Man in a Suitcase was a 1967 television series produced by Lew Grade's ITC Entertainment.

Origins and overview

Man in a Suitcase was effectively a replacement for Danger Man, whose production had been curtailed when its star Patrick McGoohan had decided to create his own series, The Prisoner. Many of the Danger Man production crew moved over to the new series, which was initially to be titled McGill after its lead character. Like several ITC productions, the series would use an American star in an attempt to boost the show's sales in the US. An early choice was Jack Lord, but the part of McGill eventually went to Richard Bradford, a method actor who was spotted after appearing opposite Marlon Brando in the 1966 movie The Chase. The series was created by Richard Harris and Dennis Spooner. Neither writer had any further involvement with the series - Spooner was mostly involved with producing his own series, The Champions - and the lead character changed somewhat from their original conception of a hard-boiled, wise-cracking detective.

McGill was a former US Intelligence agent, who had been forced to resign from the service six years prior to the opening episode, practically accused of treason. Unable to clear his name or return to the USA, McGill makes ends meet by working as a travelling private detective and bounty hunter, based in Britain, living out of his suitcase (hence the title). His cases generally took him to different parts of Europe (and on a couple of occasions Africa.)