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I stumbled across this at lesliecharteris.com in the news section. It’s a synopsis of the upcoming new Saint telemovie/series with James Purefoy.

Simon Templar is part of a secret organization known as ‘Knights of the Templar’. He’s responsible for enforcing the group’s code of ethics against the criminal underground of the world. Those familiar with ‘Knights’ know Simon Templar by one name: The Saint. His current assignment has him in Montenegro, rescuing captive children from being sold on the black market. When the operation is finished, Templar discovers that one of the children is missing. An orphan once himself, he vows to rescue the lost boy, no matter what the cost. Waiting for him in Paris is Patricia Holm, an intelligence specialist and Templar’s lover. She has information that a crooked businessman named Carger is responsible for the children’s abductions; however, the Knights learn that Carger is now into much bigger things. The Saint is ordered to find Carger and steal a treasured relic that, if made public, could ignite a spectacular holy war. When he discovers Carger has also been keeping the missing orphan as his own son, Templar must decide between his own personal convictions and his duties as The Saint.

Up till now, I’d been eagerly anticipating this new series, now I’m dreading it.
Goddamn-it! If they can’t keep their meddling fuckin’ fingers off the core concepts of the character, why even bother? Do they presume that they can actually improve upon the original? Or is it that they just wanted to make their own show and, like that horrific Val Kilmer travesty, want to use the name “The Saint” to get some free audience buy-in?

Oh, I’ll still watch it, but if they can’t get the simple stuff right, why should I expect them to get anything else right, either? For cryin’ out, the whole point of the Saint is that he is a lone wolf idealistic vigilante! Yes, he occasionally had a gang – but they were following him like a pack! He was not part of some worldwide secret organization, and that completely changers the man, the mode and the motivation.
In short: That’s not the Saint.

While you’re looking at the news section of lesliecharteris.com, note that in Australia the Simon Dutton Saint series from the 80’s is being released on DVD. Even though this show didn’t do well in the ratings, it was probably the truest to the original spirit of the Saint.
The Dutton series suffered from some terrible supporting acting and the production quality, despite being a large international production, has that 1980’s “breaking away from the major studios into small production company” feel to it, but the spirit of the show to the original character is spot on. Much more so than the Roger Moore series.

In fact, in one of the Dutton telemovies, Templar keeps the stolen money – or at least his self-defined “cut”. How else does he maintain his wealthily lifestyle? Answer: He’s Robin Hood! He steals from the crooked and gives to the victims (less his 10%.)
That’s the Saint.
And they’ve almost always been afraid of that aspect of the character when adapting him for TV.
So how come Australia gets the DVDs and we don’t?