- Network
- ITV
- Original run
- 1960 to 1962, revived 1964 to 1968
- Episodes
- 86
- Creator
- Ralph Smart
- Lead
- Patrick McGoohan as John Drake
- Producer
- ITC Entertainment
- Also known as
- Secret Agent, Destination Danger, John Drake
- Leads to
- The Prisoner
Watch Order
0 / 8 watchedThe first run of four series, then the four series of the 1964 revival. Standalone missions, so release order is the only order.
About Danger Man
Danger Man is a British espionage series created by Ralph Smart, who also wrote many of the scripts, and it starred Patrick McGoohan as John Drake, an agent with no fixed name and no fixed employer. It was produced by Lew Grade's ITC Entertainment and aired on ITV, first from 1960 to 1962 and then in a revived run from 1964 to 1968. It was retitled Secret Agent in the United States for the revival, and Destination Danger and John Drake in other overseas markets.
Drake is the point of the show. He is competent, dry, and refuses to be sent on jobs he thinks are pointless, which is unusual for the era and is what gives the series its edge. Each story is a single mission in a foreign city, and the tone is closer to adventure fiction than to the grim spy series that followed.
The show has 86 episodes across its run and ends with the same kind of unresolved atmosphere it started with. It also leads directly into The Prisoner, where McGoohan's character is trapped in the Village, and that show has its own guide on this site.
Good to know
Watch the episodes in release order. Each one is a self contained mission, so you can sample freely, but there is no separate chronological order worth listing and the first series is the best place to start.
Two title changes are worth knowing about before you look for it. The first run was Danger Man in Britain and Secret Agent in the United States, and the 1964 revival kept both names plus Destination Danger in some markets, so the same series appears under three titles.
If you are here for The Prisoner, watch this first and understand that the Village was supposed to be the price of Drake's escape from this show. The two together are one long argument about the same character, and The Prisoner is much better once you have seen where Drake came from.
The 1992 series The Prisoner is a remake rather than a continuation, and it is not covered here.
