‘The Saint’ plays another perfect gentleman

Press, 28 October 1982, Page 15

‘The Saint’ plays another perfect gentleman

Is lan Ogilvy. destined to spend his days playing perlect gentlemen on television? Ogilvy admits that it is beginning to look like it After his success as Simon Templar in “The Saint,” Ogilvy is now back on British screens as what he describes as “a character of stoic reserve and impeccable manners” Richard Maddison in the new comedy series, “Tom, Dick and Harriet,” costarring Lionel Jeffries and Brigit Forsyth. No wonder the handsome, six-foot old Etonian says he finds it difficult to shake off the “smooth image,” and already he is picking up a nice share of the programme’s fan mail, mainly from female viewers.

“It's great to be a familiar face again," said Ogilvy. “A lead part in a television series, as any actor — or actress — will tell you. is an almost guaranteed ticket to overnight stardom. “But the big question is, when the series is finished, will the glory go on? The answer is that very often it doesn't.”

Ogilvy still vividly remembers the time, just four years ago. when he was hailed as the sex symbol of the decade, with the biggest break of his professional career, playing the part of Simon Templar in “The Return of the Saint.” It cost • ATV over £3 million to make, and seemed to be the series which had everything: glamorous locations in Monte Carlo and the south of France, fast cars and yachts, and a host of beautiful women, including Catherine Schell and Kate O’Mara. Of course, it also had Ogilvy, who wore his Saint’s halo ’ with all the natural aplomb of someone' who is tall, dark, very handsome and also an old Etonian. Yet, after the 13 actionpacked episodes, there were

no more. “I think the w'hole exercise proved just too expensive," said Ogilvy. “And the offers of other television jobs were very thin on the ground. “Because of ‘The Saint series,” he explained, “I had this reputation of being the sort of actor who could be used only for parts which called for wealthy, playboytype settings. “With a recession on. and everyone cutting back on costs like mad, they simply weren’t making that sort of show any more?’ Ogilvy was born into great comfort, and said he “always thought we were fairly loaded.” He added: “I'm afraid I just rather took everything for granted when' I was a kid. “Then, shortly after I left school my father died, and I discovered that there wasn’t a bean. He had spent everything on his family which, looking back on it now, I think is marvellous. “He gave us so much. "The toruble was, though, that I just wasn't used to coping on my own. It meant I had to get on with my life and do something. I was a student at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art at the time, though, so it wasn't very easy.” Among his best friends was a fellow student, Nicky Henson, and the two of them, together with some other friends, formed a pop group called the Wombats. “It started out as a bit of a joke,” he recalled, “and we used to play at dances and parties. But word got around, and Brian Epstein, who looked after the Beatles, wanted to manage us and turn us professional. “We had to decide whether to gamble on the chance of becoming pop stars and possibly making a million, or staying at college and becoming serious actors, as we had originally intended.

“Now, I often think of that million we might have made. But I still don't regret a thing." What has he been doing since the end of “The Saint" series? “An enormous amount of theatre work, ” he said. He recently moved into London's West End. playing alongside Maria Aitken a’nd Gary Bond in a production of Noel Coward's “Design for Living." Gossip columns recently linked his name romantically with that of Maria Aitken. Since the play arrived in London he has chosen to stay in a flat in town, rather than drive to the house in the heart of the Surrey country-

side where his wife of the past 13 years, Diana, lives with their two children. “The rumours are rubbish,” said Ogilvy. “It is simply more convenient to stay in town than to make the long drive home late at night after the show." Now another series of “Tom, Dick and Harriet" is firmly in the pipeline, and Ogilvy seems set to become a romantic TV heart-throb yet again. How does he feel about it? "I had enough of that kind of thing with 'The Return of the- Saint',” he said. "This time round. I shall simply take it as it comes" Features International