THEPRIS6NER

    There are a certain 'set of nods' given to the original series, and it must have been fun to reproduce certain elements, having a respect for what has become iconic, the Prisoner. There was also the need for a Village logo, but apparently, according to ITV's Press Pack for THEPRIS6NER, it would have been wrong to use the original Penny Farthing although as we've seen, there is one suspended from the ceiling of the "Go Inside Club." And what's more Two Ian McKellen pays his own small homage to what was once the past!

    93, the "old man," of the McGoohan character's flat is lifted from the first series as a direct homage, but not a direct copy.

   The dark interior of the clinic is supposed to reflect the Control Room of the first series, but at the same time it represents the psychological influence of present-day interrogation.

    THEPRIS6NER is about memory and the subconscious versus reality. The Village is a benign place, it has an almost timeless quality, and that appears to have resulted in a retro sixties feel, which I picked up on soon into Arrival.

   There are not so many Village slogans in this series, as there are in the original. But there is one above the Village Shop "For All Your Needs."

   And here's an observation for you......as Two enters the Village Shop in the episode Schizoid, not Village Store as I wrongly remembered it as being, there is a man who walks passed dressed identically to Two!

   The Village Shop puts me in mind of the Ship Shop in Portmeirion, because it sells Village maps, folded, and larger ones rolled up. The Village Shop sells 'T' shirts, aprons, crockery, almost anything but food and drink. I mean this is the Village shop for all your needs, but where are the wines and spirits, the toilet rolls, brushes? The milk, the ice cream, potatoes and aspirins? But at least the little shop bell has been retained ting-a-ling-ling.

   Ian McKellen talked much about the new series, the reinterpretation and reinvention of the original. Saying how it is more to do with the psychology of the mind, which is a more intriguing aspect, than that of the original series was, in which each episode asked the question would he escape this time? When or how would No.6 escape? And unlike with Fall Out of the original series, there will be no loose ends this time, as they will all be tied up. At the end you will know where The Village is, why, and who created it.

Be seeing you