The golden eggs on The Saint and The Persuaders DVD's.

In these DVD presentations of both The Saint and The Persuaders there are lots of bonus features such as memorable, production notes, galleries, original ITC story information, cast and crew profiles, interviews with Roger, but the best in my opinion are the exclusive audio commentaries from Sir Roger Moore, producer Robert S. Baker, and Johnny Goodman executive in charge of production. Jaz Wiseman needs to be credited with being instrumental in helping these commentaries take place and
Supplying a lot of the exclusively ITC displayed in the bonus features on The Persuaders and The Saint DVD presentations. Indeed Jaz does a very good job as moderator and commentary producer and joins in on the commentaries on The Saint DVDs. Jaz interjects throughout the commentaries with some very interesting questions and information with his extensive knowledge on ITC material, which he has achieved by running the all official Persuaders/ ITC Appreciation society and The Morning After magazine. For admirers of these programs these commentaries are gold, and are awash with amusing stories between the obviously three very good friends of how the programs were shot, what was happening during production, and who was cast and why. These three men have a wealth of knowledge and many friends in the business. Speaking from my own opinion these are a definite not to be missed feature.

There are two commentaries on The Persuaders box set one. The first one is the very first episode called Overture show, and the second one is an episode called The Time and The Place

The commentary on box set one of The Saint is the very first episode of The Saint called The Talented Husband.

On the second box set of The Saint there are two commentaries.

On the first one Sir Roger Moore, Roy Ward Baker, Johnny Goodman and Jaz Wiseman discussing the episode called The Saint Plays With Fire. It came from a novel called A Prelude to War based on a story by Leslie Charteris. Bob Baker directed this episode because he thought it was a particularly good story. London and a blazing country house brings death to a newspaper man who was about to reveal the truth about a Nazi campaign in England. The Saint is determined to prove his death was no accident and uncover those responsible. A very gritty story which holds up today. This episode is very relevant today with unfortunately the resurgence of neo-Nazis in Europe says Johnny Goodman at the beginning of the episode.

The next commentary is with Roy Ward baker and Susan Lloyd and Jaz Wiseman on the episode called

Top right picture left to right Suzanne LLoyd, Roger Moore, Susan Lloyd. Bottom left David Hedison and Roger

This is a very a light-hearted episode of The Saint and was only the second, time that Roy Ward Baker had directed a television programme he had previously worked in the world of films working with the likes of Alfred Hitchcock. One of his most famous films Roy directed was A Night to Remember about the Titanic sinking and made in 1958. It was also the first appearance of the actress Sue Lloyd who went on to become a very well-known face on television.

Also in box set two there is a very interesting and amusing interview with Roger Moore from 1963.

At the beginning of the interview Roger is asked why he was chosen to play The Saint, his humorous reply was because Sean Connery was not available but then when asked to be serious and explain six years earlier he had tried to buy the rights but did not have enough money at the time so when he was approached later he was delighted to do it saying “I thought it was a character for a running TV series with a built-in premise which was part Superman and natural hero”

There is a very funny scenes on the interview, Roger is asked “you have appeared in both Ivanhoe and Maverick and now The Saint you must have worked with any number of actresses, and must have gone through a whole lot” Obviously this was not meant to be rude but it was extremely funny and Roger completely cracks up.

Information The Saint DVD’s here

Information The Persuaders DVD’s here

Article by Alan Davidson Roger Moore web manager.

The only Official Persuaders!/ITC Appreciation Society Run by Jaz Wiseman. There are many excellent magazines on The Persuaders and other ITC classic programs From The Mornining After at http://www.itc-classics.com/

TMA 25 - out now
The current issue of The Morning After (TMA) was published on 31st January 2005.
Information here

Email jaz_wiseman@yahoo.com