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The opening and closing sequences of the TV series The Prisoner are considered iconic. The music over the opening and closing credits, as broadcast, was composed by Ron Grainer, a composer whose other credits include the theme music for Doctor Who .
Ron Grainer's theme was chosen after two other composers, Robert Farnon and Wilfred Josephs, created themes that were rejected by series executive producer Patrick McGoohan. Farnon's theme was rejected for being a virtual copy from the film The Big Country (1958). Josephs' discordant theme got as far as being applied to early edits of "Arrival" and "The Chimes of Big Ben", and can be heard on the recovered early edits of the two episodes that have subsequently been released to DVD. (Prior to this, Josephs' melody was used as incidental music on the broadcast versions of "Arrival".) Farnon's theme remained unheard until it was unearthed for Don't Knock Yourself Out, a DVD featurette created for the 2007 DVD reissue of The Prisoner in the UK; the featurette was also included in the 2009 A&E Home Video DVD and Blu-ray release in North America. Before he would finally use Grainer's theme, McGoohan required Grainer to rescore it in a faster tempo and place emphasis on the timpani.
The title sequence (seen in all but two episodes) begins with a clouded sky and the sound of thunder, the latter becoming that of a jet engine. As the theme music begins a runway (believed to be Santa Pod Raceway in Podington in real life) [1] appears and a Lotus Super Seven drives under the camera (driven by stuntman Jack Cooper). The view dissolves to reveal a stern-faced man, the future Number Six, driving past the Houses of Parliament in London, into an underground car park (near Hyde Park). Much of this footage was shot on 28 August 1966. [2]
Entering the building through a set of double doors labelled "Way Out", he then strides down a long, narrow corridor leading to another set of double doors; he pulls these open with great ferocity. The man mounts a fierce (but inaudible) argument before a man (played by series co-creator George Markstein) at a desk, delivers an envelope marked "Private—Personal—By Hand" (presumably his letter of resignation) to the other man, and slams his fist onto the desk, smashing the saucer of a cup of tea. Throughout all of this, the man behind the desk is not seen to speak and appears to be fiddling with a pen, so it never becomes clear whether he is even listening to what is being said. The angry man leaves and drives home (to 1 Buckingham Place, London SW1 6HR [3] ), past Buckingham Palace. He does not realise that he is being followed by a hearse, identified by the license plate "TLH 858".
Meanwhile, in an unknown location full of filing cabinets, an automated system types a series of large Xs across the man's photograph and drops it into a drawer marked "RESIGNED".
At the man's flat, he quickly packs his possessions into a suitcase, including several travel-destination brochures. The hearse pulls up and a man dressed like an undertaker [4] approaches the front door. A white vapour floods the room through the keyhole, rendering the man immobile as he gazes at the large apartment buildings outside his window, and then collapses, unconscious. This is followed by a momentary blackout (in some showings, a commercial break occurs here). He awakens seemingly in exactly the same place, rises, walks straight to a window, looks out and this time, instead of the apartment buildings, he sees the Village. This is shown in a shot from his point of view, through the window, over which the episode's title is superimposed. In all but four episodes this is followed by a montage of shots of the man running around the Village, over which the following dialogue is heard:
- Number Six: Where am I?
- Number Two (not identified as yet): In the village.
- Six: What do you want?
- Two: Information.
- Six: Whose side are you on?
- Two: That would be telling. We want information...information... information!!!
- Six: You won't get it!
- Two: By hook or by crook, we will.
- Six: Who are you?
- Two: The new Number Two.
- Six: Who is Number One?
- Two: You are Number Six.
- Six (running on the Village's beach): I am not a number; I am a free man!!!
- Two: [Laughter]
A close-up of the actor playing Number Two in the particular episode is usually inserted once. Credits for guest stars, producer David Tomblin, script editor George Markstein (thirteen episodes only), the writer(s) and director are superimposed over this.
This is not invariable across the run. Sometimes Number Two's side of the conversation is provided by Robert Rietti instead of the actual actor; only Leo McKern, Mary Morris, Colin Gordon and Peter Wyngarde provided dialogue for the conversation. For the remaining episodes (where the dialogue was used) Rietti's voiceover was heard, although a shot of the actor playing Number Two would still be inserted following the line "By hook or by crook, we will." (The exceptions are "Many Happy Returns" and "The Girl Who Was Death", where an extra shot of Rover was inserted instead, because revealing Number Two's identity at that stage would have ruined the plot.) In the cases of "Many Happy Returns" and "Free for All", Rietti's voiceover is used despite one of the characters ultimately revealed as Number Two in those episodes being female.
In "Arrival", the first episode of the series, the opening sequence is slightly longer and contains additional footage. When the hero pulls into the underground car park, he is seen to take a ticket from an automatic machine and then to park next to a kerb. He gets out of the car and pushes through a set of double doors, which bear the words "Way" and "Out". As he leaves, what appears to be the hearse can be seen waiting for the Prisoner to pull out onto the street; shortly after this, the Lotus is seen passing it. None of this is seen in any other episode. The dialogue sequence does not follow the awakening here, because it is essentially a compressed presentation of the Prisoner's learning about his new surroundings as depicted in detail over the course of this episode. In the original broadcast order of the series (which did not reflect production order), the dialogue between Number Six and Number Two is first heard in "The Chimes of Big Ben".
In "A. B. and C.", instead of "The new Number Two", the line is read as "I am Number Two". Here the role is played by Colin Gordon, who would also have the part in "The General". As noted above, the episodes were not broadcast in production sequence; Gordon filmed his appearance as Number Two in "The General" first.
"Do Not Forsake Me Oh My Darling" precedes the resignation sequence with a scene featuring two men sitting in an office and discussing a series of projected slides, that one of the men is certain conceals a message. Furthermore, this episode eschews the dialogue between Number Six and Number Two and superimposes the opening credits over footage of a helicopter arriving in the Village.
"Living in Harmony" features none of the typical title sequence at all, instead opening with a Western-style version. McGoohan appears as a sheriff turning in his badge, and soon thereafter getting ambushed and beaten into unconsciousness by several men, at which point the episode title is displayed. (In this episode, the series title is not displayed on screen until the closing credits.) He subsequently wakes in a town called Harmony, run by a very Number Two-like Judge.
"Fall Out" also completely does away with the standard sequences; instead, it opens with a recap of the previous episode, "Once Upon a Time", followed by a series of aerial shots of the Village over which the typical credits are superimposed. (Also, there is an additional screen at the beginning revealing the location of the Village as Portmeirion.) Although Patrick McGoohan is credited as the episode's writer and director, at no point in the opening or closing credits is he actually credited as playing Number Six in this finale episode.
The high production values involved have led the opening sequence to be described as more like film than television. [5] Like the series as a whole, the opening sequence can be seen as a prefiguration of postmodernism; [6] it establishes an Orwellian dramatic premise that is deconstructed by its own absurdity. In addition, the final episode recontextualises the exchange in the opening sequence: the response to "Who is Number One?" is revealed to be not "You are Number Six", a deflection, but "You are, Number Six," a truthful answer. [7] [8]
Just before the closing credits of each episode (except "Fall Out"), the face of The Prisoner rises up from a bird's-eye view of the Village, to be covered by bars clanging shut. [9] This is not seen in "Fall Out" as a tag, but appears in the crystal ball held by the robed Number One in the episode's climax.
The closing credits appear over a drawing of the penny-farthing bicycle, the logo of the Village, that slowly assembles in stop-frame animation. After the bicycle is fully assembled, the shot changes to one of Rover, the large, white, balloon-like Village guard device, rising up through water and bouncing into the distance. In the transmission prints, there is no consistency as to when the cut to replace these graphics with the clip of Rover occurs. In a couple of episodes, the last piece of the bicycle has yet to appear, and in another, its entire framework has faded away from the wheels.
In the originally planned version of the closing credits, seen in the alternative version of "The Chimes of Big Ben", Rover is not shown. Instead, the image of the bicycle frame fades out to leave only the wheels. The wheels then begin to spin faster and faster transforming into Earth (little wheel) and the Universe (big wheel). The Earth, spinning on its axis, flies toward the camera and explodes into the word "POP". (This is an acronym for "Protect Other People" which is referred to in the episode "Once Upon a Time", and also in the show's occasional use of the song "Pop Goes the Weasel".)
An early edit of "Arrival", released to DVD in 2007, does not include the POP animation. Instead, after the bike completely forms, the background fades to a starfield, with the Earth in the place of the smaller wheel and the universe as the big wheel. The canopy of the bike then appears in the sky above the two "wheels".
The final episode, "Fall Out", presents a further variation; the completed bicycle maintains its visual presence during the closing strains of the theme, instead of being replaced by either the cosmic animation or the live-action footage of Rover.
Regarding actor credits, three variants of note are "Living in Harmony" and "The Girl Who Was Death", which include the "Patrick McGoohan as the Prisoner" credit during the closing credits in place of his executive producership; and "Fall Out" which, though crediting McGoohan for writing and directing the episode early on, completely omits any other credit for him, while displaying the names of cast members Leo McKern and Alexis Kanner three times each. Angelo Muscat (The Butler) also gets his name up on screen an extra time, in the closing minutes of the story where the other two actors' names get their additional displays; for McGoohan's turn here, there is an overhead shot of Number Six's car on London streets, so high that the driver is unidentifiable, and the word "Prisoner" (no "The") is superimposed instead of the actor's name as had just happened with Kanner, McKern and Muscat.
The Prisoner is a 1967 British television series created by and starring Patrick McGoohan, with possible contributions from George Markstein. McGoohan portrays Number Six, an unnamed British intelligence agent who is abducted and imprisoned in a mysterious coastal village after resigning from his position. The allegorical plotlines of the series contain elements of science fiction, psychological drama, and spy fiction. It was produced by Everyman Films for distribution by Lew Grade's ITC Entertainment.
Number Six is the central character in the 1967–1968 television series The Prisoner. The unnamed character in the original TV series was played by series co-creator Patrick McGoohan. For one episode, "Do Not Forsake Me Oh My Darling", Number Six was portrayed by Nigel Stock due to McGoohan being away filming the movie Ice Station Zebra.
Danger Man is a British television series that was broadcast between 1960 and 1962, and again between 1964 and 1968. The series featured Patrick McGoohan as secret agent John Drake. Ralph Smart created the programme and wrote many of the scripts. Danger Man was financed by Lew Grade's ITC Entertainment.
John Drake is a fictional secret agent, played by Patrick McGoohan in the British television series Danger Man. Unlike James Bond, he never carried a gun, rarely used far-fetched gadgets, never got the girl, and rarely killed anyone on screen.
Patrick Joseph McGoohan was an American-born Irish actor, director, screenwriter, and producer of film, television, and theatre. Born in New York City to Irish parents, he was raised in Ireland and England, began his career in England during the 1950s and became well known for the titular role, secret agent John Drake in the ITC espionage programme Danger Man (1960–1968). He then produced and created The Prisoner (1967–1968), a surrealistic television series in which he featured as Number Six, an unnamed British intelligence agent who is abducted and imprisoned in a mysterious coastal village.
“The Computer Wore Menace Shoes" is the sixth episode of the twelfth season of the American animated television series The Simpsons. It first aired on the Fox network in the United States on December 3, 2000. In the episode, Homer buys a computer and creates his own website to spread gossip and fake news. However, when Homer starts writing conspiracy theories about flu shots, he is sent to an island where people who know too much are imprisoned.
The Village is the fictional setting of the 1960s UK television series The Prisoner where the main character, Number Six, is held with other former spies and operatives from various countries. The theme of the series is his captors' attempts to find out why Number Six resigned from his job and his attempts to escape from the Village and learn the identity of Number One. Ostensibly, those running the Village – thought by many to be countries around the world – believe that once Number Six is coerced into explaining the motive(s) behind his resignation, all the state secrets he knows will come tumbling out. However, the ultimate use of these secrets is only intimated, but not overtly explored. Beyond its explicit physical setting, the Village is also viewed as an allegory for humanity and society during the Cold War era. Patrick McGoohan notes in various post-show interviews that the Village is "within all of us...we all live in a little Village...Your village may be different from other people's villages but we are all prisoners."
"Arrival" is the first episode of the allegorical British science fiction TV series The Prisoner. It was written by George Markstein and David Tomblin, and directed by Don Chaffey. It was first broadcast in the UK on ITV on Friday 29 September 1967, and first aired in the United States on CBS on Saturday 1 June 1968.
"The Chimes of Big Ben" is an episode of the allegorical British science fiction TV series, The Prisoner. It was written by Vincent Tilsley and directed by Don Chaffey and fifth to be produced. It was the second episode to be broadcast in the UK on ITV on Friday 6 October 1967 and first aired in the United States on CBS on Saturday 8 June 1968.
"Fall Out" is the 17th and final episode of the allegorical British science fiction series The Prisoner. It was written and directed by Patrick McGoohan who also portrayed the incarcerated Number Six. The episode was first broadcast in the UK on ITV on Thursday 1 February 1968 and first aired in the United States on CBS on 21 September 1968.
"Once Upon a Time" is the penultimate episode of the allegorical British science fiction TV series, The Prisoner. It was written and directed by Patrick McGoohan and sixth to be produced. It was first broadcast in the UK on ITV on Thursday 25 January 1968 and first aired in the United States on CBS on Saturday 14 September 1968.
"Living in Harmony" is an episode of the allegorical British science fiction TV series, The Prisoner. It was written by David Tomblin and Ian L. Rakoff and directed by Tomblin and was the fifteenth produced. It was broadcast in the UK on ITV on Friday 29 December 1967 and was not screened in the United States on CBS during the initial network run.
"Dance of the Dead" is an episode of the allegorical British science fiction TV series The Prisoner. It was written by Anthony Skene and directed by Don Chaffey and fourth to be produced. It was the eighth episode to be broadcast in the UK, on ITV on Friday 17 November 1967, and first aired in the United States on CBS on Saturday 27 July 1968.
"It's Your Funeral" is an episode of the allegorical British science fiction TV series, The Prisoner. It was written by Michael Cramoy and directed by Robert Asher and eighth produced. It was the eleventh episode to be broadcast in the UK on ITV on Friday 8 December 1967 and first aired in the United States on CBS on Saturday 10 August 1968.
"Do Not Forsake Me Oh My Darling" is an episode of the allegorical British science fiction TV series, The Prisoner. It was written by Vincent Tilsley and directed by Pat Jackson and was the fourteenth produced. It was the thirteenth episode to be broadcast in the UK on ITV on Friday 22 December 1967 and first aired in the United States on CBS on Saturday 3 August 1968.
"Many Happy Returns" is an episode of the allegorical British science fiction TV series The Prisoner. It was written by Anthony Skene and directed by Patrick McGoohan. The thirteenth episode produced, it was the seventh episode to be broadcast in the UK on ITV on Friday 10 November 1967, and first aired in the United States on CBS on Saturday 20 July 1968.
The Prisoner: Shattered Visage is a four-issue comic book mini-series published by DC Comics in 1988–1989, based on The Prisoner, the 1967 television series created by and starring Patrick McGoohan. The name is a reference to Percy Shelley's famous sonnet Ozymandias, which forms part of the introduction.
The Prisoner is a 2009 six-part television miniseries based on the 1960s TV series The Prisoner. The series concerned a man who awakens in a mysterious, picturesque, but escape-proof village, and stars Jim Caviezel, Sir Ian McKellen, Ruth Wilson, and Hayley Atwell. It was co-produced by American cable network AMC with British channel ITV, which now holds the rights to the original series. It received mixed reviews, with critics feeling that the remake was not as compelling as the original series.
The Prisoner, a British television series that originally ran from 1967 to 1968, has been represented in several other media.
The Prisoner is a 17-episode British television series broadcast in the UK from 29 September 1967 to 1 February 1968. Starring and co-created by Patrick McGoohan, it combined spy fiction with elements of science fiction, allegory, and psychological drama. Since its debut, the series' enduring popularity has led to its influencing and being referenced in a range of other media, such as the film The Truman Show, and the television shows Lost and The X-Files. The producer of The X-Files called The Prisoner "the Gone with the Wind of its genre." The Guardian wrote that "Without The Prisoner, we'd never have had cryptic, mindbending TV series like Twin Peaks or Lost. It's the Citizen Kane of British TV – a programme that changed the landscape."
