- Title: Danger Man – The Prisoner
- wiki: link
Our Throwback Thursday post takes us back into the Cold War spycraft of Danger Man. There’s a lot happening in “The Prisoner” as Drake (Patrick McGoohan) first needs to find a suitable double to stand in for an American citizen (William Sylvester) confined the U.S. Embassy in the Caribbean for five long years. Stepping out the embassy would mean the man’s death at the hands of a brutal colonel (William Lucas) and a president (Michael Peake) all too eager to earn a big victory over the West. Drake finds such a double in a famous pianist, and former soldier, who agrees to help despite the danger he will certainly be putting himself in.
The last two-thirds of the episode include organizing a performance by the pianist in the country, trotting the celebrity here and there, and setting up a situation where a proper switch can be made. A clever plan requiring split-second timing, even the smallest error could spell disaster. While misdirecting the colonel once, Drake uses the man’s certainty of the identity of the pianist to get the prisoner out of the country leaving the soldier to take the fall politically and Drake and the president to enjoy a nice quiet performance by the pianist.
