Time for another brief migration from MovieLand to TVLand, this time to review a truly classic cult British sci fi/psychological thriller show that has taken me more than 50 years to view in its entirety. For although I did watch a few episodes and excerpts way back in the late 1960s when it was first broadcast, I'd never viewed the full 17-episode series – nor any episode of it in colour, because we only had a b/w TV set back then. So on 1 October 2021, after having promised myself to do so for ages, I finally embarked upon what turned out to be a marathon multi-evening viewing session by way of my complete VHS video box set (which I'd owned for over 25 years but had never even unwrapped until now), watching that most iconic and idiosyncratic of UK TV series – The Prisoner.
Produced by ITC Entertainment and originally screened in Britain by ITV during 1967-1968, The Prisoner stars (as well as being co-directed and co-written by) its creator, American-Irish English actor Patrick McGoohan, in the title role. He plays a newly-resigned British secret agent who is abducted from his London home after being covertly rendered unconscious there. When he wakes up, he discovers to his alarm that he is now in a mysterious, self-sufficient coastal hamlet of entirely-unrevealed geographical location but enclosed on all non-coastal sides by high mountains, thereby rendering it totally isolated.
This cryptic hamlet is known only as The Village, sports a canopied penny-farthing bicycle design as its logo, and everyone there (it has a population of several hundred persons) is referred to not by a name but instead by a number – Number Six in The Prisoner's case (his real name is never revealed). He spends the entire series trying to escape from The Village, while the baffled viewers of this bewildering show spend it trying to work out what on earth is happening!
Having said that, the central, incessantly emphasized theme of The Prisoner is the importance of individuality, hence Number Six's constant refusal to acquiesce to The Village's rigid demands for conformity (as exemplified by its labeling everyone with numbers rather than names). This is best summed up by Number Six's most famous line, repeated by him in the opening to every episode: "I am not a number. I am a free man!"
As for Number Six's numerous attempts to escape his invidious imprisonment within The Village: as he is soon to discover, anyone attempting to do so is inevitably confronted by one of the most extraordinary but menacing jailers ever seen in a TV show – a gigantic translucent white sphere incongruously dubbed Rover, which rises up from the sea to chase after and, if need be, lethally envelop the would-be absconder, whether in the sea or on land. Suffocation via spherical smothering – not a pretty sight!
Number Six's human nemesis is The Village's ever-changing but usually pompous, self-important administrator, Number Two, played by a different actor or actress almost each week (including such luminaries as Leo McKern, Patrick Cargill, Peter Wyngarde, Anton Rodgers, Eric Portman, George Baker, and Mary Morris). Number Two's onerous task, as appointed by the perpetually unseen Number One, is to discover why Number Six tendered his resignation (which he did so in a very acrimonious manner) – only for Number Six to thwart his/her intrusive monitoring of him plus all manner of mind-bending manipulations at every turn, however, in surreal storylines that are often as bizarre as they are bedazzling.
Filmed in the real but preternaturally-exquisite resort village of Portmeirion in Gwynedd, North Wales, and featuring a veritable cavalcade of notable British stars of the day, this seriously strange TV show is extraordinarily beautiful and stylish when viewed at last in colour, far more so than I'd expected from my hazy b/w 1960s memories of it. On 1 October, I watched Episode 1 (entitled 'Arrival'), which set the scene for the entire series very effectively, and looked forward very much to viewing the next 16. On 21 December, I finally accomplished this long-held goal of mine by viewing the much-anticipated final installment, Episode 17 ('Fall Out'), in which I assumed that all of this show's many mysteries would at last be explained. Yeah, right! And my verdict?
The Prisoner is unquestionably a thoroughly fascinating show, although McGoohan's Number Six is so objectionably smug, with such an insufferably arrogant smirk fixed seemingly permanently across his face, that I often found myself siding with Number Two and the sinister Village where he is being held captive, which I feel sure was not the intention of the writers! (One of these was McGoohan himself.)
Portmeirion, conversely, looks absolutely stunning. Indeed, now that I've viewed the entire series of The Prisoner, I may well pay a visit there at some stage, to observe at first hand some of the iconic settings that feature in this show and with which I have become very familiar, albeit only vicariously at present.
However, and without giving away spoilers to those who haven't seen it but may wish to do so, I must say that at least as far as I'm concerned, the concluding, climactic episode of The Prisoner is very disappointing – inasmuch as it makes no sense whatsoever. In fact, it seems imho to have been thought up by McGoohan (who wrote that episode) during a period of severe sleep deprivation!
Bearing in mind how adept most of the previous episodes had been (although the last four veered off into some decidedly abstruse, self-indulgent flights of fancy), it was a shame to have ended the show in such an unfulfilling, unsatisfactory manner, I felt, especially with regard to the long-awaited, literal unmasking of Number One's hitherto-cryptic identity. My guess had been Number Two's butler, played by Angelo Muscat, in an actual instance of "The butler did it", by virtue of his being not only small in stature and silent in nature but also ubiquitous in appearance throughout the series, thereby cleverly hiding in plain sight – or so I'd thought, incorrectly as it turned out.
However, I did read that McGoohan was given only a week to write this final, crucial episode, and with no prior notice, so that may explain its shortcomings. Nevertheless, so much was left wholly unexplained or at best open-ended that what was at times a decidedly farcical denouement to such a hitherto-engrossing, superbly scripted series inevitably engendered a not-inconsiderable degree of anger and controversy among some viewers – and still does today among TV historians and aficionados.
There are a fair few intriguing characters amidst all the curiosity and craziness in this archetypal '60s show, but none more so than the two seemingly different ones (Number Eight and Number Forty-Eight respectively) played by the ever-enigmatic Alexis Kanner. In Episode 14 ('Living in Harmony'), Number Eight is transformed via hallucinogenic drugs surreptitiously given to Number Six into a psychotic mute Wild West sharp-shooter nicknamed The Kid, but dressed incongruously in circus gear and a top hat. In contrast, Number Forty-Eight looks like a 1960s Mod, and persists in singing the Bible-inspired spiritual song 'Dem Bones' throughout his interrogation by a kangaroo court ensconced within a cave deep below The Village in Episode 17. It's all totally mad of course, but undeniably entertaining.
(Incidentally, just for the sake of completeness I should mention that in The Prisoner Kanner also plays a photographer and voices in an uncredited role a character referred to only as Chief; both of them appear in Episode 15, 'The Girl Who Was Death'.)
There are endless storyline twists and turns in The Prisoner. However, my own particular favourite involves hints that the reason why Number Six had resigned as a secret agent was that he'd discovered to his horror that an idea he'd submitted many years earlier to his superiors but which he'd subsequently rejected as being too restrictive not only had been secretly implemented by them but also had been made even more restrictive. And that idea? The creation of a secluded, closely-guarded location where ex-agents who had been privy to significant information would be confined for the remainder of their lives to ensure that their secrets could never be leaked to the enemy – or, to give it the name that it was given after being covertly established, The Village!
There has long been speculation that The Prisoner aka Number Six is actually one and the same fictional character as NATO secret agent John Drake, the title character in the earlier 1960s UK TV series Danger Man, who was also played by McGoohan. However, McGoohan always denied this. Curiously, there is a character appearing briefly in Episode 15 of The Prisoner who is played by an English actor named…John Drake!
In 2009, a six-part mini-series remake of The Prisoner was screened in the United States by the cable TV channel AMC, who had co-produced it with the British TV channel company ITV. Directed by Nick Hurran and written by Bill Gallagher, it stars Jim Caviezel as Number Six and Ian McKellen as Number Two (there is only one Number Two in this version, and at one stage there were thoughts about this character being played by none other than Patrick McGoohan, which would certainly have been intriguing!). I recently purchased this mini-series on DVD, so it will be interesting to watch it and see how it compares with the original. In addition, there are ongoing plans to create a movie version of The Prisoner, with Ridley Scott as its possible director.
Notwithstanding what for me personally was its less than satisfying finale, I thoroughly enjoyed The Prisoner, and rank it among the best TV shows that I have ever seen. So if you'd like to watch an official trailer for this classic series, be sure to click here to view one on YouTube. And if you'd like to watch an official trailer for the 2009 American mini-series remake, please click here to view one on YouTube. Be seeing you!
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