Come in Number Six

I had to laugh at this, a huge red ball shoved into a folly at Roberts Park in Saltaire. 

It brought back memories of the big mysterious white balloon in The Prisoner, which oddly enough, I never saw when I visited Port Meirion as a kid in the early Seventies.

Have you been to Port Meirion readers? 

Come in Number Six!

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

THE PRISONER MINI MOKE LIVES AGAIN!

A coupla years old but here's an interesting article about the Mini Mke from the Prisoner being restored! 

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/cars/classic/mini-moke-prisoner-restored-50-years-starring-tv-series/

Have you ever driven in a Mini Moke?

PRISONER'S MINI MOKE RESTORED

This is relatively old news but I've just read this article in the Telegraphn online about the Prisoner's Mini Moke having been restored in 2017.

I loved the Moke in the Prisoner - remember it? - and I adored my die-cast toy in the Sixties. Did you have one?

I'm pretty sure me and the Missus hired a Mini Moke to drive around in on Crete in the early Nineties. Is that possible?

Anyways, here's the article. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/cars/classic/mini-moke-prisoner-restored-50-years-starring-tv-series/

It says the Moke was found derelict in a barn in Holland in 2011. How did it end up there?

I am not a Number!

FRANKIE'S NEHRU JACKET, DAVID BOWIE AND THE BEATLES

My toy Mod Monster Frankie wore a jacket called a Nehru.

The Fab Four did too!

Along with the Nehru jacket my Mod Monster wore a chain...

which did actually form part of the authentic Nehru look!

Even Karloff wore a type of Nehru in Frankenstein

As did David Bowie back in the early Sixties

and Patrick McGoohan in the Prisoner.

Did you have a Nehru jacket readers?

FALL OUT - ORANGE ALERT

Some photos of the little 1:43 Lotus Super Seven which was a subscription gift given away with the DeAgostini Prisoner Files magazine.

ONCE UPON A TIME

I've always liked to collect original paperback novels of my favourite TV series, and, remarkably, have managed to retain quite a few. And so continuing my week of Prisoner-themed trivia, here's some pulp stuff related to that series.

I picked up these three Prisoner paperbacks at a stationary store in Southport in 1981. It was around that time I first visited the Village in Portmeirion (In fact, 'A Day In The Life' still has a village postcard of The Green Dome I slotted in between it's covers. It was the first time I was able to read some official authorised original fiction based on the series.

These three books were previously published by Ace books in the USA  in 1969/70, while my UK versions appeared in 1980/81. While they are entertaining, stand alone novels dealing with the themes in The Prisoner, they do offer very little insight into questions posed in the series. However, 'Who Is Nunber Two? does begin with the line , " Drake woke. Automatically, naturally, without  an alarm, he came to conciousness." perpetuating the notion that I'm happy to agree with that, The Prisoner is , indeed Dangerman,  John Drake

This second item of original Prisoner fiction is the four-part graphic novel, The Prisoner: Shattered Visage.  published by DC in 1989, and written by Dean Motter and Mark Askwith, Artwork is by Dean Motter.

This intriguing read takes place twenty years after the original series' events. A young girl is shipwrecked off an uncharted beach. She finds an abandoned Village, and it's one last remaining inhabitant!

I must admit I find the artwork an acquired taste, but I have to say the authors' really know, and like their subject.

"Wir sehen uns!" 

THE PRISONER & CENTURY 21

It seems that apart from it's own in house productions, Century 21 also handled the merchandising rights for, amongst other things The Prisoner, and at some point several story ideas landed on the desk of Alan Fennell, editor of TV Century 21.

I can imagine a Prisoner comic strip story, during that time might have helped the reader answer a few questions regarding the more obscure aspects of the series.

I'm speculating, rightly or wrongly, that the TV 21 scripts might have concentrated more on the fantastical side of The Prisoner, rather than the allegorical aspects.

Science fiction themes did feature quite heavily in the series. Apart from'Rover', the mysterious autonomous  guardian of The Village,, there was cloning, mind transfer, and rockets!

However it was not to be in any event. Mr Fennell felt that The Prisoner wouldn't have sat well with the comic's content and so the scripts were rejected.

It does lead me to wonder what did Century 21 licence regarding The Prisoner. I've heard stories that Patrick McGoohan was averse to any merchandise or comics related to his series, and was reluctant to get involved in that side of things.

The only thing I can think of that Century 21 did relating to The Prisoner was a painted front cover on TV Tornado drawn by Mick Anglo.

In fact, the only piece of official merchandise I can think of that was released at the time of The Prisoner's first showing was the Dinky Mini Moke, painted to look like the Village Taxi.

'etre vous voir'

SIX OF ONE

Mention the cult TV series, The Prisoner to most people who watched it at the time and it's guaranteed to divide opinion. When it first aired in 1967 most people, including me, expected to see  a dramatic  mix of sci-fi and espionage , as well as a continuation of  the John Drake character, as seen in  Patrick McGoohan's previous TV series, Dangerman.

But as the seventeen part series unfolded it did become more and more bizarre, turning into a meta-fictional, psychedelic trip, apparently exploring the human condition, and underpinned with several allegorical  themes,  most of which probably went completely over the head of most of that sixties TV audience, who weren't really used to having to go to the trouble of  thinking about what they were watching.

However, as fans like me, watched repeats of the series much later, The Prisoner did begin to make a sort of sense, and its basic premise of the manipulation and control of the individual by faceless governing authorities certainly had me thinking .

For those who are prepared to stick with, and explore the rather outlandish aspects of  The Prisoner  it does become a  televisual masterpiece which allows the viewer to interpret its imagery however they want to enjoy it.

So for me, The Prisoner is a dramatic  mix of sci-fi and espionage , and a continuation of  the John Drake character, as seen in  Patrick McGoohan's previous TV series, Dangerman! 

'be seeing you'