Having recently been driven past the turn off to the Slough Trading Estate, my brush with the background of 1960s popular culture continued today.
I don't think I've seen the complete The Prisoner series since I watched it on first run in the late 60's. So over half a century later, I finally got to visit the very odd town where it was filmed.
The village of Portmeirion in Wales was built specifically as a tourist attraction. It's weird mixture of different architectural styles is not to everyone's taste and even I viewed it in person, with the word kitsch uppermost in my mind.
But I have to say I loved the human scale of it all and the random quality in which different buildings are shoved together is quite impressive.
The legacy of Patrick McGoohan's spy fantasy hangs heavily over the place, just as the actual show drew some of it's weirdness from the setting it was filmed in.
There is even a Prisoner gift shop, with several vintage Dinky toys on display and a nice bronze bust of the actor/creator himself.
And on the way out, a sign reminds you that you can check out any time you like, but you can never really leave!
Looey
Portmeirion
Wales
Wow! I'd love to visit some day!
ReplyDeleteDespite my wife being Welsh, and having visited Wales hundreds of times over the years, I've never been.
ReplyDeleteWe must make a point of doing so.
Is it located on the shore? Or was that just an artifice of the show?
DeleteI visited the village back in the 70's when there was no acknowledgment that The Prisoner ever happened so it's nice to see they now have a sign and a shop. We saw a Mini Moke that the maintenance people used but it was painted green.
ReplyDeleteThe Prisoner was a revelation to many of us when it aired on CBS here in the States - we had never seen anything remotely like it! Although most of the allegorical content zipped right past my teenaged brain, the creepy ambience of The Village, the totally paranoid nature of the society within, and of course the marvelous music score always kept me coming back. Nothing like it since - and I shudder to think what a recent remake might look like! SFZ
ReplyDeleteI proposed to my wife at the buddha statue in that little turquoise hut on the middle picture, many moons ago. There was no real Prisoner presence there then (probably 30 years back) - just a general quirkiness and an emphasis on pottery. Bill
ReplyDeleteWow! I guess yer Missus said yes Bill or did a large white sphere land in you both at that very instant! Ha ha
DeleteThat must have been cool Looey! 'The Prisoner' was one of those shows that did well over on this side of The Big Puddle, and I enjoyed it a lot. That show along with 'Dr. Syn, Alias the Scarecrow' are still etched in my memory. AND, somewhere around here I have a set of DVD's for The Scarecrow.
ReplyDeleteOh wow! I remember seeing an episode of Dr Syn at the Saturday morning Matinee club at my local ABC cinema way back in the late 60's!
DeleteI have only just thought of this - Dinky did a die-cast model of The Prisoner Mini Moke car, but did anyone ever do The Prisoner Penny Farthing bicycle ? The one with the canopy.
ReplyDeleteNot sure Paul. Was the Moke released as a non-Prisoner toy as well, a general Dinky car?
DeleteThere was a modern remake SFZ, in 2009, but although it wasn't bad, it just didn't have that 60s new, surreal and quirky vibe, and disappeared to the point that no one remembers it.
ReplyDeleteWho was the lead Mish?
DeleteThe Dinky Mini Moke was released in several versions. The Prisoner version, 106, in white, with a red and white striped canopy, and a penny farthing logo on the bonnet; Tiny's Mini Moke from The Enchanted House, 350, with Tiny the Giraffe's head poking through a hole in the canopy, red with a white and yellow striped canopy; civilian Austin Mini Moke, 342, in green with canopy; and the Austin Para-Moke, 601, in Army green with green or grey canopy, mounted on a platform for air dropping by parachute.
ReplyDeleteSo many! Thanks Paul!
DeleteI have no idea who the new No.6 was, but I think Ian McKellan was the new No.2.
ReplyDeleteTa Mish. Ian Mckellan, some class then.
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