The Prisoner According To Halliwell!

    A few days ago I purchased, for a mere 50 pence, a copy of ‘Halliwell’s Tele Guide’ first published by Granada Publishing in 1979. Leslie was a programme buyer for the ITV network and for Channel 4 until his retirement in 1986. He spent several years as film reviewer for ‘Picturegoer’ and ‘Sight and Sound’ as well as contributing to other national publications including ‘The Spectator’ and ‘Films and Filming.’ Halliwell was also the author of several standard reference books on cinema and television including ‘the Fimgoer’s Companion,’ The Film Guide, and was co-author of ‘the Clapperboard Book of the Cinema.’ 
   Basically the book is a Television guide of TV programmes and series of yesteryear from both sides of the Atlantic. So what did Mr. Halliwell have to say for himself on the subject of ‘the Prisoner?’

The Prisoner 17x50m colour

ATV {Patrick McGoohan}

    “An ex-secret agent is captured and brainwashed in a curious Shangri-La civilization from which he finds he can never escape.
    Downright peculiar, sometimes fascinating, often irritating and trendy melodrama in which episodes, though well made and acted, tended towards repetition. The much awaited final episode explained nothing and fell apart almost completely, the intention apparently being to make a statement about Vietnam.”

Patrick McGoohan

   “Revived in 1976, the show turned into a minor cult, and Portmeirion, the private welsh village in which it was filmed, again attracted unwelcome hordes of tourists.”

   Note: When I watched ‘the Prisoner’ in 1967-68, and even when I watched the series again in 1976 and again in 1977 I had no idea that symbolism was mixed up in the series. This was probably because I was watching ‘the Prisoner’ as a straightforward action adventure series. It was not until over a decade later that I learned of the symbolism that could be found in the series. And how in ‘Living In Harmony’ the way the Man With No Name refused to carry a gun, was being symbolized in America with the “draft dodgers” who refused to pick up a gun and go and fight in the Vietnam War. That never once occurred to me when I first watched ‘Living In Harmony,’ nor again in 1976 and 77 probably because I watched the episode as a straightforward Western!

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