History Series / Dangerman

* SharpDressedMan: Drake usually wears a nice suit, although at one point he is mocked for showing up at a crime scene in a tux. There’s a RealitySubtext: [=McGoohan=] was voted "best dressed man" on a show, though this had more to do with the man than the clothes as all of the clothes were bought off the rack and none were tailor made for [=McGoohan=].

* FedoraOfAsskicking: Drake has quite a few. There’s a RealitySubtext: They were all [=McGoohan=]'s, and it was his idea to switch up the hats so Drake doesn't have the same one for each story.

* RetCon: Drake becomes a British agent in the later seasons, after having been an Irish-American NATO agent in the first. (Although it's possible this isn't -- see ActorSharedBackground.)

* AgentProvocateur: Drake very often has this role.
* BananaRepublic: Victoria, among other unnamed third-world countries.

* BriefAccentImitation: Lots.
* BuccaneerBroadcaster: In "Not So Jolly Roger", Drake poses as a DJ at a pirate radio station on a UsefulNotes/WorldWarII vintage offshore anti-aircraft fort, whose broadcast activities are the cover for anti-British espionage. Some location footage was actually shot on and around a real fort that was being used by Radio 390[[note]]1965-7; broadcasting on 773kHz AM, or approximtely 390 metres[[/note]], including a shot of [=McGoohan=] being winched up to one of the fort's towers. Other scenes were mocked up in the studio using location photos as backdrops.

* CunningLinguist: Drake is fluent in French and German.

* DeadpanSnarker: Drake. Always.

* DirtyBusiness: It is the spy genre after all.

* ImprovisedWeapon: Lots and lots. The writers seemed to have fun coming up with various mundane items for him to use.
* TheInfiltration: A stock plot.

* {{Leitmotif}}: "Mio Amore Sta Lontano"

* {{Qurac}}: Beth Ja Brin, plus various other unnamed Middle-Eastern countries.

* {{Ruritania}}: Slavosk, plus other unnamed Eastern European countries.

* SpiesInAVan: Crops up at various times, though usually it is nondescript cars.
* SpyFiction: Of the Stale Beer variety.

* ThoseTwoBadGuys: Mr. Wilson and Mr. Jones from "The Island".

''Danger Man'' (known as ''Secret Agent'' in the United States) was a British down-to-earth spy series made in TheSixties. Launched in 1960, it was originally going to bring none other than Literature/JamesBond to the small screen, and Creator/IanFleming was involved at early stages. However, since the rights for Bond movies had been sold, ''Danger Man'' was became something quite different. It features a superagent named John Drake, played by Creator/PatrickMcGoohan - also once a candidate to play Bond in the films - who doesn't like gunplay or violence and generally has morals way too strong to make him comfortable in his job. His gadgets and enemies are also rooted in reality.

* {{Foreshadowing}}: In a meta sense. The US version's opening credits, using the song "Secret Agent Man", ends with the following lyric: "They've given you a number/and taken away your name", describing the set-up for ''Series/ThePrisoner1967''.

* CatchPhrase:

* CulturedBadass: Drake.

* MasterActor: Drake, of course. For example, in one episode Drake pretends to be a meek and nervous schoolteacher; he goes from the razor-eyed and leonine Drake we know to a slump-shouldered fellow with slightly unfocused eyes who sort of tries to huddle into the nearest corner, and back, at the drop of a hat.

* TheStakeout: Lots.
* TheNameIsBondJamesBond: Or rather, of course, The Name Is Drake, John Drake — predating the Bond movies, but not the books. Generally heard only in the opening of the first 1960-61 season (half-hour episodes), but occasionally thereafter.

Not to be confused with ''Secret Agent Man'', a short-lived spy show that aired on UPN in 2000 that used the same theme song as the US version of ''Secret Agent'' but otherwise had no connection to the [=McGoohan=] series. (Some reference books and websites erroneously label it a remake.)

* EverybodySmokes: Even by early 1960s standards, the series had loads of smoking. Made more apparent when compared to the virtually smoke-free ''Series/TheAvengers1960s'' (at least later seasons) or even ''The Prisoner'' where cigarettes are rarely seen. Furthermore, SmokingIsCool.

''Danger Man'' (known internationally as ''Secret Agent'') was a British down-to-earth spy series made in TheSixties. Launched in 1960, it was originally going to bring none other than Literature/JamesBond to the small screen, and Creator/IanFleming was involved at early stages. However, since the rights for Bond movies had been sold, ''Danger Man'' was became something quite different. It features a superagent named John Drake, played by Creator/PatrickMcGoohan - also once a candidate to play Bond in the films - who doesn't like gunplay or violence and generally has morals way too strong to make him comfortable in his job. His gadgets and enemies are also rooted in reality.

* KnightInSourArmor: Drake, of course, and some of his fellow agents. He's a genuinely good guy doing a (frequently) nasty job; cynical and jaded about the whole business but trying to do it in the most ethical manner possible, often putting him in conflict with his pragmatic bosses or other more ruthless fellow agents who don't particularly care about casualties.

''Danger Man'' ran for 86 episodes spread across four seasons of uneven length. The first season aired in half-hour installments in both the UK and on Creator/{{CBS}} in the US in 1960-61. In this version, Drake is an Irish-American agent working for NATO on jobs considered "too messy" for organizations such as the CIA. Lack of interest by CBS in further episodes resulted in its cancellation and [=McGoohan=] went on to sign a contract with Creator/{{Disney}}. In 1964, with the rise of Bondmania, a rebooted ''Danger Man'' series was launched in the UK; in this version, now running in higher-budgeted hour-long episodes, Drake is a British agent working for a secret agency called M9, though otherwise the character and storytelling remained the same as before. For US broadcast, the series was retitled ''Secret Agent'' (and given a new theme song, Johnny Rivers' "Secret Agent Man", that became iconic).

* EarlyInstallmentWeirdness: John Drake doesn't carry a gun and he ''never'' shoots anyone to death (we don't count a [[spoiler: dream sequence/hallucination]] episode). The only exception was in one of the early 1960-61 series episodes. He used deadly force on rare occasions thereafter and trained guns on people to make them surrender, to be sure, but he never put a bullet into another (real) person. Qualifies for this trope as the series' lack of gunplay set it apart from other spy shows of the era.

* EarlyInstallmentWeirdness: John Drake doesn't carry a gun and he ''never'' shoots anyone to death (we don't count a [[spoiler: dream sequence/hallucination]] episode). The only exception was in one of the early 1960-61 series episodes. He used deadly force on rare occasions thereafter and trained guns on people to make them surrender, to be sure, but he never put a bullet into another (real) person. Qualifies for this trope as ''Danger Man's'' lack of gunplay set it apart from other spy shows of the era.
* EverybodySmokes: Even by early 1960s standards, ''Danger Man'' had loads of smoking. Made more apparent when compared to the virtually smoke-free ''Series/TheAvengers1960s'' (at least later seasons) or even ''The Prisoner'' where cigarettes are rarely seen. Furthermore, SmokingIsCool.

* BatmanGrabsAGun: In "Time to Kill", the very same episode where it's established where Drake doesn't like shooting people no less. Drake's desire to capture and extradite a European assassin rather than killing him outright is curtailed by both the difficulty of getting him out of Cold War Austria alive and how he's told that they're probably going to give him the death penalty once he's in the hands of the NATO countries.

''Danger Man'' (known internationally as ''Secret Agent'') was a British down-to-earth spy series made in TheSixties. Launched in 1960, it was originally going to bring none other than Literature/JamesBond to the small screen, and Creator/IanFleming was involved at early stages. However, since the rights for Bond movies had been sold, ''Danger Man'' was became something quite different. It features a superagent named John Drake, played by [=Patrick McGoohan=] - also once a candidate to play Bond in the films - who doesn't like gunplay or violence and generally has morals way too strong to make him comfortable in his job. His gadgets and enemies are also rooted in reality.

''Danger Man'' (known internationally as ''Secret Agent'') was a British down-to-earth spy series made in TheSixties. Launched in 1960, originally it was going to bring none other than Literature/JamesBond to the small screen and Creator/IanFleming was involved at early stages. However since the rights for Bond movies had been sold, Danger Man was changed into something quite different. It features a superagent named John Drake, played by [=Patrick McGoohan=] - also once a candidate to play Bond in the films - who doesn't like gunplay or violence and generally has morals way too strong to make him comfortable in his job. His gadgets and enemies are also rooted in reality.

!!Tropes:

[[quoteright:200:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/earlyDrake_1247.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:200: They've given him a number. [[Series/ThePrisoner1967 He will be angry later on.]]]]

* EverybodySmokes: Even by early 1960s standards, ''Danger Man'' had loads of smoking. Made more apparent when compared to the virtually smoke-free ''Series/TheAvengers'' (at least later seasons) or even ''The Prisoner'' where cigarettes are rarely seen. Furthermore, SmokingIsCool.

->''"Every government has its secret service branch. America, [=CIA=]; France, Deuxième 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."''

''Danger Man'' ran for 86 episodes spread across four seasons of uneven length. The first season aired in half-hour installments in both the UK and on Creator/{{CBS}} in the US in 1960-61. In this version, Drake is an Irish-American agent working for NATO on jobs considered "too messy" for organizations such as the CIA. Lack of interest by CBS in further episodes resulted in its cancellation and [=McGoohan=] went on to sign a contract with Creator/{{Disney}}. In 1964, with the rise of Bondmania, a rebooted ''Danger Man'' series was launched in the UK; in this version, now running in higher-budgeted hour-long episodes, Drake is a British agent working for a secret agency called M9, though otherwise the character and storytelling remained the same as before. For US broadcast, the series was retitled ''Secret Agent'' (and given a new theme song, "Secret Agent Man", that became iconic).

Season 4 was supposed to start the show's transition into color, but after completing only two episodes, [=McGoohan=] convinced the studio to ''cancel'' the series, so that he could instead produce a new series, ''Series/{{The Prisoner|1967}}'', which is at least a SpiritualSuccessor and maybe even an outright continuation, depending on what you choose to believe. (Those last two episodes eventually aired on their own in the UK during a broadcast break for ''The Prisoner'', and in the US edited together into a TV movie entitled ''Koroshi''.)

* BriefAccentImitation: lots.

* CatchPhrase: Drake tells people to "Do ''exactly'' as he says" often enough for it to be noticeable.

* CelibateHero: John Drake does not romance women, although many of the women in the series show an obvious interest in him (and he in them). There are three exceptions: an episode called "The Black Book" in which he finds himself attracted to a female spy, and two later episodes featuring his frequent Disney co-star Susan Hampshire playing different characters, both of whom appear to successfully romance Drake. Justified both in-universe (with Drake explaining in "The Black Book" why he can't get involved, and [=McGoohan's=] often-stated rationale that a man in Drake's position can't afford to have emotional ties and still expect to be effective.
* TheCharmer: Drake has a switch for it, and when he turns it on, just about anyone melts before his charming smile and suave, witty banter (which is to say it works on ordinary people or the newbie to the spy game).

* ColdBloodedTorture: Ocasionally happens to Drake or other secret agents.
** ElectricTorture: in the episode "Colony Three."

* DarkerAndEdgier: The first two seasons were hardly happyfests, but the third was way more depressing.
** [[LighterAndFluffier Inverted]] when the show moved to colour, which likely influenced [=McGoohan=]'s decision to quit.

* DoesntLikeGuns: Stated explicitly. Drake rarely carries a gun as he prefers to use his wits first and violence secondarily and usually goes to great lengths to avoid killing people, not to mention in many of the situation he goes in undercover a gun would be very suspicious.

* EarlyInstallmentWeirdness: John Drake doesn't carry a gun and he ''never'' shoots anyone to death (we don't count a [[spoiler: dream sequence/hallucination]] episode). The only exception was in one of the early 1960-61 series episodes. He used deadly force on rare occasion thereafter and trained guns on people to make them surrender, to be sure, but he never put a bullet into another (real) person. Qualifies for this trope as ''Danger Man's'' lack of gunplay set it apart from other spy shows of the era.
* EverybodySmokes: Even by early 1960s standards, ''Danger Man'' had loads of smoking. Made more apparent when compared to the virtually smoke-free ''Series/TheAvengers'' (at least later seasons) or even ''The Prisoner'' where cigarettes are rarely seen.
** Furthermore, SmokingIsCool.

* FedoraOfAsskicking: Drake has quite a few.
** RealitySubtext: They were all [=McGoohan=]'s, and it was his idea to switch up the hats so Drake doesn't have the same one for each story.

* TheInfiltration

* RogueAgent: Drake goes rogue in the episodes "A Room in the Basement" [[spoiler: to rescue a fellow agent against orders]] and "Whatever Happened to George Foster?" [[spoiler: in order to stop an extremely powerful business man mucking in the affairs of a South American country for his own profit]].

* SharpDressedMan: Drake usually wears a nice suit, although at one point he is mocked for showing up at a crime scene in a tux.
** RealitySubtext: [=McGoohan=] was voted "best dressed man" on a show, though this had more to do with the man than the clothes as all of the clothes were bought off the rack and none tailor made for [=McGoohan=].

* [[TheNameIsBondJamesBond The Name Is Drake, John Drake]]: predating the Bond movies, but not the books. Generally heard only in the opening of the first 1960-61 season (half-hour episodes), but occasionally thereafter.

Season 4 was supposed to start the show's transition into color, but after completing only two episodes, [=McGoohan=] convinced the studio to ''cancel'' the series, so that he could instead produce a new series, ''Series/ThePrisoner'', which is at least a SpiritualSuccessor and maybe even an outright continuation, depending on what you choose to believe. (Those last two episodes eventually aired on their own in the UK during a broadcast break for ''The Prisoner'', and in the US edited together into a TV movie entitled ''Koroshi''.)

* CelibateHero: John Drake does not romance women, although many of the women in the series show an obvious interest in him (and he in them). There are three exceptions: an episode called "The Black Book" in which he finds himself attracted to a female spy, and two later episodes featuring his frequent Disney co-star Susan Hampshire playing different characters, both of whom appear to successfully romance Drake.

* DownerEnding: Regularly, especially in the third season. Drake doesn't always win a clear victory and even if he does, there are rarely any "high five" moments.

* MetaCasting: The last black and white episode "Not so Jolly Roger" guest-starred Patsy Ann Noble (later known as Trisha Noble), a popular singer just launching an acting career. Since the episode is set at a pirate radio station, it's not surprising that one of her songs is not only featured prominently, but Patsy Ann Noble gets a name-drop as her song is introduced by John Drake while Noble is standing next to him.
* NoHuggingNoKissing: Drake does not get involved with women, period. He occasionally flirts with them, and they clearly find him attractive, but he is never shown romancing them. One episode, "The Black Book", has him attracted to a young woman, but he [[ItsNotYouItsMyEnemies explains why he cannot get involved.]] The closest Drake comes is in two episodes guest starring Susan Hampshire (playing different, but similar characters in each), one of which ends with Drake and Hampshire's character leaving on a romantic rendezvous.
* NoNameGiven: In numerous episodes, Drake is referred to on screen only by whatever alias he is using, or often by no name at all; anyone unfamiliar with the show only learns his name by watching the closing credits. (Note: this only applies to the one-hour version of the series; in the half-hour version, Drake states his name in the opening narration.)

* [[TheNameIsBondJamesBond The Name Is Drake, John Drake]]: predating the Bond movies, but not the books. Generally heard only in the opening of the first season (half-hour episodes), but occasionally thereafter.
* ThouShaltNotKill: To an extent. Most episodes of the series did not involve Drake using deadly force, and an early episode in fact featured him being assigned an assassination and doing so only under protest (and he doesn't carry it out anyway). During the entire run of the series, Drake shoots a man only once (not counting a later episode where he shoots people in a dream/hallucination), and otherwise rarely carries a gun. That's not to say he won't avert the trope if necessary, including one episode where he [[spoiler: kills two villains, one a woman, by causing their plane to crash]].

* WouldHitAGirl: Averted only once in an episode where [[spoiler: Drake is forced to kill a female villain and her cohort by causing their plane to crash.]] Most other times, female characters in the series are either innocents, victims, or are apprehended peacefully.

* BuccaneerBroadcaster: In "Not So Jolly Roger", Drake poses as a DJ at a pirate radio station on a WorldWarII vintage offshore anti-aircraft fort, whose broadcast activities are the cover for anti-British espionage. Some location footage was actually shot on and around a real fort that was being used by Radio 390[[note]]1965-7; broadcasting on 773kHz AM, or approximtely 390 metres[[/note]], including a shot of [=McGoohan=] being winched up to one of the fort's towers. Other scenes were mocked up in the studio using location photos as backdrops.