The Prisoner Escapes

Greetings Ladies and Germs

“Where am I?”
“In the Village.”
“What do you want?”
“Information.”
“Whose side are you on?”
“That would be telling…. We want information. Information! INFORMATION!”
“You won’t get it.”
“By hook or by crook, we will.”
“Who are you?”
“The new Number Two.”
“Who is Number One?”
“You are Number Six.”
“I am not a number — I am a free man!”

I was very saddened to hear of the loss of Patrick McGoohan, last week. For those of you in the know, (for those f you not, why not?) the above exchange let you know that you were in for one hell of a TV ride, as you settled in for another episode of "The Prisoner".

Discussing the Big Mac's passing with some friends, it led us onto the subject of the, now rarely encountered, collective TV experience. Big Brother and it's ilk, notwithstanding, (they have me longing for the taste of Gunmetal in my mouth) the proliferation of TV channels available to the average schmo' is now so great that the chances of your friends, romans or country folk even watching the same program as you, let alone at the same time as you watched it, are growing ever more remote by the day. With hard disc recorders (Any excuse to put in print that my Tivo still rocks) now replacing the humble video recorder and the growth of On-Demand content available, it is possible that your counterpart may still watch the same programme as you, but, he may not actually get around to seeing it until six months or so later.
During our Guinness fuelled reminiscing, we could all remember watching the 1978 World Cup, Reggie Perrin (complete with full C.J. "One, two, three, four - make 'em sweat outside the door. Five, six, seven, eight - always pays to make 'em wait. Nine, ten, eleven, twelve -Come!" speech) and all agreed that Friday night was, indeed, Petrocelli night.

Now maybe this comes across as one of those "in my day" pieces of claptrap, but, it is not intended in that way at all. It is to illustrate that when shows like the "The Prisoner" were first shown, they were looking to provoke a reaction or even, healthy debate. Of course, if that show were released today it would not only be be fighting for airtime, but, it would be playing second fiddle to the Big Brother/I've got NO Talent/Celebrity Come Prancing brain-drain fodder. My guess is that the conversations would be something like this:

Q: "So, who do you think is really Number One in that "Prisoner" show?"
A: "Well, I reckon that" - 1 hour conversation ensues, covering Freedom, Mortality, Football, David Vine, Reggie Perrin and Parenthood.

Q: "Did you see how she never moved while she was sleeping on that bed in Big Brother?"
A: "Yeh"



Peas and Fluff


Mick