Tonight On The Video Channel

  And so I have arrived at the 45th anniversary of 'the Prisoner' and tonight on the Video Channel I'll be commencing on a screening of the series with 'Arrival.' This time it's for purely in the name of escapism. To sit, look, watch and enjoy, without asking questions or wanting to know why?
    I have written about 'Arrival' before, and perhaps have squeezed the episode dry. A man resigns his job, is gassed, abducted by a pair of Undertakers, to wake up in that appears to be his own home, he's in the Village!
   45 years to be passionate, although some might have it as an obsession, about a television series? Probably not these days, people get so passionate about all kinds of things, and many television, and the entertainment media in general, is a big part of people's lives. 'The Prisoner' made a big impression on me the first time I saw it, so much so that the series has remained with me, and many like me. The opening sequence is perhaps the most powerful I've seen to a television series. Patrick McGoohan said 'the Prisoner' was never meant as a childrens television series, so why has it attracted, and captivated the minds of children over the past 45 years? Why are there so many references to childishness in the series, the use of nursery rhymes for example? Is it because basically we never grow up?
    What was it that first drew me to 'the Prisoner?' Well that was 'Danger Man.' to me 'the Prisoner' was a sequal to 'Danger Man,' and I'm not the only one who saw 'the Prisoner,' that way. Oh yes Patrick McGoohan said it wasn't, but I didn't know that at the time, as he hadn't told me, and I had no access to the ITC guidelines to 'the Prisoner' series at the time.
    In 1967 when I first viewed the series through my eyes as a child, 'The Prisoner' to me was action and adventure. It was escapism at it's best.
    Today 'the Prisoner' has become my life. It is with me every single day. Either the series has made a prisoner of me, or I have become so dependent on 'the Prisoner' that I cannot let it go. Either way..............

   'Arrival is my favourite episode because it sets up perfectly that which is yet to come. It takes you to a place which is so picturesque, so charming that you almost wish you were there, and yet at the same time you are grateful that you are not. 

I'll be seeing you