Neil D Posted January 15, 2009 Posted January 15, 2009 Jan 14, 2009, 01:29 PM | by Ken Tucker Categories: '60s mind-blowing, Television Patrick McGoohan, the man who embodied hope over despair in the coolest way imaginable in the 1960s cult TV classic The Prisoner, has died--he was 80 years old. The Prisoner was a British TV series that aired in America starting in 1967. Only 17 episodes long, The Prisoner was a strikingly original show about a former British spy who wakes one morning to find himself in a psychedelic fantasy-land that's not all candy and sunshine--it's a combination British village/futuristic prison, and McGoohan's character was stripped of his identity and known only as "Number Six." McGoohan (who'd starred in an earlier spy show, Danger Man, which was titled Secret Agent in the U.S.) had the rugged good looks and clipped accent that leant The Prisoner a gravity its giddy alternate-worldliness might otherwise have lacked. Number Six's famous cry, "I am not a number, I am a free man!" became both a counterculture catchphrase as well as an anguished plea for freedom. The Prisoner was James Bond for acid-heads, and McGoohan's straitlaced image made his small-screen version of a hip spy all the more appealing. McGoohan also appeared in many films, from Ice Station Zebra to Braveheart, but for TV fans, he'll always be The Prisoner. Quote Democracy is a device that ensures we shall be governed no better than we deserve. George Bernard Shaw
Administrators Tom Wetmore Posted January 15, 2009 Administrators Posted January 15, 2009 I was a fan of that cult classic show, The Prisoner. It was an extreme Orwellian world... A fun show for the paranoid to watch... No place to hide, all areas monitored, no way to escape the island. "Number Six, we want information!" Quote "Absurdity reigns and confusion makes it look good." "Sinless perfection is such a shallow goal." "I love God only as much as the person I love the least." *Forgiveness is always good news. And that is the gospel truth. (And finally, the ideas expressed above are solely my person views and not that of any organization with which I am associated.)
Members phkrause Posted January 16, 2009 Members Posted January 16, 2009 The original was the Secret Agent series. The Prisoner was the sequel of what happens when an agent want's to retire. I believe that the series was running while I was in the military during the Vietnam War. My brother told me all about it when I got home. I have the series on DVD now. I always liked him, he was quite a different character. pk Quote phkrause Read Isaiah 10:1-13
Moderators Nan Posted January 16, 2009 Moderators Posted January 16, 2009 I saw him in Danger Man, but not Prisoner....we did not have TV at home then, must have watched it at a relly's house. Quote
guibox Posted January 17, 2009 Posted January 17, 2009 I guess there will be no more 'eating from the scraps of Longshank's table!!' (read with heavy Scottish accent) May he rest in peace...No more a 'Prisoner'. Quote www.corbel.theacaistory.com
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