Before Ian Fleming's James Bond made it to the big screen, Fleming had also collaborated with some writers at England's ITC to develop another spy series, this one for television. However, Fleming left before Danger Man hit the air.
Patrick McGoohan top-lined as NATO operative John Drake in a half-hour, black & white series that made its way to the US in the summer of 1961 as a replacement series for CBS. Most of us remember the hour-long version that CBS rechristened, Secret Agent, complete with a radio-ready theme song performed by Johnny Rivers. ITC got 2 seasons out of the hour-long format, a "4th season", the only one in color, had just two episodes, which were reissued as the feature film, "Kuroshi".
Here's a 1st season sample:
Standard fare of the period. When the series returned after a couple of years' absence, Drake was rebooted as a British agent, and the legend says that Drake was also Number 6 in McGoohan's seminal The Prisoner, but that is open to interpretation and debate.
Rating: A.
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