Originally Posted by Hip Priest

It's on the west Wales coast, close to Porthmadog (there's a vey pleasant steam train running from Porthmadog to Portmeirion, then a ten minute walk to the village). I'm no expert on PAtrick McGoohan's previous TV series, Danger Man, but I'm pretty sure that an episode had been set in Portmeirion, leading to it's selection for The Prisoner. The village is also used in an old Tom Baker Doctor Who story, The Masque of Mandragora, as well as various other one-off tv episodes and pop videos; most notably, XTC used it for 'The Man Who Sailed Around His Soul' (and Supergrass used it for their first single I believe. Wouldn't know about them though!).

I've just had a look; it's got it's own website here: http://www.portmeirion-village.com/en/index.php.

Clough Williams Ellis was a really good sort; full of dreams for nice environments that were constructed but not entirely false or sharing a single characteristic. He wrote many books, notably one (pub. 1928) called England and the Octopus - an early wake-up call to those who destroy our heritage. His vision for Portmeirion was to show that built on his own private peninsula on the coast of Snowdonia where he built to show that the development of a naturally beautiful site need not lead to its defilement and that architectural good manners could be good business. His lifelong concern was with Architecture, Landscape Design, the protection of Rural Wales and Conservation generally.

Originally Posted by Danny Himself

Was this the show with Tattoo, the little midget guy?

Originally Posted by h8kurdt

Yeah what was the deal with them balloons?

Originally Posted by Savage Clone

The Butler was always most dignified though, and didn't really seem to be on the show for cutesy kitsch factor or (as in Fantasy Island) as anyone's sidekick.
He's a great character. Never said a word, did he?

Originally Posted by h8kurdt

No, still a stupid idea.

Originally Posted by Hip Priest

WARNING SPOLIER ALERT WARNING SPOLILER ALERT WARNING SPOILER ALERT WARNING SPOILER ALERT and of course he turns out to be Number 1, too (and it ends with old starting shot of him in the car). Can you ever escape self-imposed limitations?

Originally Posted by Hip Priest

He first tears off the 'theatre' type mask to reveal the ape mask, he then tears off the ape mask to reveal his own screaming, sneering face.

Originally Posted by Hip Priest

Depends how you look at it. The series is not to be taken entirely literally - there are many times when 'reality' switches to allegory. The series as a whole is a series of symbolic warnings aout psychiatry, politics, education, science, morals etc.

Split the series into three parts; the first, up to and including 'Checkmate', involves number 6 attempting to escape his captors; the second, from 'Hammer into Anvil' onwards, sees number 6 competing with his captors on their terms, attempting to overcome them rather than run from them. The third, comprising the last two episodes, takes us away from all normality. That especially applies to the final episode, Fall Out, which was conceived and written in a very short space of time to end the series quickly (more episodes were planned, but the sheer expense of the series was bleeding ATV dry).

The Prisoner is about the Individual versus Society; the revelation that number 6 is in fact also number 1 is a comment that the control inflicted upon us by government and society is ultimately executed by individuals, and part of that control is the phenmenon of our own self-restriction, our fear of positive action or being individual. We construct our own psychological and spiritual reality - therefore it is malleable, and we can positively determine it's nature, providing we are up for the fight. The fight, as is realised by number 6, is not neccessarily and external, physical one, but also an internal, psychological one, although in both cases it takes strong individuality to overcome obstacles. Compare The Prisoner to other distopian visions (eg '1984') and it is clearly a more positive, liberating message that is being propogated.

Referring back to the themes of parts one and two, number 6's physical fights only beat the limited opposition of the village's own thugs; the real aythority, from 'Rover to Number 2, is untouched by such tactics - the first time number 2 is really made to suffer is in 'Hammer into Anvil'.

At the start of each episode, the following discourse takes place:

No6: Who are you?
No2: I am Number 2
No6: Who is Number 1?
No2: You are Number 6

Is that official response a refusal by Number 2 to answer the question, or is it an early hint at the reality, that can be grammatically altered to

No6: Who are you?
No2: I am Number 2
No6: Who is Number 1?
No2: You are, number 6.

Originally Posted by Hip Priest

Also, it's worth bearing in mind that in the late 1980's DC comics released a four-part story which was a sequel to The Prisoner set 20 years after the TV series. The graphic novel collection of this, Shattered Visage, includes a couple of pages of text that explain that the events that take place in Fall Out as being entirely drug-induced - a further step towards the attempts to psychologically break number 6 that we see in Once Upon a Time.

Whilst the comic story isn't a direct part of the TV series, it features the characters played by Patrick Mcgoohan and Leo McKern (with their phsical appearances) and the whole thing was supervised and vetted by McGoohan himself, so as an official sequel it carries some credibility.

Incidentally, McGoohan discusses The Prisoner in this interview, transcribed here from Canadian television.