Be Seeing You...

After getting into The Prisoner in a big way last year, I was saddened to hear about Patrick McGoohan's death on Tuesday. Having finally aquired the series in its beautifully restored form in the fortieth anniversary boxset, and absolutely adoring the show, I found the man and his work fascinating. Let's not forget that The Prisoner pretty much defined the sort of modern day episodic and 'difficult' TV fare such as Twin Peaks or Lost or The X-Files. McGoohan pre-dated all of those TV auteurs such as Lynch, Whedon and Carter by creating, writing, producing, starring and masterminding someting with startling vision.
But The Prisoner was more audacious than pretty much anything we have now; a challenging allegory about attempting to find freedom in a dystopia masquerading as a utopia. It was an envelope pushing piece of fiction that was far ahead of its time, and remains still, socially and politically prescient. The final episode, Fallout, outraged audiences by refusing to give a pat conclusion to the series; instead McGoohan crafted a surreal, witty hour of TV that continued to ask questions. I loved it and McGoohan for his steadfastness. When asked about that final episode, he said:
"If I could do it again, I would. As long as people feel something, that's the great thing. It's when they are walking around not thinking and not feeling, that's tough. When you get a mob like that, you can turn them into the sort of gang that Hitler had."
Anyone who hasn't seen it... well, you should. I loved visiting Portmerion last year; it was a unique experience to walk around The Village itself, unchanged in forty years, surrounded by hundreds of other people who were there for the same reason. How many TV shows will have that kind of longevity and leave such a huge legacy in the culture?
It's very rare that any celebrity death has any impact upon me, but I'm actually quite sad. I was hoping that he might get that cameo in the imminent Prisoner remake, starring Jim Cavziel and Ian McKellen, but apparently he was already too sick to do so.
So RIP, Mr McGoohan, you sir were a visonary.
Be seeing you Number six...