Danger Man

patrick mcgoohans's dicey 'new englander' accent notwithstanding, he's in fine form here. fast paced and inventive plots, exotic locales, and the extremely moral hero john drake all make the first series of danger man great television.

though he doesn't bed down with every girl he comes across, there's more than enough sexual tension to go around, as every female within a thirty-foot radius ends up throwing herself at johnny d. not keen on guns, drake's a master fighter and the resulting fight scenes are always fun to watch. his gadgets are realistic, much more believable than the ones used by bond or the man from wherever.

the very first episode, 'a view from the villa', takes us to portmeirion, PMG's inspiration for the village in 'the prisoner'. another one of the best television programs ever made.

you'll see a host of familiar faces in supporting roles here too. donald pleasance, barbara shelley--all kinds of great actors popped up on dm from time to time. by all means, if you're a fan of espionage shows, danger man should be high on your list of must-sees. it's got all the chewy goodness and none of the camp that marred so many spy programs in the sixties.

I think the "Danger Man" series I remember, with its distinctive racy theme tune, was the later hour-long remake series from 1964 onwards, which would fit in with my own youthful time-line I suppose. Hunting down the show on the web I came across the first episode from 1960 entitled "The View From The Villa", which I was interested to see was co-written by the great Brian Clemens of future "The Avengers" fame.

This episode contained a neat little mystery taking in a murder, the city of Rome, and an enigmatic femme fatale which Patrick McGoohan's John Drake solves with his eye for a painting, all in a brisk 25 minute time-frame. The show, unlike its successor, is pre-Bond so there are no gadgets and there's also an icy detachment from the glamorous and flirtatious ladies he encounters which 007 would never countenance.

No, Drake is there simply to get the job done, which he does with steely aplomb, dispensing what might have been an early catchphrase "Obliged" as he does so. He's handy with his dukes too, but again not in a flashy or contrived way.

McGoohan strolls through the part with laconic ease and as well as elements of the early Bond, you can also see the genesis of Roger Moore's Simon Templar character here, the latter of course with added humour, suavity and raised eyebrow.

I'll certainly make an effort to try to watch more of this entertaining series, confident it will retain the standard of this opening programme.

This show never laughs at itself (setting it apart from most of the James Bond and follow-on genre shows). Instead, it projects the inimitable Patrick McGoohan as a consistently efficacious hero: fast-thinking, innovative, ultra-capable, tenaciously-focused on the mission, yet when achieving the mission is not enough, he's able to think outside the box, to re-define his goals and achieve success in a wider context.

For a little boy starving to see a hero on television, "Danger Man" (and the subsequent "Secret Agent Man") was just what I needed. A hundred times over the years, facing my own moments of challenge, I remembered how John Drake had handled things. Nevermind the detail of his job being a "secret agent," the essential of this show is: a man of quintessential skill and reason who uses his mind to take him over, under, around or through all obstacles -- and *that* is what you take away from every episode.

It's food for the soul.

In the "View from the Villa" agent John Drake pulls up in what looks like an Aston Martin DB4 or DB5, thus beating Sean Connery to the punch by several years. At least on the screen. I think it also appears in a few other episodes, but I am not certain.

I have spent the last few years slowly catching up on this superb series via net flicks. As other reviewers have noted already the plots were nearly always excellent. The understatement and laconic delivery of Mr. McGoohan a foretelling of others who would try the same style and mostly fail, except for the wonderful Le Carre adaptions, and Mr. Caine's superb Ipcress File. The satire of Establishment figures was often very droll.

In the current editions I am getting from Netflicks the music track is provided by a powerful jazz orchestra. What happened to the superb Harpsichord jazz music that I remember from the original UK broadcasts? So much more subtle and intriguing than the blaring band arrangement, although it does have a period flavor I cant deny.

Mr. McGoohan passed away recently. I will remember him and Danger Man as one of the very influential forces in my teenage years.

The pedigree for "Danger Man" is a bit confusing. So, I'll try to make sense of it. The show was on for one season and each episode lasted about 23 minutes. Three years later, an hour-long series was created and was called "The Secret Agent"--with Patrick McGoohan once again playing an international 'fixer', John Drake. Then, after this series ended, McGoohan made "The Prisoner"--a show which MIGHT be a sequel to "The Secret Agent"...or it might not. This is because McGoohan's character is not referred to by name...he's just called Number 6. And, you aren't sure whether or not it's meant as a follow-up or not--and I can only assume that the television folks deliberately kept it vague.

"Danger Man" begins oddly. It explains that John Drake is a sort of international agent--a guy who goes on special assignments for many NATO nations. His nationality is a bit vague and this works reasonably well since McGoohan has an American/Irish/British background, though they seem to imply he's from New England (but the accent clearly ISN'T). Each episode is set in a different locale around the world and, amazingly, the show is wrapped up in about 23 minutes. The show is very well written and interesting--and McGoohan is excellent. The only serious complaint is that the shows sometimes were too hasty and many would have benefited from an hour-long format--something they would get with "The Secret Agent". Well worth seeing and a clever show. Even the sub-par episodes are good--making it at least more consistent than "The Prisoner".

A few final observations. The DVD copy is just fine but there really are no special features or captions. Also, as an American born and raised in the Washington, DC area, the introduction makes me laugh. That's because a HUGE office building is superimposed next to the US capitol building. There IS no building this size or that looks remotely like this in DC--now or then. Very strict building codes in the city prevent such monstrosities in the District.