright, begins on page 36 of the issue. The article discusses Charteris' creation of the Saint and is printed in full color with some marvelous illustrations of Roger Moore, George Sanders, Vincent Price, Ian Ogilvy, Louis Hayward, magazine appearances, various dustjackets, and paperback editions.
A three-page annotated bibliography of the British editions is included, along with some current pricing guidelines within the UK; the highest price is, of course, for a British first Ward Lock edition of Meet The Tiger with dustjacket, at over £3000+ ($6000+)!
The issue went on sale May 10, 2007.
While thanking Book and Magazine Collector for doing a piece on The Saint and Leslie Charteris, Ian Dickerson has also posted a number of factual content errors to the news page of LeslieCharteris.com for you to enjoy -- see how many of them you found yourself!Labels: 2007, George Sanders, Ian Dickerson, Ian Ogilvy, Leslie Charteris, Louis Hayward, Roger Moore, Vincent Price
Jean-Marc Lofficier reports:Thanks to the help of Dan Bodenheimer (of www.saint.org) and Ian Dickerson (of www.lesliecharteris.com), the French Saint website has just undergone a massive update:
- Four new pages are now devoted to the French edition of LE SAINT DETECTIVE MAGAZINE which feature all 154 issues and index all the Leslie Charteris et al. stories published therein (with the same information then added to the Bibliography page), with more cover scans to come.
- It turns out that there were FOUR stories published in LSDM not collected in book form: (i) The Noble Sportsman, (ii) Le Saint et les Prospecteurs, a Michel-Tyl adaptation of a NYHT strip, (iii) Amours, Gadgets et Colonel, of which nothing is known at this time, and (iv) The Power Artist, a Fleming Lee collaboration, which was, however, later retranslated in the Livre de Poche Saint on TV collection. In particular, (ii) and (iii) are the first time these stories have come to the attention of Saint fans everywhere!
- It also turns out that the Charteris original The Uncritical Publisher was never translated after all, although there is a 1945 French-Canadian edition of The Saint Intervenes.
- Our Cover Gallery Page 7 now includes additional covers of rare 1950s Saint reprints, the Fayard "Omnibus" volumes, and the Lefrancq reprints of the mid-1990s.
- Finally, fans of French cover artist Bernad will enjoy additional cover scans of the Fayard NERO WOLFE and TOFF series. Labels: 2007, French, Ian Dickerson, Jean-Marc Lofficier
 Ian Dickerson of the Saint Club has posted an English pound note (remember them?) signed by the author (and creator of The Saint) Leslie Charteris to an auction on eBay.
This unique one pound note signed by Charteris is being sold by The Saint Club on behalf of Compass Counselling, a New Forest based charity that provides counselling services. Assuming it hits the reserve figure, all the money from this sale is going straight to charity!
Visit eBay and bid on this unique item today!Labels: 2007, eBay, Ian Dickerson, Leslie Charteris
Lots of news last week about the new version of The Saint series that is in development for TNT. Roger Moore's son, Geoffrey Moore, has teamed up with producer William J. MacDonald to create a new series for television. Jorge Zamacona is working on the script for a 90-minute pilot, and they are getting consulting advice from such notable long-time Saints as Ian Dickerson and Burl Barer -- both who are huge fans of the Leslie Charteris books, and hopefully can exert some influence in keeping with the gentleman thief character of Simon Templar.
There is certainly some concern, as William (Bill) J. MacDonald was one of the producers (along with Robert Evans) of the Val Kilmer Saint film by Paramount back in 1997 – a movie so un-Saint-like, that Leslie Charteris’ name was removed from the credits. The Saint (1997) was a tough movie for die-hard fans as the character that they knew and loved didn’t actually show up until the end of the movie – such is the problem with “origin stories.” That said, Bill MacDonald has surrounded himself with some great Saint this time, including Roger’s son, and we are very hopeful for a clever gentleman with his own code of moral values to emerge without the need to spend any time telling the story of how Simon Templar became The Saint.
As yet, nobody has been cast as the Saint. There was some initial speculation that it might be Geoffrey Moore himself, and that option has not been completely taken off the table as they look for The Saint of 2007.
Your thoughts? Comment below.Labels: 2007, Burl Barer, Geoffrey Moore, Ian Dickerson, Ian Ogilvy, Jorge Zamacona, Leslie Charteris, Simon Dutton, TNT, William J. MacDonald
The Saint FAQ at www.saint.org/faq.htm has been freshly updated with a lot of great new information.
The frequently asked questions (FAQ) about The Saint and Leslie Charteris was started in 1997 by Ian Dickerson, Honorary Secretary of The Saint Club, and is maintained with help of Dan Bodenheimer, webmaster of www.saint.org, and Burl Barer, author of "The Saint: A Complete History in Print, Film, Radio and Television. 1928 - 1992" and "The Saint" (movie tie-in paperback).
Please send all suggestions, corrections, questions, etc. to saint.club@gmail.com or use the comment links below.Labels: 2007, Burl Barer, Ian Dickerson, Leslie Charteris
 The Return of The Saint DVD Set from Network is now available for pre-order from Amazon UK for release on January 29, 2007.
This set is eagerly anticipated, and features a number of commentary tracks that were recorded in late 2006 exclusively for this release.
Ian Dickerson of The Saint Club was heavily involved in the creation of this set and getting a great deal of extras on the DVDs. And you can be sure that he did a great job in pulling together a wealth of extras from a good number of different sources. I especially like the PDF files that will be included, as the ones from the Roger Moore series by Network were also of very high quality.
For more information about all the goodies that will be included with this set, here is a nice complete list of all the extras.
Labels: 2007, Amazon.com, DVD, Ian Dickerson, Ian Ogilvy, Return of The Saint
 The extras have been confirmed on the forthcoming DVD box set of Return of the Saint from Network, which is due in the shops on January 29th. Alongside all 24 episodes of the show are:
• The Saint Steps In... to the 70s - Narrated by Sir Roger Moore, this is a unique and exclusive documentary on the making of the series which features contributions from Ian Ogilvy, producer Robert S. Baker and others involved with the production of the series.
• Four exclusive commentaries featuring Ian Ogilvy, producer Robert S. Baker, production manager Malcolm Christopher and writer John Goldsmith
• The Saint and the Brave Goose – feature-length version of the Collision Course two-parter which is presented in its episodic format on discs four and five.
• Episodic Image gallery with music suite
• Title sequence storyboard gallery
• Return of The Saint Script Archive - Presented here in PDF format are original scripts (plus some changes and meeting notes) for Return of the Saint. These PDFs can only be viewed on suitable software on a PC/Mac and cannot be viewed on your DVD player. The scripts are: Appointment in Florence, Assault Force, The Debt Collectors, The Diplomat’s Daughter, Hot Run, Nightmare Man, The Obono Affair, The Poppy Chain, Tower Bridge is Falling Down and Vicious Circle. Also included is Prince of Darkness – an unproduced script in which the Saint fights vampires.
• Promotional image gallery
• Memorabilia image gallery
• Generic Return of the Saint trailer
• European opening titles featuring vocal theme "Taking it Easy" by Oliver Onions
• Previously unseen rushes from the title sequence (mute)
• Commercial Break Bumpers
• Textless material (mute)
• The Saint at Elstree featurette - A plaque honouring Roger Moore is unveiled at Elstree Studios in December 2006
• Return of The Saint annuals in PDF format (1979 & 1980)
• PDF of original colour publicity brochure
• PDF of original Look In and TV Times articles
The Return of The Saint DVD Set from Network is now available for pre-order from Amazon UK for release on January 29, 2007.Labels: 2007, DVD, Ian Dickerson, Ian Ogilvy, Return of The Saint, Roger Moore, TV
The Saint in London
 A nice collection of Saints were in London recently, where on December 7th, 2006, we had Robert S. Baker, Ian Ogilvy, Malcolm J. Christopher, Dan Bodenheimer, Ian Dickerson, and John Goldsmith all in the same DVD recording studio. The team at Network DVD is putting the final touches on the upcoming Return of The Saint DVD box set, and it is looking like a true winner with a number of great extras to look forward to watching.
Of course, during my stay I had to make a quick detour to the Sherlock Holmes museum on Baker Street. Not only is Sherlock Holmes great reading in his own right, Leslie Charteris actually co-authored a number of the Sherlock Holmes radio shows in 1944 and 1945 under the name Bruce Taylor, writing with Denis Green.
Watch for the sign of the Saint. He will return!Labels: 2006, DVD, Ian Dickerson, Ian Ogilvy, Leslie Charteris, Return of The Saint, Sherlock Holmes
Using Blogger technology I have created The Saint's Blog at www.saint.org/blog to make it easier for multiple people to post news and rumors about The Saint and to allow all the Saint fans to comment on the posts! I think this will certainly be a lot easier to maintain than the manual text editing I have been doing since 1995 -- I apparently was blogging before it was even called blogging!
I will be converting all the news and rumors from 2004, 2005, and 2006 into this new blog format, and the rest of the news from previous years will remain in it's current archive and accessible.
The Saint's Blog Dream Team consists of:Labels: 2006, Burl Barer, DVD, French, Ian Dickerson, Jean-Marc Lofficier, Roger Moore
Ian Dickerson has been known to Saint fans for over two decades. Dickerson became the Honorary Secretary of the Saint Club, and a personal friend of Leslie Charteris, back when Ian was still a teenager. Author Wes Britton of Spy Television talked with Ian and posted a wonderful interview on his website.Labels: 2006, Amazon.com, Ian Dickerson, Leslie Charteris, TV
|
View blog authority
|
Add to del.ico.us
- View blog reactions
- 
Stumble It!
- 
Share on Facebook
- Blogger links
- Permalink
