the prisoner -late 60s tv prog

[dave m]

iv just started watchin it but missed the first couple of episodes......how did no6 get 2 the town in the first place n wats it all about? wers it filmed?is it like the x files wer u get 2 know sweet fa.........TA

[Skids]

It was filmed in the Welsh town of Portmeirion, a tourist attraction, and now a producer of well known crockery.  No6 was a British secret agent who resigned just before being kidnapped and sent to a bizarre village/prison.  Each episode is about No6 either being interrogated by his captors or trying to escape the village or both.

[brachiopod]

The Prisoner was filmed in the village of Portmeirion, in North Wales.

An eclectic mixture of architectural styles, the 'village' was the dream of one Clough Williams-Ellis, who started construction of his dream sometime in the 1920's, I think.

It is possible to visit, and even stay there. There is a hotel and some of the properties are available as holiday lets.

[brachiopod]

Skids,

I am not a number, I am a synchronous poster!!

[Dame Babs]

It is indeed in wales, visited portmerion whilst on holiday.....i believe tht Jools Holland actually designed his recording studio to look exactly like the village!

[andy hughes]

If you watch the openiong credits, you can see the scenario that leads our hero to arrive in 'The Village' run by 'them' who want 'information'. The crux of the whole series is that we never know who Number Six is, or why he resigned, or who is running The Village, or any rhyme or reason, which simply adds to the appeal of it. Loads of people have suggested reasons as to what the series means, but only Patrick McGoohan knows for sure, and he ain't saying.

[ludwig]

Being something of a cult program, there is loads of info on it on the web. Try searching for 'Prisoner Mcgoohan' on google.

[ermintrude35]

,,I live just down the road from Portmeirion, and it's well worth a visit, there's even a Prisoner shop there and during the summer the Prisoner fan club hold get togethers there where they all dress up in the costumes, they even have that giant ball thing, a penny farthing and those weired bike buggys. Many of the locals were used as extras during filming in the 60s ..how cool must that have been , and what a claim to fame!..

 

..and Dame Babs, your right Jules Holland visits regularly and is often seen in Cob Records (in nearby Porthmadog) ..

[Backdrifter]

I think there's a bit too much theorizing about this programme, and the claims that "no-one knows what it's about" are overstated. It's simply about the right of any individual to live their life how they want to, without having to go with the crowd. He's incarcerated in what's essentially a prison, albeit a rather grand one, because "they" want him to reveal why he resigned, but his view is "why should I have to explain myself." And he refuses to join in with the regimented life of the village.

 

Dress this simple premise up in some late-60s colourful daftness and you have The Prisoner. Quite gripping and enjoyable at times but no great mystery.

 

Incidentally, in one episode, while being interrogated he does actually give a simple, straight answer to the question "Why did you resign?" But for dave m's benefit, I won't give it away here.

 

By the way dave, Andy is right - the opening credits give a potted synopsis of how he physically arrives there.