1962 - Interestingly as the birth of Simon Templar, they couldn't have picked a better year with regards to film. Dr No, The Manchurian Candidate, The Longest Day, Laurence of Arabia, Lolita, Cape Fear and Whatever Happened to Baby Jane were relased. What is significant is that in recent times, James Bond is still a franchise leading into its 21st film as I write this page, Lolita, The Manchurian Candidate and Cape Fear have all been treated to re-makes with varying degrees of success and accolade.

To rival the Saint on television we had Z-Cars, Animal Magic, Steptoe and Son, That Was The Week That Was, Dr FInlay's Casebook, Man of the World and Fireball XL5. It's interesting to look back at this list because you dont often associate these shows beginning so early on, but television was slowly moving into people's homes and was not on 24 hrs a day like now, hard to believe isn't it? No Sky, cable or freeview, no 24hr music channels or 24hr surveillance of the Big Brother housemates.

In other areas of 1962 Cliff Richard, The Shadows and Elvis dominated the charts throughout the year, the Russians dismantled their missile base in Cuba as the Missile Crisis came to a calm and peaceful resolution, Nelson Mandela was send to jail on Rhode island, Marilyn Monroe died aged 36 after a drugs overdose and John Glen became the first American to orbit the Earth as space flights excelled.

Now since you cant really put the Saint into series' like many shows, I have divided the show by year. The following is the Episode Guide for this year - this format will be throughout the series guides.