Television series
Danger Man
- Spy action
- Spy thriller
- Dip in and out
Before Bond had a license to kill, John Drake had a passport and a good cover story. Danger Man is Cold War espionage with the violence dialled down and the cunning turned up — Drake talks, charms and outwits his way through assignments across Europe. Brisk, black-and-white, morally tidy: a gentleman spy series for viewers who'd rather watch a con than a car chase.
Should you watch it?
Watch it if you like cool, self-contained spy episodes where a single agent's wit and composure carry a neat little problem from start to finish, with the Cold War chill as backdrop.
Skip it if you want ongoing serialized plotting, since each story is self-contained and the tone stays brisk and fairly formal rather than playful.
What it asks of you: Expect roughly forty-six minutes an episode and a long run of them, four seasons and eighty-six episodes in all, each story a self-contained sitting you can dip into.
Not sure? Find tonight's pick in a minute.
If you liked this
The Prisoner1967
McGoohan reinvents the same secret agent's world as a surreal nightmare — watch it right after Danger Man to see what happens when the gentleman spy stops trusting the organisation he serves.
But It trades Drake's cool competence for paranoia and allegory; if you wanted more straightforward spying, this will frustrate you.
The Ipcress File1965
Michael Caine's rumpled, insubordinate agent is the grubby cousin to Drake's polish — same Cold War London, same tradecraft, but suspicious of every institution involved.
But Its plot is deliberately labyrinthine and low-key; if you want clear stakes and tidy resolutions, it can feel opaque.
Callan1967
Edward Woodward plays a burnt-out agent who's done the things Drake never has to — this is what a British spy series looks like once the romance wears off.
But It's bleaker and more morally compromised than Danger Man; don't expect Drake's clean conscience or light touch.
Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from Danger Man
The wildcard
Something you would not have found on your own.
Get Smart1965
Both shows are obsessed with the machinery of espionage — cover, gadget, briefing — Get Smart just runs the exact same engine as farce instead of drama.
Same Cold War gadgetry and secret-agent posturing, played entirely for laughs — a shoe phone instead of a cover story, and a hero who's confident and consistently wrong.
But It's broad slapstick with a laugh track; if you liked Drake's dry competence, watching him inverted into a fool might not land.
More like this (8)
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy1979
Alec Guinness's Smiley is patient, quiet, devastating — the espionage genre slowed to interrogation-room pace, rewarding the same appetite for cleverness over action that Danger Man built.
But Seven hours of oblique dialogue and note-taking; it demands real attention and offers almost no action in return.
The Man from U.N.C.L.E.1964
American cousin to Drake's world, glossier and funnier, with gadgets and one-liners where Danger Man has patience and disguise.
But Its tone is broader and campier; if Drake's dry seriousness is what you liked, this may feel too winking.
The Avengers1961
British spy adventure gone eccentric and stylish — bowler hats, leather catsuits, plots that get weirder as the show finds its feet, evolving out of Danger Man's era into pop art.
But Early seasons are patchy and later ones are deliberately absurd; it's a bigger tonal swing than you might expect.
Mission: Impossible1966
Swap Drake's solo cunning for a team's elaborate cons — the same pleasure in watching a plan executed with total confidence, just bigger and glossier.
But It's more mechanical than character-driven; you won't get Drake's wit or interior life, just brilliant heists.
From Russia with Love1963
Bond at his most grounded and Drake-adjacent — before the series went full fantasy, this is spycraft with real menace and a plot Danger Man fans will recognise the shape of.
But Still glossier and more violent than Drake's world, with the sexual politics of its era fully intact.
The Sandbaggers1978
The bureaucracy and budget meetings Danger Man skips are the whole show here — brutal, unglamorous, the series that finally answers what running agents actually costs.
But It's talky and administrative by design; there's barely any action, and the tone is unrelentingly grim.
The Lives of Others2006
Danger Man treats surveillance as Drake's professional tool; this film turns the camera around and asks what surveillance does to the person holding it.
A Stasi officer assigned to watch a writer starts to lose himself inside the surveillance — the clearest, most serious answer to what happens when the watcher, not the agent, becomes the story.
But It's slow, subtitled, and genuinely heavy — a meditation on complicity and grief, nothing like Danger Man's episodic momentum.
The 39 Steps1935
This is the ancestor of Drake's whole mode — charm and quick thinking over violence — the film that proved a spy story could run entirely on cleverness.
Hitchcock's own reluctant-agent template, decades before Drake — a wrongly accused man talks and improvises his way across Britain, all wit and nerve, no gadgets required.
But Creaky by modern pacing standards, black-and-white and stagey in places; the charm is real but you have to meet it on 1935's terms.
People
Cast
Recommended by
Danger Mouse, The Avengers, I Spy, The Man from U.N.C.L.E., The Persuaders, Department S, Callan, Return of the Saint, The Protectors, Suspense, Knight Errant Limited, The Aquanauts