Return of the Saint: The Complete Series [DVD]

The Saint is Simon Templar. He is a character from a series of books by Leslie Charteris. ITC had created a very successful TV series that ran from 1962-1969. It starred Roger Moore. Nine years later ITC were struggling. They were not as successful as they had been. They decided to revisit one of their most popular show formats, The Saint. Roger Moore was busy with James Bond so they brought in Ian Ogilvy to take the lead role of Simon Templar. Ian had a similar look to Roger and this helped to give the show an element of familiarity. The Return of the Saint is a good addition to the ITC stock. It is in fact more of a re visualisation. There is no suggestion that this Simon Templar has the same memories as the one from the 1960s, he is about the same age as the earlier version as well so in fact this is an updated version. This new version is similar in many ways. This regeneration still has the dashing and confident hero. And once again he goes all over the world. Beautiful women always surround him. He continues to help people out of difficult situations. Once again he has the white sports car. (Different model) The Return of the Saint has been updated for the 1970s. It was well produced and is very entertaining. It is not as good as the original series but it is still a very good show.

I loved this series when I was young and still do , it’s like an old friend when I put it on to binge watch, shame they only done one series, the producers wanted to make films instead and ended up not doing any as far as I know.

Despite the overacting on the part of much of the supporting cast (typical of the era), the rather disappointing scripts and lack of believable action, Ian Ogilvy is an inspiration as the Saint. Sadly, the producers chose to emulate their own work in Roger Moore's colour series portraying Simon Templar as a kind of 007-lite which does him an injustice. Still, Ogilvy brings a seriousness and charismatic gravitas to the 1970's Simon Templar than did any actor who has portrayed him before or since. In my opinion, Ogilvy is the special effect that makes this series tick and gives it the legs it still has. The locations & many of the women are beautiful as is the white Jaguar XJ-S he drove the replace the Volvo P1800 (the Saint's car is almost always the costar in the television shows), the plots, light and the production, lavish. Also, the fashions are hilarious and yet, still, charming. As is the music. If nothing else, this series shows how great Ian Ogilvy might have been in For Your Eyes Only. It's a shame Lew Grade didn't choose to fund additional series because, with the Italian and French episodes shot almost entirely on location and featuring higher production values than possibly any other series before or since and the very compelling performance of the the star Ian Ogilvy, this series was worlds better than most everything else on television at the time. Aspects of it hold up very well while other aspects seem dated but this too is part of its charm. As an aside, I was so moved by this series when I saw it as a teenager, that when could afford a hobby car a year or so ago, I bought a white Jaguar XJ-S of my own. I wonder how much Jaguar owes the sales of the XJ-S to Ian Ogilvy's charisma. Return to a time that never quite was and embrace the glamor of the late '70's & early 1980's.

This 70's reboot of the original 60's series is just as good as the original. This series benefits from being allowed to do more location filming (the original series mostly used back projection which was at times noticable). This allows it to be more of a adventure series than original & still retain the charm (although most people probably prefered the original). Ian Ogilvy is a good replacement for Roger Moore who made the character his own in the 60's & had the idea to do a TV version of The Saint series. Like Doctor Who, the idea to replace the title character is a good idea because it allows someone else to step into the role without much explanation which they have done with this series although it would have been interesting if this series was a continuation of the original (although the father/son idea might not have worked). The film transfer is pretty good. It looks like someone did a pretty good job remastering it although it isn't quite HD standard which is becoming more popular. I shall watch this series again in future.

Action pack and good storyline under an hour. I wish the series continued. Ian Ogilvy great actor.

A fantastic series that relaly takes you back, but in a good way. High budget drama for the small screen and a real seventies time capsule. Ian Ogilvy plays a blinder as Simon Templar, and with a car phone! All the episodes are here, and very good stories and plot lines they are as well. A great shame that this series was so overlooked. Loved the locations, the stories, everything. If you liked the persuaders and new avengers, you'll love this. Books you might like to read Cold Steel on the Rocks We Are Cold Steel Kalter Stahl auf den Felsen

Excellent dvd box set of a fondly remembered action series. A lot of extras. It looks great most of the time and Ogilvy does well with the scripts he's given. That said there's little humour compared to the Roger Moore series, it's often glum with everybody either devious or corrupt and the stories predictable. Take your time and watch one episode a weekand you'll enjoy it more.

Not the Roger Moore Saint. But not to bad.

Disc set is great. So is the audio and video. This disc set is region 2.

Great tv series! Nice to have all the episodes on dvd.

Pour les fans du Saint, la série incontournable, c'est bien sûr celle tournée en 1962/69 par ROGER MOORE. Mais cette version des années 70 a également beaucoup de charme. Bonnes histoires, bonne distribution, production soignée ... pourquoi les éditeurs français ne distribuent pas cette série, dans l'hexagone... mystère... Attention, pour visionner ce coffret, il est indispensable d'avoir des connaissances en anglais car les DVD n'ont aucun sous-titre

I was a big fan of the Return of the Saint as a teenager, used to watch it on CBS Late Movie. This program has not been shown on television for years now in the US and I was thrilled to find the complete collection. I fully understood (unlike many others) this DVD set is encoded for region 2. All you have to do is search for "change dvd region" on Google and change the DVD region on your computer DVD drive. The DVD's and the jewel box are are of good quality, the inner jacket has lots of information about the episodes.