The Prisoner - your favourite episode and your favourite No. 2

Great series in its time but sadly lost its way.The giant Durex used to scare the $hit out of me.I visited Portmeirion many years ago and it was indeed a magical location.

Jason king!a man for the 70s for sure, Darren nesbitt and the ep with big bens chimes

Ah, Guinness - you didn't let me down!

Twizzle - that was Rover. He would either make you pass out or suffocate you. If he bounced alongside you then it was a reprimand.

Overall what I think McGoohan was trying to highlight, put simply, was the lengths the state goes to control and manipulate its citizens, whether that be through mind control, humiliation or sheer brute force. The series was excellent at demonstrating how appalling Fascism is and how important *individualism is (*non-Thatcher meaning of that word).

Them bones them bones them, dry bones.

Leops - each episode is necessary as it showcases a new form of control, reinforcing McGoohan's original message.

AT - very funny episode. The way McGoohan plays Patrick Cargill like a violin.

Pat-a-cake, pat-a-cake, baker’s man

Leo McKern singing Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall.

I'll never forget that.

Most in Ireland are

They brought out a documentary about the programme a few years ago and most of the cast and actors where interviewed (apart from McGoohan himself who didn't want to take part). It's an extraordinary story of what went on behind the scenes including one scene where McGoohan actually tried to strangle one of his fellow actors and had to be pulled away before he killed the guy. They also detail the mental breakdown of Leo McKern in the last episode and they had to postpone the episode for a month or so whilst he recovered. The reason was put down to the intensity of the acting between the two of them.

McGoohan doesn't come out from the documentary in a very good light, but I think we all knew that he was difficult to work with at the best of times. Very few people actually got on with the guy - brilliant actor though. Possibly one of the best British actors ever.

The documentary was given as a free extra DVD in the last HD digital release of the TV series.

When the series stopped employing seasoned writers it went downhill. Some of the episodes I think PM wrote under a pseudonym. The last episode is a big let down, written in a desperate hurry to finish it up. But for individual stories some are really good.

Saw McGoohan in a very good film from around the Danger Man time called The Quaire Fellow, PM plays a new prison officer and it is almost  an all Irish cast, worth seeking out.

I am a huge prisoner fan - had all the episodes from ch4 screening in betamax. except one? the cowboy episode with Alexis Kanner (do not forsake me). wrote to charlotte street to ask where i could get a tape of it - they said not available.
I liked the girl who was death. cute girl - Justine Lord.

I think the whole series is about mental illness. the idea you think you are a spy? you wake up in a sanitarium and you see everyone as a warder. called the prisoner? your kept there against your will. A huge white ball attacks you and subdues you? a seizure? the change the staff. you don't recognize the guy in charge from one episode to the next, call him number two. the only way to get out is to find out you are number one. treat yourself like number one. they're always asking - why did you resign(why did you give up?) Maybe McGoohan had a mental break after 'dangerman'?

The Americans banned one of the episodes from airing and that was the one called 'Living in Harmony'. The reason the American TV station gave was that they considered the drug reference in the episode as inappropriate and may send out the wrong signal to the younger, perhaps more vulnerable viewer.

They did eventually relent however, and showed it to American audiences many years later.

Was Patrick McGoohan the greatest troll of all time?

shame they couldn't come up with a convincing ending,perhaps even the writers didn't know what it was all about,the true meaning, nonetheless years ahead of its time,btw boxing day evening 1967 on the bbc "the magical mystery tour2 was aired for the first time and on itv "the prisoner" was on at the same time, bleedin beat that then.