Be seeing you, Number Six

Last spring, in quick succession, I found two boxed DVD sets at deep-discount prices, and bought both of them (in one case, I used a gift certificate I had gotten as a birthday present). Both of them have become prize possessions.

Both of the boxed sets were of British TV series from the late 1960s/early 1970s. But that's about the only thing they had in common.

One of them was the complete "Monty Python's Flying Circus," which is pure genius, but I'll blither about it some other time.

The other one was ... "The Prisoner."

I was saddened on Wednesday to read about the death of Patrick McGoohan, 80, the star and creator of that groundbreaking series. He was definitely a hands-on force in the show, and some of the names of writers and directors listed in its credits were actually pseudonyms for McGoohan.

There's been increased interest in "The Prisoner" in recent months; the U.S. cable channel AMC and the British channel ITV have collaborated on a remake which will air on AMC later this year. It stars James Caviezel in McGoohan's old role, Number Six, and Sir Ian McKellen as Number Two -- a role played by a variety of actors in the original.

I'm suspicious of remakes, and I'm not sure this one was necessary, but I like both Caviezel and McKellen and I'm cautiously optimistic. But even if it's good, it won't be the original.

"The Prisoner" is a hard series to describe. Its opening credits show the main character angrily resigning from a top-secret position. Many fans like to assume that McGoohan was continuing the character of John Drake from his previous series, "Secret Agent," and ITV authorized some spinoff novels which assumed this as well. But McGoohan consistently denied it in interviews -- perhaps for legal reasons, so that he wouldn't have to involve the creators of "Secret Agent" in the followup project.

At any rate, we never hear the character referred to by his real name. After resigning, he is abducted and taken to a surreal, resort-like prison camp called "The Village." Everyone in The Village is known by a number. Our hero is Number Six; the Village is run by Number Two, which is more of a job title than a name, since there's pretty much a different Number Two every week. Leo McKern, later known as "Rumpole of the Bailey," appeared on three different episodes, and that was the record.

Number Two presumably reports to a Number One somewhere, but McGoohan has no idea whether the parties responsible for his capture are within his own government, an enemy government, or some third party. Adding to the mystery is that, except for Number Two and a few of his top lieutenants, no one can be completely sure whether any particular person in The Village is one of the prisoners or one of the guards.

Number Two and the staff of The Village try to extract information from the prisoners, by means of drugs, mind games, deceptions and just generally wearing them down. In Number Six's case, they want to know why he resigned. Number Six, meanwhile, wants to escape, and/or to find out who is really running The Village.

The original U.S. airings of "The Prisoner" took place when I was quite young, but one thing I do vaguely remember: those who tried to escape The Village were pursued, and ultimately smothered, by an eerie white balloon, which bounced along with a mind of its own.

AMC, in order to promote its remake, has now put all 17 episodes of the classic series online, both in their complete form and as tongue-in-cheek "episode in a minute" recaps. I'm still glad to have my DVDs, but if you haven't seen this terrific show you need to check out a few of the episodes online.

-- John I. Carney is city editor of the Times-Gazette and covers county government and other topics. His home page is lakeneuron.com.

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