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.
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In order for me to give you an line-by-line translation, I'd have to download the clip again, and I don't have time to do that right now.
In general, the interview was pretty typical and covered pretty familiar ground. The interviewer wanted to know how Leslie came up with Simon's name (he tried some options and picked the best one), what his writing method was (insert paper into the typewriter and start with the first line), was he happy with the Hollywood movies (no, but there were French ones being considered) and a few other related topics. Of course there was the obligatory "I'm sorry, but my French isn't very good," line from Leslie which the interviewer quickly discounted.
I'm sure people who are more fluent or who watch with purpose of translating the clip will be along shortly to do a much better job of providing you with a better, fuller and more complete translation, but I hope that gives you a sense of the interview.
Perhaps someone can comment below with a better translation?
This was the second episode of the short-lived series and the DLT Entertainment site describes the plot as "against the romantic backdrop of Paris, a priceless blue sapphire, once the possession of the Russian Czars, is the bait to trap a murderer and thief who mixes with the cream of high society." I'm not sure why they left out mention of the twin sisters...
Bill Cawthon has written a great article about the history of The Saint's Volvo that features a couple of nice pictures of early models.
One of the interesting things that is discussed in the article is that after Leslie Charteris sold the television rights to Producer Robert Baker and Lew Grade of ITC their first visualization of Simon Templar on TV was of Patrick McGoohan driving a Jaguar E-Type. When the producers went to Jaguar they were turned down as Jaguar felt they had enough exposure and could not keep up with the demand as it was. Therefore they ended up with the other hot car introduced at the Geneva Auto Show in March 1961 by buying one at full price from a London Volvo dealer. Luckily, as the show took off , Volvo kept the show well stocked with fresh 1800's as the years went buy. Older cars were cut apart for interior shots, crashed, and otherwise used by Roger Moore as his personal vehicle of choice.
There is news of a new movie based on The Persuaders television show which starred Roger Moore and Tony Curtis. The original Persuaders TV show was piloted in The Saint episode, "The Ex-King of Diamonds" and featured many of the same co-stars, production teams, and writers as The Saint TV show.
This new movie appears to be coming out in the summer of 2007 and will star Ben Stiller and Steve Coogan as two wealthy playboys from different backgrounds. The original series paired a Texan Oilman with a British Aristocrat. I'm not sure what updating this new Stiller/Coogan vehicle will impart.
YouTube has a number of videos related to the Saint. They have the intro's do the various shows, and a couple of trailers for the video releases. Enjoy!
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