Scribblers Music Review

The theme from the Saint TV show has been pervading the house for weeks, as I work through the new Shout Factory box set of the series. This is the most complete Saint set ever offered in the U.S., with nearly 40 episodes from the third and fourth season available here on DVD for the first time. I love the show (and the Leslie Charteris books which begat it) for its variety, adventurousness, worldliness. I also love its Edwin Astley theme music, despite the fact that the same clips are used over and over and over. There’s always the same intro music, the same “discovery” music, the same fight-scene music (Saint fight scenes are like WWE ballets by thin men in nice suits). It could get overwhelming, annoying, repetitious. But the Astley theme, which interpolates a whistling melody created by Saint creator Leslie Charteris himself back in the 1930s, never grows tired for me. It’s emphasis, it’s underscoring, it’s soothing, it’s sensational and above all it’s Saintly.