Product Description
Before The Avengers and the James Bond films, the pioneering 1960 British series Danger Man helped to usher in spy-mania in Great Britain. Patrick McGoohan stars as "Drake, John Drake," an agent of NATO's secret service branch. "A messy job," he informs us, "That's when they usually call on me." Most Americans only know Drake as the Secret Agent Man, the title of the hour-long series that debuted on these shores in 1964. This half-hour series never aired in the United States, making this five-disc set, containing all 39 first season episodes, essential for Brit-TV aficionados, not to mention that branch of Prisoner devotees who insist that the kidnapped "No. 6" is actually Drake himself. Like 007, the dapper and unflappable Drake possesses a keen wit and "animal sense of danger," and his assignments take him all over the world, from Rome and Paris to the Arabian desert. But Drake is old school. He very rarely uses a gun. He is not a womanizer. He does not possess an arsenal of cool gadgets. His missions are more gritty and realistic; classic "cloak and dagger" stuff. He foils not megalomaniacs trying to take over the world, but a rogue's gallery of embezzlers, assassins, slave traders, traitors, and the like. Also fun for Anglophiles are early glimpses of favorite British character actors, including Miss Moneypenny herself, Lois Maxwell ("Positions of Trust"); a pre-Avengers/Pussy Galore Honor Blackman ("Colonel Rodriguez"), Judy Carne, Laugh-In's Sock-It-to-Me girl ("Hired Assassin"; Charles Gray from the Bond films You Only Live Twice and Diamonds Are Forever ("The Key"); and Jean Marsh of Upstairs, Downstairs fame ("Name, Date and Place"). The jazzy score is also killer. --Donald Liebenson
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A Real Classic
In the 1960's the highest paid actor on British TV was Patrick McGoohan. Ironically despite what some people think McGoohan is American. His family came from Ireland to the U.S. where he was born. They later moved to England where he was schooled. It is equally ironic that agent John Drake was not always British.
The British tv series "Danger Man" exists in two versions with agent John Drake. First there was the half hour version (this set) which, contrary to Amazon's reviewer , was briefly shown in the U.S.Then there is the one hour version which was widely shown in the U.S. under the title "Secret Agent". But a change occured. In the half hour version John Drake is an American agent working for NATO although at times the NATO connection is fuzzy.McGoohan throughout the half hour series cuts back on the British accent.When the hour "Danger Man"/"Secret Agent" appeared Drake was now British and his accent given free reign.
What matters though is the quality of the shows. After 40 years they are still superb. Great scripts and actors with crisp no nonsense direction. McGoohan's Drake is equally no nonsense and he created one of television's most unforgettable characters. Fans of McGoohan's last tv series "The Prisoner" will find a few shocks here. Peter Swanwick, the Village's security controller, pops up in a few episodes as do several future Number 2's. The biggest shock though will come in the very first episode of this present series. Drake is in Rome tracking down a missing person . His only clue is a painting of an Italian village that he finds out is a real place. He goes there and it looks Italian. It is not though. It is Portmeirion in Wales, the resort village that would become The Village of "The Prisoner" ! So Patrick McGoohan's British TV career would span some 7 years and begin and end in the same place, Portmeirion, The Village.