First of IYE’s new/old series The Baron … notes below the unembedded pic … the embedded bit is:

HERE

Wiki:

“The show starred an American actor, Steve Forrest, as John Mannering, an antiques dealer who drives a Jensen C-V8 with ‘BAR 1’ as the distinctive, personalised number plate. ‘The Baron’ is portrayed as an occasional undercover agent working in an informal capacity for the head of the fictional British Diplomatic Intelligence, Templeton-Green (Colin Gordon) assisted by Cordelia Winfield (Sue Lloyd) and David Marlowe (Paul Ferris).

By contrast, in Creasey’s original novels, Mannering is British and, after the first few novels, married. By transforming the character into an eligible bachelor and casting a Texan in the role, the producers decided that ‘The Baron’ would be nicknamed after the cattle ranch once run by his grandfather, described as being “200,000 acres [809.371 km2] 300 miles from Dallas”.

In the books, he is a reformed jewel thief (the first few novels describing Mannering’s “career” from his deciding to steal to his going straight) whose criminal ties served him well in investigating jewel, art, or antiques-oriented mysteries.

For the TV series, Mannering’s persona is depicted as absolutely straight with no suggestion of past criminality, a fact underlined by his being co-opted by British intelligence.”

JH: Secret Service? Oh well, absolutely zero criminality whatsoever … paragons of virtue in fact.

“In the episode “Red Horse, Red Rider”, it is revealed that Mannering had been a US Army Captain during the Second World War, serving in the Monuments, Fine Arts, and Archives program where he recovered art works from the Nazis. Following the war, he owned three antique stores and was a “charter member of the jet set”.”

Reviews were mixed, some calling the acting and technical side poor and uneven but this is a positive review by the Duke of Hazard:

”I know that my mark is nostalgia-influenced, but I really can’t mark down any of the 60’s ITC escapist adventure series as they were such a fun part of my childhood, watching classic shows like The Avengers, The Saint, Randall & Hopkirk Deceased, The Champions, Man In A Suitcase, Department S, The Persuaders and this.

Yes, The Baron is a minor-league Simon Templar, a globe-trotting adventurer with an unlikely cover as an antiques dealer who invariably ends up in some foreign intrigue, yes, the production values are fairly low, with studio-bound sets and stock footage of international airports dropped in to futilely attempt to convince the audience the locations are authentic but it’s all shot briskly and efficiently, routinely delivering 50 minutes of easily digestible thrills and spills before the stirring theme music comes around again to signal the end (almost every ITC show and certainly the ones I mentioned above all had memorable theme tunes).

Steve Forrest, brother of Dana Andrews, lacks his sibling’s personality and charisma but otherwise makes for an acceptable, well-dressed, chisel-jawed leading man while Sue Lloyd provided the glamour, parading the fashions of the day with no little humour, although she invariably is reduced to playing the damsel in distress, no Emma Peel her.

The Baron is a somewhat derivative and fairly light entertainment and probably wouldn’t appeal much to anyone who doesn’t, like me, remember first watching it on a black and white TV as a child in the mid-60’s. But that child was me and decades later, I still can’t bring myself to criticise it too much for all its derivation and lack of originality.”

It was made by ITC to follow on from The Saint.