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Tuesday, 2 October 2012

I Am Not A Number Plate


I’ve always liked the surreal 60’s TV series The Prisoner starring Patrick McGoohan. Every week the iconic opening title sequence would show McGoohan - the future Number 6 speeding down what looked like a runway in a green and yellow Lotus Seven car. He is seen driving through London on his way to angrily hand in his resignation. As he packs a suitcase to leave for sunnier climes knock out gas blows through the keyhole. He wakes to find himself in the mysterious Village!

Marvellous stuff - Like most kids I loved sporty cars and would have loved to have had a model Lotus to go with my Corgi James Bond DB5 and Saint Volvo P1800.

However, it would seem McGoohan was apparently reluctant to licence merchandise at the time, and no Prisoner Lotus appeared.

That being said, Dinky did somehow manage to secure the rights to produce a die cast model of the Prisoner Mini Moke made up to look like the Village taxi. Nice but it ain’t the Lotus!





Over the years some Prisoner merchandise has cropped up - books, paperbacks, and of course, badges. But no Lotus.

Then, in 2004, the publishers, DeAgostini produced the Prisoner Fact File and anyone subscribing received, amongst other things a small Lotus Seven scale model car bearing the number plate KAR 120C. - Orange Alert!





It took a while but as they say everything comes to he who waits.




Be seeing you!
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8 comments:

  1. WOTAN10/02/2012 7:58 pm

    I could never take to the Prisoner - just wen right past me.

    but proposed to my wife in Portmerion!

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  2. Richard10/02/2012 8:32 pm

    I still can't wrap my head around the idea that The Prisoner and Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons made their debut on the same day:

    http://spyvibe.blogspot.com/2012/09/sept-29-1967-anniversary.html

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  3. WOODSY10/02/2012 8:42 pm

    Hey Scoop! Congrats on your first post! You're a pro! and welcome aboard once again, a super debut! You are not a number!

    ReplyDelete
  4. WOODSY10/02/2012 8:45 pm

    I loved going to port merion when I was a kid. We stayed at Butlins in Pwllheli. It was quite amazing to see an Italianate village on the Welsh coast, not that I knew it was Italianate when I was 5!

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  5. SCOOP10/02/2012 8:48 pm

    Didn't know that, Richard. Two ultra cult shows in one day what's the chances!!

    There is a Joe 90 episode called ,See You Down There' which is very Prisoneresque.

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  6. SCOOP10/02/2012 8:53 pm

    Thank's Woodsy.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Ed and Bettina Berg10/03/2012 1:36 am

    I remember The Prisoner too it having played Stateside and I too wasn't too crazy about it. But I loved Patrick McGoohan in Disney's 'The Scarecrow of Romney Marsh' (I have the CD set)

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  8. SCOOP10/03/2012 7:59 am

    It really is a show that divides people. I tend to deal with it on a rational level and when the episodes started to go a bit weird I took it that the viewer was seeing things through No 6 as he lost his mind.

    Not seen The Scarecrow for years, although it does have Sword connections as early issues of Solo comic did a comic strip adaptation of it.

    ReplyDelete