NationStates Jolt Archive

I want to pay tribute to the classic 1967 (iirc) series The Prisoner starring Patrick McGoohan.

Does anyone know what I am talking about?

For those who don't know The Prisoner was a fantastic series from the 60s which involves a secret agent (McGoohan) who quits/resigns from the British secret service. The Introduction shows him packing at home before he is gassed and wakes up in 'The Village.' Everyone has a number and there is no way of escaping, they seem to be kept there for 'security purposes'. The series revolves around #2 trying to get information out of #6 (McGoohan). Anyway, I will say no more, but everyone must get this.


Where am I?

In the Village

What do you want?

Information

Whose side are you on?

That would be telling . . .
We want Information

You won't get it

By hook or by crook . . .
We will

Who are you?

The new Number Two

Who is Number One?

You are Number Six

I am not a number . . .
I'm a free man!

(Mocking laughter)

yeah it was a sort of "what happens to james bond after they are done with him" kind of thing
wicked surrealistic.
well worth watching if you ever get the chance

yeah it was a sort of "what happens to james bond after they are done with him" kind of thing
wicked surrealistic.
well worth watching if you ever get the chance

Wasn't McGoohan offered the part of Bond?

He had played a spy in Danger Man iirc

Who is Number One?

You are Number Six




Who is Number One?

You are, Number Six

he was in some bondesque tv show wasnt he?
maybe the one with the theme song "secret agent man"?
*sings to herself while hoping the fam dun think shes crazy, oops too late"

he was in some bondesque tv show wasnt he?
maybe the one with the theme song "secret agent man"?
*sings to herself while hoping the fam dun think shes crazy, oops too late"

"Danger Man", as stated upthread.

It's never explicitly stated, although very much implied, that the never-named character played by McGoohan in The Prisoner is of course John Drake from Danger Man after his sudden and unexplained retirement...

(The biggest hint of course being the car.)

hmmm id defer to your certainty but ive never even heard of a show called dangerman. maybe youre from britain and it was called something else in the US?
im gonna google it

ooo its nice when everyone is right
it was called "secret agent" in the US

hmmm id defer to your certainty but ive never even heard of a show called dangerman. maybe youre from britain and it was called something else in the US?
im gonna google it

The first series was aired as 'Danger Man' in the US, but the following ones (two and a bit) were renamed 'Secret Agent' for the US market. I'm speculating this was to make it a bit more "James Bond-y"...

did it have the same theme song?
theres a man who leads a life of danger
to everyone he meets he stays a stranger
every move he makes
another chance he takes
odds are he wont live to see tomorrow
secret agent man
secret agent man
theyve given you a number
and taken away your name

did it have the same theme song?

No, the 'Secret Agent Man' theme was a purely American thing. Fortunately...

Mind you, the lines

They've given you a number
And taken away your name

were amusingly prophetic, in hindsight!

what a shame
i love that song!

Great show. :D

But I never saw it go by the name Secret Agent... Was that a first time broadcast thing?

im pretty old but it was first broadcast in the US when i was a kid. im not even sure that i saw it when it was first shown here, but whenever it was that i did see it first it was called secret agent.
i only saw the prisoner in reruns back in...... the early 80s. i dont know if it was shown in the US in the 60s

bizarre show but worth watching

Cool.

And the Iron Maiden song blares!

"Not a prisoner..Im a free man...and my blood is my own now!"

what a shame
i love that song!

Just reading this I can hear Johnny Rivers sing it.

Here's a collectables site for SA/DM. (http://www.dangerman.org.uk/)http://www.dangerman.org.uk/images/annual2.jpg

And here is the SixofOne site. (http://www.netreach.net/~sixofone/) http://www.netreach.net/~sixofone/bicycle.jpg

:shock:

As for the conection, the McGoohan deliberately never directly connected Drake & No. 6, he just strongly hinted at it.

I loved this show. I always wanted to visit Portmerion. This show was WAY too surreal for the late 60's, but an amazing watch. It stands today as an example of timeless television. Patrick McGoohan was well ahead of his time.

Sometimes they show it in the US on public television, which gets some shows from the UK, especially old BBC shows. Every now and again they'll have a marathon of all the Prisoner episodes. (That or Dr. Who, which rawks too.)

I think I'll make a trip down to the video store to rent the series again.

As for the conection, the McGoohan deliberately never directly connected Drake & No. 6, he just strongly hinted at it.

Why do people never bother to read the previous posts?

And here is the SixofOne site. (http://www.netreach.net/~sixofone/)


And to redress the balance: here is another site which describes how SixofOne see fit to operate:

http://www.sixofone-info.co.uk/

:shock: Wow this actually got replies.

*bump*

btw, what did you all think the final episode meant?

:shock: Wow this actually got replies.

*bump*

btw, what did you all think the final episode meant?

My take on it is very straightforward:

That you're only a prisoner if you believe that you're imprisoned. (I'm talking philosophically here, obviously, not in the "bars and steel doors" way!). It's an observation about life... Just because that someone who seems to be in charge tells you that you're a prisoner, a wage-slave, a worker-drone, a slave, a wife... doesn't make it so.

:shock: Wow this actually got replies.

*bump*

btw, what did you all think the final episode meant?

"a tale full of sound and fury/told by an idiot and signifying nothing"

The last episode was put together in a weekend in a panic and was heavily shaped by reusing props from previous episodes: yes, it was entertaining and remains fascinating, but it doesn't answer anything put forward in the rest of the series. I actually think it was a very good way to finish: any answers that would have made sense would have been dull conclusions to the series. Instead we got an explosion of cryptic weirdness. Everytime I watch it I realise I have forgotten just how bizarre that last episode really is.

As I posted on the previous page: an ambiguity exists in the opening scenes of the series: is it -

Who is Number One?

You are Number Six

or

Who is Number One?

You are, Number Six

btw, what did you all think the final episode meant?



That you're only a prisoner if you believe that you're imprisoned. (I'm talking philosophically here, obviously, not in the "bars and steel doors" way!). It's an observation about life... Just because that someone who seems to be in charge tells you that you're a prisoner, a wage-slave, a worker-drone, a slave, a wife... doesn't make it so.

Ah, yes, but as McGoohan returns to his home in the very last scene, the door shuts automatically behind him: is he still a prisoner even then, or is this a perk of being number 1? Either way he has not really escaped the Village.