tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4665744582832084460.post200189968894037779..comments2022-11-02T08:54:08.295+00:00Comments on Number Six Was Innocent - McGoohan and The Prisoner: McGoohan on my Mind: Secrets, Agents, Ducks, Drakes and Get SmartMoor Larkinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05275057917684784541noreply@blogger.comBlogger9125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4665744582832084460.post-67869331054057727492016-04-03T02:51:42.132+01:002016-04-03T02:51:42.132+01:00I also don't think that it's surprising th...I also don't think that it's surprising that McGoohan's work might contain Christian imagery. Like it or not, and I'm not religious at all, it has had a vast influence on Western culture and is part of the shared vocabulary that artists can utilize, even subliminally. As for being on the reticent side about sex, we are all heavily influenced one way or another by our upbringing and McGoohan did grow up in the Catholic Ireland of the 1930s. No doubt that background also fed into his ideas about social control.JohnSnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4665744582832084460.post-6963897722328664762016-04-03T02:40:17.768+01:002016-04-03T02:40:17.768+01:00Re the "getting lucky" comment. It reall...Re the "getting lucky" comment. It really could have been nothing more than acknowledging that in producing a phenomenally complex enterprise like The Prisoner you need the breaks to go your way when things don't work out as planned. And many times they won't, however well planned a production may be.JohnSnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4665744582832084460.post-36413115078182868782016-02-01T20:53:03.488+00:002016-02-01T20:53:03.488+00:00I was about 12 years old when The Prisoner was...I was about 12 years old when The Prisoner was first aired. I had a major crush on Patrick McGoohan and so waited anxiously for each episode . I have been watching all of the Danger Man episodes . ..since I was so young when they first aired. I remember the U.S. theme song and even at that age I was drawn to John Drake and the excitement of the show.<br />I felt the same way about The Prisoner . ..even though I didn't know what to think about the last episode . <br />Mr McGoohan was interviewed for a show in Canada . ..and there are a few other interviews that are online...and he said that The Prisoner could be interpreted many ways...and don't when you watched again . .you could get another meaning . ..as HE did. <br />No one outside of the people who knew Mr McGoohan best will ever KNOW for sure what his real intent and meaning for the series was. He also said that "He got lucky" with some aspects of The Prisoner . ..what was he referring to ????<br />I don't know much about Mr McGoohan ' s childhood . .other than that he was studying for the priesthood until the age of 15. . . had asthma...and the different types of jobs he had before deciding to be an actor and starting his career.<br />I personally see religious symbolism in The Prisoner . ..and his enigmatic interview ending with , "Be seeing you . ...I hope."<br />He had a great understanding of human nature . ..as his interview about why John Drake would NOT be chasing women . ..either as a wife or to get information . ..and that if he was portraying a character in a situation where sex made sense..he WOULD play the role. He also said that he didn't believe in having gratuitous sex and violence in a media access that came into one's home at all times . <br />I believe that the Prisoner was showing that it's better to STAND for your beliefs when everyone else is trying to pressure you ...that YOU are your own worst enemy . ..and lastly . ..that HERE we are always a prisoner of something or someone ...but we make our own prison . ..be careful what . ..or WHO you choose.<br />I will always regret not sending a letter to Mr McGoohan to tell him how much I enjoyed his work . ..and to thank him for all the hard work on The Prisoner . <br />Be seeing you ! Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11216072285740409212noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4665744582832084460.post-75029814011500441432015-11-30T00:21:53.076+00:002015-11-30T00:21:53.076+00:00"The cross-over actors from Danger Man to The..."The cross-over actors from Danger Man to The Prisoner are reminders of the earlier series"<br /><br />They also turn up in lots of other UK TV series of the period. They were the regular, reliable, familiar, jobbing, affordable, very able, character actors of the time.<br /><br />As a producer of such a series you need someone who can walk on to a set, know their character from the merest hints in the hurriedly-written script, know their lines and nail an interpretation on Take One - because there may not be another. Time is money and money was tight on those series.<br /><br />McGoohan, like anyone else would often want to work again with someone whose work he admired - there is more than one actor who appears as different unrelated characters within Danger Man.<br /><br />Also, look at most of these actor's IMDB listings. They may well have been on Danger Man but they were usually also on The Saint and/or Man in a Suitcase and/or Department S and any number of other ITC series. They also appeared in many of the 1950s low-budget thrillers made for the cinema which were the forerunners of the ITC series. These films were often made by the same people, like Robert S Baker, Monty Berman and Sydney Cole. They often had recurring themes and character types, not least because they were ideas out there in the ether. There were memes before the internet and these films and the later series were full of them.<br />It is impossible to seriously examine any film or TV production without examining the context in which it was made, otherwise you end up ascribing uniqueness to something which was far from it.JohnSnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4665744582832084460.post-38195103813183805182015-01-08T19:11:38.838+00:002015-01-08T19:11:38.838+00:00Hi Anonymous
I know exactly what you mean. But pe...Hi Anonymous<br /><br />I know exactly what you mean. But perhaps one answer to this conundrum lies in WHO was Drake? Moor Larkinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05275057917684784541noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4665744582832084460.post-71338624708045731782015-01-07T13:32:36.373+00:002015-01-07T13:32:36.373+00:00Not replying, just trying to add a comment through...Not replying, just trying to add a comment through a less than adequate browser and it wont let me.<br />Lovely article, thank you, and well researched, however...<br />Sorry - but Six IS Drake. I've just finished watching Dangerman right through (now it's out) - wonderful stuff.<br />But McGoohan, flights of angels etc,, could deny till he was blue in the face: Six is Drake, and we all know why he resigned too. Even some of the bridging characters (or background characters I might say) are too similar to ignore, and honestly ... The General??<br />Sometimes a mythos is much bigger than its creator. This is what has happened with DangerMan and The Prisoner.<br />Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4665744582832084460.post-64185974026103141262011-11-03T13:53:34.211+00:002011-11-03T13:53:34.211+00:00The type-casting schtick is interesting. Up until ...The type-casting schtick is interesting. Up until the 1990's,whenever he cropped up in the press in Bitain he would usually still be referred to as "Danger Man". Then, over the ensuing decade it gradually changed and now of course the vast majority of references will likely refer to him as "The Prisoner".<br /><br />Maybe, if Rafferty ever gets out on dvd, one day he will be referred to as "The Doctor" .... :-DMoor Larkinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05275057917684784541noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4665744582832084460.post-58375814261213925982011-11-02T02:43:01.019+00:002011-11-02T02:43:01.019+00:00By my delusional figuring, The Village represented...By my delusional figuring, The Village represented the series Danger Man. Number One was Drake. The cross-over actors from Danger Man to The Prisoner are reminders of the earlier series. Number Six is McGoohan as himself, trying to escape his identity with Danger Man. McGoohan, aka Six, escapes typecasting. He then puts a 180-degree exclamation point to that by starring as a prison warden later on, but that's another story...Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4665744582832084460.post-88911078132900775952009-06-25T22:55:09.743+01:002009-06-25T22:55:09.743+01:00I've always assumed the Prisoner was McGoohan ...I've always assumed the Prisoner was McGoohan saying goodbye to Dangerman and his association with it for the benefit of the publics minds at least rather than a continuation of the role.. I think those who think the latter are just looking for another explanation for the unexplanable. Sure there are personal snippets McGoohan included about himself but you have to ask yourself why McGoohan would be attempting to make a programme about Dangerman if he resigned from the show to move on to other things..Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com