THEPRIS6NER

   Having watched THEPRIS6NER in 2009, I wrote a series of articles for The Tally Ho, and I thought readers here might be interested in reading them.
   I found myself getting quite excited about the prospect of a new series after all these years. Because ever since 1968 there had been much talk about a new series of the Prisoner. I was not disappointed by THEPRIS6NER and found the series very enjoyable, and still do today. Okay, there's not the scope for much discussion and debate regarding the new series, but all that was done with the orignal series, THEPRIS6NER is more subtle than the original, and I was amazed how I didn't find myself comparing the two series. Yet having said that, there are strong similarities between the two. What follows is the first of my articles, written in 2009.

I'm Johnny Prisoner

45th Anniversary of The Prisoner

   2012 will see the 45th anniversary of the Prisoner and like all good fans of the series I'll be celebrating the event. This year of course it was the 45th anniversary of the start of filming of the series at Portmeirion on September 5th to the very day, a Monday. The weekend prior to filming at Portmeirion, the filming of the opening sequence in London was filmed, driving through the streets of London, and outside No.1 Buckingham Place.
    I don't suppose anything special will be done by ITV in way of celebration, like actually screening the Prisoner on terrestrial television in the evening, no, that would be too much to ask for. The only time the series is screened now is on ITV4 at 11:55am! Not that that really matters, because like all good fans I've the Prisoner series on video and DVD, and can watch the series any time I like. But then that's not really the point.
    I wonder if someone will produce a calendar for the Prisoner, but for us, the fans for 2012, a 45th anniversay special. We haven't had a Prisoner calendar for two years now, but it would have to be something really special, as passed calendars for the Prisoner became rather samey. Everything the same, only the year was different! Mind you my mate Dave Stimpson does produce an excellent Prisoner calendar each year. Its completely unofficial you understand. This years calendar was an amlagamation of both series of the Prisoner. I thought it was rather clever, what's more Dave has informed me that he is already working on a calendar for 2012, something different he said. I asked him if it was a 45th annaversary special, and he said 'No,' which I thought was strange for such a fan of the series as he. But I suppose he knows what he's doing!
     Perhaps Network DVD will produce a DVD box-set for the Prisoner next year to celebrate the 45th anniversary, they did for the 40th, {and will possibly again for the 50th}. Mind you Network DVD later released the 'ultimate' Prisoner box set, containing videos of both series, along with the music for the original series, but not THEPRIS6NER09, so it really wasn't the 'Ultimate'box-set at all! that's getting a bit samey, just releasing continuous box-sets of the Prisoner, blimey, I cannot believe I just typed that! Mind you that's how it feels at the moment, unexciting! The most exciting thing to happen regarding the Prisoner this year, was the discovery of a Village Mini Moke in the Netherlands, well I thought it was exciting, as did my mate Dave.
   The monthly meetings of the LPG {Local Prisoner Group} do still take place on the last Tuesday of the month, when Tommy Moke and myself meet up at the Goat and Compasses to discuss all things Prisoner, Danger Man, Patrick McGoohan, and Portmeirion. We have invited Dave Stimpson along to that last couple of meetings, but he has failed to put in an appearance, which has menat that we have had to drink the pint of bitter we order for him and put in his place, half expecting Dave to turn up. I mean who does he think he is, Patrick McGoohan? Do you know something, I attended the 2001 Prisoner convention at Portmeirion, and there was a guy there wearing a grey 'T' shirt, upon which were the words 'The David Stimpson Appreciation Society.' I asked the guy what that was all about, and Giles said that he had had the 'T' shirts specially made for the first summer after the Prisoner conventions held at Portmeirion had been cancelled, that was in 1999, at the same time as there would have been a convention. Anyway, the fans had gathered at Portmeirion that week in 1999, not for a non-convention, and the 'T' shitrs had been specially made, for it was expected that Dave Stimspon would be there. But as Giles said, that in true McGoohan style, Dave never turned up for the non-Convention of 1999!
I'm Johnny Prisoner 'Without appreciation society!'

My Mathmos Lava Lamp

  You may recall how some time ago now, I was telling you about how the oil of my Mathmos Lava Lamp had gone cloudy, and refuses to clear. I wondered if there was anyone out there in the Village, who could tell me if there was anything I could do about it............ apparently not. Well I suppose I could send it back to Mathmos who would clean and refill the glass section with new oil. But that would prove costly. However there is another way I have found, in fact I found out last Friday when I was out and about town, and gazed into a window of a local Charity shop, gazing upon a Mathmos Lava Lamp. I hastened inside and examined the said Lava lamp closely, and found it to be in perfect condition. The blue tinted oil as clear as, well blue tinted oil. This is a picture of the lamp. It's not as the one I already have,not as the ones seen in the Prisoner, but it's predecessor of 1963, of which this is a Mathmos replica, just as the original would have been, but in copper metal.
   I have five Lava Lamps in my collection, but only two of them are Mathmos, and one is as seen in 93's apartment on THEPRISONER09, and another is a tall square lamp.
   There is something soothing about a Lava Lamp, to sit and gaze at a Lava Lamp seems to quieten the mind somehow. Possibly that is the reason why No.2 is seen to have the image of the perpetual Village Guadian on his wall screen in his office.
    Yet it can appear to have something malevolent about it, that the wax inside is symbolic of the Village Guadian, a perpetually moving, living 'thing,' that it would do harm to you if it were to ever escape its confines. It is almost as though anyone who owns such a Lava Lamp, and is a fan of the Prisoner, owns his or her own small containment area akin to that somewhere at the bottom of the sea.
I'm Johnny Prisoner enjoying his Lava Lamp, and having done good work for a charity into the bargain!

We're All Lifers!

    Well according to No.2, who is definately an optimist, that's why it doesn't matter who Number One is, it doesn't matter which side runs the Village. Yes it's run by one side or the other, but if both sides looked in a morror, they would see that both sides are becoming identical. What has been created is an International Community, a blueprint for the future, the whole world as the Village in fact. No.2 is just as much a Prisoner as No.6, because he knows too much, mind you that's nothing to go by, because so are those citizens who know too little!
  There are three types of Village citizen, those like No.6 who are abducted to the Village, and wake up a Prisoner, and those who are brought to the Village of their own free will and hold certain positions in the Village. People who actually help run the Village at the Sewage Plant, the Electrical Power Station, Water Works, the Gas Works, on the farm etc, etc. Then there are the warders who serve the Village as guardians, helping to keep the Prisoners in order. Hardly anyone is allowed to leave the Village, except for No.2, and those like Nadia Rakovski, and Cobb who are under special circumstances. Everyone else is just as much a Prisoner as anyone, including the Warders, even if they don't act as such!  
I'm Johnny Prisoner

Fall Out!

    Does the episode Fall Out work? It doesn't really seem to fit in with the previous episodes that's for sure. Mind you, a previous No.2, formally of The Girl Who Was Death, has been brought back to the Village, and that would not be for the first time, nor to play the role of a Judge.
    For me there are two things which stand out about Fall Out, one  it's the James Bond style ending to the series, which isn't what McGoohan said he wanted, but its what the fan of the series got. Secondly Fall Out works better if viewed as a further manipulation of No.6. The Judge, or President, tells the gathered delegates of the Assembly, that the man brought before them, formally the Prisoner-No.6, must no longer be referred to as Number Six, or indeed a number of any kind. For 'Sir' as he was called had survived the ultimate test, and had gloriously vindicated the right of the individual to be individual.
    Sir, as the Prisoner was addressed, which really doesn't mean anything in itself, because the Prisoner was addressed as Sir on the morning of his arrival in the Village by the Shopkeeper of the General Store! Anyway I digress for the moment. There are three rebels who have been brought before the Assembly, No.48 who is nothing more than a representation of rebellious youth which rebels against anything it can find, against anything which is considered to be the norm. The 'late' No.2, who isn't even allowed to rest in peace, having been resuscitated, and then feels like a new man, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, his laughter still rings richly in the ear! And Sir, who is applauded for his private war. Yet Sir is the only one of the three rebels brought before the court, who is not listened to by the Delegates of the Assembly, shouted down as he is every time he commences upon his address to the court. Yet none the worse for that, Sir is permitted to meet No.1, and that's where the ordeal gets decidedly worse. Yes Sir has been rewarded with the keys to his house, a passport valied for anywhere. Travellers cheques-a million, and a leather drawstring purse of petty cash.
   Finally Sir gets to meet with No.1 in what turns out to be a rocket, and No.1 turns out to be himself, No.6's alter ego, who has been running the Village all the time, or has he? For me this alter-ego of No.6 being No.1, and vice versa, doesn't work for me in conjunction with the previous episodes. No,  for me No.1 is Curtis of The Schizoid Man, who didn't die in that episode, but was resuscitated in much the same way as the 'late' No.2. Curtis could then have been kept in hospital, or isolation somewhere in the Vilage, certainly he couldn't be left to walk the Village on his own, citizens would notice two No.6's in the Village at one time. No, Curtis having been put on ice so to speak, was later wheeled out for a second confrontation with No.6. In fact Curtis having been kept isolated from the rest of the Village community for all that time, may have tilted his brain and that would account for No.1's maniacle laughter.
    It is interesting to note that both No.1 and No.6 escape the Village at one and the same time. One blasting off aboard his rocket, and Six in the cage aboard the Scammell Highwayman transporter lorry. If anything can be said in its favour, I suppose it might be this, Fall Out does appear the most logical ending to the Prisoner series. Perhaps logical is not the right word. But I cannot see any other way the series could have ended, not with the hero able to escape the way he did. But is escape the right word either? Because even at the end, No.6 is just as much a Prisoner as he was at the beginning! Perhaps we're looking at this from the wrong end, it might very well be that the Prisoner begins because of the actions of Fall Out. Is that why the Prisoner resigned?
I'm Johnny Prisoner

Kosho

     When it was reported in the daily activity prognosis of No.6, that he attends his semi weekly Kosho practise, originally it was to have been his semi weekly Judo practise. So I wonder why it was changed, and how it was that Patrick McGoohan came up with the novel notion for Kosho? Perhaps it was during some inebriated reverie that he foresaw the idea of Kosho. It has to be said that Kosho has a more visual effect than judo might have done, and makes for a more dramatic action scene.
  Another thing - which episode was the Kosho scene filmed for? Because a brief scene appears in Hammer Into Anvil after No.6 challenges No.14, played by Basil Hoskins, to a bout of Kosho. Yet the majority of the filmed Kosho scene actually appears in It's Your Funeral, which would be fine, save for the fact that No.6's Kosho opponant is played by Basil Hoskins of Hammer Into Anvil, who can be  clearly seen, yet makes no other appearence in the episode It's Your Funeral. But I suppose the television viewer was not supposed to notice that, and even having done so, to make nothing of the fact. Well I'm sorry Pat, but most of us fans of the Prisoner have the most enquiring minds! I have to say though, that Patrick McGoohan and Basil Hopkins were quite fit, because they did the majority of the action themselves for the bout of Kosho. Yet I wonder why it is, that after the short bout of Kosho of Hammer Into Anvil, that No.6, who is clearly the victor, doesn't actually 'dunk' No.14 into that tank of water. It was as though the sudden appearence of two other Kosho contestants had put No.6 off from doing so. Yet he had no such compunction when it came to dunking his opponant into the tank of water in It's Your Funeral. But then I suppose that's because it wasn't Basil Hoskins!
I'm Johnny Prisoner

Prisoner Collection

    Over the years and decades of appreciation for the Prisoner, I have built up a collection of memorabilia and mechandise to do with the 1960's series from pens, pictures, posters, and postcards. Maps of Your Village, both in black and white as well as in colour. Badges, mugs, books, Local Group magazines, newsletters, and material produced by Six of One: The Prisoner Appreciation Society. Soundtrack of the series on both record and CD's, every release of the Prisoner on both video and DVD. I have four Lava Lamps, both original to the series, and the 2009 series, which I had prior to the 2009 series.
   Here is an interesting curio.......it is a chap wearing a Top Hat, on a Penny Farthing, fitted with a pair of stabilising wheels, and it has a clockwork mechinism. I also have a collection of die-cast model cars relating to both series of the Prisoner, which includes two Village Mini-Moke taxis, and a model  Lotus Seven which I built with my own hands. Flapjacks are one of my favourite dishes, and more recently anything in a wrap! I have a white envelope which contains blank sheets of paper. A packet of Black Russian, and Senior Service cigarettes from the time of the Prisoner. I've travelled to a Prisoner convention inside a crate, and have spent a night on the beach at Portmeirion. I have rigged up the door to my flat so that it will not open unless I place a security pass disc in the little black box first, this as the secuirty precautions in the Town Hall in the episode of The General. One day I went out without a security pass disc in my pocket, and effectively locked myself out of my flat. Which meant my having to spend the night on the landing, and calling in a locksmith the next day!
    I suppose my collection, which is second to none, has turned into something of an archive more than a collection. If anyone decides to create a museum for the Prisoner I would gladly make one or two donations myself. But I don't suppose they ever will. In bygone days, if someone had a collection of something, say paintings, a person would give to the nation, like the Soames and the Forsyte bequest. Trouble is I don't think the nation is ready for the J.P bequest, and even if they were, I wonder what they would do with it? Would people come and see it, to marvel in the Village?.....shouldn't think so somehow!
I'm Johnny Prisoner