Mr Teal
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The Saint in Birmingham
Saint Ian was a guest at this weekend's Memorabilia event at the NEC in Birmingham. As well as meeting fans and signing autographs, he also made an appearance on the Stage Area, taking part in a question and answer session and talking about his work on Stage and screen.
Asked about how he became the Saint, he replied that Bob Baker had wanted him for the role after seeing him in ‘Upstairs, Downstairs.’ Apparently Bob had always wanted to do another series of Saint adventures and knew immediately that he had found his new Saint.
A member of the audience asked about the cancellation of the show and why a second season had never been made, to which Ian gave a straight answer — the fact that Lew Grade didn't like him or the series. He thought it too expensive to make, so despite protests from Bob Baker and the ATV/ITC accountants, the series having been sold around the world, he pulled the plug. Had a second season gone into production it would have been mainly filmed in the UK at a much reduced cost.
When news of the new series of Saint adventures broke the producers were approached by numerous car companies who wanted there products to be the Saint's car of choice. According to Ian, Lotus not only offered a sleek and fast sports car, but also the full use of their company helicopter and Yacht. Bob Baker wanted a Jaguar, but Jaguar, still not having learned from their missed opportunity in 1962, were still not sure that they needed the publicity, but relented and gave the producers a pre-production XJ-S.
Given the cars unreliability on set Ian now regrets his decision to drive it back to England after filming had finished in Italy - the car broke down a few miles outside Rome!
On the subject of James Bond, Ian recalled that whenever the British press had an empty space to fill in a newspaper they would create a story about the new Bond, picking an actors name from a long list of suspects, which included Ian, Lewis Colins and so on... By chance Ian was at a party in California when he was approached by an executive producer from the Bond series who wanted to clear-up the matter. He told Ian that although he had been considered, he was not going to be the next Bond - had they wanted another Roger Moore then he would have been their first choice, but they didn't, so he wasn't!
This was Ian's first appearance at an event like Memorabilia, given his popularity with fans, I hope it won't be too long before he returns.
C.E.
Details from the Memorabilia website:
Ian Ogilvy has appeared in countless television programs, including I, Claudius, Upstairs Downstairs, Murder She Wrote, Murphy Brown, Caroline In The City, Diagnosis Murder and Early Edition. He is best known for playing Simon Templar in The Saint.
He has played leading roles in London’s West End, in such plays as Design For Living, Three Sisters, Happy Family, The Common Pursuit, Rookery Nook, The Waltz Of The Toreadors, The Millionairess, Sleuth, Stage Struck and Run For Your Wife. In Los Angeles, he has appeared in Sleuth, Present Laughter, My Fair Lady and Love! Valour! Compassion! His films include Death Becomes Her (with Meryl Streep and Goldie Hawn), Witchfinder General, Wuthering Heights, Waterloo, The Sorcerers and many others.
He has a TV Times Award, three Los Angeles Dramalogue Awards, a Los Angeles Times Critics’ Circle Award and was nominated for an Ovation Award.
Ian has written three novels – Loose Chippings, The Polkerton Giant and A Slight Hangover. He has also published a play, A Slight Hangover, which is the dramatised version of his novel. His latest venture is writing children’s books. Measle And The Wrathmonk, Measle And The Dragodon, Measle And The Mallockee and Measle And The Slitherghoul have been translated into twenty languages and are published all over the world.
He has two grown up children – Titus and Emma, and two grandchildren, Barnaby and Matilda. He now lives in Southern California with his wife Kitty
Last edited by Mr Teal, 26/Nov/06, 6:44 pm
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26/Nov/06, 11:27 am
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Frankymole
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Re: The Saint in Birmingham
I've just read this. Thank you for the detailed report - there are many things there I didn't know!
It's a pity about the Jag, the Lotus deal sounds interesting, I can't see the Saint in an Esprit somehow... mind you, I couldn't see James Bond in one either!
The information about the potential second season (and the cancelletion) does bring a pang of regret, even now. A UK-based series would have been fun, I don't think you need exotic locations to have a Saint adventure, as the early books showed.
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22/Dec/06, 6:04 pm
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Mr Teal
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Re: The Saint in Birmingham
quote:
Hoppy wrote:
There'll be more about a possible second season on one of the extras on the forthcoming Network box set
Ian
It was very interesting listening to Ian chat about his time as the Saint.
Maybe Lotus were offering the use of an Éclat, I’m not sure, but like you I would have liked to see a second season. Perhaps we will glean some more detail from the forthcoming DVD release.
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23/Dec/06, 12:39 pm
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amateur cracksman
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Re: The Saint in Birmingham
Was going to post the Picture of Ian On Stage during his session, But not quite sure how to upload the picture from my Hard Drive! - Oh Well, It was a good day anyhow
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8/Jan/07, 11:15 pm
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Mr Teal
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Re: The Saint in Birmingham
Howdy Amateur Cracksman,
If want to post pictures you have to link them via a third party, such as Photo Bucket.
It would be good to see a picture of Ian in Birmingham – so if you want, you can e-mail it to me at: inspector_teal@yahoo.co.uk and I will post it on the board.
C.E.
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9/Jan/07, 8:44 pm
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