The Leak

Despite having the talented Brian Clemens as co-scripter, this "Danger Man" edition seems like one of those chintzy episodes created to make up for going over budget on others. It has no location photography, a nothing story and no suspense.

Drake shows up to investigate the case of workers at a nuclear power plant getting radiation sickness. The setting is some Arab country and an evil sheik is telegraphed as the bad guy right from the beginning of the show.

Pat is unusually subdued here, underplaying in dull fashion until he gets to fight with some thugs and later tells the sheik off. It's never explained what the nuclear power plant is doing in an Arab country, with no mention of oil throughout the show. The usual quickie ending is so cheap that the "good guys" arriving to free Pat and his co-star Zena Marshall from the sheik's clutches is not shown, just a brief sound of voices outside the window.

This one nearly earned a 9--it was very good. However, I'm knocking off a point because of too many cast members painted up to look like Arabs (why not just get natives?) and a scene where there was a continuity error. Otherwise a bang up episode.

John Drake (Patrick McGoohan) is brought into some fictional Arabic country to investigate a string of radiation sickness complaints. All the locals seem to think the local nuclear reactor is the source, though the folks in charge of the plant have checked and re-checked and are certain it is not the source. So, with Geiger Counter in hand, he goes out and about looking for radioactivity--which leads to a scheme to deliberately contaminate local food to make the plant look bad. But who and why?

This was a very novel episode and quite exciting. My only problem is one scene where Drake is supposed to be investigating some grain mills. He shows up with no Geiger Counter--so how is he supposed to determine anything with no equipment?! It's not like he could see, smell or taste it. And, if this is the source, do you really think he'd go with no equipment or personal protection? Still, an interesting show with a very interesting resolution of the problem.

On an interesting note, both Zena Marshall and Anthony Dawson star in this one. Only a year later, this pair would be cast as boss and secretary in "Dr. No"--and it makes you wonder, since the pairing sure doesn't seem coincidental.