Secret Agent/Danger Man - The Complete Series Coming from TMG on 12/9/14 (1 Viewer)

Timeless Media Group is releasing Secret Agent/Danger Man - The Complete Series on December 9, 2014: http://www.tvshowsondvd.com/news/Secret-Agent-Danger-Man-The-Complete-Series/20256

I purchased the complete series megaset that was rereleased by A&E in slimline packaging in 2010, but I am very happy to see this released again for the fans who might have missed it the last time.

Darby

Yes, I missed it the prior two times, but I think I'll go for it now.

My favourite series obviously--I'll be curious to see whether Timeless recycles the same tired old prints as A&E or use ITV/Network's restorations.
I had thought DM might appear on BD as two test episodes were released in the UK as part of the Retro-Action series.

Mike*HTF said:

My favourite series obviously--I'll be curious to see whether Timeless recycles the same tired old prints as A&E or use ITV/Network's restorations.I had thought DM might appear on BD as two test episodes were released in the UK as part of the Retro-Action series.

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Mike, I sent you a PM last week. Did you ever receive it?

PM'd you

Yikes -- the newest releases coming down the pipe have erased much of my wish-list but now created a humungous "my eyes are bigger than my budget" crisis. As mIke notes, here's hoping they've accessed the best available prints -- giving me a reason to put this one on medium priority until the reviews are in! But gosh, i have a spot on my mantle for McGoohan's Danger Man!

There is at least a decent chance these are coming from the UK prints. When Timeless released "Peter Gunn" they didn't license it from A&E but got it from The Camelot Entertainment Group, that received it as part of the purchase of Liberation Entertainment that released "Peter Gunn" in the UK. So hopefully, this is another example of Timeless working around A&E to put out a release. We will have to wait and see.

I hope timeless re-releases other British shows I missed the first time from A&E, like The Prisoner and The Saint.

Does the new release include the half-hour season and full hour episodes?

The two episodes on the Network retro-Action blu-rays have excellent image quality. I keep hoping that they will release the full series on blu.

Patrick McGoohan would have made the best James Bond, always been a pity he turned it down

Sam Favate said:

Does the new release include the half-hour season and full hour episodes?

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According to what is listed on TVShowsOnDVD it does since it mentions all 86 episodes. which would include the 39 half-hour episodes, as well as the 47 hour-long episodes.

Also, I received confirmation from Timeless that the prints were licensed from ITV, so that would seem to indicate the use of the newer prints previously released by Network in the UK. The current pre-order price is also decent, so at this point it would appear to be goods news all around.

Mike*HTF said:

My favourite series obviously--I'll be curious to see whether Timeless recycles the same tired old prints as A&E or use ITV/Network's restorations.
I had thought DM might appear on BD as two test episodes were released in the UK as part of the Retro-Action series.

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I don't think there have been any restorations for the best part of a decade.
I started buying Danger Man on dvd when Carlton UK began releasing them around 2000. They came out alongside dvd's of sparkling new copies of all the major ITC shows . As it had only been 2 or 3 years since Carlton had acquired ITC they seemed to be striking new copies for most of the shows as the quality of the prints aswell as the definition was very improved over the VHS releases from ITC in the mid 90's and the Bravo broadcasts of the same era - both were often from 16mm sources.
However , as with some of the other series the initial dvd run was never completed . (Most shows only got complete releases when Network did a boxset) IIRC there were around 10 of the half hour episodes unreleased although I believe Carlton did do a complete boxset some time after stopping the individual volumes. From memory I think only Randall and The Persuaders got a full set of individual volumes.
Before Network released them A and E did a boxset of the half hour episodes and these were every bit as good as the Carlton discs.
I did have the one hour series from A and E but swapped it for the UK set thanks to the book that was also included. Again there didn't appear to be any difference in the quality . In fact A and E authoring at the time was generally much better than Network who went though a long period of poor authoring. Side by side comparisons of the Australian sets of Randall and Hopkirk , The Saint (B&W), Department S and others clearly showed the Network discs were inferior.
With the exception of R&H I stayed with the Oz sets of those shows .

The only restorations that have been done that I am aware of are the content that has been remastered for HD - so The Prisoner , The Persuaders and Space 1999 Year One . It was specifically stated at the time of the release of the Retro Action discs that the individual episodes had been remastered just for that release and there was no other current intention to remaster further episodes for HD.

The Baron was the only one that really needed it as they didn't even create new prints for that and the Oz release , UK release and UK repeats of a few on G+ in the early 2000's were all uniformly poor looking prints that looked decades old.

The rest of the ITC library actually looked quite good on the dvd releases so until they go for HD I don't expect them to do any restorations.
Unfortunately both ITV and Network themselves seem to have gone cold on the idea of remastering these shows for HD. Its been about 3 years I think since The Persuaders came out .

Here in the UK there are no channels available for which most of these classic shows would fit into the schedule . Unlike 15-20 years ago archive repeats have dropped under the radar with some channels rerunning the same old shows over and over again.
ITV4 did show most ITC shows quite a few years back but then decided there were only 3 that were worth rerunning so R&H , The Champions and The Saint ( colour only) got run into the ground .
The latter still turns up but the first 2 stopped sometime ago and the rest of the ITC action shows remain unbroadcast for several years.

It does sound as if Network are sharing the cost of Space 1999 Year 2 with other dvd companies but that release keeps being put back and if the Gerry Anderson shows can't get a look in I don't see the general action shows doing any better.

B&W looks fabulous on Bluray so a set of Danger Man Blurays would be very nice but I'm not expecting a boxset in this decade - but you never know

Was hoping for something remastered here. Have the Carlton/A&E releases and they'll do fine until something spiffed up comes out. The five-CD soundtrack is most wondrous, as it contains every cue of music extant from the series. Glad to have that as well.

I believe the Carlton and A&E sets are virtually indistinguishable because they share the same source material. A&E's first releases (approx. 2003) and all of their subsequent re-releases have recycled these same masters. However, my understanding is that DM was indeed remastered (though not "restored" as I misspoke) in late 2006 for Network's "Special Edition" of the 1-hour episodes (along with copious extras and a delightful book by Andrew Pixley) released the following year. These same transfers were what Madman and Umbrella used for their R4 releases in 2008 and were also part of a repackaging by Network without the book around 2008. As Charles mentioned, none of these were HD transfers.

The visuals on these later releases look decidedly better than either the A&E or Carlton versions, but the sound was muffed with some episodes sounding much worse than the earlier transfers--I wound up keeping each subsequent release for one reason or another.

Alan mentioned the CDs, these too were released from the original (surviving) masters but without any restoration or clean up--still they are incredibly wonderful releases and we are unlikely to see better versions soon if ever.

I hope that we do see a HD version of the series in the future. At this rate, possibly the Germans will be the first to bring it to the marketplace given the amount of BD releases there and the high interest in the series.

charlesgunn said:

I don't think there have been any restorations for the best part of a decade.
I started buying Danger Man on dvd when Carlton UK began releasing them around 2000. They came out alongside dvd's of sparkling new copies of all the major ITC shows . As it had only been 2 or 3 years since Carlton had acquired ITC they seemed to be striking new copies for most of the shows as the quality of the prints aswell as the...
Before Network released them A and E did a boxset of the half hour episodes and these were every bit as good as the Carlton discs.
I did have the one hour series from A and E but swapped it for the UK set thanks to the book that was also included. Again there didn't appear to be any difference in the quality . In fact A and E authoring at the time was generally much better than Network who went though a long period of poor authoring. Side by side comparisons of the Australian sets of Randall and Hopkirk , The Saint (B&W), Department S and others clearly showed the Network discs were inferior.
With the exception of R&H I stayed with the Oz sets of those shows .

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Mike, are you saying this new offering will have the remastered versions? If so, for $60, I'm in.

No, only that I'll be curious to see whether Timeless recycles the same prints as A&E or uses the newer, but problematic, Network remasters.

Don't see enough mentions of the ITC soundtracks . I've only got 6 or 7 of them but they are wondrous accomplishments.
A decade ago the notion that that we would get such comprehensive soundtracks for these shows was just a pipe dream - but that could be said for much of what Network has since released .
They've satisfied everybodys wish lists and gone way beyond what we could ever have imagined they would release.

The Champions and R&H are my 2 favourite soundtracks .Alongside the La La Land Star Trek TOS 15 cd collection these are products I only ever thought I'd see in my imagination.

I watched the entire collection of DM, both incarnations, from the A&E releases and never once had an issue with its quality. This was on a 70 inch LED, which does not suffer bad transfers gladly. It seems whenever there is a re-release mentioned, some immediately find fault with its predecessor and hope the new version will correct it. Well, for me, the A&E stuff looked great and I would only feel the need to support a double dip if it's on Blu.

Professor Echo said:

I watched the entire collection of DM, both incarnations, from the A&E releases and never once had an issue with its quality. This was on a 70 inch LED, which does not suffer bad transfers gladly. It seems whenever there is a re-release mentioned, some immediately find fault with its predecessor and hope the new version will correct it. Well, for me, the A&E stuff looked great and I would only feel the need to support a double dip if it's on Blu.

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I thought they were very good too . Certainly light years ahead of A and E's original dvd releases of The Avengers which were as bad as the UK ones

Regarding the Madman boxed set with extras, which is region 4 PAL, will those DVDs play on my region free Blu-Ray player and Panasonic flatscreen? I believe PAL makes no difference for HD, but I am dubious about DVD/Laser Disc/VHS in PAL. I don't won't to buy them if they won't play.