I loved the episodes of "The Saint" featuring Ivor Dean as Inspector Teal.
I believe he was the third and final actor to play this role in the show? He and Roger had fantastic chemistry between them and they would just kind of bounce off each other.

I saw him in "Randall and Hopkirk Deceased" once playing a character very similar to Inspector Teal, and thought then he deserved to have his own show.

Inspector Teal was nearly always cross and bad-tempered with Simon, but deep down had a healthy respect for him all the same. I loved how Simon used to get him mad on purpose, those scenes were great!

Ivor Dean certainly had a lot more personality than his two predecessors in The Saint. I miss him a great deal when he is not in one of the earlier episodes with other actors playing the part. Every time Simon would introduce another actor as "Claude Eustas Teal", I always say: "No, he is not!"  :smt019  :smt003 There was something very charming and sweet about him, even when he had a hard time solving a case or gave The Saint "the attitude" (which was thrown right back at him every time, lol!!!).

In my opinion Teal is quite similar in character to M from the Bond movies. On the surface he hates Simon and on the surface M detests Bond, but underneath I think they both like Bond and Simon respectively.

Goodnight007.2 wrote:In my opinion Teal is quite similar in character to M from the Bond movies. On the surface he hates Simon and on the surface M detests Bond, but underneath I think they both like Bond and Simon respectively.

Good points!  :smt023

I also get the impression that M and Teal treat Bond and The Saint like the sons they never had, but try not to show it on the outside too often. Every now and then you can see something warm in their eyes when they are talking at RM's characters and call them by their first names instead or "Bond" or "Templar".  :smt001

I've recently been watching some of the black and white Saints, and two of them with different actors playing Inspector Teal.  I wonder why they didn't carry on with the role? Do you think it could be because they didn't have much personality, or the humor that was needed? I think the producers of the show struck gold with Ivor Dean, he was just made for it.

Ivor appeared in the Saint story "Starring The Saint" as a worker at some movie studios, and it was weird watching him before he became the Chief Inspector.

To anyone who has read The Saint original stories, was Ivor Dean close to how Claude Eustice Teal  was written in the books?