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Post by John Wall on Aug 29, 2021 19:35:01 GMT
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Post by richardwoods on Aug 29, 2021 22:05:51 GMT
Great article, thanks for posting it John. One of my favourite series, it still strikes a cord with me. It’s uncanny how much No6’s fight against the powers that be in the village mirrors the struggle of free thinking individuals in today’s rigid group think environment in the UK. Required viewing for anyone who hasn’t seen it.
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Post by Peter Stirling on Aug 29, 2021 23:12:41 GMT
What I heard..not one to gossip but! LOL
I think it was after viewing 'The Girl who was death' that Lew Grade said "er I think we better wrap this thing up,you have got a month" he offered him a detective thingy to be filmed in Ireland but he was also witness to Mcgoohan's deteriorating mental state when he went mad in his office.
The incumbent generation probably didn't get it, it was the kids on the sofa who put down their Lego and became enchanted by this unique show.
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Post by Richard Marple on Aug 30, 2021 9:30:07 GMT
I got the Blu-ray set a few years ago & really liked it after years of reading about it & thinking it sounded great.
Originally McGoohan had wanted to make it as a mini series of about 10 episodes, but Lew Grade insisted it should be long enough to be syndicated.
Some fans watch it with just the 10 most crucial episodes, sometimes in a slightly different order than originally screened.
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Post by richardwoods on Aug 30, 2021 16:20:04 GMT
A very small claim to fame(ish), Patrick McGoohan’s brother in law was the Doctor that delivered me apparently! Maybe that’s why I’ve always had such an interest in The Prisoner and in a lesser way Danger Man.
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Post by nathangeorge on Sept 1, 2021 19:07:26 GMT
Thank you for sharing. Shows the brilliance of The Prisoner is unwavering down the years with it's delicious ambiguity. The irony is the author of the piece says it wouldn't have been made by the BBC in 1967, well they certainty wouldn't chance it in 2021!
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Post by Richard Marple on Sept 1, 2021 20:52:35 GMT
Thank you for sharing. Shows the brilliance of The Prisoner is unwavering down the years with it's delicious ambiguity. The irony is the author of the piece says it wouldn't have been made by the BBC in 1967, well they certainty wouldn't chance it in 2021! Probably even less chance with ITV these days. ; At least in the late 1960s the BBC were willing to make some quite cutting edge science fiction as single plays or as part of Out Of The Unknown.
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Post by richardwoods on Sept 2, 2021 6:57:33 GMT
Thank you for sharing. Shows the brilliance of The Prisoner is unwavering down the years with it's delicious ambiguity. The irony is the author of the piece says it wouldn't have been made by the BBC in 1967, well they certainty wouldn't chance it in 2021! Probably even less chance with ITV these days. ; At least in the late 1960s the BBC were willing to make some quite cutting edge science fiction as single plays or as part of Out Of The Unknown. True, it’s a real shame more, particularly from season 3, don’t survive.
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Post by Marie Griffiths on Sept 13, 2021 22:52:10 GMT
I didnt this this was a very good article at all. It did not add anything we did not already know and contains factual inaccuracies. Lew Grade originally wanted 39 epusodes to please the US networks stason.org/TULARC/tv/the-prisoner/4-In-what-order-should-I-watch-the-episodes-The-Prisoner.html It also puts forward a very right wing agenda unrelated to the review of the series. It is testament to Mcooghan that someone of those views can find something from it. It was against Totalitariansm both left and right. The author's party scraped Habeus Corpus (Reasonable grounds for detetion) as depicted in the show. They also wanted to bring in vaccine passports last week. Both politically correct BBC and lowest common denominator ITV would not make such a series. Look what a mess AMC made of the reboot in order to please US audiences wuth what was familiar to them.
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Post by timmunton on Sept 14, 2021 22:28:08 GMT
As Marie Griffiths says; it's against authoritarianism & totalitarianism left & right. The author seems to fairly willfully disregard this.
The prisoner character doesn't dislike the fact the village has a welfare state - eg. free medical care, an old people's home etc. - he dislikes that these things are used against their more benign & mundane purposes; that side by side with such purposes they are also used for purposes of coercion, brainwashing etc. & these latter uses are what the ultimately violence approving authorities are most interested in. No properly humane social democrat or democratic socialist - ie. I'm not including the essentially totalitarian one party state advocates - would want such things as part of a better & fairer way of life and nor would they knowingly accept them (except via coercion - & everyone has their different breaking points).
Some aren't properly humane of course, more commonly among those who are mainly rightwing but claim to be social democrats & support unneeded wars (which is probably all wars the UK's got involved in since 1945) & the war industry, the continuation & growth of poverty etc. But that's a different story.
It's not social democracy/socialism which is neccessarily being criticized by the programme but any system right or left which uses unreasonable coercion in all its forms. Whatever McGoohan's own personal place on the political spectrum he delivered an artistic triumph which focuses on the cruelty & lack of meaningful process of coercive systems whatever their left/right background, by deploying ambiguity and so on rather than focussing on a more specific critique based on his own particular views.
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Post by richardwoods on Sept 15, 2021 8:44:20 GMT
As Marie Griffiths says; it's against authoritarianism & totalitarianism left & right. The author seems to fairly willfully disregard this. The prisoner character doesn't dislike the fact the village has a welfare state - eg. free medical care, an old people's home etc. - he dislikes that these things are used against their more benign & mundane purposes; that side by side with such purposes they are also used for purposes of coercion, brainwashing etc. & these latter uses are what the ultimately violence approving authorities are most interested in. No properly humane social democrat or democratic socialist - ie. I'm not including the essentially totalitarian one party state advocates - would want such things as part of a better & fairer way of life and nor would they knowingly accept them (except via coercion - & everyone has their different breaking points). Some aren't properly humane of course, more commonly among those who are mainly rightwing but claim to be social democrats & support unneeded wars (which is probably all wars the UK's got involved in since 1945) & the war industry, the continuation & growth of poverty etc. But that's a different story. It's not social democracy/socialism which is neccessarily being criticized by the programme but any system right or left which uses unreasonable coercion in all its forms. Whatever McGoohan's own personal place on the political spectrum he delivered an artistic triumph which focuses on the cruelty & lack of meaningful process of coercive systems whatever their left/right background, by deploying ambiguity and so on rather than focussing on a more specific critique based on his own particular views. Although I don’t fully agree with your political analysis, bearing in mind the political scene when The Prisoner was made, I think the general thrust of what you say here is bang on, perhaps you could have said more about the depiction of individual freedom vs state control but we take from it what we will. Nevertheless it remains a fantastic multi layered piece of top quality television with superb production values and remains just as relevant today as it was when it was made.
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Post by Peter Stirling on Sept 15, 2021 14:51:50 GMT
The beauty of the programme is that anyone can exercise their brain for an hour and make of it what they will. Some now see political connotations but I don't think IMHO that was the original intention, the basic premise that people who work in and have access to catastrophic information that can affect world order are asked why they resigned is a strong one on its own.The fact that the series developed a heart beat and started living out of control from its own masters just added to the wonder and longevity.
I also don't think think it was politics or something about guns that got 'Living in Harmony' cancelled in the US either. It was simple scheduling requirements, the Prisoner in the US was just a summer time filler for regular shows on vacation and 16 shows took it into September the beginning of the TV year. As not having any particular link with other episodes and a western ( US territory, just as Dickens etc is UK's territory) it was the easiest one to leave out.
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Post by richardwoods on Sept 15, 2021 17:08:09 GMT
I really like Living in Harmony, one of my favourite ones. What a completely bonkers premise for an episode, make someone believe they are in the Wild West by using hallucinogenic drugs. I remember watching it for the first time (the early 80’s C4 repeats?), and the immediate “what the hell is going on” reaction.
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Post by timmunton on Sept 15, 2021 20:44:45 GMT
[quote author=" richardwoods": [/quote]Although I don’t fully agree with your political analysis, bearing in mind the political scene when The Prisoner was made, I think the general thrust of what you say here is bang on, perhaps you could have said more about the depiction of individual freedom vs state control but we take from it what we will. Nevertheless it remains a fantastic multi layered piece of top quality television with superb production values and remains just as relevant today as it was when it was made. [/quote] Thanks for your kind comment Richard- cheers.
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Post by tom rogers on Sept 15, 2021 21:11:34 GMT
I was six (!) when The Prisoner premiered here in the US. My parents were fans of Danger Man/Secret Agent and so they watched The Prisoner when it came on. Far past my bedtime, I happened to get up one night to get a drink and passed the tv as they were watching. I had no context at all to what I was seeing, which was Rover bouncing up and smothering someone. Looking back, I should have been scared out of my mind by that image, but instead I was transfixed and I asked my folks if I could watch it with them. To my surprise they said yes. From that day in 1968 I have been a huge fan. It is my all-time favorite tv show and I still find new things to consider when I watch it. Genius.
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