I'm reading a book right now called Saints and Avengers: British Adventure Series of the 1960s, by James Chapman. It's a history of all those great 60s British spy shows, with a lot of academic analysis.
I'll post more comments in the Last Book Read... thread once done.
The long first chapter is all about Danger Man, which the author claims began this long trend of spy shows, but also argues the first season evolved out of recent police and adventure series in the late50s. Particularly, Ralph Smart had made one season of Interpol Calling, about a policeman investigating crimes in exotic foreign locales. The big difference being Drake is a secret agent, officially empowered but always undercover and deniable by his employers.
Also in the late 50s, there was a decline in British film thanks to the competition from teevee, so a lot of experienced film industry talent looking for work were involved in that first season of Danger Man, giving it an exceptionally professional look that set it apart.
McGoohan is actually American, and Smart and Grade believed McGoohan's nationality would help export the show to the larger US market (the ultimate goal of all these shows). But it was actually the ostentatiously english Avengers, and to a lesser extent the Saint, which were popular with American audiences. They had enough American action heroes of their own, didnt need a British-made imitation.
The author really likes his categories, and places Danger Man in the realist tradition of spy fiction (eg le Carre) rather than the fantastic (eg Fleming). He also really likes the idea that the appeal of a teevee series is that it is variations on a predictable theme, the spy genre even more than most, and goes on to demonstrate recurring elements in Danger Man. He gets deep into perceived signs of political ideologies, that I am tempted to argue with (for example he sees an implied natural superiority of the Brits recurring in the show, whereas I see Drake is consistently more sympathetic to the peoples he meets abroad than he is to his own bosses).
There is maybe three pages about the Prisoner at the end of the Danger Man chapter. Since he tells us it is the Prisoner and the Rigg episodes of the Avengers that are mostly still remembered today, I would expect more focus on McGoohan's second show. The Persuaders get its own chapter, so why not the Prisoner?
Chapman mostly discusses how weird and unformulaic was the Prisoner, classing it as tripped out cult tv only comparable to Twin Peaks. I think the author is so into his categories that when a show transcends category he doesn't know what to say.
He does tell us much of the creative team working on Danger Man by the third season simply followed McGoohan to his new show. So in a sense they are the same show, moreso than the first and second seasons of Danger Man when much of the behind the scenes talent was replaced.
Also, he claims the ITV switchboards lit up with outraged viewers calling to complain about that final episode. Awesome the public cared so much!
as an overanalyser myself, all the academic stuff is cool by me, even when I might debate him. But there is nonetheless a lot of history and background context that makes this worthwhile to any fan of these shows.
Last edited by caractacus potts (28th Jul 2019 14:55)
