QotD: ﬁctional friend

Jack Yan
May 7, 2008 at 8:38 PM
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What ﬁctional character do you relate to most and why?

Let’s see: what Chinese ﬁctional character had to operate in the west, deal to the establishment, drive a rare two-door car, impersonate others, and have his adventures chronicled?
Simon Templar.
Pity he was always played by Caucasians on the screen, but I always thought he was Chinese, since his creator was. A new pilot is being made now, which, inter alia, Sir Roger Moore and his son Geoffrey are producing.

The Best of return Of the Saint - Volume 1

TV trivia buffs might notice John Steed’s Rover SD1 from The New Avengers in the last car chase, reused here. It was also George Cowley’s Rover SD1 in the first season of The Professionals. Stingey British Leyland!

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Must have had some tight production budgets. I was stationed in UK for two years with the US Air Force. The first thing I noticed when I got there was the severe lack in TV channels. 4 total but only two operated at any given time. Hard core withdrawals for a TV addict like me. With all that rainy weather and no car and a public transit system that made no sense out in their version of the sticks. (RAF Upper Hayford, Oxfordshire) I didn't get out much. When I did it was off to London or other populated areas. Favorite attractions were the holographic shops, castle tours, and churches. Amazing stained glass works. If I ever make it back, I'll vacation on the nation's water transport ways. Amazing interlacing network of locks and canals laced throughout the country.

I think the UK is better now for TV, plus they export more so the quality of production has gone up a lot. I would say their choice of pay TV channels is not unlike that of the US’s now but I do remember those days when they only had four terrestrial networks. But back then—and you can probably tell from the clips—the budgets were way tighter. Return of the Saint was the last big-budget effort from Sir Lew Grade, who was too busy sinking his money into 1980’s mega-turkey, Raise the Titanic.

QotD: ﬁctional friend

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