Poison sausages and platypus venom MARK GREENER
way to access other states of consciousness (as advocated by writers such as Ken Kesey), but are instead a detriment to the individual, yet another method of social control aimed at keeping a potentially disruptive population pacified. McGoohan’s own sincerely held beliefs trumped those of the people to whom his fight for the individual against those who would control society might otherwise appeal. Indeed, being older than most of its participants, McGoohan was a vocal opponent of what was known at the time as the ‘permissive society’, whether that be in matters of drugs or sex and sexuality. This was just one of many dichotomies from which The Prisoner was built. “I believe,” said McGoohan, “[that] the inherent danger is that with an excess of freedom we will ultimately destroy ourselves.” One key, perhaps, to the puzzle of
The Prisoner is that the show and its creator railed equally against authoritarianism and anarchy…
NUMBERS: The main characters of The Prisoner are Number 1 (never seen, until the end), Number 2, and Number 6. The hierarchical meanings are clear enough, however in the final episode ‘Fall Out’ (warning: major spoiler for a 50-year-old TV show coming up…) it is revealed that Number 6 is, in fact, also Number 1. The hidden controller of this world is a mere reflection of the tortured main character (or vice versa), the man in control being simply another aspect of the imprisoned one. Said McGoohan of this controversial conclusion: “If there are answers, they are contained in the last episode. Number 1, the horror figure hanging over it all, is revealed as the Prisoner [Number 6] himself. He tears off a mask – the face of an ape – revealing the bestial self which has been his greatest enemy.” He also stated: “This overriding, evil force is at its most powerful within ourselves and we have constantly to fight it and that is why I made Number 1 an image of Number 6. His other half, his alter ego.” That’s all clear, then…
ESCAPING THE VILLAGE
Patrick McGoohan always refused to ‘explain’ The Prisoner, believing that to do so would somehow diminish the show’s power. At the very least, if he had put a definitive explanation on the events of the series, he would have shut down many fruitful and enjoyable avenues of exploration. However, looking at some of the things he did say about the show over the years, it is possible to discern some idea of what its driving force thought The
Prisoner was all about. As Wired noted at the time of McGoohan’s death in 2009: “From technological nightmares of surveillance and murderous inventions like the balloon Rovers to brain transplants and Clockwork
Orange- like torture, The Prisoner challenged viewer expectation and experience with every episode.” The show was essentially an allegory of the individual, whom McGoohan personified as ‘everyman’ (the name of his production company that made The
Prisoner was Everyman Films) seeking peace and freedom in a dystopia that had disguised itself as a utopia. McGoohan once explained: “I must have individuality in everything I do. It’s not easy to find it always. I question everything. I don’t accept anything on face value.” Clearly, his message was that neither should we.
In a 1990 Radio One interview with Simon Bates, McGoohan further explained that “the Prisoner never escapes… everyone is a prisoner of something. You escape when you’re released, I suppose, by death. It’s the final release, and as to how and where you go and what [happens] thereafter depends on what sort of prisoner you were. You can be a prisoner and free, at least temporarily.”
In 1984, McGoohan said of his controversial work: “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.” Fifty years on from the debut of The Prisoner, McGoohan’s words and work are just as relevant today, in the era of Trump and ‘fake news’, as they have ever been. Be seeing you…
BRIAN J ROBB is a regular contributor to FT and the author of books on silent film, superheroes, Steampunk and Philip K Dick.