I can't see why British TV is not taking an interest in developing the series. It might to do well.
As a consumer of British television, I can confidently tell you that it does not have the wit or the intelligence to tackle the Saint.
That's simply not true. To be honest I think British TV probably wants something more sophisticated than The Saint, or if they did it they'd want to add a new dimension to it. I enjoy The Saint, but there ain't much meat to it. I get the feeling that the new Sherlock Holmes series will show you that there's more to adapting the old classics than just 'laughing at the way we were'.
Probably the closest thing we've had to The Saint recently was the BBC version of the 39 Steps; which added a little more meat to the story but also kept the slight tongue-in-cheek of the book intact. It just wasn't as snappily directed as it needed to be. But there you had it: a period action adventure story starring a fair haired posh Englishman: that's as close to the Saint as you're likely to see on Brit TV any time soon I'd say!
As a consumer of British television, I can confidently tell you that it does not have the wit or the intelligence to tackle the Saint.
Or money.
And yet there's money enough to make other fairly big budget dramas like Dr Who, Merlin etc. I think it's more to do with the appeal of The Saint than a lack of money; British TV just doesn't throw money at any old thing.
The Mentalist plays close to Templar. I guess American Media knows how to make a show and promote the star. I can't see why it can't be done on Brit tv.
Yeah, you're right: The Mentalist is quite Saintly. He's quite a refreshing character in a way: he has that happiness that marks him out from every other gloomy maverick detective whilst also being utterly
unSaintly in that he can't handle himself in a scrap at all and is really quite vulnerable!
