Like other ITC shows,
The Baron shared a lot of its production crew with the other productions of the time (
Danger Man,
The Saint etc.), including guest cast members
Peter Wyngarde and
Bernard Lee, and directors
Roy Ward Baker and
Robert Asher. The lion's share of the scripts were by
Dennis Spooner and
Dalek creator
Terry Nation. A few episodes were credited to Tony O'Grady, a pseudonym of
The Avengers writer-producer
Brian Clemens. The character of Mannering was, like
Simon Templar in
The Saint, a member of the
jet set, whose glamorous lifestyle was typified by air travel to exotic locations, which at the time was still only easily available to the wealthy. However, filming never left the UK; it was filmed chiefly in and around
Elstree Studios in
Borehamwood, Hertfordshire, then owned by
Associated British Pictures. Locations used included Haberdashers' Aske's School in Elstree,
St Albans and
Ivinghoe Beacon. These featured prominently in several other ITC series of the same era. The backlot at Elstree in particular was extensively used, being transformed alternately into Mannering's antiques shop, a Mexican town, a Parisian nightclub, an East European police station and many others besides. Paul Ferris was originally cast as Mannering's assistant David Marlowe. However, after pressure from the US network
ABC, Marlowe was dropped in favour of the more glamorous Cordelia who had appeared in the first episode. She is 'reintroduced' in "Something for a Rainy Day", the ninth episode to be made, although broadcast third. As originally broadcast, the 'Cordelia' and 'Marlowe' episodes are interspersed, even though Paul Ferris left the production after eight episodes were filmed. As with other ITC series, the American market was vital; several episodes were overdubbed (e.g. "petrol" becoming "gas", "whisky" becoming "Scotch") to ensure they were fit for US audiences. Roy Ward Baker stated that owing to US sponsorship by a cigarette company, characters "were allowed to light up only in moments of leisure, never when they were frightened or under duress". The show did not do well enough on ABC and was syndicated midway through its run, which effectively ensured that no second series would be made. The Baron's car was a silver
Jensen CV-8 Mk II with the registration BAR 1. Unlike the
Volvo driven by Simon Templar, the exclusivity of the car meant the series did not generate the same sales boost as
The Saint had done for Volvo. Cordelia drove a considerably less upmarket
DAF Daffodil 33. The episode "Something for a Rainy Day" featured shots of a white
Jaguar plummeting over a cliff. This footage, apparently filmed for this episode (from several angles), reappeared in several other episodes and series, in an attempt to render its high cost worthwhile. The episode "Portrait of Louisa" was a reworking by Terry Nation of his earlier script "Lida", written for (and produced as) an episode of
The Saint. The Baron was the first ITC show without
marionettes to be produced entirely in colour. (ITC marionette series
Stingray and
Thunderbirds had been filmed in colour; the last fourteen of the thirty episodes of
The Adventures of Sir Lancelot in 1956-57 had been shot in colour, as had the 1962 pilot episode of
Man of the World). ==Feature films==