It's Become An Obsession!

    I've been a fan of the Prisoner for the best part of my life so far, and see no reason why I should not continue to be in the future. I've been a member of Six of One: The Prisoner Appreciation society. Collected all that I could of the merchandise produced from many sources. Stayed at Portmeirion for holidays, and gone about the village dressed in piped blazer and deck shoes. And on inclement days, I've worn a scarf in the style of No.2's, and carried about me a furled umbrella. And of course in the 1980's and to the late 1990's there was the Prisoner information shop, run by one Max Hora. Oh the Prisoner based merchandise he used to sell - everything from pens, penny farthing stationary. Photographs, postcards. Badges, stickers, video's, books, 'T' shirts, sweat shirts, candles, mugs, and everything. Oh I know what you are going to say, there is still a shop dedicated to the Prisoner at Portmeirion. And it looks very nice. But there isn't the content of the original Prisoner Shop.
    Prisoner Conventions, I've attended them from the late 1980's into the mid to late 1990's at Portmeirion. But these days the Prisoner Conventions are not what they once were. London Location walkabouts for the Prisoner, I've been on them, and had my photograph taken standing on the steps of the Prisoner's house in Buckingham, Place. And I have spent time discussing and debating the series. Have written many articles, and blogged about the Prisoner.
    It has been an obesssion with me, over the years, to collect anything and everything I could about both the Prisoner and Portmeirion, in both press and magazine articles, enough to fill thirty files and more. And that's without any other Prisoner material I've collected, such as Six of One material, and Once Upon A Time  magazines produced by an American based Prisoner appreciation society.
   What's more I'm able to appreciate THEPRISONER, the reinterpretation of the original series, which many fans for some reason, cannot. I have to say that the 2009 producrion starring Ian McKellen as Two, and Jim Caviezel as Six, have for me, refreshed the Prisoner phenomenon. I've watched the series three times now, and will be watching it again soon. I see what scriptwriter Bill Gallagher was trying to do, and succeeded in doing. And what's more, THEPRISONER is not so very different from the original you know. All the main elements of the original series are there, just reinterpreted, the Prisoner reinvented, that's all. What Patrick McGoohan would have said of it we'll never know, because he died before he had the chance of seeing it. But I like to think he would have approved of this take on his creation.
I'm Johnny Prisoner