“In the Village”
“What do you want?”
“Information”
“You won’t get it.”
“By hook or by crook, we will.”
“Who are you?”
“Number Two.
“Who is Number One?”
“You are Number Six.”
“I am not a number. I am a free man!”
This if I remember right is the start of The Prisoner. I really enjoyed this series way back in the sixties and waited for the ending – what was it all about? Who was Number One? Would Danger Man reappear?
I read years later that Lew Grade (Head of ITV at the time) that he had in mind a series stretching to 30 episodes or more. “I simply sat down and waited for the ending, like everyone else,” he said. “I knew there would be an ending because Pat told me there would. Then one day, near the 17th episode, Pat came to me and said: ‘I cannot find an ending. I’ve become too confused with the project.”
Having no ending turned out to be the best ending of all. The enigmatic ambiguity of that series-closing episode sowed the seeds of four decades’ worth of fevered speculation about why Number Six was in the Village, who Number One might be and what the hell the show was all about.
So I hoped that the new of The Prisoner would finally solve the riddle.
Actually, it takes quite a while to realise that this is a remake of The Prisoner. The Italianate village in Portmeirion has been replaced by Namibian sand dunes and swaying palm trees, robbing the drama of its claustrophobic menace. It’s more like the landscape of Lost episode that my daughter watches.
I also missed the iconic black blazers, piped in white, that helped to make the colony’s surreal holiday camp mood and the canopied golf buggies have been swapped for 1950s-style taxis. The natives eat in American diners not in an English afternoon tea café.
The original Prisoner revolved around Number Six, (Danger Man) who, after resigning from some Secret government department is transported and kept a prisoner in a replica of his London flat, now mysteriously transplanted within the Village. But the central person in this remake seems to be Ian McKellen’s Number Two.
After so much anticipation I did not enjoy it and cannot see an ending that will satisfy the original “Prisoner”.
Certainly not a patch on the original series. This is because McGoohan was such a natural for No.6
ReplyDeleteI remember, in one episode, No.6 was suspicious of someone trying to be friendly and suddenly snarles:
'How long have you been here? Before the War ?
Since the War? Which War?'
Brilliant!
Although the modernised version is OK, borrowing heavily from the original series, I thought the Rover (security) balloon a little incongrous in the new setting !
I suppose if you were 18 (like me and John) when the original series was first shown, McGoohan's 'Prisoner' has left a big impression!