Sadly Over-hyped

Horrible, fascist and poorly acted

I wanted to like it more than I actually did... But much of the humor totally escaped me and I walked out only mildly impressed.

Blistering performances.

I know that my mark is nostalgia-influenced, but I really can't mark down any of the 60's ITC escapist adventure series as they were such a fun part of my childhood, watching classic shows like The Avengers, The Saint, Randall & Hopkirk Deceased, The Champions, Man In A Suitcase, Department S, The Persuaders and this.Yes, The Baron is a minor-league Simon Templar, a globe-trotting adventurer with an unlikely cover as an antiques dealer who invariably ends up in some foreign intrigue, yes, the production values are fairly low, with studio-bound sets and stock footage of international airports dropped in to futilely attempt to convince the audience the locations are authentic but it's all shot briskly and efficiently, routinely delivering 50 minutes of easily digestible thrills and spills before the stirring theme music comes around again to signal the end (almost every ITC show and certainly the ones I mentioned above all had memorable theme tunes).Steve Forrest, brother of Dana Andrews, lacks his sibling's personality and charisma but otherwise makes for an acceptable, well-dressed, chisel-jawed leading man while Sue Lloyd provided the glamour, parading the fashions of the day with no little humour, although she invariably is reduced to playing the damsel in distress, no Emma Peel her.The Baron is a somewhat derivative and fairly light entertainment and probably wouldn't appeal much to anyone who doesn't, like me, remember first watching it on a black and white TV as a child in the mid-60's. But that child was me and decades later, I still can't bring myself to criticise it too much for all its derivation and lack of originality.

I also remember this from the 70s - well at least I vaguely remembered his rather nice assistant, David Marlowe, being kidnapped and then stabbed by a particularly svelte and nasty villain: I even went to library to get out a few of the books because that episode made such an impression on me. On re-watching I have to say I felt much as a previous reviewer - shame the US forced out the David character and brought in Cordelia (Sue Lloyd may be eye candy for the boys, but Paul Ferris was definitely eye candy for the girls and his character could at least stand up for himself, while his relationship with the Baron is rather that of a father-son type, and could have been developed further) Am now giving the DVDs to my 13 year old as I have to say I prefer this type of show for someone of his age, than more modern, graphically violent ones. It's a bit of fun, the men look great (and they dressed squarely enough not to look outdated today); the car is wonderful and I can indulge for the 8 episodes Paul Ferris does appear in

I.T.C. made 'The Baron' as a follow-up to 'The Saint' series starring Roger Moore. Terry Nation, Dennis Spooner and Brian Clemens ignored John Creasey's books and invented wholly original plots. Some such as 'Storm Warning/The Island' had a strong 'U.N.C.L.E./Avengers' flavour. The casting of Steve Forrest as 'John Mannering' worked because there were no previous screen incarnations to judge him by. As per the books, Mannering owned an antiques shop in London, but was now a part-time agent for British Intelligence, headed by John Templeton-Greene ( Colin Gordon ), hence the scope of the plots ran from crime to espionage to mystery. The presence of luscious Sue Lloyd ( as 'Cordelia' ) further distanced the show from the Moore series. While 'The Baron' failed to replicate the success of 'The Saint' in the U.S.A., it remains an enormously entertaining show and the only screen incarnation of the character to date. It also has one of Edwin Astley's best theme tunes!

'The Baron' series of novels was written/published between 1937 ('Meet the Baron') and 1979 ('Love for the Baron'), with a total of 47 books in the series. John Creasey also wrote the novels upon which 'Gideon's Way' was based, as well as several hundred other mainly detective novels, under a number of pseudonyms. They are all reprinted now under the authorship of John Creasey (when they ARE reprinted...)It's curious that he's not credited here for The Baron series, as many of the character names and the basic plot are directly from the novels.