Thought For The Day

    It is said that ‘the Prisoner’ is timeless. Well certainly the series has withstood the passage of time, far more than many other television series. If it were not for the use of exterior film footage, in London for example, which is the only thing which dates ‘the Prisoner.‘ Otherwise the series would be practically un-dateable, if it had been completely filmed in Portmeiron alone.
    Someone wrote to me, saying in a letter how much he enjoys watching my film ‘Village Day.’ He went on to say that the film is like ‘the Prisoner,’ timeless. It was nice of this correspondent to say so. An old friend of mine also wrote to me, he has been introducing ‘the Prisoner’ to some friends of his. And at the same time screened ‘Village Day.’ The girlfriend of one of the friends doesn’t care for ’the Prisoner,’ and yet when she sat watching ‘Village Day’ I was told how captivated she was by it. Listening intently to the dialogue, taking it all in, and is now a fan of the film. My friend wrote saying that with ‘Village Day,’ in this instance, I had out-done Patrick McGoohan. It was good of him to say that. Its now 17 years since the film was produced, on a shoestring budget. An ambitious film, sometimes when I think back, perhaps too ambitious. But there it is. I remember watching an amateur film inspired by ‘the Prisoner,’ and as far as I recall the majority of the film was shot on location at Portmeirion. When Number 2 had a meeting with someone, that meeting had to take place outside the Green Dome. I was determined that ‘Village Day’ would have an interior for Number 2’s office. Well it was half an interior actually. With a pair of automatically sliding doors, which actually opened and closed better than the doors to Number 2’s office in the series. That was thanks to no fewer than 6 operators, three for each door, who slid them open and closed quite effortlessly. I remember being quite relieved when the production was completed. Relieved and damn well exhausted! Perhaps it’s high time I got the film out again to watch it. The one disappointment I felt, was the fact that people at the time didn’t get it. No, that wasn’t the disappointment, it was the fact that hardly anyone asked me questions about the film at the time. Because there was far more to it than met the eye at the first viewing!




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