Secret Agent: A Fan’s Guide to Danger Man: the hour series Paperback Book

Written by Rodney Marshall, whose father was a writer for ITC series, this is a fantastic 2021 guide to the final 47 episodes of ‘Danger Man’, 307 pages.

The perfect companion for anyone watching the series for the first time, or re-watching. Please be aware that there are spoilers! In addition to a number of general chapters, each episode is explored through a variety of topics, among others: John Drake’s moral code, his relationship with authority, guest cast, memorable Drake quips, and interesting camerawork. More than anything else, this is a celebration of arguably the best ever television action-adventure series.

In 1960, Danger Man was a landmark series, launching a new wave of action-adventure. It returned, reformatted, in 1964, to a TV world which had changed: The Saint and The Avengers were distinctively stylish and, in a wider context, new shows like That Was the Week That Was, Doctor Who and Top of the Pops reflected an evolving culture in which satire, science fiction and new musical sounds emerged from the ‘White Heat’ of change. Britain had been rocked by spy scandals and the global shocks of both the Cuban Missile Crisis and the assassination of John F Kennedy.

With 007 established, would John Drake’s moral code be seen as out of step with a sixties which had started to swing? How would the series make the most of its new hour-long format? Could Danger Man retain, yet at the same time increase, its distinctiveness, given the competitive TV marketplace of the mid-1960s? Secret Agent seeks out answers to each of these questions while offering a guide to all forty-seven hour-long episodes.