Danger Man
| Danger Man | |
|---|---|
First series titles
|
|
| Created by | Ralph Smart |
| Starring | Patrick McGoohan |
| Music by |
Edwin Astley P. F. Sloan Steve Barri |
| Country of origin | United Kingdom |
| Original language(s) | English |
| No. of series | 4 |
| No. of episodes | 86 (list of episodes) |
| Production | |
| Running time | 24–25 min. (Series 1) 48–49 min. (Series 2–4) |
| Production company(s) | Incorporated Television Company (ITC) |
| Release | |
| Original network | ITV |
| Picture format |
35 mm film 4:3 B/W Series 4 in colour |
| Audio format | Mono |
| Original release | 11 September 1960 – 12 January 1968 |
Danger Man (titled Secret Agent in the United States, and Destination Danger and John Drake in other non-UK markets) is a British television series which was broadcast between 1960 and 1962, and again between 1964 and 1968. The series featured Patrick McGoohan as secret agent John Drake. Ralph Smart created the programme and wrote many of the scripts. Danger Man was financed by Lew Grade's ITC Entertainment.
From the first series voice-over:
Every government has its secret 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.
The first series of episodes ran to 24–25 minutes each and portrayed John Drake as working for a Washington, D.C.-based intelligence organization, apparently on behalf of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, whose assignments frequently took him to Africa, Latin America, and the Far East. In episode 9, "The Sanctuary", Drake declares he is an Irish-American.
He sometimes seemed at odds with his superiors about the ethics of the missions. Many of Drake's cases involved aiding democracy in foreign countries and he was also called upon to solve murders and crimes affecting the interests of either the U.S. or NATO or both.
Beginning with the second series, which aired several years after the first, the episode's length was increased to 48–49 minutes and Drake underwent retconning. His nationalty became British, and he was an agent working for a secret British government department, called M9 (analogous to Secret Intelligence Service), though his Mid-Atlantic English accent persists for the first few episodes in production.
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