The Prisoners Double Meaning

    It was written some years ago that incredibly many years on from the original screening of the Prisoner that some people have still not twigged onto the double-meaning behind the series, even though McGoohan blew the whistle on himself rather obviously for the final two episodes.

    The Prisoner works very well a continuation series of 'Danger Man,' dealing with what happened to John Drake after he resigned. Of failing to see that No.6 and John Drake are the same character, a spy series where a man who resigns is abducted to the village to have the reason behind his resignation extracted, and coercion used against him to turn him towards the village, seeing as this man has a future with the village.

   But then the financial rug was pulled out underneath McGoohan, and so he abandoned the spy theme of the series, which most viewers had been following the stories on this surface level, and with the final two episodes swapped from symbolism to surrealism, then all hell broke loose. As the final episode was to reveal all, but which at the time revealed little or nothing upon the original screening of 'Fall Out.' Because then it went and gone, leaving the viewer with only what he could remember at that time.

    There was a great deal to take in at the time, and so short a time to take it in, 50 minutes to learn what the Prisoner was all about. which side ran the village - the location of the village, seemingly at the end of the A20 close to Dover as some fans thought! Who was No.1, well you met with him and still didn't get it! Why did the Prisoner resign? Well you were told, perhaps you were not listening, listen again why don't you. Would the Prisoner escape? Well he was just as much a prisoner at the end as he was at the beginning, it was, after all, his future!

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