London: Chameleon, 1997
Large 8vo, pp. 96. Original black boards, lettered in silver to spine. Photographically illustrated dustwrapper.
First edition, INSCRIBED BY THE AUTHOR TO DOUBLE OSCAR-WINNING CINEMATOGRAPHER FREDDIE FRANCIS: 'To Freddie, Thank you for sparing the time to talk so entertainingly about your fleeting days on The Saint! You may not have enjoyed the work but we enjoyed the results! Best Wishes Paul Simper.' With laid in a TLS from Simper to Francis presenting the book and thanking him for his participation.
Freddie Francis had already won one of his cinematography Oscars (for Sons and Lovers in 1960) and had directed a run of films fo Hammer and Amicus, and so came to the task of directing two episodes of The Saint, in 1967 and 1969, a little over-qualified. 'In this country you got paid more money for directing than being a cameraman, so that's what I started to do. I drifted off into all these horror films [...] After I'd done about 25 of these I though 'this is crazy'. so I stepped outside of it and began to prepare a few things of my own. And while I was doing that I got offered odd television things like The Saint. [...] Unfortunately, one had so little freedom on them that I didn't like them very much. I'm afraid dear old Roger wasn't keen on experimenting.' (From the interview with Francis in this book.)