The Therapy Zone

25^TH of June 1998

    Was the date of a local BBC radio interview with Tony Wadsworth and Julie Mayer. There were three of us fans of the Prisoner who were due to be interviewed via telephone and "live on air." For myself I was asked such searching questions as "Do I own a mini-Moke?" "Do I ride a penny farthing?" and "Have I got a piped blazer?" It soon became apparent to me that I was to be treated as "the Prisoner anorak!," as my two fellow friends and fans interviewed before me had been treated with respect, little of the same was going to shown to me.

    At one point I was being urged to "justify myself," and I didn't like that, because I felt that I didn't have to justify myself to anyone. I suppose what frightened me the most was, and I should have been because I knew the question was going to be asked, was the fact that I couldn't answer the question! My mind went a complete blank for a few seconds while I searched for an answer. I began to answer what it was about the Prisoner that had made me a fan of the series, but I found it hard going which was strange for me. And then Julie Mayer suggested that it might be "escapism." That was a life-line and I clung to it like a survivor of the stricken Titanic clung to a lifeboat. Yes, that was it, "escapism." But I knew it was much more than that.

   At the time of the interview I was busy organising both re-enactments for the forthcoming prisoner convention at Portmeirion, and I had the Portmeirion shoot of Village Day to organise, so really my "appreciation" for the Prisoner was at it's lowest ebb that it had ever been. But having said that I was creating my own "Prisoner" based film, I was going to be doing what Patrick McGoohan had done, but on a smaller scale. I felt that I had "outgrown" my appreciation for the Prisoner, in the production of the film, and in my writing Prisoner based short stories, in putting Number 6 in new and varied situations.

    It was a busy time for me back then, and really there wasn't time for me to appreciate ‘the Prisoner,’ but since that time my appreciation for the Prisoner has long since returned, and has remained constant ever since.

Be seeing you