My mom used to watch re-runs of this show on cable and as a kid and I remember being very confused by Roger Moore's motives and occupation. Is he a professional thief? A private investigator? A secret agent? Does he work for anyone?...All the above? The movie with Val Kilmer made it out that he's a kind of con man slash spy, that was also confusing.
shareI'll always took him to be some sort of wealthy playboy who just wandered the globe, and inserting himself into adventures as the mood and circumstances dictated. Usually this seemed to involve some attractive females at some point. Sometimes law enforcement used his services when they needed someone to operate outside the confines of the law to achieve their ends.
This article might illuminate...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Saint_(Simon_Templar)
In the novels he was a master criminal, who was also a do-gooder.
shareBond. Young Bond
shareWhen you look back on characters like Simon Templar now, I guess he was supposed to be a sort of freelance private eye.
But if such people exist today, they are probably far less glamorous. And given the technology these days regarding computers, Internet, Google and camera phones, why would you even need someone like that? You could do your own research.
There is one issue that always stands out glaringly with private detectives, such as Templar and many, many similar ones from the US, like Cannon, Rockford, etc. TV shows have the impression they had the same powers as police, to enter premises, question suspects etc. They didn't.
Similarly, there were also shows about lawyers and attorneys who also seemed to be able to question suspects and enter premises. Can't think of any examples at the mo, but that also seems like BS.
But we were young, these were entertaining shows and we didn't know any better.