THE SAINT The Checkered Flag (1965)

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•Oct 25, 2016

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10K subscribersTHE SAINT The Checkered Flag first aired on July 1, 1965.

Episode summary from imdb.com: "Oscar Newley has perfected a new fuel injection system for his racing car and approaches the Saint for financial backing. However the car breaks down during a race and he believes that it has been sabotaged by Ellington, a rival owner-driver. Suspicions are compounded when Oscar is nearly killed in a fire at his workshop and the car is again sabotaged.

The chief culprit would seem to be Oscar's driver Alec but then he is murdered. The Saint must race to find the perpetrator in every sense." An ominous beginning, a villainous middle with a happy ending. The 1964 British Grand Prix at Brands Hatch was used as the back drop for this episode of The Saint, which was already into it's fourth season by 1965. Did Jack Brabham know he was in this show?

He can be seen at 9:41 in his #5 Brabham-Climax pulling out into the pit lane having a look at Dan Gurney's #6 car (also a Brabham-Climax). Also spotted is John Surtees in his #7 Ferrari. Tim & I are old enough to remember when this show was Prime Time television. That's cool! To tell the truth, we were probably a bit too young to watch it at the time but got to know it better when the reruns started in the '70s.

Roger Moore is perfect in the role and for some unknown reason, in this episode, Simon Templar drives a Bentley instead of his trademark Volvo 1800. In the real (1964) race, Jim Clark came first, with Graham Hill second. Note at the end, the TV show cars had to be #1 and #3 to match the Clark and Hill footage.