John Drake is a special operative for NATO, specializing in security assignments against any subversive element which threatened world peace. The series featured exotic locales from all ...
See full summary »
Drake investigates the suspicious death of a NATO agent, Tony. Drake believes Tony was murdered while investigating a group of gun smugglers, and looks to his house and fiancée for clues. Drake's ...
Secret information has been leaking from the US embassy in Vienna. John Drake plants a fake document with one of two people who knew of the info, US agent Logan, who locks it away in a safe. When the...
After receiving a death sentence in a foreign country, American James Carpenter has spent the last five years seeking refuge in an American embassy. It is secret agent John Drake's task to get ...
After resigning, a secret agent is abducted and taken to what looks like an idyllic village, but is really a bizarre prison. His warders demand information. He gives them nothing, but only tries to escape.
Stars:
Patrick McGoohan,
Angelo Muscat,
Peter Swanwick
An elite department within Interpol, Department S inherited those cases which the other member groups had failed to solve. The brains of the group was Jason King, a hedonistic maverick who ... See full summary »
Stars:
Peter Wyngarde,
Joel Fabiani,
Rosemary Nicols
Craig Stirling, Sharron Macready and Richard Barrett were agents for Nemesis, an international intelligence organization based in Geneva. Their first mission as a team was to investigate ... See full summary »
Stars:
Stuart Damon,
Alexandra Bastedo,
William Gaunt
John Steed and his new accomplices Purdey and Gambit find themselves facing new and deadly dangers in the bizarre world of espionage. Mixing fantasy with a darker edge, the trio face ... See full summary »
Two worlds collide when the titled Englishman, Lord Brett Sinclair, and the Bronx-raised, self-made American Danny Wilde, reluctantly join forces to right wrongs, and to protect the innocent.
Stars:
Tony Curtis,
Roger Moore,
Laurence Naismith
Jeff Randall and Marty Hopkirk are private detectives who specialize in divorce cases. Their long-running partnership seems to come to an abrupt end when Marty is killed by a hit-and-run, ... See full summary »
John Drake is a special operative for NATO, specializing in security assignments against any subversive element which threatened world peace. The series featured exotic locales from all over the world, as his assignments frequently took him to Africa, Latin America, and the Far East.Written by
Marg Baskin <marg@asd.raytheon.ca> UPDATED U.N. Owen
In the series' opening title sequence, the shot of Washington is a composite of the Washington Capitol in the background and the Castrol Building - complete with London Bus stop - in the Marylebone Road, London as the foreground. This building is now the residential Marathon House having been converted from offices to flats in 1998. See more »
Quotes
John Drake:
[Opening titles narration]
Every government has its Secret Service branch: America, CIA; France, Deuxieme 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.
See more »
British spies became all the rage in the 1960s, thanks largely to James Bond. However, the British television series "Danger Man" actually predated the James Bond movie series. Curiously, Danger Man's protagonist, NATO Agent John Drake, is probably unique in that the character started out as an American and then somehow "morphed" into an Englishman. In the first year Drake, played by Patrick McGoohan, was based out of Washington DC (the Capital Dome is clearly visible behind him in the opening credits) and he spoke with what passes in Britain as an American accent. In the succeeding years, however, Drake, still played by McGoohan, was based out of London and spoke with a distinct English accent.
What makes Danger man stand out, however, is the high level of intelligence that went into the series. Unlike other 1960s spies Drake did not rely on violence to solve the problems he was given and he almost never resorts to killing anyone. Instead he relied on trickery, maneuver and mind-games, rather than firearms or explosives. In fact, I understand that McGoohan actually turned down the role of James Bond because he objected to the excessive degree of gratuitous sex and violence in the series. In an era when gratuitous sex and violence is far more prevalent than it ever was in the early 1960s, Danger Man makes a refreshing change of pace.
2 of 3 people found this review helpful.
Was this review helpful to you?
| Report this
British spies became all the rage in the 1960s, thanks largely to James Bond. However, the British television series "Danger Man" actually predated the James Bond movie series. Curiously, Danger Man's protagonist, NATO Agent John Drake, is probably unique in that the character started out as an American and then somehow "morphed" into an Englishman. In the first year Drake, played by Patrick McGoohan, was based out of Washington DC (the Capital Dome is clearly visible behind him in the opening credits) and he spoke with what passes in Britain as an American accent. In the succeeding years, however, Drake, still played by McGoohan, was based out of London and spoke with a distinct English accent.
What makes Danger man stand out, however, is the high level of intelligence that went into the series. Unlike other 1960s spies Drake did not rely on violence to solve the problems he was given and he almost never resorts to killing anyone. Instead he relied on trickery, maneuver and mind-games, rather than firearms or explosives. In fact, I understand that McGoohan actually turned down the role of James Bond because he objected to the excessive degree of gratuitous sex and violence in the series. In an era when gratuitous sex and violence is far more prevalent than it ever was in the early 1960s, Danger Man makes a refreshing change of pace.