Friday 16 January 2009

He was not a number, he was a free man

Sad to hear of the passing of Patrick McGoohan, of The Prisoner fame the other day.

Prisoner_grab

Back in the day I got  obsessed in reruns of this slice of 60's spy surrealism. You can see the legacy of The Prisoner even now in shows such as LOST, which revel simpsons and prisonerin confusing the viewer. Even The Simpsons have paid homage.   

The bit everyone remembers was the strange security method that kept the prisoner, well a prisoner. It basically consisted of a huge pink weather balloon that bobbed after any escapee to strains of a weird sixties sound effect. However odd, it was always effective in rendering its victim unconscious. I'm surprised it never caught on as a measure. It's probably cheaper  than CCT and requires less tending than a guard dog.

I particularly loved the opening titles and the theme tune has pride of place on my iPod

Where am I?
In the Village. 
What do you want?
We want information. 
Whose side are you on? 
That would be telling. We want information... information... information. 
You won't get it. 
By hook or by crook, we will. 
Who are you? 
The new Number 2. 
Who is Number 1? 
You are Number 6. 
I am not a number, I am a free man

prisoner_logo copy

3 comments:

Lucie G said...

A very wierd show, hard to imagine itv letting him make it if he came to them today with that idea though.
*hums the theme in tribute*

alan said...

I remember watching that one when it was new...

I heard Carl Reiner last year talk about watching the re-runs of "What's My Line" and "I've Got a Secret" on the Game Show Network at 2 AM just to see all of his old friends.

I'm starting to feel the same way!

alan

Billy Whizz said...

I didn't have the theme tune on my iPod but I do now. I did have the Avengers theme though.

It is funny where the references to The Prisoner crop up and when in KL this week I had to explain why the number 42 was important and pointed out various references inlcuding:

The number of Mulder's flat
Level 42 (the band)

This all came about as we had a meeting in the Petronas Towers and I bet you can't guess what floor the bridge between the towers is on is on?

By the way 6x9=42 in base 13 apparently. When informed of this Douglas Adams insisted he doesn't write jokes in base 13

Anyway, RIP Partick and I'll get my box set out