Danger Man : AKA Serect Agent (1 Viewer)

[Dennis Nicholls]

IIRC in "Many Happy Returns" the prisoner calls himself "Peter Smith" to the lady occupying his old flat in London....
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[Ben Motley]

Perhaps there are some legal issues relating to the use of the character name that require him to obfuscate the connection. In that case, a "vehement denial" is to be expected. Anyway, the connection seems obvious to me

Thank you Mark, that's exactly what I was thinking. It would do good to find out how thr rights stacked up at the time Prisoner was in production. I'd sure like to know if there was any meat to this. I missed that in Arrival by the way, but now that you mention it, I do seem to recall the line. I'll be checking it for sure, just to file it away for myself.
And good call Dennis!
"Be seeing you."
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[Peter Apruzzese]

quote: OK, in the episode 'ARRIVAL', when Nr. 6 returns to his cottage and speaks to Nr. 2 for the first time on the phone, he is greeted with "Good morning, John." On the R2 disc, it's at 9m:08s. After accounting for 4% speedup that should be in the neighborhood of 9m:29s on the US version, if my math is right (no promises there).[/quote]
Your math is correct - your memory of the scene is, unfortunately, not . Here is a transcript of the scene in question (I'm copying it down word for word from the A & E DVD):
NUMBER 2 speaking:
"Good morning to you.
I hope you slept well.
Come and join me for breakfast.
Number Two - the Green Dome."
I think hearing it in PAL sped-up by 4%, you are hearing "John" and not "to you" (say those two words fast and you'll see what I mean)
Turning on the subtitles confirms my audio transcription above.
[Edited last by Peter Apruzzese on October 01, 2001 at 11:34 PM]

 

[Ken Stuart]

Just so there's no confusion: If you mean Patrick was both the character John Drake and the character Number 6, then yes. If you mean that John Drake *was* the same character as Number 6, you're incorrect. Patrick MacGoohan has denied that they were the same, and writers concur. In fact, this is one of the trivia questions on one of The Prisoner DVD's!

Except that the trivia question answer that you kindly posted pictures of - is in error.
I just watched the second to last episode tonight - "Once Upon a Time" - which is written and directed by Patrick McGoohan.
Sorry, I don't have timings, but there is the point where Number 2 is play acting scenes from Number 6's childhood. He can't refer to him as "Number 6", because he wasn't "Number 6" when he was a child. So, in the scene where he acts like he is Number 6's Headmaster at school, he says something like (paraphrased, except for the last word which is a quote):
" Come into my chambers, Drake. "
So, McGoohan, when forced to refer to Number 6 by name while writing this episode, uses "Drake".
Thus, I concur with the "legal reasons for stating he is not John Drake" argument.

 

[Mark Zimmer]

That's interesting. I went back to the R2 disc, and while it still sounds to me like 'John', I can upon careful listening see where 'to you' could be what's said as well. Intriguingly, the R2 disc sidesteps the issue completely, making the subtitles for the sentence simply read "Good morning."
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[David Lambert]

" Come into my chambers, Drake. "
So, McGoohan, when forced to refer to Number 6 by name while writing this episode, uses "Drake".

I don't have set 5 yet, since noone is selling it locally. So I'll leave it up to someone else: Can you check this scene with subtitles on and verify whether the word/name is indeed "Drake"?
An earlier post mentioned the use of the name "John", but subtitles cleared up that this was not so. It will be interesting to see what happens with this scene.
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[Peter Apruzzese]

So I'll leave it up to someone else: Can you check this scene with subtitles on and verify whether the word/name is indeed "Drake"?

OK, here goes (sorry, Drake theorists):
Number Two: "Report to my study in the morning break." Timing: Chapter 3, 8:05
Confirmed by listening and subtitles. I used to have audio tapes of all the episodes from PBS's broadcast in the 70s and listened to them many times. I never heard "Drake" in this scene, always "break". He says the word "break" very fast and I could see how you may have heard it as "Drake". So he's still not John Drake according to any filmed evidence.

 

[Peter Apruzzese]

Dupe post.
[Edited last by Peter Apruzzese on October 10, 2001 at 08:15 AM]

 

[Peter Apruzzese]

Weird dupe post problem.
[Edited last by Peter Apruzzese on October 10, 2001 at 08:14 AM]

 

[tyler O]

This is beautiful. Exactly what I can imagine McGoohan would have wanted in the first place. The confusion, the double entendres (no fancy ' for me). His masterwork lives on through his previous works.
P.S. - I'm waiting for the mega set too. I was happy with my Python for 80$ and my Prisonder for 72$. I'll be happy with waiting for Secret Agent Danger Man. I still think the given you a number part of the song fits too beautifully. God bless the US and their bastardization of most things British...

-edited Mis in the first paragraph to correctly say His-
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[Edited last by tyler O on October 10, 2001 at 10:11 AM]

 

[TonyD]

well popping up this old thread agian.

i watched the ep next to last. and i confirm that the sub say morning break not drake. and it sounds like break to me also.

but earlier when 6 and 2 are on the seesaw it appears that 2 refers to him as JACKY many times.

they get on and 2 says.."seesaw margery daw...JACKY will have a new master"

then 6 says "seesaw"

2 say "margery daw"

6 says"jacky"

then they go back and forth with 6 repeating jacky and 2 saying master.

then 2 says "mother"then "father" and 6 throws himself off the seesaw.

i'll watch the last ep tomorrow and try to remember to give my thoughts on the entire series.

i'm thinking alot about TWIN PEAKS Tthough.

i know this is a danger man thread but both series seem to be about the same man.

 

[Blaine Skerry]

I buried Paul!

 

[Dennis Nicholls]

Tony,

I think that's just a nursery rhyme, and has nothing in particular to do with the story.

 

[TonyD]

I buried Paul!

sorry blaine i dont get the ref.

thanks dennis i wasnt aware of that i never heard it.

jack is a nickname for john so thats why i think he was calling him jacky.

 

[Bill McCamy]

I buried Paul!

I think this is a reference to the rumors floating years ago that Paul M. was a dead Beatle. Perhaps it is a comparison of those rumors, and their purported proof in various dissected Beatle lyrics and record jackets, and the dissection of the episodes of "The Prisoner" to "prove" whether John Drake and No. 6 merely resemble each other, or are the same individual.

 

[Blaine Skerry]

You nailed it, Bill. The "I buried Paul" quote or, misquote according to Mr. Lennon appears during the final fade out of STRAWBERRY FIELDS FOREVER. Lennon says what he really said was "strawberry tart".

 

[Peter Apruzzese]

"Cranberry Sauce" is what it sounds like...

 

[Duncan Harvey]

Essentially number 6 is Drake. The Prisoner's script editor George Markstein always insisted this was the case.

The reason its not explicit is that to have called him Drake would have triggered royalty payments to Ralph Smart the creator of Dangerman.

Also in the episode "The Girl Who Was Death" the character of Potter appears who had been in Dangerman.

To be honest I'd read all of McGoohan's denials before I'd ever seen Dangerman. The first episodes that I saw were the two final episodes - the ones shot in colour "Koroshi" and "Shinda Shima". After about five minutes I was convinced that No. 6 is indeed Drake.

I've got all of the 5 A&E sets so far and in R2 land we've had 28 of the 39 25 minute episodes. Unfortunately I suspect we wont get the rest.

By my calculations with A&E having released 38 episodes there's another 9 left of the 50 minutes. Maybe there will be a final set containing the 9 spread over three discs.

 

[Blaine Skerry]

Also in the episode "The Girl Who Was Death" the character of Potter appears who had been in Dangerman

According to information on THE PRISONER DVD set, THE GIRL WHO WAS DEATH was originally written for DANGERMAN.