User Reviews

Fish on the hook is one of my favorite episodes from either the 1/2 hour or 1 hour Danger Man series. There is something happening every moment, and mostly it's things going wrong for John Drake. An extremely well placed source in a foreign nation feeding information to the British government is suddenly compromised and must be extracted within 24 hours.

The things is, the leaker has buffered themselves with four layers of contacts, each of whom Drake must discover and interrogate in order to iterate to the source. Pay close attention in the first few minutes as these contacts are revealed, else you may get lost.

There is a wonderful moment about 2/3 way through the episode where Drake has both a male and female antagonist to deal with at once in the corridor of an office. Watch how Drake subdues each if them nearly simultaneously. It's rather hilarious.

Guest Star Alumni! There are several guest stars from other Danger Man's appearing in this story. Drake's primary contact, Gerdi, is played by Dawn Addams, who also appeared in 'The Battle of the Cameras', the most Bond like Danger Man ever made (Drake in a tuxedo in a casino). Great episode!

Actress Zena Marshall, who plays the wife of the prime minister, appears in two of the earlier 1/2 hour series; 'The Leak' and 'Find and Return', playing a doctor and a jilted wife respectively. Both shows are well worth viewing.

Then you have exquisite character actor Martin Miller who plays a doctor in this episode. He plays an eccentric bomb maker in an earlier 1/2 episode called 'The Lovers'. Another good episode.

At least three other cast members also appeared in other Danger Man episodes. I'll let you look those up on you own. ;>

In this superb little episode Drake travels to the middle east (by way of the studio) to rescue the leader of a network the authorities are rolling up, code name, the Fish. The problem: no one knows who the fish is. So while the police start at the bottom and beat their way up the network Drake has to follow the same path, with finesse, trying to persuade everyone he's not a policeman.

This tense episode, where good people keep falling into the police maw, has familiar faces from "The Prisoner," early James Bond and early Carry On movies. Zena Marshall never looked lovelier. But which team does she play on?

The lesson? When Drake says go, GO. Don't hang about for the morning papers.

Drake is dispatched to an Arab country when an agent there is compromised.

Fish on the Hook is one of the best Danger Man episodes. The plot is pretty routine, but it's entertaining. The guest cast is fantastic, especially Dawn Addams, Peter Bowles and Vladek Sheybal.

M9 agent John Drake returns to the Middle East to exfiltrate a mysterious intelligence source in "Fish on the Hook," a richly woven tale that keeps viewers on the hook to the end. John Roddick and Michael Pertwee's robust script weaves several complex elements---perhaps too many---into a narrative that layers intrigue and suspense amidst an exotic atmosphere that simmers to a perilous boil, fired by strong performances from the guest stars and Patrick McGoohan's intricate interaction with them.

A frantic communiqué from an M9 agent (Terence Longdon) in an unnamed Arab country sends Drake to catch the "Fish," the unknown source of strong intelligence in the country. Posing as Max Ryder, the playboy son of the owner of a public relations company, Drake meets Gerdi (Dawn Addams), head of the company's local office, before also meeting Gamal (Peter Bowles), the security agent immediately suspicious of Drake---and who is also closing in on the Fish. Along the way, Drake encounters jittery camera-shop proprietor Tewfik (Vladek Sheybal), cagey Doctor Zoren (Martin Miller), and charming, urbane Nadia (Zena Marshall), the wife of a highly placed minister, all, Drake discovers, key way stations on the path to the Fish---or is one of them the target? More complications ensue when the real Max Ryder (Harvey Hall) arrives in-country.

That last might be an unnecessary distraction, and not much comes of it, yet director Robert Day marshals it within the narrative to keep the story focused. Juggling a set of varying personas, McGoohan displays sufficient range while Bowles, making his presence immediately felt, smartly underplays the heavy, Sheybal delivers the local color, Miller exhibits requisite ambiguity, and Marshall furnishes a surprise at the finale although once Addams's narrative function early on is accomplished, she recedes into the background.

Despite moments of contrivance, such as Marshall's closing reveal (which, to be fair, does suggest intrigue worthy of a separate episode), "Fish on the Hook" is an intelligently crafted story ripe with wit and intrigue, demonstrating that the one-hour format granted "Danger Man" room for effective plot development and character interplay.

(Fans of Patrick McGoohan's subsequent series "The Prisoner" might get a jolt of recognition from McGoohan's parting line to Terence Longdon and thus fuel debate that "The Prisoner" was merely a continuation of "Danger Man." (This reviewer does not believe that.) And although both Peter Bowles and Martin Miller later guest-starred in "The Prisoner," so did many other "Danger Man" guest stars as the talent pool in Britain at that time was relatively small.)

REVIEWER'S NOTE: What makes a review "helpful"? Every reader of course decides that for themselves. For me, a review is helpful if it explains why the reviewer liked or disliked the work or why they thought it was good or not good. Whether I agree with the reviewer's conclusion is irrelevant. "Helpful" reviews tell me how and why the reviewer came to their conclusion, not what that conclusion may be. Differences of opinion are inevitable. I don't need "confirmation bias" for my own conclusions. Do you?

When this episode begins, the British learn that an important spy network within Egypt* has been compromised. Of all the agents, the 'Fish' is considered non-expendable and Drake is sent to rescue this person. The problem is, he doesn't know who the Fish is or what they look like. So, he needs to find another contact and work his way towards this big Fish.

This is a fairly typical episode of "Secret Agent". It's well written, has some nice plot twists (especially when Drake learns WHY the Fish is there and who they work for) and is rather exciting. And, like other episodes, Drake avoids gun-play and uses his wits to solve the case.

By the way, it's interesting that Zena Marshall is one of the guest stars in this one. This is because she was also in the older Patrick McGoohan series "Danger Man" and battled wits with Drake. She also was in the first Bond movie, "Dr. No"--playing a naughty woman who tries to have Bond killed.