The thing about ‘the Prisoner’ is, it isn’t real. And
yet, although it is a remarkable television series that has withstood the
test of time, it has endured, it is nevertheless just that, a television
series. An old friend of mine once said, just after High Definition television
became readily available, that I need to see ‘the Prisoner’ in High Definition.
He told me that the picture clarity was so good, it's as though the series was
made yesterday. But surely that’s the point, it wasn’t, and I have never
understood the need for something to look as though it was filmed yesterday,
when it was actually filmed 47 years ago. I did think that the next stage for
‘the Prisoner’ was to have it converted into 3D, but it would seem that 3D
television isn’t going to be what people thought. So I’ve an idea that my old
chum will be itching to see ‘the Prisoner’ in “curve” television, apparently that’s
television with a curved screen, supposedly imitating how the eye sees the
world.
And yet ‘the Prisoner’ isn’t real,
and yet sometimes I write about it as though it were. I even try, from time to
time, to put a different slant on certain situations within ‘the Prisoner.’
That’s not me trying to be humorous, or clever, some people do not like me
doing that, using my imagination. But I enjoy it, and if it pleases me, then it
might please others. No-one is forced to like it, no-one is forced to read it.
Do I take ‘the Prisoner’ seriously?
Sometimes, perhaps too seriously at times. But the thing about ‘the
Prisoner’ is it stirs the mind, it can mess with the mind. It makes you think,
and just when you think you have it all figured out, {well I don’t know anyone
who can claim that} you either find a piece of the puzzle is missing, or there‘s
a piece over that doesn‘t fit! ‘The Prisoner’ can be looked at in so many
different ways. It can be dissected, taken apart, and there are so many ways to
put it back together again.
Next year ‘the Prisoner will be 48
years old, and it can never be fully understood, or explained, such are the
mysteries that still lie within the series. How many television series can you
name that can claim that distinction? Derren Nesbitt, the interim, the heir
presumptive, and finally new Number 2 of ‘It’s Your Funeral,’ he once
said of ‘the Prisoner’ in an interview for ‘Once Upon A time,’ “I’m not sure I
knew what it was all about." Robert Asher who was the director of ‘It’s Your
Funeral’ asked him if he knew what the episode was all about, and Derren said
quite frankly that he didn’t. To that Robert Asher said “Oh well, I’m glad it’s
not just me.”
I Suppose Derren Nesbitt and Robert
Asher summed it all up really. We like to think we know a great deal about ‘the
Prisoner,’ and yes we do, but not completely everything. And yet isn’t it true
that ‘the Prisoner’ is what we make of it ourselves? I mess around with scenes
in the series, put different aspects on them. Make them into something they
never were, and some may think that’s wrong. But it’s what I choose to do, because
it’s a world into which I can disappear from time to time. My way of
manipulating ‘the Prisoner’ for my own enjoyment, and perhaps for others to
enjoy. After all if we didn’t write about ‘the Prisoner,’ discuss and debate
it, theorise, interpret, create Prisoner fan art for example, well we’re not
expected to just sit and watch ‘the Prisoner’ on television are we? Well yes,
but we can do all that other stuff as well!
Be seeing you
Very well put! If the series didn't matter and touch us - pff! No use in losing one single word about it. Like with so many other TV stuff. Looked at this way, the Prisoner is indeed real. It comes as a mental manifestation like any other work of art (which we may loathe or love) but especially in film. It is for the "holes" in it, the unexplainable, the unsolved, the incongruent that we're concerned with. It hardly leaves people indifferent. The P09 on the contrary, although certainly much more glossy, may have a similar number of "holes" but I would guess it will be remembered for them only in terms of bad script writing rather than an ingenious work. And that's the major difference. - BCNU!
ReplyDeleteHello Arno,
DeleteVery well put, I say in return. And on the whole I agree with you, only I can think of other reasons why THEPRIS6NER will be forgotten by the majority of people, rather than remembered, and as you know I am an ardent enthusiast for the series. They didn't give the series a chance, not having been filmed in Portmeriion, and think that the series should never have been produced in the first place. And yet it does have one inportant thing in common with 'the Prisoner,' we may either like it or loathe it. Me? Its about time I watched the series again!
Very best regards
David
BCNU