THEPRIS6NER

    I appreciate THEPRIS6NER because it's different, because for me it refreshes ‘the Prisoner’ concept. In fact because THEPRIS6NER is more psychological, it's far more intriguing than the original series, and therefore I have always been eager to know what happens in the next episode. True I did find it difficult to come to terms with when I first watched Arrival, that is because there was so much going on, the Prisoner was meeting so many different characters, and there were the flashbacks, or was it flash forwards, to contend with. But a second screening soon helped, and I have to say it was the same with the episode ‘Harmony.’ But now I'm well and truly captivated by THEPRIS6NER. I have never tried to compare this reinterpretation to that of the original series. However one cannot but fail to observe the echoes from the original series, which I feel helps with the adjustment from the one series to the other, as well as linking them. The atmosphere of The Village being 1950's and 60's, and not of contemporary times in many ways. Yet a good many years have passed, when you think that 93, the former No.6 was an old man, about 82 I should say, give or take a year or two, if my calculations are correct

  Speaking for myself, I feel that THEPRIS6NER has breathed new life into the Prisoner enigma, not that the Prisoner can become stale, not even after these past 43 years or so. I still enjoy watching the original series very much indeed, but unlike other fans of my time, I can appreciate both series, and am happy to say that I've recently heard from others, by post, who like me, have an appreciation for this reinterpretation of THEPRIS6NER. They have yet to enlarge on why they like THEPRIS6NER, in the same way as I've heard from fans of the original series who have not taken to this reinterpretation at all, they hate it, think it's awful. But yet THEPRISONER has this in common with the original series, in the fact that you either love it, or hate it. People have written to me, or spoken on the phone saying that it's not like the original series, and that's why some fans don't like it. Or because it's not been filmed in Portmeirion. Well what reasons are they supposed to be? Because THEPRIS6NER was never intended to be like the original, but does give homage to the original series. And to say that one doesn't like this reinterpretation on the grounds that it wasn't filmed in Portmeirion, is no reason at all.

  No-one is forced to like it. No-one is being forced to watch the series if they do not wish to. But I find it strange that when someone says they do not like THEPRIS6NER, they do not, or find it difficult to expand on that. Simply to say "I don't like it," or that one finds it awful is fine. But it's like knocking on the door and running away.

   As a fan of the original series of ‘the Prisoner’ and have seen some, or all of this reinterpretation THEPRIS6NER, then I am interested in your views, love it or hate it as you will, but why?

   After all, if THEPRIS6NER had been the original series, and McGoohan had then later come along with his series, then THEPRIS6NER would be the favourite series, and fans would have hated McGoohan's series!

DAS -BANCU

The Therapy Zone

Number 2

Number 2 is portrayed as being very English even when played by Australian actors Guy Doleman and Leo McKern. However they did get it right with’ Living In Harmony’ with American born actor David Bauer as the Judge/No.2.
If there is one thing which stands out in ‘the Prisoner’ it's very Englishness. It is thought that the Prisoner-Number 6 is English. But he isn't. Not having been played by Irish-American born Patrick McGoohan. The village maybe an International community, yet in this cosmopolitan village it is it's very Englishness which make you think that the installation known as the village is actually run by the British. But if that it the case, why should the village be thought to be behind the Iron Curtain in the episode ‘The Chimes of Big Ben?’ Well simply going by the information given by Nadia, which if true, makes both the Colonel and Fotheringay as having gone over to the other side. But of course the village is nowhere near the Iron Curtain, let alone behind it. Those 25 days the Prisoner spent at sea, on a north-easterly course, during the episode ‘Many Happy Returns’ goes to prove that much.
    As Prisoner production manager Bernard Williams once said "Perhaps it would have been better if we'd used other, non-English actors as Number Two." Well that would certainly have added to the cosmopolitan atmosphere of the village.

Said About The Prisoner

George Baker said to describe the Prisoner as: "Like Kafka" as "reality keeps slipping away. It's very frightening. It could be happening to someone in this country now that we don't know about.... that's what is so fascinating about the Prisoner.

Terence Feely {script writer} sums up the series best of all: "What the series is all about is creative people for once running the asylum." "We were doing what we wanted and showing what the medium was capable of, showing what a marvellous tool surrealism is for surrealistic expression. That last episode is, I think one of the best examples of total surrealism. No prisoners taken. This is a series built to last."

    Well Terence Feely got that one right, the series has indeed lasted. And as for "It could be happening to someone in this country" well just be grateful that it's not happening to you!

A Question Of Interpretation

   At her art seminar Madam Professor describes a man sat tearing up a book as "Creating a fresh concept. Construction comes out of the ashes of destruction." And then there's a woman standing on her head "She's developing a new perspective." And the man's asleep in the chair simply because "The mind learns only when it wants to."

  Well to me the man's simply tearing up a book, the woman's standing on her head, and the man's asleep in the chair simply because he's tired!

   Well I think this is a case of madam Professor seeing one thing, where I see something else, much like ‘the Prisoner,’ its all to do with interpretation.

I'll be seeing you

Danger Man - Caught On Camera

    Not 'the Prisoner' this time but 'Danger Man' John Drake.

  This is one of the variety of gadgets used by John Drake. This a cigarette lighter with a micro camera hidden in it, which allows Drake to take photographs surreptitiously. This Drake does at a football match at Cravan Cottage - Fulham versus Burnley, while keeping Denis Rawson under close surveillance. Rawson having become suspect of handing over naval secrets to the Russians, or the Czech's. This in the episode 'Don't Nail Him Yet.'
   And so it is that a number of photographic stills landed upon my desk, taken by Drake's camera.

    My first impression was how well the photographs had been produced, and I admired the technique employed to take the photographs in the first place. No doubt the people in the football crowd were so busy watching the football match, that they were unaware that their pictures were being taken, which is the whole point of Drake's camera, but at least he wouldn't have to light a cigarette every time he took a picture!
   I fully understand, and I do realise that Drake is a very clever, ingenious, and quick-witted agent. However what I don't understand is this, how is it possible for Drake to appear in one of his own photographs?!

I'm obliged

Teabreak Teaser

    In the final scenes of 'The General' Number 6 diverts Number 2's attention from his suspicions about Number 12 by saying that there is a question the General cannot answer.
     The General has difficulty with the question, and begins to short ciruit. The Professor tries to shut the General off, but puts his own life in danger in the attempt. The question is, does Number 12 try to save the Professor's life, or is it an act of suicide, bearing in mind Number 2's suspicions about Number 12?

BCNU

Thought For The Day

     I like Will Hay films, 'Ask A Policeman,' 'Where's that fire?' 'Oh Mister Porter,' 'The Ghost of St. Micheal's,' and 'Old Bones of the River' of 1938 a film that enjoys a small parallel to do with 'the Prisoner' episode 'The Girl Who Was Death.'  

    You will recall how in the episode of ‘The Girl Who Was Death’ Mr.X went to the Magnum Record shop to gain instructions from the Chief via record. And if you remember that, you will recall that No.6 made a remark to the voice on the record, "Thanks very much" to which the voice said "What was that?" To which Mr. X replied "Nothing."

   Well in Old Bones of the River Will Hay plays Professor Benjamin Tibbets who goes to Africa to open a series of schools in order to educate the African natives. On the voyage to Africa Professor Tibbets busies himself learning the language of the Ocura tribe, this he does by the use of a record, it is whilst he is repeating a phrase spoken by the voice on the record the voice says "That's good" to which Professor Tibbets says "Thank you very much" to which the voice on the record replies "Don't mention it."

    I'm not saying that Patrick McGoohan, or script writer Terence Feely liked Will Hay films, or had even seen Old Bones of the River, so perhaps this played no influence upon the scene in the record booth of the Magnum Record shop. But its a nice parallel to be drawn between the two.

Be seeing you

THEPRIS6NER

   Giving birth to ones child is a painful, and stressful enough process as it is, but to give birth to ones son 11-12, even if he was conceived outside The Village, as M2 did in her hallucinating, and sedated state of mind. I mean to go through all the pain of childbirth, and at the same time M2 keeping her mind focused on The Village is surely something else!

    So, Michael was working for Summakor as an observer. watching people, writing reports on them, and sending those reports up to the next floor in the Summakor building. Michael it seems is partly responsible for The Village, that must have come as something of a shock to him. But of course Michael discovered what Summakor was doing, what he was doing, all those reports, those people he sent to The Village. So Michael resigned his job, and found himself waking up somewhere in the mountains and the desert as we witnessed at the outset of Arrival. Just as though after his resignation Michael was simply ejected from the Summakor building, and out into the desert! But the trouble with that is, it doesn't make any sense of the Summakor building in New York, at which Michael arrived in in his car! Because the Summakor buildings must be in the desert close to The village, as Six could see his counterpart two times Six standing on the street corner. Perhaps there are two places where one can exist at the same time, as in the case of the Shopkeeper and the "Access man" in the basement of the Summakor building. That would explain why it's possible for the people who were brought to The Village to go back to their other lives in the "other place," and why those who were born in The Village cannot. Because those born in The Village have had no other life, they come from no "other place," and therefore have no other place to go, and why "Village is best for them" as M2 explained to her son 11-12.

    The "Go In" bar where Two found his son. A Penny Farthing is suspended from the ceiling, we've seen it before in the episode Anvil, but here in Schizoid Two looks up at the Penny Farthing and gives a little chuckle to himself. Recognition from Two of things as they once were, homage paid to McGoohan's the Prisoner series, a nice touch.

   So, if Six and twice times Six become one, together they can beat Two. But according to the teachings of Village history there never was a Number One! So it seems that it's not just science that can be perverted, so too can the teachings of Village history. And this twice times six, and Six becoming One, would have sat very nicely in Fall Out!

    Two wants Six to kill Two, an echo from Once Upon A Time, and what's more Six still couldn't do it! There was another echo from the original series, the way the Shopkeeper reported the activities of Six and the impersonator of Two, to Two at the Clinic. I wonder whose voice the Shopkeeper heard on the telephone? A pre-recorded message by Two himself no doubt. This in the same way he hd pre-recorded his message sent out over the Village through the public address system about those who impersonate Two, who should be reported immediately as they are a danger to the Village.

   As un-Two we see Two's exocentric side of his character. The way he talks to 147 describing himself as being a traveller with no number. The way he enjoys his cherry cake at 147's home are but two such examples. But Two feels pain, I can see it in his face at times, despite his having "Deathly cold eyes!" Two might not show it too often, but he feels the pain of what he has to do to his wife, and must keep on doing for the sake of the Village, for the sake of the community at large.

   I thought we were getting in a bit deep when Six has a double, which I'm still not too sure about, and Two has an alter ego, which was really himself, I thought they had gone too far. But with  the Shopkeeper existing in two separate places at the very same time, as the Access guy in the Summakor building, "they" went one step further than too far!

    So, if two times Six doesn't exist, who cut Six's face with the knife?

    Since when did Two go about driven in a Bentley convertible? Obviously this is something we as the viewer have not been privy to!

    In some ways the words of the President of Fall Out ring true for M2, "Remember us, don't forget us, keep us in mind," for that is exactly what Two's wife must do. Otherwise it's a sad look out for the Village and it's community.

    The Village is a hell of a community, where everyone could possibly be an Undercover, everyone watching everyone else who might be suspect of being a "dreamer." So there are no Observers, well there are, but they are now "Undercovers," like 909. Oh we don't mind people being watched, spied upon, just as long as it's not me, or Two. Because when Two discovered that he was being watched, he didn't like that one bit. Oh he congratulated 1,100 on her ability and rewarded her with an ice cream. But this seemingly, nice, kindly old man didn't even give 1,100 time to finish her ice cream, before he had her taken away by men in white overalls in an old black Bedford van for therapy. I thought I knew to what lengths Two would go to, but I was wrong, and I still don't! Because Two will have anything done to any man, woman, or child. No-one is safe! See how he treats his own family. For once Two decides to bring his wife out of her sedated state, by the use of a black pill. A kindly gesture I thought, and perhaps the act of a lonely man who still loves his wife, and wished to share a few minutes of her company. But again I was wrong, because Two's wife asked how her son, 11-12, is now. Two tells his wife that their son is quite grown up now. How old is 11-12, and just how long has Two kept his wife sedated? This Two must he the prime candidate for the worst Two Of all time. And there have been a good number of Two's. Two-14, and Two-the Great, to mention but two!

   So Six is given a job, to work as an Undercover with 909. This is a trap, set by Two, who freely admits this to Six, yet Two wants to see if Six can turn this to his advantage, and goes to work, undercover, as a school teacher. But think what you may, something’s never change, and old questions remain yet to be answered. First of all, no harm must come to Six, Six must survive this, on the orders of Two. And in school Six asks the class who Number One is, and all the pupils put their hands in the air to answer the question, and I wondered what I was going to learn at this point. But it seems, according to Village history, that there is no Number One, and what's more there has never been a Number One! Well there you have it, according to Village history, and not me I hasten to add, Curtis was posing as No.1. What's more, Cutis is mentioned by Lucy to Michael back in New York. and it would not surprise me that Curtis turns out to be Two, controlling things back in New York. We shall see, unless you who are reading this live in America, then you know already!

   But for those who are of the opinion that THEPRIS6NER is so far removed from the original series, then you had better think again. Oh the two series are separate, and not at all physically linked. But the echoes, and the echo with the dying scene of 909, as Six turns up on the scene, 909 is still alive. Alive long enough to have a few last dying words, in the same way Cathy did in ‘Living In Harmony.’ An echo, and homage paid, yet 909 didn't wish it had been real. But saying to Six to go and find the dreamers. 313 is a dreamer, but I can make little of her drawing.

    I don't think much to the Therapy Zone. A tunnel with people simply wandering about, dirty, in well worn clothing. With mad barking dogs, and a Village guardian which absorbs people!

   It was nice to see a penny farthing in the bar. But that was there originally, before the museum in Cape Town was turned into a film set. But I'm pleased the set dresser kept the penny farthing in the set. A nice relic of the original series.

   Six has someone to care for, 313. 11-12 had someone to care for 909. And if 11-12 isn't very careful, there is a clear, and possible danger that 11-12 will turn out to be the same as his father!

   Why does Six have to keep waking up somewhere in the desert?

   Where did that hole in the ground come from? Was it made by The Village guardian?

   How many times has Two's wife been conscious since 11-12 was born?

DAS - BCNU

The Therapy Zone

A Man To Sympathise With

    When my wife saw this particular picture of Patrick McGoohan, upon the day prior to the release of the news of his death, she said he looked frightening. Well I suppose he does in a way, and to many who worked on the Prisoner series he was. But I can sympathise with Patrick McGoohan, because of my experiences while producing my Arthouse film ‘Village Day.’

   As with the production of the Prisoner series, Patrick McGoohan stamped his authority on it right from the very beginning, and did so even more as production wore on. Patrick had his finger in every aspect of the series production, from being the star, writing, producing, directing, helping with the composing of the theme music, even to the point of working in the cutting room.

   He had arguments with members of the crew, even right in front of the cast and crew members. He would rant and rave at others in his office. Patrick McGoohan was the boss, and he knew what he wanted, and if those working on the production didn't measure up, they were sacked there and then, on the spot. Yet there were times when he was kind to members of the cast, and got on with people really well, and very friendly. I think it's just how you caught Patrick McGoohan on the day.

   Well I can sympathise. I too had my problems with the production of ‘Village Day.’ I, like Patrick McGoohan, had to stamp my authority on the films production right from the outset, otherwise the film would never have got made.

   The first idea was that the film should be produced via a committee, I was never happy with this idea, and as soon as I could I saw to it that the committee was dissolved. And that caused me to have a stand up row with one member of that dissolved committee. I had one director who had experience at making films, as indeed did the assistant director. Only the director could never make it to any production meetings. This soon began to irk me, and when he said he couldn't be at Portmeirion to direct the film, that was enough. I sacked him, but he knew it before I could tell him so. One person who was originally to have composed music for the film, because he was good at it, didn't produce one note. My music director told someone that I'd sacked him. I hadn't. I had tired to get in touch with him, but to no avail. So really my music director had sacked himself!

   The assistant director, who had attended a casting meeting, said of the cast "They are all good, and they can all act." But when I promoted him to director - well suddenly the cast couldn't act, the script was no good and needed to be rewritten, which he did himself. He then said he was to send out the rewritten script to members of the cast, whether I liked it or not. And we needed to use a professional film crew! He tried to force me to do what he wanted, other wise he said he would resign - I accepted his resignation - and directed myself, because boy was I getting pissed off!!

   Regarding the script of the film, it was put to members of the production to each submit an idea, synopsis, or full script which they did. Most were either just plain silly, ridiculous, or completely unworkable. So I came up with an idea myself, and my first director wrote the script, after which I edited and revised for the films actual production.

   Finance was to be a major problem. Members of Six of One the Prisoner appreciation were most generous in their sponsoring of the film. However I did have to put a great deal of my own money into the films production. One person said she was prepared to put some of her own money into the films production, just as long as she controlled what it was spent on, which I felt was fair enough. This person said that all the cast members should have new village costumes for the film, many of whom already had their own costumes which they wore at prisoner conventions, and at a quick calculation new costumes would cost in the region of £1,200, which was double what this person was going to put into the film. And which meant that I would have to find the other £600!!!!! Plus there were strings attached to this money, to meet on neutral ground to discus the films script, and the development of the film's production, no-one must know where the money came from, I was to make a woman the director of the film, even though this woman had never directed a film in her life! The idea was that this person was to control the films production by controlling me!!!! So I refused the offer of the money.

   Then the feminist league raised their heads asking how many women would be working on the film? How many acting, how many behind the cameras? Would there be a female No.2? And so it went on, one step forward, and three backwards. All this as well as the normal problems with producing a film. It was turning out to be something like actually being Patrick McGoohan working on the Prisoner, and by the end of it all I felt just how Patrick McGoohan must have felt, during and at the end of the series production.

  The production of ‘Village Day,’ for me, in a strange way somehow mirrored how the Prisoner must have been for Patrick McGoohan.

I'll be seeing you