As so it was, with the first clap of thunder, as dark clouds gather over a long and deserted road as a green, yellow nosed Lotus 7 hurtles along that road, the drivers face set in a grimace look of determination..........
And the Prisoner was all in black and white the first time around, and indeed both the second, third and even fourth viewing, well I hadn't got a colour television! In fact it wasn't until the 1984 screening of the Prisoner that I was able to watch the series in glorious colour, and to see what I had been missing all those years before. Because I found, like so many others, that colour, at the time, gave the Prisoner another dimension. So colourful is the village itself, together with the colourful clothes worn by its citizens could not but have an effect upon the viewer who had originally watched the series in black and white, and having no idea what they had been missing. Although those people who had visited, or even having stayed at Portmeirion as a guest before the production of the Prisoner, or even at the time of filming at Portmeirion, and in so having, had recognised Portmeirion as the village, might have had some idea.
Today there has been all manner of Prisoner merchandise sold through the Prisoner shop at Portmeirion and other outlets. And of course over time a certain amount of Prisoner memorabilia has come to light. Only after the screening of the Prisoner 1967-68 there was no such merchandise, only afterwards did "Dinky Cars" issue a Prisoner Mini-Moke-taxi as pictured here. Oh as a boy I was a proud owner of such a vehicle, and at the princely sum of half a crown, as far as I can remember, 25 pence in today’s money. Today a boxed Prisoner Mini-Moke-taxi, in good condition can fetch the price of between £100 - £250. If only I had had the foresight at the time to buy several Prisoner Mini-Moke-taxis. What happened to mine? Well to be perfectly honest I cannot recall, possibly just lost or smashed to bits by my younger brother.
Then in the early 1980's I found a hard back copy of Thomas M. Disch book The Prisoner. Okay, not the best Prisoner based novel one might read, but back then it is all I had, and it wasn't even mine, it belonged to the library! But seeing that no one else seemed to have the desire to read the book, each time when it came to return the book to the library I would instantly book it out again in order to be able to read it again. You see I used this book to try and bring me closer to the Prisoner and his village, although the book has nothing to do with the original series, but it is all I had at the time. Until of course I found for myself three paperback books, the one by Thoams M Disch, then The Prisoner: A day In The Life by hank Stine and The Prisoner: Who Is Number Two? by David McDaniel, the most enjoyable of which ,I have to say, is A day In The Life.
Sometimes its good to look back when surrounded by such an extensive Prisoner collection of merchandise and memorabilia as mine. Its good to think back and remember how it was, all those forty years ago, having been left with nothing but what memories one was able to retain after the first screening back in 1967-68.
Strange that is, that with gaining of years, comes the more complexities of the Prisoner, I mean with the use of the words allegorical and enigmatic to try and explain the meaning of the Prisoner, the use of which only serves, in my opinion, either to make things even more complicated or to explain something without actually explaining anything. Because allegorically speaking it can mean absolutely anything. So because the Prisoner has managed to captivate many fans at a very early age, the Prisoner could be better viewed through the eyes of a child. I arrived at this theory because children see things in a more simplified way than we adults, who tend to complicate matters so much, that we no longer see the wood for the trees. Because I have found that where the Prisoner is concerned, sometimes it is the simplest explanation which is best. However for some fans, the simplest explanation isn't good enough, not going deep enough for them, or having to sometimes having to take things at face value, which of course is their choice to make.
Perhaps you yourself as a child grew up with the Prisoner, having found the series at a very early age. If so perhaps the Prisoner was simpler for you, and only became more complicated the older you grew. For me, forty years on and I'm just as much a Prisoner of the Prisoner as I always was!
Be seeing you
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