In the transfer between book and TV series, a lot can change. A case in point: the ITC adventure series, The Baron, a sort of prototype Lovejoy and the first ITC show filmed entirely in colour that featured people rather than puppets.
Based on John Creasey’s series of novels, The Baron starred American actor Steve Forrest as John Mannering, a former Texas ranch owner and antique dealer who takes on missions for ITC’s catch-all British spy service, Diplomatic Intelligence*, aided by his glamorous spy colleague Cordelia Winfield (Sue Lloyd) .
What’s interesting about this is that in the books
Mannering is British
He’s a former jewel thief
He’s married
He doesn’t own a cattle ranch
He doesn’t work for British intelligence
Basically, ITC bought the name and made another version of The Saint but starring an American. Nevertheless, it was a fun little action show, with lots of fights, car chases and running round, even if the scripts themselves were largely unremarkable. The theme tune was great, plus anything with Sue Lloyd in it has to be good. And for ITC lovers, this was the very few show to feature the notorious "white jaguar driving off a cliff scene" that later appeared in virtually dozens of subsequent ITC shows.
Largely written by Terry "I created the Daleks" Nation and Dennis Spooner, another former Doctor Who script writer, the show was very much in hoc to American financing. As well as the US lead, the show was redubbed for the American market, with words like ‘petrol’ changed to ‘gas’. The original assistant planned for Mannering, David Marlowe (played by Paul Ferris), was replaced by Winfield at US instigation as well.
However, those who live for the American market, die by the American market because when ratings suffered, a second series for the show was out of the question, despite doing well in the UK. Happily, you can buy it on DVD still.
* At the time, SS/MI5 and SIS/MI6 didn’t officially exist
In the UK: Saturday 27th August, 7.10pm, BBC1/BBC1 HD. Available on the iPlayer In the US: Saturday 27th August, 9pm/8c ET/PT, BBC America
Can’t quite muster up the enthusiasm for a full review, so this is largely a placeholder so you can add your own thoughts and comments, as well as links to your own reviews.
On the whole, though, I liked it. It was all over the place and full of colossal amounts of Rusty-grade hand-waving. I’m not sure having River Song end up dedicating her life (twice, making this the third time) to a man was a positive role model thing. And I’m not sure where they’re going with Rory – he doesn’t work as an action hero and the constant spodness with which they offset any steps forward in growing a spine is getting to the “Ha, ha, look at the special kid” level of mocking.
But it was funny, had pathos and explained all manner of plot points. Matt Smith was excellent, the pre-credit sequence was fantastic, as were the constant anti-Scottish jokes. The numb-skulls were an odd idea but I’m sure they worked for kids. Tears were jerked, expectations exceeded, etc, etc, and it was all good enough that we could ignore the fact most of it was talking in a room and Hitler wasn’t actually in it much.
