In 1961 independent producer Robert S.Baker talked to Lew Grade about an old friend called Leslie Charteris and his books about the Saint which he thought would make a good tv series and that he tried to sale the idea to ABC but they said that £15,000 an episode was way over their budget and that they should try talking to Lew Grade.Lew agreed to buy the tv rights to the Saint for £500.000 and that they could have a budget of £30.000 an episode to get the show started ,Lew already had the actor in mind who he wanted to play the famous Simon Templar because he had an actor on his books who was doing a few things for one of his theatrical agencies his name was Roger Moore .Lew Grade called a press conference in the spring of 1962 to announce a new tv series called the Saint and that Roger Moore would be the actor to play Simon Templar in a series of 26 one hour shows,this was news to Roger Moore who thought he was signed up to play the Saint in 26 half hour shows and he realised in horror that he had agreed a salary he considered appropriate for half hour shows not one hour shows.

Despite this he launched himself into the role and the series subsequent success owed much to his portrait of Simon Templar .Lew Grade then decided to try to sell the Saint to one of the big major USA networks,so first on the list was NBC,Lew arranged a meeting with the vice chairman Mort Werner and in 1963 he flew over to the USA with two of the best episodes of the Saint series in his case and on seeing the episodes Werner told Lew Grade that he had never seen so much crap in all his life.

Lew Grade then tried CBS and ABC they said the shows were too english and too old fashion for the USA,so Grade had no choice but to try and deal with the smaller local tv networks.Back in england the Saint was going from strength to strength also the USA local networks were doing okay and getting good reviews outside of prime time tv and was also getting a cult following since Lew Grade sold the series two years before.One critic in the New York Times went on to say it was an excellent series compared with the lacklustre dross that was being shown on the three major networks .

In 1965 NBC found themselves with a bit of a trouble spot in their schedules late into the evenings on a saturday night and being that CBS were wiping the floor with the other networks in the rating wars by showing hollywood classics, NBC had a board meeting to discuss what to do and somebody suggested trying the Saint because it could be brought quite cheaply and if it flopped it would not be a financial disaster.

NBC first tried out the Saint on their New York network and to their astonishment the series walked all over the other networks ratings,thinking this was just a fluke they put it on at the same time each week for six weeks to see what happens and they found the same results it walked all over the other networks,NBC could'nt understand how they had got it all wrong in the begining when they were first offered the show,they then tried the series in Los Angeles and Chicago with the same results each time ,the USA loved the Saint series.

Back home in England the Saint with 71 episodes completed,the future of the series was under discussion because Roger Moore like all stars in long running shows was concerned about playing the role for so long,however now that NBC were very keen on the series Lew Grade flew back to the USA to negotiate the sale of more episodes,all the shows up to this point were all shown in black and white but most of the USA were showing all the top shows in colour,so between Lew Grade and NBC they made a deal for lew to make 43 episodes in colour and two two parter shows which became the fiction makers and vendetta for the saint,in total 47 were made in colour.

The Saint series was shown in 86 different countries excluding Italy because there was an episode "the Latin Touch" which portrayed the chief of police as a secret mafia member,but in the end they decided to go ahead and show the series,Lew Grade went on to make a good number of shows including the Persuaders which Roger Moore played in.But if it was'nt for Lew Grade we might never have had Roger Moore as the famous Simon Templar in the first place,so us Saint fans of the Roger Moore era should hold Lew Grade in the same light as we hold Leslie Charteris.Because at the end of the day it was Lew Grade who made Simon Templar an household name on the small screen.