The Therapy Zone

    It’s been a long time since I last portrayed Number 6. That was during a performance at the 100 Club on Oxford Street London back in 2000, with Ed Ball and The Times for the set of the song ‘I Helped Patrick McGoohan Escape.’ I forget just how it came to mind, perhaps  in conversation, or it might have been in discussion about re-enactments at the Prisoner Conventions. I was reminiscing about the re-enactment of the Appreciation Day ceremony. I said I’m too old now to play Number 6 again being in my early 60’s. I was told that I wasn’t too old for the role. And of course thinking about it rationally, bringing a touch of realism to ‘the Prisoner,’ I’m not. Because if Number 6 were still alive today he would be in his eighties, and that would make me twenty years younger. When I portrayed Number 6 in a re-enactment at a Prisoner Convention in 1994 I was 38 years of age, precisely the right age, the same age Number 6 was when he was abducted to The Village. So really I’m not too old to play the Prisoner again, not that the chance is ever likely to arise, I’m certainly not expecting it to. But of course it would be a different Number 6, still defiant, but too old for escape. After all, if he failed to escape The Village during the past 50 years, he’s not likely to be able to escape it now. What’s more it’s highly likely that he would have had to give up his cottage, to reside in the Old People’s Home, I bet that wouldn’t have gone down well with our old friend Number 6!

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