The Therapy Zone

The General

   Patrick McGoohan loved ‘The General,’ he thought that was just exactly what he wanted to do. It was just his cup of tea.

   Lewis Griefer, author of this episode, which he wrote under the pseudonym of Joshua Adam, his son's names. the idea for the plot came from Griefer because of the way the educational system failed to meet his son's needs. It appeared to Griefer that the amount of rote information being squeezed into their heads did little for their imaginations and even less for their intelligence.

  Well I'm not too sure what "Speedlearn" & The General would do for them!

Different Values

     In the paper written by Chris Tame, first published in the New Libertarian Review of September 1974, Tames states "What are we to make of all this? - within ‘the Prisoner’ - what specifically is the meaning of that climatic confrontation with Number 1? Was McGoohan stating that Number 6 is imprisoned by his self, by his refusal to compromise for the "common good?" At least one critic made such an interpretation "the truth seemed to be a kind of self-humiliation in which McGoohan discovered that his personal ego was the beginning and the end of his troubles."

   Well that could be the truth of the matter, certainly ‘the Prisoner’ could be self inflicted, as in the interview with No.8-Nadia during The Chimes of Big Ben. I feel that ‘the Prisoner’ was the cause of McGoohan's later troubles, and those troubles stem from his self. His beliefs, and attitude towards morality.

   Certainly McGoohan has never truly embraced his creation, has never been comfortable with discussing it, and in the main has kept fans of the Prisoner well away beyond arms length.

   Part of the trouble is also the fact that McGoohan never expected his creation, ‘the Prisoner,’ to achieve "cult status," to have gained the world-wide fan base the series has enjoyed over four and a half decades. And if McGoohan has never been easy talking about the Prisoner, then he should not have created the series in the first place. And if he hadn't, I would not be sat here typing these words, so thanks for that anyway Patrick!

   If the Prisoner is anything, it's a real visual feast for the eyes.

   Exactly when did No.6 start going about the Village in a cream blazer with black piping. And what might they have thought to see him wearing his badge, when before he had always refused to wear it? Perhaps they thought how nice it was to see No.6 settling down!

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