I've been going through the Blu-ray discs of The Persuaders! and watching that series for the first time. One of the bonus features on the set is an HD transfer of one episode of The Saint, "The Ex-King of Diamonds". It got me wondering why more of that show isn't on Blu-ray. I see there's another episode in HD ("The Queen's Ransom") on a Blu-ray called Retro-Action Volume 2, but that's it. It's a well-known show that seems like it would do well if released on Blu-ray or made available to stream in HD. Is there any particular reason that it hasn't been, when many other British shows from that era are available? My assumption here is that the color episodes were shot on film.
I believe all episodes of the Saint, black & white and colour were shot on film, which is encouraging for a quality bluray release.
I'm sure it's in the works - Network (the company that holds the rights and released the home media for all of the ITC classics) is finally getting around to releasing older shows in HD on Blu-ray. Man in a Suitcase is slated for release next, and I imagine the Saint (and it's sequel series) will be next in line.
Wow. I googled to see if I could confirm that all episodes were shot on film and I discovered the Shout website. ShoutFactoryTV : Watch full episodes of The Saint You can watch 12 episodes from the first season there in decent quality. It looks like film and given the British penchant for wiping the videotape masters for re-use in the '60s, I'm pretty sure the series was filmed.
The quality of the DVDs is actually quite good, especially if you're playing them on a computer using high-quality upscaling software. I'd rather watch that than a low-bitrate Blu-ray like Season 5 of The Avengers, which is just awful. And yes, they're certainly filmed. In fact, I think that was a Leslie Charteris stipulation in the original contract.
If it's on the way, then that's great. I was going by when The Persuaders! blu-ray was released though, which was 2011, so I was hoping that it hadn't been dropped from their release plans since then. The episode I saw ("The Ex-King of Diamonds") does indeed look fantastic, so I'd love to see more in HD.
Thanks for confirming. I didn't know that about the author. The Avengers was videotaped which means some episodes don't survive and many are taken from ancient 16mm dubs made for foreign markets. We're fortunate that we can get quality releases of the Saint.
I think it would have happened by now if we were ever going to get the show on Blu-ray. As the physical market shrinks and the audience for older shows begins to die off, it's unlikely we'll see it as anything but a possible streaming release.
I wasn't a steady viewer, but I do recall The Saint as great tv. I know it is sacrilege to some, but Moore was better cast in it than in the Bond films (those were better with SC).
Network just recently has been releasing Man in a Suitcase on Blu-ray so I wouldn't see why they wouldn't do the same for the Saint.
I've been wanting to get the new Shout/timeless DVD set which seems to be a NTSC repackaging of the superior Network UK PAL DVDs with extras but it is expensive and I don't know for sure if it's the Network or older A&E masters. Plus I keep hoping for a BD announcement since the series is film based. I'm dying to import the Persuaders and Avengers sets but it gets pretty expensive to do so.
That is exactly what I worry about. At the same time though, Network seems to still be plodding along with their, rather slow paced, bluray releases, so I guess there still may be hope. I am rather surprised it hasn’t happened yet actually.....which may just be a sign that it has missed the boat already...... Ya, these UK only bluray releases can be rather pricey. And that doesn’t even take into account the shipping! As far as I can tell, the Shout DVD set is a repackaging of the older A&E masters. Meanwhile, the Network DVD set is PAL, and so I assume you would have the speedup audio problem. A bluray, would really solve all of that!
I sometimes wonder if it isn’t simply a size issue. All of Networks bluray releases have had much fewer episodes than the Saint. I mean The Prisoner, The Persuaders, The Man In A Suitcase are all only one season. The Saint is 6 seasons long. Perhaps the number of episodes involved is just too much of a financial risk or something for Network.
Eh, perhaps, but it's also the best known out of that lot of shows. I can't imagine many people are buying the Man in a Suitcase volumes (and they've really milked it... 6 volumes for a 30 episode show), but that hasn't stopped them.
Haha at 5 episodes a volume, the Saint would require 24 volumes to complete! Oh well, if they can find a way to get it out, I will support it.
I thought the Shout set would be the A&E discs but it seems to have the UK Network extras and the larger number of discs from the Network releases so I was hoping it had had a proper NTSC conversion. If I find one cheap enough ever I'll try it but paying over $150 for a DVD set of a TV release is nuts.
If you track prices for Avengers long enough, you can catch a pretty good deal. I bought season 4 on Amazon.uk for 20 GBP a couple of years ago. Seasons 5&6 on Amazon.fr for 30 Euro, which is a bit more expensive, but still is a reasonable price. I don't know how much is shipping price to the US, but I usually choose the cheapest (and the slowest) and it works just fine. Too bad the price tracker on blu-ray. com doesn't work anymore. But I heard there are 3rd party solutions.
I paid about £30 shipped to the US for The Persuaders from Amazon UK. That's for 5 Blu-rays, 3 DVDs and a 150-page book jam packed with info and photos by Andrew Pixley. Now that's not cheap, but there's a lot of content there. Plus it's just the one season and your done for that show. The only hiccup is that the discs are region B/2. That may or may not be a problem, but those that decide to order it should be aware.