Danger Man

The pilot was written by Brian Clemens, who later co-created The Avengers. In an interview Clemens said:[5]

The pilot I wrote was called "View from the Villa" and it was set in Italy, but the production manager set the shoot on location in Portmeirion, 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 series The Prisoner much later.

The second unit director on the pilot, according to Clemens:[5]

... shot some location and background stuff and sent the dailies back to the editing room at Elstree. 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 season failed to materialize, the program was cancelled.[1] The first season of the series had aired in America each Wednesday, 8:30 to 9:00 pm (Eastern Standard Time), on CBS from 5 April to 13 September 1961.[6] It was used by the network as a late-spring replacement for Wanted Dead or Alive, which had just wrapped its third and final season. (A five-disc box set DVD release of Danger Man's first season by A&E Home Video in 2000 erroneously states on its cover notes that these first 39 episodes were never broadcast in the US.)

After a two-year hiatus, two things had changed; Danger Man had subsequently been resold all around the world, whilst repeat showings had created a public clamour for new shows. Also by this time, James Bond had become popular, as had ABC's The 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 revived Danger Man was broadcast in the U.S. as Secret Agent, first shown as a CBS summer-replacement program. It had a new U.S.-only theme song, "Secret Agent Man", sung by Johnny Rivers, which became a success in its own right. In other parts of the world, the show was titled Destination Danger or John Drake.

The fourth season consists of only two episodes, "Koroshi" and "Shinda Shima", the only two episodes of Danger Man to be filmed in colour. 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 other ITC series such as The Baron and The Saint.[7] Whilst "Koroshi" retains a strong plot-line and sharp characterizations, "Shinda Shima" drew heavily on contemporary Bond movies, principally Dr. No. When the episodes were completed, McGoohan announced he was resigning from the series to create, produce, and star in a project titled The Prisoner, with David Tomblin as co-producer and George Markstein as script editor. Markstein was then the Danger Man script consultant. A number of behind-the-scenes personnel on Danger Man were subsequently hired for The Prisoner.[8]

The two colour episodes aired (in black and white) in the UK in the time slot of The 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 a TV movie in 1968.

Unlike the James Bond films, Danger Man strove for realism, dramatising credible Cold War tensions. In the second series, Drake is an undercover agent of the British external 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."

Agent Drake uses his intelligence, charm and quick thinking rather than force. He usually plays a role to infiltrate a situation, for example, to 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.

Unlike James Bond, 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 used soda siphon cartridges containing CO2 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 women, as McGoohan was determined to create a family-friendly show.[9] 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. McGoohan denounced the sexual promiscuity of James Bond and The Saint, roles he had rejected, although he had played romantic roles before Danger Man.

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 by Susan 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 was 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.

John Drake was not blind to the attraction of the opposite sex, often commenting on the prettiness of his latest associate. It was also the fact that many times the women in the show turned out to be femmes fatales, and heavily involved in the very plots Drake is fighting.

Although the villains are often killed, Drake himself rarely kills. An examination of all episodes 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'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 notes Danger Man was one of the most violent series ever produced. 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 transpire to prevent Drake from having to carry out the task).

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 by Richard Wattis.

Most episodes had roles for guest stars such as Donald Pleasence, Howard Marion Crawford, Donald Houston, Maurice Denham, Joan Greenwood, John Le Mesurier, Sylvia Syms, Paul Eddington, Patsy Ann Noble, and Burt Kwouk.

• Series 1 "The Danger Man Theme", composed by Edwin Astley
• Series 2–4 "High Wire", composed by Edwin Astley
• Series 2–4 in the US as Secret Agent, "Secret Agent Man", theme composed by P. F. Sloan and Steve Barri, and recorded by Johnny Rivers.
• Incidental music throughout all four series by Edwin Astley

The second Danger 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 disk 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 film Koroshi 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.

• 1961 – "Theme from Danger Man", The Red Price Combo (main theme used in the 1st Series) – Parlophone 45 R 4789
• 1964 – Danger Man "High Wire", The Bob Leaper Orchestra (alternative main theme, not used in any episodes. Features electric piano) – PYE 7N 15700
• 1965 – Danger Man "High Wire", The Edwin Astley Orchestra (not used in series, arrangement influenced series 4 theme arrangement) – RCA 1492
• 1965 – Danger Man "High Wire", The Ivor Slaney Orchestra (alternative arrangement, not used in any episodes) – HMV POP 1347

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 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.

Prisoner fans frequently debate whether John Drake of Danger Man and Number Six in The Prisoner are the same person.[11] Like John Drake, Number Six is evidently a secret agent, but one who has resigned from his job.

According to The Prisoner: The Official Companion by Robert Fairclough, the Prisoner episode "The Girl Who Was Death" was based upon a two-part Danger Man script that had been planned for the fourth series. In this surreal episode, Number Six meets "Potter", John Drake's Danger 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 the latter show.

The first Danger Man season includes four episodes which use footage filmed in the Welsh resort of Portmeirion, which later became the primary shooting location of the Village in The Prisoner. Further inspiration came from a Danger Man episode called "Colony Three", 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 to The Prisoner; it was filmed in the new town of Hatfield, Hertfordshire.[12]

Even reference books conflict on The Prisoner as a Danger Man continuation. Vincent Terrace's The 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 of Secret Agent never shown in this country [i.e. the United States] with John Drake investigating the story of a brain transferral device in Europe",[13] but no such episode of Danger 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 contemporaneous spy-fi show The Avengers. Nigel Stock (who played "The Colonel" in "Do Not Forsake Me...") also guest-starred in the Danger 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.[14]

The Australian rights are held by the Nine 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 on Gem, a Nine Network digital outlet, sometimes twice per morning. The Danger Man repeats alternate with re-screenings of other British series such as Gideon's Way, The Baron, and The Avengers.

CBS broadcast some of the original format's episodes of the program in 1961 under the Danger Man title as a summer replacement for the Western series Wanted: Dead or Alive.

Danger Man was rebroadcast on American TV in the 2000s, when STARZ!’s Mystery channel started broadcasting the one-hour episodes in its American CBS broadcast version under the Secret Agent title. Prior to this, Secret Agent was widely seen in syndication. The half-hour Danger 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'.