The Prisoner

I got the box set at Kim's in April and it's awesome. Unfortunately, my enjoyment of No.6's antics has been dealt an irreperable blow since I actually started doing classified government work, kind of like I can't get into Catch-22 as much since being in the USAF. McGoohan was my hero in college though.

Using the Beatles to score the big crazy shootout and escape in the finale was brilliant. Also, the youngster who kept singing the song about bones? Totally awesome. I keep wanting to do that at a polygraph interview.

the graphic novel sequal wasn't too bad. If there was a film I'd hope it to be as good but I'm sure it won't be. Mel Gibson owned the film rights to this for ages, that seems to have never happened; McGoohan still retains some control if I'm not mistaken.

It's pretty fantastic. Quoth the poster on my wall: "I am not a number, I'm a free man."

Best episode = "A, B and C."

Best song about it: Teenage Filmstars' "I Helped Patrick McGoohan Escape."

http://www.lvalert.com/HSASalert_orange.jpg

"Orange Alert! Orange Alert! Number Six is trying to escape! Activate Rover!"

http://us.news1.yimg.com/us.yimg.com/p/rids/20030929/i/1064845746.2952872024.jpg

(highlight of the show: the 'sport' in the Village that's a cross between American Gladiators and wire-fu with trampolines).

Friday nights are now booked.

be seeing you.

the following episode, the girl who was death, also suggests that, 2 consecutive non-village episodes. however, this episode was the first (and only) episode to disappoint, so perhaps it is a blessing a 2nd series never happened.

i wasnt sure about the last episode, it seemed more "sixties" than the others, though of course the last episode was all done on the fly, due to strict time constraints. under the circumstances it came out very well, though you can see the padding and playing for time, particularly after the village is left, which is quite surreal and silent.

i had forgotten how great alexis kanner was

saw the recent bbc4 reruns and thought the last episode held up better than i remembered. it didn't make a lot of sense but it didn't need to. i had the feeling it was someone having fun destroying everything he'd taken a lot of time creating and the last wordless 15 minutes is great in its own way, like you say, very 60s.

(apparently, when the house was built the architect couldn't afford a proper copper dome, so made one out of green-painted plywood. In the 90s the Portmeirion Trust managed to save up enough cash to buy a copper one - so, of course, it was the wrong colour for a few years until the copper had weathered a bit)

Arrival
Chimes Of Big Ben
Free For All
Dance Of The Dead
Checkmate
Once Upon A Time
Fall Out

Which basically meant he took a camera crew to film closeups of a filing cabinet, a street sign, etc for inserts.

It's back on! ITV4 or sumthin'.

Presumably because of the impending remake. We watched it last night - we already have the DVD box set so I wasn't really paying attention to it.

It's been impending for the last fifteen years!

And long may it, errrrrrrrr, impend

They've cast Ian McKellen for it, think it's actually in production soon

They haven't cast No. 6 tho

Who Is No. 6?

(My wife was working for a talent agency until last week, then she quit, so now I'm allowed to talk about who's been signed up for what. Too bad I can't remember anything interesting)

So you can't confirm that Marcello Carlin is to be cast as No. 6?

I will not confirm or deny any such rumours

itv4 has 'hitler in colour'

Very sad news.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5hls8g79toC_XSUxWXSHcbe8n9ergD95N1HBG0

Needs it's own thread.

oh no. :(

aww ;_;

full series online!

http://www.amctv.com/originals/the-prisoner-1960s-series/

is there a thread for the remake? its gonna be shitty isn't it >:(

this is actually being done? what a disaster for ...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E_pusr8ZqjM

NOOOOOOO!

AMC is advertising the shit out of this. looks awful.

Will Not Be Seeing You

will be forgotten like the '70s Casablanca TV series.

upside is i can watch the og series thru on-demand

rover appears to have eaten all the pies.

i've only seen snippets in the ads, there is not reason this remake SHOULDN'T be good (decent enough actors, AMC has a great reputation now for series) but the clips I've seen don't inspire much hope; for one thing, it looks much to desolate. THe Village was interesting because it was a little town with it's own economy, etc. This looks like some kind of housing plan in the desert. Bah.

eh, they're not filming it in Portmeirion?

I'll give it a few episodes. I mean, what else am I supposed to do? Read?

this remake actually makes me angry. mostly because I had to sit through ads for it to see Mad Men

Currently bingeing on the series as Im making a video for the festival they are having in Portmerion in a couple of weeks, some great old mans dance music going to be happening there. http://www.festivalnumber6.com/

I'll also be DJing on the stone boat on sunday which I have to say im quite excited about.

I have to say I was tempted by that, but the music just isn't interesting enough. Still, DJing on the stone boat! Brilliant. I hope you'll be in a Prisoner-style outfit.

Yeah the music is pretty conservative given the heritage but all manchesters balearic best are out in force so the partys in the woods should guarantee loads of fun

Would go to that festival if I was there... DJ'ing on the Stone Boat is great!

going to this! More excited by my first trip to Portmeirion than the music but I am sure it will be huge fun.

Portmeirion is amaaaaazing, you will love it. Following on from the festival links I checked out how much it would cost to stay in either the hotel or one of the houses (I've visited twice, staying elsewhere), but it is prohibitively expensive. Ah well. I will definitely go back for more daytrips, though.

I remember watching this with my Dad when I was 13! (he ordered the tapes, they arrived three at a time if I remember correctly) The episode where everyone in the village disappeared was such a great turn because the series spent a lot of time setting up everything, only to basically take it all away for a while. I remember asking my Dad over and over "how are they going to explain everything in the final episode?" and getting nervous when I realized there was like 15 minutes left in the finale and NOTHING was really explained. I wonder if I'd feel the same today.

Portmeirion is beautiful but oddly unsatisfying in some ways, it really is a huge folly and an almost Disney-ish synthesis of styles when you look at it in detail. i came away loving The Prisoner more but thinking a little less of Clough Williams-Ellis

I'm a big fan of follies, though.

just reading about C W-E's philosophy made the whole thing feel a bit more stage set and a bit less ideal for living? obviously not being able to go into the houses doesn't help but it set my fake architecture sense tingling a bit. even while i was going "lol i'm in The Village"

Well, I liked it!

Yup, loved Portmeirion. Completely get that it does feel a bit fake disney jumble, aesthete-patrician confection, but depending on my mood I was finding it alluringly sinister-twee or, at moments (when i was ahem in the festival spirit), genuinely dreamy. The estuary sets it off too - a bit of infinite natural indifference to run against the pastel prettiness.

But of course spent most of first day just wandering around staring OMG THE VILLAGE (*).

Enjoyed the festival, though we didn't really see that much music for various boring logistical reasons of our own. Great crowd - friendly, p chill - settled-down ravers of the north-west is a nice core constituency - also liked the leavening of prisoner nerds and china-lovers in fleeces. It felt simultaneously well-organised and a bit of a mess - people didn't seem to know what was going on and what was where, but you could get there quickly and without trouble. Would go again.

how was it for you straightola? The Stone Boat seemed like a really great venue on the saturday, but I saw you on the schedule (no need to be impressed by my ilx name/dj name detective work), and you had the weather against you I fear.

(*)They are having a music festival to trick me, I will not tell them why I resigned

Yeah the dance music element was curated by the Electric Chair/Electric Elephant guys who can put on an excellent party. Some friends of mine went to the festival and said it was fantastic.

I was keen to go to this but in the end money was a prob.

Yeah - 'boring logistical stuff' I mentioned = we were there as press doing a 'visit north wales' piece, so expenses were low, but under normal circumstances tickets + travel time/costs from London would make it difficult.