Anniversary is more than just a number

Oct 5 2007 Western Mail

Fans of cult TV show The Prisoner are partying this month and Welsh aficionados are leading the celebrations. Tim Lewis reports

VERY rarely are television shows remembered as much for their setting as for the storylines and twists in the show’s plot.

Ask fans of the cult-classic show The Prisoner why they love the show so much and the surreal setting of “The Village” will be near the top of their list.

Celebrating its 40th-year anniversary this month, The Prisoner is set to be remembered in a commemorative special-edition DVD box-set.

Shot on location at the Hotel Portmeirion resort village in Penrhyndeudraeth, North Wales, the 17-episode series continues to capture the imagination of science fiction fans.

Fans travel from all over the world to visit The Village which has remained almost untouched in the 40 years since the series was filmed there.

Located on the estuary of the River Dwyryd, two miles southeast of Porthmadog, the resort was designed by Welsh architect Sir Clough Williams-Ellis.

He bought the site for £5,000, at the time it was described as “a neglected wilderness – long abandoned by those romantics who had realised the unique appeal and possibilities of this favoured promontory but who had been carried away by their grandiose landscaping and ‘improvement enthusiasm’ into sorrowful bankruptcy,” according to the official Portmeirion tourist website.

Built over 50 years between 1925 and 1975, many thought the resort was based on the town of Portofino in Italy. Its creator Sir Clough always said it was more of a tribute to the atmosphere of the Mediterranean, rather than being based on any specific place.

Whatever his influences, the resort holds its place as one of North Wales’ most popular tourist attractions.

It is now owned by a charitable trust with the majority of the building’s rooms being used as hotel rooms or self-catering cottages.

There is also a cafe, tea room, restaurant and the room that was once the lead character’s home is now run as a Prisoner-themed souvenir shop.

Knowing how much publicity Portmeirion would get once The Prisoner hit the small screen, Sir Clough wanted to make sure the resort did not suffer under the weight of its increased popularity.

For this reason, under Sir Cough’s request, the resort was not identified as the location for filming until the last episode of the series.

He also insisted that a small admission charge to enter the grounds was put in place so only people with a keen interest in the history of the resort would go there.

When he was alive Sir Clough always wanted to incorporate the remains of the castle on the edge of the resort into the village, called Castell Deudraeth.

He had always considered it the largest and most imposing single building on the Portmeirion Estate, but a number of reasons prevented him from realising his dream.

In 2001, years after his death in 1978, the dream of developing the castle was finally achieved with help from the Heritage Lottery Fund and the European Regional Development Fund as well as the Wales Tourist Board.

The Castell Deudraeth was opened as an 11-bedroom hotel and restaurant in a special ceremony hosted by Welsh tenor Bryn Terfel who had long been a supporter of the idea.

Today, The Prisoner is still an integral part of the attraction of Portmeirion and hosts a number of events that are still immensely popular with fans.

Without doubt the biggest event of the year for The Prisoner fans at Portmeirion is the annual Prisoner Convention.

This attracts hundreds of fans of the cult show to Portmeirion and celebrity guests from the show share their memories of filming and production with the fans.

Patrick McGoohan, who turns 80 next March, is being specially invited to this year’s 40th anniversary celebration.

The convention is organised by a group called Six of One – The Prisoner Official Appreciation Society.

Six of One has enrolled more than 50,000 members since it began in 1977 and McGoohan stays in touch.

One of the founder members of Six of One, Roger Goodman, is widely regarded as one of the world’s leading experts on the series.

He captured a rare interview with McGoohan, which is thought of as the definitive interview by Prisoner fans, and one of only two full-length interviews the star has ever given.

Mr Goodman revealed, “I was very managed to get some time with Patrick McGoohan while he was in the UK filming another show. To say he doesn’t do many interviews would be a huge understatement, he is someone who very much likes to keep himself to himself.

“The interview sells on CD in the Portmeirion shop along with a walking guide of the village I produced with an American couple from New York.

“I still go back to Portmeirion for the convention each year. Not only is it a great way to keep in touch with some old friends but there always seems to be something fresh to look at.

“Last year we had a cameraman who worked on the show come back with some things that had never seen the light of day before.

“And there was also some home-video footage of the filming being shot by a local man we got to see.

“Portmeirion is a wonderful yet surreal place, when you look out in every direction it is hard to tell what country of the world you are in. Each way you turn is like looking at a different part of the world.

“I first saw the programme when I was 17 years old, I was studying surrealism at the time and I remember thinking this is the only thing on television that looks surreal.

“It was great.

“At the time I don’t think I could ever have dreamed about how involved I’ve become in the show, I didn’t even know how television programmes were made in those days.

“After all this time I still enjoy watching The Prisoner, I think it’s because I don’t watch it that often.

“It’s like a expensive fine wine that I crack open when I am in the mood to relax.”

Patrick McGoohan has never returned to Portmeirion since shooting the series there, so fans are hoping this is the year they will be able to get a glimpse of him.

The first ever biography of the star, Patrick McGoohan: Danger Man or Prisoner? is being published.

Its author, Roger Langley, a principal organiser of the series’ official appreciation society, has been a fan of Patrick McGoohan and The Prisoner since he first watched the series back in 1967.

“There had been nothing like The Prisoner before and nothing on television has touched it since,” states Langley.

The reason, he thinks, is that Patrick McGoohan, who starred as Number Six in the show, injected his own original ideas into the strange plots, twists and storylines.

“He re-wrote scripts, directed episodes and ad-libbed through scenes, making them often spontaneous and with unpredictable results,” explains Langley

McGoohan is the honorary president of the appreciation society, a position which he has held now for 30 years. Langley’s biography of the actor explores the strong connection between McGoohan and the central character which he played in The Prisoner.

Cleverly hidden among the action-adventure plots were many questions without answers, surreal settings and even allegorical elements, all of which have made the series a talking point over the past four decades.

Langley said, “The final episode caused outrage among viewers and remains controversial to this day.

“People still discuss what it all meant. One thing which many people do remember is the giant white ball, which would chase inmates trying to escape and suffocate them.”

The show itself was created by McGoohan and George Markstein in the mid-1960s and was originally sold as a spy thriller.

McGoohan had shot to fame in the ’60s in the hit show Danger Man, on which Markstein had served as script consultant.

Some of the earlier Danger Man shows were filmed on The Village at Portmeirion, which gave McGoohan the idea for his next project.

When McGoohan decided it was time for him to leave Danger Man at the end of the fourth season of filming, he decided to embark on a new project and The Prisoner was born.

McGoohan starred in the series as Number 6, a English secret agent who resigns from his job only to find himself kidnapped.

The iconic opening sequence of the show saw Number 6 driving his Lotus Seven car into the grounds of the British special forces. He then argued with his superior as he handed in his resignation.

The former special agent returns to his flat to gather his things in an attempt to make a quick getaway to a small island far from his former work in London.

Before he has chance to escape, his flat is filled with some sort of sleeping gas and, when he wakes up, he appears to still be in his flat.

It is, in fact, an exact recreation of his home in a small house in The Village where he has been taken.

He is held captive in The Village by a group of people who only refer to each other as numbers and persistently press Number 6 for the information he possesses.

Each episode of the show followed the agent’s attempts to escape from the shackles of The Village and his stoic resistance of the villagers’ attempts to extract information from him.

During an interview in 1977 McGoohan revealed a lot of his own thoughts on some of the cultural practices highlighted in The Prisoner.

His musings included fears about the survival of mankind and consumerism society.

He said, “I think progress is the biggest enemy on earth, apart from oneself. I think we’re gonna take good care of this planet shortly, there’s never been a weapon created yet on the face of the Earth that hadn’t been used.”

He added, “We’re run by the Pentagon, we’re run by Madison Avenue, we’re run by television and, as long as we accept those things and don’t revolt, we’ll have to go along with the stream to the eventual avalanche.

“As long as we go out and buy stuff, we’re at their mercy. We’re at the mercy of the advertiser and of course there are certain things that we need, but a lot of the stuff that is bought is not needed. We all live in a little Village, your village may be different from other people’s villages but we are all prisoners.”

The series featured a number of surreal and sometimes shocking storylines which including mind-bending themes like hypnosis, hallucinogenic drugs, dream manipulation and mind control. The Prisoner has even been used by universities and colleges as a basis for sociology courses and there have been dozens of books about the series.

Everything from pop songs to TV adverts have been made in the style of The Prisoner and merchandise from the show has been plentiful over the years.