In November, AMC will air a “reimagined” miniseries called The Prisoner. It is based on the 60s Brit series which starred Patrick MacGoohan and was apparentally created by him as well.
The Premise : A man, known as “Six,” finds himself inexplicably trapped in “The Village” with no memory of how he arrived. As he explores his environment, he discovers that his fellow inhabitants are identified by number instead of name, have no memory of any prior existence, and are under constant surveillance. Not knowing whom to trust, Six is driven by the need to discover the truth behind The Village, the reason for his being there, and most importantly — how he can escape.
Bill Gallagher (Conviction, Clocking Off, Lark Rise To Candleford) is writing and exec producing.
Robbo
The original Prisoner was MacGoohan’s labour of love and very much a response to his earlier role in the series “Secret Agent Man” (aka “Danger Man”). MacGoohan threw himself so completely into making the Prisoner he pretty much fucked himself in the head and the career.
As quirky and dated as the first series may be in its quest to explore the role of the individual in a bureaucratic universe (think “Man From Uncle” meets “Brazil”) it is a stellar example of the strength of singular vision.
I’m very curious to see what the new “reimagined” version will be like – and I’m a huge fan of Sir Ian McKellan – but there will always be a special place in my heart for MacGoohan’s surreal world.
admin
I was a big fan of Danger Man and always felt that I didn’t get to see enough of The Prisoner. I too am interested to see how they’ve re-invented it. I’m pretty impressed with what AMC is turning out (Mad Men and Breaking Bad to name just two alliterative titles) so I’m hopeful. There’s a little more info on their site.
Jason Sanders
The Prisoner holds a special place in my scifi/spy/philosophical library being the first TV on DVD series I ever bought as a kid.
The show pulled you into Six’s war with addictive dialogue that V for Vendetta later reminded me of”“quick, purposeful, elegant. Unfortunately the final episode contradicted the ENTIRE series with its [**SPOILERS**] nonsensical monkey masks, machine guns, and reveal of Number One.
At least we will always have The Chimes of Big Ben.
P.S. The Prisoner Wikipedia entry contains a description of what was ‘supposedly’ the original ending. I would’ve enjoyed seeing it.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Prisoner
Kevin Parnell
I watched The Prisoner last summer and loved it. MacGoohan’s vision was so unique. I love his style of acting as #6 and how fast he sometimes switches from the subtle to crazy emotional outbursts. He’s devilishly charming in the role, too. I dressed up as #6 last Halloween. It was fun. Really interested to see how the AMC version is.