The Therapy Zone

McGOOHAN HAS THE ANSWER

- to a mystery baffling millions

    For fifteen weeks Mr. McGoohan has baffled ten million or more viewers with his fantastic excursions into the abstract as The Prisoner.

    It has been one of the most contraversial series ever made by ITV. Mr. Lew Grade, ATV's boss, who underwrote The Prisoner made by Mcgoohan's own company Everyman Films, took a big gamble on such an esoteric series getting across to the public in the form of a popular thriller.

   Will viewers be left clinging half-way up the wall with curiosity as to why Prisoner McGoohan has been brainwashed, interrogated, tortured in an extraordinary village? And by whom - for it could be by the British Intelligence, or agents of the Chinese People's Republic for all we know?

   Despite the curtain of secrecy set up by Mr. McGoohan and everyone connected with The Prisoner, I will now let you into the secret of the final episode called Fall-Out.

    The Prisoner has really undergone a series of cruel and searching character tests to determine whether he is a fit person with the superb qualities required to lead us into a national emergency.

    Needless to say, McGoohan emerges splendidly eligible - indeed the sort of chap Mr. Harold Wilson might be very glad to put in charge of Britain's security any time.

    McGoohan himself wrote the last episode, adroitly trying to tie up loose ends, and explaining all.

    Only one mystery remains. Will the courageous Mr. Grade make a bumper profit he hoped for from the American and world sales, or will he just break even? In a few years when all the resale’s are added up we may know.

   This week is Patrick McGoohan's final week as No.6, in the secret village of The Prisoner.

    Throughout this tantalising series, loose ends and red herrings have been strewn around. And all will now be revealed. At last you'll be able to discover the identity of No.1. But watch closely, becuase he won't be served up to you on a platter.

   The concluding episode takes the form of a trial scene. A young Alexis Kanner and the older one, who is No.2-Leo McKern, are on trial.

   Said Kanner "This has been a big show which needs a big pay-off. and that's what you'll get. McGoohan has written the script himself - it's brilliant."

    We asked if he was No.1. He grinned enigmatically.

    McKern who is playing No.2 for the third time said "It's a very exciting finish. To say anything about it, would give the game away."

    Was he No.1 pretending to be No.2? He smiled mysteriously.

    For Angelo Muscat, the Maltese-born midget who, as the butler in black, has appeared in almost every episode, the end of the series will put a stop to people coming up to him ans asking "Are you No.1?"

    "Whenever I'm recognised in the street, that's the first question I'm asked," he chuckled. "No, I'm not saying whether it's true. That would spoil it."

                      {TV Times 1968}

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