DVD Talk review of 'Secret Agent: a.k.a. Danger Man - The Complete Collection'
 

I read Paul Mavis's DVD review of Secret Agent: a.k.a. Danger Man - The Complete Collection at http://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/read.php?ID=43614 and...


Paul great review of "Danger Man". Of course the other reason often cited as to why McGoohan didn't romance his onscreen stars is that it embarassed him. He felt extremely uncomfortable doing scenes where intimacy was shown on screen. I suspect that his religious beliefs were his excuse for this (although I didn't get the chance to ask him when I briefly worked with him in L.A. when he was at Disney for work on "Baby" and probably wouldn't anyway--it would have been too personal).

One of the reasons that playing the role in "Ice Station Zebra" appealed to him was 1) it was somewhat similar to his Drake/#6 personna and the chance to work with some top notch Hollywood talent. Add in the fact that there was no romantic subplot and it was a perfect fit for him.

Re: DVD Talk review of 'Secret Agent: a.k.a. Danger Man - The Complete Collection'
 

Glad you enjoyed it!

I've always heard the "devout Catholic" response for why he refused to do romantic scenes, and that certainly jibes with his choice of "family" films from Disney and Ice Station Zebra (I'm curious, though, about some other films he made in the 70s that sound like they may be more adult in tone, like <b>The Moonshine War</b>, which I missed).

But I can certainly see what you're saying about out-and-out embarrassment. There's one scene I remember in particular in one of the Danger Man episodes where Judy Geeson gets real close to McGoohan for a kiss, and he looks truly flummoxed. Totally uncomfortable, and it sure doesn't look like acting (if it had been me, they'd have had to get a fire hose to get me off her). It's an interesting question; too bad you didn't ask him. :)

As for me, I learned a long time ago that you never know how a celebrity is going to react when you ask them something out of the blue. Years and years ago, I saw notable fan-grouch Gene Hackman in Santa Fe, picking through a bunch of tomatoes in an organic food market. My friend dared me to go say, "Hi," so I went right up to him, leaned across that big crate, waited for him to look at me, and said, "March or <i>Die</i>???" And he busted out laughing. Gave me a wink, that pistol-finger Hackman gesture of his, and said, "No refunds."

Made my year.

Re: DVD Talk review of 'Secret Agent: a.k.a. Danger Man - The Complete Collection'
 

If the set has one flaw, it's that the hour-long episodes are in US broadcast order instead of the UK. I started watching them in the latter order, and IMHO they work much better that way.

Re: DVD Talk review of 'Secret Agent: a.k.a. Danger Man - The Complete Collection'
 

I got the Madman Television Secret Agent set from Australia that has a ton of bonus stuff and it is in the U.K. order, but I hadn't noticed it was in a different order then the U.S. set until you mentioned it.