DANGER MAN [1960 - 1966]

I WAS A TEENAGER WHEN I FIRST SAW ONE OF THE GREATEST TV SERIES OF ALL TIME:  THE PRISONER.

Patrick McGoohan's passion project really did change the face of television and I've loved it and rewatched it ever since.  However,  I had never watched McGoohan's previous international hit spy series DANGER MAN (SECRET AGENT in the U.S.) until just now.  I must say that I'm having a hell of a time.  Right now, I seen the first 2 series and I'm beginning Series 3 having just watched the excellent episode "The Black Book" and the show is just soooooo good!  

Patrick McGoohan plays John Drake:  an undercover agent for the British M9 who is fearless to a fault, does not wield a gun and operates by an iron-clad code of personal ethics.  Every episode takes place in a different location and often country where Drake carries out his mission (sometimes with more than a little regret).  Very fascinating for a PRISONER fan is the fact that the very first episode of DANGER MAN takes place in Portmerion, Wales -- the setting of the Village used in THE PRISONER series.  There are also several other episodes of DANGER MAN that are of particular interest to PRISONER fans such as "Colony Three" (which features an artificial faux-English town behind the Iron Curtain in which Communist spies train to be "British") as well as "The Ubiquitous Mr. Lovegrove" (in which Drake gets in a car accident and basically hallucinates the whole episode due to a head injury).  However, any links to THE PRISONER aside, the main reason to watch DANGER MAN is because it's a cracking good spy series with top notch acting, writing and directing.

The first series of DANGER MAN ran from 1960-1961 and consisted of 39 half hour episodes.  Then the show just . . . went away . . . until 1964 when the James Bond movie DR NO sparked the powers-that-be to revive their lapsed spy series.  From then on, DANGER MAN would be an hour episodes and this is where the programme really hits its stride.  The stories are less perfunctory and have more room to breathe.  But despite this fact, the episodes never lag.  In fact, the hour episodes bring into focus how sometimes rushed the half hour episodes could feel.

Now, the theory that THE PRISONER is actually John Drake who resigned from M9 and was transferred to the Village and it's understandable to think that.  However, Patrick McGoohan always denied they were the same man:  "They just look alike" was his quip.  However, now having watched a good chunk of DANGER MAN, I too am of the opinion that John Drake is not the Prisoner.  Coincidentally, I've just finished reading three books on THE PRISONER including one by filmmaker Alex Cox who offers up an interesting theory of his own on why John Drake is not the Prisoner.  Either way, it doesn't really matter.  THE PRISONER is one of the greatest TV shows ever made -- and DANGER MAN is one of the best spy TV shows ever made.  An embarrassment of riches!