| Danger Man | |
|---|---|
 First series titles | |
| Genre | |
| Created by | Ralph Smart |
| Starring | Patrick McGoohan |
| Music by | |
| Country of origin | United Kingdom |
| Original language | English |
| No. of series | 4 |
| No. of episodes | 86(list of episodes) |
| Production | |
| Running time |
|
| Production company | Incorporated Television Company forATV |
| Original release | |
| Network | ITV |
| Release | 11 September 1960 (1960-9-11) – 12 January 1968 (1968-1-12) |
Danger Man (retitledSecret Agent in the United States for the revived series, andDestination Danger andJohn Drake in other overseas markets) is a British television series that was broadcast between 1960 and 1962, and again between 1964 and 1968. The series featuredPatrick McGoohan as secret agentJohn Drake.Ralph Smart created the programme and wrote many of the scripts.Danger Man was financed byLew Grade'sITC Entertainment.
The idea forDanger Man originated withRalph Smart, an associate ofLew Grade, head ofITC Entertainment. Grade was looking for formats that could be exported.[1]
Ian Fleming was brought in to collaborate on series development, but left before development was complete.[2] LikeJames Bond, the main character is a globetrotting spy who works at first forNATO, in series one, and then for the fictional British intelligence service M9 for the remainder of the show's run. Like Bond, Drake cleverly extricates himself from life-threatening situations, albeit with gadgetry which is less fantastic than Bond's, and introduces himself as "Drake... John Drake."[citation needed]
After McGoohan was cast, he also affected character development.[1] A key difference from Bond traces to the family-oriented star's preferences: no firearms (with a few rare exceptions, such as episode 26, "The Journey Ends Halfway") and no outright seduction of female co-stars (although Drake did engage in low-key romance in a few episodes).[3]
The series revolves around the character of John Drake, a skilled and intelligentsecret agent who takes on dangerous and complex assignments. From the series one voice-over:
Every government has itssecret service branch. America,CIA; France,Deuxième Bureau; England,MI5.NATO also has its own. A messy job? Well that's when they usually call on me or someone like me. Oh yes, my name is Drake, John Drake.
The line "NATO also has its own" is not always present.[4]
The mention of the Deuxième Bureau as France's secret service branch in the 1960s was, however, incorrect. This organization was no longer in existence, having been replaced by theSDECE at the end ofWW II.
Drake's missions involve internationalespionage, dealing with threats toglobal security, which often require him to go undercover. Drake is known for his resourcefulness, intelligence, and ability to think his way out of difficult situations. Unlike many spy shows of that era, the show focused on the use of intellect, rather than violence, notably avoiding excessive violence and romantic entanglements.
The first series of 39 episodes ran 24–25 minutes each and portrayed John Drake as working for a Washington, D.C.–based intelligence organisation, on behalf of theNorth Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), whose assignments frequently took him to Africa, Latin America, and the Far East. They were filmed inblack and white.
For the second and third series which aired several years after the first, the episode's length was extended to 48–49 minutes and Drake underwentretconning. His nationality became British, and he was an agent working for a secret British government department, called M9 (analogous toSecret Intelligence Service), though hisMid-Atlantic accent persists for the first few episodes in production. These were also filmed in black and white.
Other than the largely nominal change of employer and nationality, Drake's mandate remains the same: "to undertake missions involving national and global security". In keeping with the episodic format of such series in the 1960s, there are no ongoing story arcs and there is no reference made to Drake's NATO adventures in the later M9 episodes.
The pilot was written byBrian Clemens, who later co-producedThe Avengers. In an interview Clemens said:[5]
The pilot I wrote was called "View from the Villa" and it was set in Italy, but theproduction manager set the shoot on location inPortmeirion, which looked like Italy but which was much closer. And obviously the location stuck in Patrick McGoohan's mind, because that's where he shot his television seriesThe Prisoner much later.
Thesecond unit director on the pilot, according to Clemens:[5]
... shot some location and background stuff and sent the dailies back to the editing room atElstree.Ralph Smart looked at them, hated them, and called up the second unit director and said "Look, these are terrible, you'll never be a film director," and then he fired him. The name of the second unit director?John Schlesinger.
When American financing for a second series failed to materialise, the programme was cancelled.[1][unreliable source?] The first series had aired in America each Wednesday, 8:30 to 9:00 pm (Eastern Standard Time), onCBS from 5 April to 13 September 1961.[6] It was used by the network as a late-spring replacement forWanted Dead or Alive, which had just wrapped its third and final series.
After a two-year hiatus, two things had changed;Danger Man had subsequently been resold all around the world, with repeat showings creating a public clamour for new ones. Also by this time,James Bond had become popular, as hadABC'sThe Avengers.Danger Man's creator, Ralph Smart, rethought the concept; the second series' (1964) episodes were 49 minutes long and had a new musical theme,Edwin Astley's "High Wire". Drake gained an English accent and did not clash with his bosses at first. The revivedDanger Man was broadcast in the U.S. asSecret Agent, first shown as aCBS summer-replacement program. It had a new U.S.-only theme song, "Secret Agent Man", sung byJohnny Rivers, which became a success in its own right. In other parts of the world, the show was titledDestination Danger orJohn Drake.[citation needed]
The fourth series consists of only two episodes, "Koroshi" and "Shinda Shima", the only two episodes ofDanger Man to be filmed incolour. These two separate but related episodes were recut together as a feature for cinemas in Europe and for American broadcast, as done with two-parters from otherITC series such asThe Baron andThe Saint.[7] Whilst "Koroshi" retains a strong plot-line and sharp characterisations, "Shinda Shima" drew heavily on contemporary Bond movies, principallyDr. No. When the episodes were completed, McGoohan announced he was resigning from the series to create, produce, and star in a project titledThe Prisoner, withDavid Tomblin as co-producer andGeorge Markstein as script editor. Markstein was then theDanger Man script consultant. A number of behind-the-scenes personnel onDanger Man were subsequently hired forThe Prisoner.[8]
The two colour episodes aired (in black and white) in the UK in the time slot ofThe Prisoner, which could not make its scheduled broadcast dates. The European cinema film feature version,Koroshi, did not receive theatrical release in the US, but instead aired on network television as aTV movie in 1968.[citation needed]
Unlike theJames Bond films,Danger Man strove for realism, dramatising credibleCold War tensions. In the second series, Drake is an undercover agent of a British intelligence agency. As in the earlier series, Drake finds himself in danger with not always happy outcomes; sometimes duty forces him to decisions that lead to good people suffering unfair consequences. Drake doesn't always do what his superiors tell him.
Drake is rarely armed, though he engaged in fist fights, and the gadgets he uses are generally credible. In one episode ("To Our Best Friend"), Drake says, "I never carry a gun. They're noisy, and they hurt people. Besides, I manage very well without." Although the villains are often killed, Drake himself rarely does the killing. An examination of all episodes[by whom?] indicates that, in the entire series, he only shoots one person dead, in one of the last half-hour episodes from the 1960 season. While another shooting occurs in "The Ubiquitous Mr. Lovegrove", it is revealed to be a dream. Drake is almost never shown armed with a gun, and the episode "Time to Kill" centres on Drake's hesitancy and initial refusal to take an assassination mission (events occur to prevent Drake from having to carry out the task). In Episode 53 "Such Men Are Dangerous," Drake shoots and wounds a shotgun-armed villainess with a captured pistol. Drake's uses of non-firearm deadly force during the series number fewer than a dozen.
Despite the lack of firearm violence,The Encyclopedia of 20th-Century American Television by Ron Lackmann inexplicably describesDanger Man as one of the most violent series ever produced.
Drake uses his intelligence, charm and quick thinking rather than force. He usually plays a role to infiltrate a situation, for example, scout for a travel agency, naive soldier, embittered ex-convict, brainless playboy, imperious physician, opportunistic journalist, bumbling tourist, cold-blooded mercenary, bland diplomat, smarmy pop disc-jockey, precise clerk, compulsive gambler or impeccable butler.
Drake is often shown re-using gadgets from previous episodes. Among the more frequently seen are a small spy camera hidden in a cigarette lighter and activated by flicking the lighter, a miniature reel-to-reel tape recorder hidden inside the head of an electric shaver or a pack of cigarettes, and a microphone, which could be embedded in a wall near the target via a shotgun-like apparatus, that usedsoda siphon cartridges containingCO2 as the propellant, allowing Drake to eavesdrop on conversations from a safe distance.
As Drake gets involved in a case, things are rarely as they seem. He is not infallible—he gets arrested, he makes mistakes, equipment fails, careful plans do not work; Drake often has to improvise an alternative plan. Sometimes investigation fails and he simply does something provocative to crack open the case. People he trusts can turn out to be untrustworthy or incompetent; he finds unexpected allies.
John Drake, unlike Bond, never romanced any of the series' female characters, as McGoohan was determined to create a family-friendly show.[9] McGoohan denounced the sexual promiscuity of James Bond andThe Saint, roles he had rejected, although he had played romantic roles beforeDanger Man. Drake uses his immense charm in his undercover work, and women are often very attracted to him, but the viewers are left to assume whatever they want about Drake's personal life. The only exceptions to this rule were the two "linked" episodes of the series, "You're Not in Any Trouble, Are You?" and "Are You Going to be More Permanent?", in which Drake encounters two different women—both played bySusan Hampshire—and which contain numerous similarities in dialogue and set-pieces and both end with Drake in a pseudo-romantic circumstance with Hampshire's character. Drake is also shown falling for the female lead in the episode "The Black Book" though nothing comes of it; this episode is also one of the only scripts to directly address Drake's loneliness in his chosen profession. Many times the women in the show turned out to befemmes fatales, and heavily involved in the very plots Drake is fighting.
In the second series, Drake displays an increasingly resentful attitude towards his superiors at M9,[10] first answering unwillingly to "Gorton" (Raymond Adamson) and later to "The Admiral" or Hobbs (Peter Madden). In the series, "Hardy" was played byRichard Wattis.
Guest stars includedDonald Pleasence (who was Blofeld in a James Bond movie),Howard Marion Crawford,Charles Gray, (who also appeared in two James Bond movies),Donald Houston,Maurice Denham,Joan Greenwood,John Le Mesurier,Sylvia Syms,Paul Eddington,William Marshall,Patsy Ann Noble,Lois Maxwell (she, too, featured in a James Bond movie as Miss Moneypenny),Burt Kwouk, andPeter Sallis.
 | This sectionpossibly containsoriginal research. Pleaseimprove it byverifying the claims made and addinginline citations. Statements consisting only of original research should be removed.(January 2019) (Learn how and when to remove this message) |
The secondDanger Man theme, "High Wire," developed during series 2–4. The original version features a subdued rhythm section with almost inaudible drums. This was replaced with a revised version with drums and bass pushed to the fore in the mix. The end credits theme tune was set to end in the same manner as the opening theme, ending on the held, questioning, lower "E". The two-note coda was added soon afterwards to make a definite ending. An audio clip from the recording session can be heard as an extra on the final disc of the DVD set from Network DVD. The revised theme featured this as a normal end to the tune. As series 4 was to be made in colour, a completely new arrangement was recorded which owed much to the arrangement on Astley's full-length version of "High Wire" (released on single the previous year – see below). The feature filmKoroshi was created from the only two episodes made for series 4, "Koroshi" and "Shinda Shima", and uses this new arrangement over the closing titles only.
When the show was picked up in America, Johnny Rivers recalled,
"We were approached by the producers of a television show calledDanger Man, starring Patrick McGoohan. It was huge in Europe, but hadn’t been brought over to North America yet. They only had an instrumental theme song with a harpsichord, and asked if we would be interested in putting together a little theme song for the American version. So when we were back stateside [from Europe], I got together with P.F. Sloan and Steve Barri, whom I had been working with and recording some of their songs, and we came up with something. I just stole that opening [guitar] riff fromThe James Bond Theme, and they wrote the lyrics and melody. Then we went in and recorded it for the show – just a verse and chorus with the little instrumental part. People started calling the radio stations, and the stations started calling the record companies saying, “You’ve got to put that out, it’s a big hit.” So we had to go back in and record it again with more lyrics, and that became the song that eventually became the hit.[11]
| This sectionpossibly containsoriginal research. Pleaseimprove it byverifying the claims made and addinginline citations. Statements consisting only of original research should be removed.(January 2019) (Learn how and when to remove this message) |
The original opening ID changed as the series progressed. The first series had McGoohan leaving a building and getting into a convertible under the opening narration reproduced earlier, and driving off.
The earlier of the two sequences for the hour-long series features a photograph of a benevolently smiling McGoohan that zooms partly out towards the right of the frame, then stops, adding the legend "Patrick McGoohan as". The three-ringed 'target' revolves round in time to the three-note orchestra hits to obscure McGoohan's photo as it reveals the programme logo on a pure black background.
The second version was in two segments. The first segment is filmed, comprising a full-length McGoohan in stark negative, menacingly taking a few paces towards the camera, before he then stops. In quick succession, the camera zooms in fast onto his eyes, freeze-frames, then switches from negative to positive. The legend "Patrick McGoohan as" is added. This then switches to a different photo with McGoohan looking left out of picture. The familiar three-ringed 'target' then reveals the programme logo on a pure black background as before. The music was re-recorded for this version of the ident and lasted for the rest of the programme's run.
McGoohan resigned from the series, forcing its cancellation. He had been working on a new project entitledThe Prisoner, withDavid Tomblin as co-producer andGeorge Markstein as script editor. Markstein was then theDanger Man script consultant. A number of behind-the-scenes personnel onDanger Man were subsequently hired forThe Prisoner.[8] An unused, fourth-series script was reworked as an episode ofThe Champions.
Inspiration forThe Prisoner came from aDanger Man episode called "Colony Three"[says who?], in which Drake infiltrates a spy school in Eastern Europe during the Cold War. The school, in the middle of nowhere, is set up to look like a normal English town in which pupils and instructors mix as in any other normal city, but the instructors are virtual prisoners with little hope of ever leaving. It is often thought this episode was a precursor toThe Prisoner; it was filmed in the new town ofHatfield, Hertfordshire.[12] The actorDerren Nesbitt (as a Number Two inThe Prisoner) who appears in the episode "Time to Kill", Peter Swanwick (as supervisor inThe Prisoner) in the episodes "The Key" and "The Paper Chase"; and the actor Richard Wattis who played Drake's superior Mr.Hardy (Mr. Fotheringay inThe Prisoner) are later members of the cast inThe Prisoner and many others.[13]
Prisoner fans frequently debate whether John Drake ofDanger Man and Number Six inThe Prisoner are the same person.[14] Like John Drake, Number Six is evidently a secret agent, but one who has resigned from his job.
According toThe Prisoner: The Official Companion by Robert Fairclough, thePrisoner episode "The Girl Who Was Death" was based upon a two-partDanger Man script that had been planned for the fourth series. In thissurreal episode, Number Six meets "Potter", John Drake'sDanger Man contact.Christopher Benjamin portrayed the character in both series, with the episode also featuring an actor named John Drake in a small, non-speaking role. As well as guest-starring in this show,Paul Eddington played another spy and No.6's former colleague, Cobb, in the opening episode of thePrisoner.[13]
The firstDanger Man season includes four episodes which use footage filmed in the Welsh resort ofPortmeirion, which later became the primary shooting location of theVillage inThe Prisoner.
Reference books disagree on whetherThe Prisoner was aDanger Man continuation. Vincent Terrace'sThe Complete Encyclopedia of Television Programs 1947–1979 postulates that John Drake's resignation reason is revealed in the "Do Not Forsake Me Oh My Darling" episode, which is a follow-up to a mission assigned to Number Six before he was sent to The Village. Richard Meyers makes the same claim in his 1981 book,TV Detectives. He further states that this connects directly to "an episode ofSecret Agent never shown in [the United States] with John Drake investigating the story of a brain transferral device in Europe",[15] but no such episode ofDanger Man was ever made. And, indeed, he might have been confusing that plot device with the one from the "Who's Who?" episode of the contemporaneousspy-fi showThe Avengers.[who?]Nigel Stock (who played "The Colonel" in "Do Not Forsake Me...") also guest-starred in theDanger Man episode "A Little Loyalty Always Pays", as Major Bert Barrington.
McGoohan stated in a 1985 interview that the two characters were not the same, and that he had originally wanted a different actor to play the role of Number Six.[16]
All four series are now available on DVD in Europe, Australasia and North America.
In Britain, Network DVD released a 13-disc "Special Edition" boxed set of the one-hour shows in June 2007. Extra features include the edited-together movie version of "Koroshi" and "Shinda Shima", the USSecret Agent opening and closing titles, image galleries for each episode, and a specially written 170-page book on the making of the one-hour series. Umbrella Entertainment has released the 24-minute series on DVD in Australia; the 49-minute series has been released by Madman.
Network Distributing Ltd Home Entertainment released the 1st (24 min) series in January 2010 on a 6-disc set with a commemorative booklet by Andrew Pixley. The Carlton 6 disc set is out of issue.[18]
In North America, the three series of hour-long episodes of the series were released byA&E Home Video, under licence fromCarlton International Media Limited, under the titleSecret Agent AKA Danger Man in order to acknowledge the American broadcast and syndication title. The episodes were digitally remastered from 35MM film prints and were presented in their original UK broadcast format and original CBS broadcast order; the two episodes that constituted the aborted fourth season were also included, the first time they had been released in their original format (however, this meant the transition scene filmed for theKoroshi feature-length version is omitted). The episodes retain their originalDanger Man opening credits (including the original theme by theEdwin Astley Orchestra), the first time these have been seen in the U.S., with theSecret Agent credits included as an extra feature.
A&E Home Entertainment later released the first season of the original UKDanger Man on Region 1 DVD, newly restored and remastered, unedited, uncut and presented in its original UK broadcast format and order.
A&E subsequently released a single-set "megabox" containing all of the one-hour episodes; a revised megabox, released in 2007, added the half-hour episodes, and was released again in a modified slimline package in 2010. To date, no North American DVD release has occurred of theKoroshi TV movie edit of the two fourth-season episodes.
On 9 December 2014,Timeless Media Group re-released the entire series on DVD in Region 1 in a 17-disc set entitledSecret Agent (Danger Man)- The Complete Series.[19]
As of October 2020, Danger Man is streaming on Amazon and Roku.[20] As of February 2022, it's also shown on Tubi.
The Washington title sequence of the first series 24-minute episodes is a composite of theUnited States Capitol in the background and theCastrol Building, complete with a London Bus stop, in the Marylebone Road, London as the foreground. This building is nowMarathon House, converted from offices to flats in 1998.[21]
In reality, no such building is allowed to exist in Washington, D.C., as theHeight of Buildings Act of 1910 limits the heights of building (except churches) to 130 feet (40 m), thus giving theUnited States Capitol building, at 289 feet (88 m), an unobstructed view from any part of the city. (This has led to the popular belief that buildings in Washington, D.C. are restricted to the height of the U.S. Capitol building.)[22]
Several original novels based uponDanger Man were published in the UK and US, the majority during 1965 and 1966.
Several of the above novels were translated into French and published in France, where the series was known asDestination Danger. An additionalDestination Danger novel by John Long was published in French and not printed in the US or UK. At least one of the novels,The Exterminator, was later republished in the 1970s byZenith Publications in the UK, with no direct reference toDanger Man on the cover.
The adventures of John Drake have also been depicted in comic book form. In 1961,Dell Comics in the US (whosebook-publishing cousin issued the Telfair novel) published a one-shotDanger Man comic as part of its long-runningFour Color series, based upon the first series format. It depicted Drake as having red hair, a trait shared with Patrick McGoohan, but which was unseen asDanger Man had been made only in monochrome at that time. In 1966,Gold Key Comics published two issues of aSecret Agent comic book based upon the hour-long series (this series should not be confused withSecret Agent, an unrelated comic book series published byCharlton Comics in 1967, formerly titledSarge Steel). In Britain, a singleDanger Man comic book subtitled "Trouble in Turkey" appeared in the mid-1960s and a number of comic strip adventures appeared in hardback annuals. French publishers also produced several issues of aDestination Danger comic book in the 1960s, although their Drake was blond. Spanish publishers produced a series titledAgent Secreto. The Germans were particularly prolific, using 'John Drake' and a picture of McGoohan, as the cover for hundreds of "krimi" magazines.
The Australian rights are held by theNine Network who, over many decades, have shown numerous repeats in non-peak viewing times. From 2012 to 2017 there were numerous showings in the early hours of the morning onGem, a Nine Network digital outlet, sometimes twice per morning. TheDanger Man repeats alternate with re-screenings of other British series such asGideon's Way,The Baron, andThe Avengers.
CBS broadcast some of the original format's episodes of the programme in 1961 under theDanger Man title as a summer replacement for theWestern seriesWanted: Dead or Alive.
Danger Man was rebroadcast on American TV in the 2000s, whenSTARZ!'sMystery channel started broadcasting the one-hour episodes in its American CBS broadcast version under theSecret Agent title. Prior to this,Secret Agent was widely seen in syndication. The half-hourDanger Man episodes were not as widely distributed.
In September 2018,Charge! began airing the series in its original UK format beginning with the second season.
In Canada, the series was broadcast under its original title,Danger Man.
All episodes have been released.[23][24]
