Though it also branched out into film production - with the likes of 1976's The Eagle Has Landed and 1982's The Dark Crystal - ITC was best known throughout the 1960s and '70s for its raft of cult TV programming, with shows like The Champions making an indelible screen icon of Bastedo and others like her.

Founded by legendary television mogul Lew Grade, ITC Entertainment started life in 1954 and one of its earliest television efforts was the spy show Danger Man - retitled Secret Agent for US broadcast.

The precursor - and some believe actual prequel - to ITC's later series The Prisoner, Danger Man starred Patrick McGoohan as international agent John Drake and aired four series throughout the '60s (the first in a half-hour drama format, the following three as more traditional hour-longs).

Possibly ITC's best known series, this adaptation of Leslie Charteris's thriller novels cast Roger Moore as suave Simon Templar - a Robin Hood for the modern age. Running for a total of six series - four in black-and-white, two in colour - The Saint made Moore an international idol and sent him on the path to big-screen stardom as James Bond.

A quasi-sequel Return of the Saint was also co-produced by ITC in the late '70s, with Ian Ogilvy stepping in for Moore.

The aforementioned Alexandra Bastedo starred opposite square-jawed leads Stuart Damon and William Gaunt in this adventure series, which followed three secret agents endowed with special abilities - including enhanced strength and telepathy - by a mysterious civilisation in the Himalayas.

Devised as a replacement for Danger Man, spy thriller Man in a Suitcase starred US lead Richard Bradford as CIA agent turned private eye McGill. At the time, the show was notorious for being ITC's most violent series to date, though it's now better remembered for Ron Grainer's spectacular theme tune - famously co-opted by Chris Evans for his late '90s entertainment series TFI Friday.

Department S (1969-70)

Following the exploits of a fictional Interpol department, this ITC outing featured Peter Wyngarde as the flamboyant Jason King - one of the less-cited inspirations for the Austin Powers movies. So popular was the character of King that he was later handed his own eponymous series, which originally aired from 1971 to 1972.

Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased) (1969-70)

One of ITC's more fantasy-fuelled efforts, Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased) was an unorthodox 'buddy cop' series. Kenneth Cope starred as Marty Hopkirk, a private detective murdered in a hit-and-run who returns to Earth as a ghost to aid his partner - Mike Pratt's straight-shooting Jeff Randall - in catching the killer.

The end of an era - The Persuaders! was even billed "the last major entry in the cycle of adventure series that began 11 years earlier with Danger Man in 1960".

Roger Moore returned to ITC to play aristocrat and playboy Brett Sinclair, who teams with rough diamond Danny Wilde (Tony Curtis) to fight injustice. Featuring glamorous international locations and flashy sports cars, The Persuaders! was every bit as bold and dynamic as its leading men.

Are you a fan of ITC Entertainment's output? Did you know the shows but not their source? Let us know below!