The Saint (TV Series) The Russian Prisoner (1966) User Reviews

A Testament for Yootha

[mickcsavage · 7/10 · 3 August 2022]

Yootha Joyce, appearing here as the Russian apparat-chick (!) Milanova, was an old class-mate of Roger Moore. They both attended RADA during the Second World War, although fairly briefly. Lois Maxwell (Miss Moneypenny & recently in this series also) was there too.

Always makes me slightly sad to see Yootha, knowing how sadly it ended for her. A fine actress though. Particularly remember her as the 'Woman of Leicester' in 'A Man For All Seasons', Avril Machin (a real Leicester name, that).

Although known as half of George and Mildred, I always think of her with her real-life husband Glynn Edwards, Dave from The Winchester in 'Minder'. Hope they had some good times together - she deserved it.

My name is Templar, Simon Templar.

[c-wasell · 8/10 · 10 August 2020]

In some sense a JB-movie light, with the twist that those movies seldom have.

Solid episode

[coltras35 · 8/10 · 31 August 2021]

A Russian professor prepares to defect to the West, but Yootha Joyce and her fellow Russian comrades plan to stop him. The Saint gets involved when the professor's daughter asks him for help to get her father away from the clutches of the Russians.

A solid episode with good production values, nicely drawn characters and a nice build-up to the finale where Templar dives his way to the chateau where the professor is kept. There, he is going to try to nab the professor, but, as in the Saint tradition, not everything is what it seems, and there's a nice twist. Roger Moore, like always, oozes confidence and has a dry humour, but is sharp-minded, cunning and never misses a trick.

The greatest Saint of all

[Nasco12 · 15 July 2011]

I think this is my favourite Saint episode ever. It was made at the perfect moment, when the production team were at the peak of their powers, they had made the move to colour and they still had some original Charteris stories to play with.

And what a story. Charteris, like so many crime writers and so few novelists was absolutely right about communism and here he beautifully captures the sheer nastiness of the Soviet Union.

Yootha Joyce is brilliantly chilling as the KGB station chief. It's not difficult to see how she bagged the role of Mildred Roper. Another brilliant piece of casting sees Tony Blair's father-in-law, Tony Booth, play the sinister KGB thug - a role he adapts to worryingly easily.

Even the minor characters like the hotel receptionist, the chief Russian diplomat and Inspector Kleinhaus are beautifully drawn.

And the final twist you (or, at least, I) just don't see coming.

The Cold War in Microcosm

[aramis-112-804880 · 10/10 · 12 December 2023]

Take one beautiful woman who needs Simon Templar's help to do the impossible, a "Peace" conference that's anything but, and lots of twists and chicanery, and you have a recipe for a perfect "Saint" episode.

I don't know if this is based on a Leslie Charteris story, but it has the trademarks of the Saint: trust no one; nothing is as it seems.

Though I came to "The Saint" TV show through reading Charteris rather than the other way around, my taste in the series is for the more whimsical episodes: "The Fiction Makers," "Little Girl Lost," "The Art Collectors," "The Power Artists," etc. Keep that in mind when reading my "Saint" reviews. I can read any book or story and take it seriously; but for TV I prefer the goofiness of "The Avengers" or the overrated but nevertheless good "The Prisoner." If I want something gritty l'll watch "Mannix." And while this episode isn't altogether light and airy, it's enjoyable.

Sandor Eles gets to play another hotel clerk (as he did in another great episode topping my list, "The Abductors," which has a game performance by the lovely Annette Andre).

Simon gets to show off his aquatic skills (is there nothing this man can't do?). It's the fault of Charteris, but the Saint was too much of a superman to be confined to black and white. "The Russian Prisoner," one of the early color episodes, shows Simon to good effect.

Bond-style actioner

[Leofwine_draca · 6/10 · 7 June 2021]

An enjoyable all-colour episode of THE SAINT; my first colour one, in fact, and it's a real wowzer compared to the black and white ones. This one's a Cold War James Bond-style episode, complete with a great fight scene between Templar and a couple of Russian agents. Fun to see familiar TV faces like Tony Booth and Yootha Joyce before they became household names.