The Village in the Prisoner remake

I had not noticed until reading a post on SFX that the trailer for the new Prisoner features a brief image of The Village. It occurs about four seconds in and I have done a screen shot (above). I earlier speculated about Swapokmund vs. Portmeirion and it seems likely that the success of the remake will depend largely on how good the new Village looks. From this, and from other pictures of Swapokmund, it reminds me more of the Truman Show's Seaside location in Florida than Portmeirion. Perhaps that will work well in the new version; I am looking forward to finding out. Incidentally, that SFX post also makes the excellent point that the trailer looks a bit underwhelming to those who have recently seen the Doctor Who Easter special "Planet of the Dead", which also has a double decker bus and a desert. But this trailer was clearly made for American TV, and only naughty people here in the US have seen "Planet of the Dead". Perhaps ITV will be well advised to construct a slightly different promo for use in the UK.

The Prisoner: first trailer for the new version

A short (fifteen second) trailer has been released for the new version of The Prisoner, which is to premiere later this year. The trailer appears on AMC's website, and it appeared before that on American television on Sunday. The voice on the trailer is American, so it looks like the remake will be on in America, at least, in November. It will be interesting to see if ITV in the UK gets it at the same time.

The Prisoner Promo


I particularly like Ian McKellen saying "Be Seeing You" in a menacing way at the end -- very promising.

(HT: Den of Geek, The Unmutual, AMC Prisoner site).

Patrick McGoohan (1928-2009)

I was sorry to hear today of the death of Patrick McGoohan. I have followed his career with interest ever since first catching The Prisoner in its 1984 re-run on Channel 4. As children, and for some years afterwards, we used to holiday in Portmeirion where The Prisoner was filmed back in 1966. On several occasions, my brother and I attended the Six of One conventions there. The Prisoner, starring McGoohan, sometimes written and directed by him too, is without question one of the greatest TV series of all time. To an extent its cult success has obscured the McGoohan's many other roles. I used to sneak off to my college room in the mid-80s to catch Channel 4's re-runs of Danger Man, the spy drama that made McGoohan famous in the 1960s, in the role of John Drake. I remember with fondness his several appearances in one of my other favourite TV series of all time, Columbo, most recently in one of the final episodes to have aired, Ashes to Ashes (1998), featuring his daughter Catherine, and which McGoohan directed.

There are already several detailed and interesting obituaries, including The Times, The Guardian (with more in their TV Blog) and The Telegraph. Portmeirion itself mourns his death and the fansites have their tributes, Six of One (with a recent photograph given to the society by the family), which includes a lengthy obituary (PDF) penned by Roger Langley, McGoohan's biographer. See also The Unmutual, which is gathering tributes, and a delightful series of reflections that parallel my memories on Stuff on TV by Cameron McEwan.

Update (22.40): Although he wouldn't remember us, we met Mitch (then Mitchell) Benn at his first and subsequent two or three Prisoner conventions in Portmeirion. We were quiet, passive participants; Mitchell and the "Liverpool group" were brash, loud, ultimately very funny participants. I remember the Liverpool group's parody of "The Two Ronnies" sketch in which Ronnie Barker's speciality is answering the next question. One of the answers in this quiz was "Mitchell bloody-know-it-all Benn" to paroxysms of laughter, and a withering look at the audience from Benn that made you think, "This bloke is pretty funny". Well, I mention these reflections from over twenty years ago because the comedian Mitch Benn looks back on those days of his "hardcore nerdment" on his blog:

So reading of Ol' Paddy McGoo's passing hits home, 'cos it kind of feels like a big chunk of my adolescence has gone with him.

RIP/BCNU...

Portmeirion vs. Swakopmund

(Portmeirion, location for The Prisoner, 1967)


(Swakopmund, location for The Prisoner, 2009)

The remake of the Prisoner continues apace out in Namibia (see also The Unmutual for news; my take here), It is headed for ITV next year, with Ian McKellen as Number 2 and Jim Caviezel as Number 6. One of the things that differentiates the remake from the 1967 original is that we already know where it is being filmed, in Swakopmund, Namibia. This is something of a contrast with the original series. It was apparently something of a mystery to many, when The Prisoner first aired, where on earth they could have filmed the action. When the final episode, "Fall Out", aired in 1968, it began with the on-screen announcement that the series had been filmed on location in Portmeirion, North Wales, by permission of Mr (later Sir) Clough Williams-Ellis. Indeed, the hasty resolution of that mystery lead many to think that the rest of the episode would unravel other mysteries, an expectation that some felt was unfulfilled.

One of the obvious charms of the original series is Portmeirion, as well as the Portmeirion-inspired enhancements to the village that they recreated in the studio, so it will be interesting to see whether the new location, Swakopmund, can live up to its predecessor. Portmeirion is one of my favourite places, and we were going on family holidays there before I had even seen The Prisoner (I first caught it on the 1984 Channel 4 repeats), so it is unlikely that Swakopmund will ever rival Portmeirion in my affections. Nevertheless, to go to google images on Swakopmund reveals an amazing architecture that does have some echoes of the magic of Portmeirion, and it is easy to see why it was chosen for the location filming. I must admit that I am intrigued. AMC's website on the remake offers some tantalizing insights into the new series, video diaries, blogs and the like, but they are being careful to point the camera away from what we will see on screen.

Now in the original, Number 6 is imprisoned in "the village", of course, and not in Portmeirion, but the other major location is London, seen at the beginning of almost every episode and again at more length in other episodes like "Many Happy Returns" and "Do Not Forsake Me Oh My Darling". There is no word yet on whether Caviezel's Prisoner will begin in London. Caviezel himself is American, so perhaps not. I would love to see London retained as the Prisoner's home, though.

New Prisoner TV series teaser site

Just how exciting is this? The team behind the remake of The Prisoner (my coverage here) is already providing some fantastic pre-series viral stuff, including this great teaser website:

Seek the Six

(H.T.: TV Spy and The Unmutual). The gist is that you go looking for pictures related to "six" and "six of one". There is one in each of the six groups. When you have clicked all six, Jim Caviezel (Number 6) appears, with "I am not a number" written above his picture. And then the picture of Ian McKellen (Number 2) appears, and you are assigned a number. Mine is Number 260,163. Not quite as memorable as 6, perhaps. Several things are encouraging here. One is the sheer effort that is going into making this reimagination a success. Another is the clear sense already of their capturing the feeling of the original series. Those shots of McKellen and Caviezel look Prisoner-esque. Only think of the head shot of McGoohan that begins and ends every episode. And the pithy sentences that keep appearing on the site when you correctly find a 6 are sometimes from the original series, but sometimes are new phrases that capture its style, "I don't think you want freedom", "Help me to conform, submit" and so on. And it may be my imagination, but lots of those pictures do evoke memories of The Prisoner, not least those of filing cabinets.

The Prisoner Remake: It's Official

More today on the remake of The Prisoner, which will star James Caviezel (Passion of the Christ) and Sir Ian McKellen (Lord of the Rings), and will be broadcast on ITV in six hour-long episodes in 2009. The news is covered widely, including here in The Guardian:

Ian McKellen to lead in ITV's The Prisoner remake
Ben Dowell

TV today said the remake, which has been written by Bill Gallagher, "will reflect 21st century concerns and anxieties, such as liberty, security and surveillance, yet also showcase the same key elements of paranoia, tense action and socio-political commentary seen in McGoohan's enigmatic original".

Gallagher, who scripted BBC1's Lark Rise to Candleford, said: "I was haunted by The Prisoner when I saw it as a boy on its first broadcast. Here was something that was more than television, something I couldn't quite grasp but couldn't let go of. It's a unique opportunity for a writer to be able to go back to The Village and tell some new stories about that strange place and its surreal menace.

"We have a terrific cast and a wonderful director, so we hope to serve up something as beguiling and disturbing as the original was."

It's great that the new version will be on ITV, like the original, in prime time, free to view for all. The new series was earlier set to go to Sky where it would only have received a fraction of the ITV audience.

I first saw the news today on SFX, where I was of course keeping an eye open for the latest on Doctor Who. We are still absolutely buzzing in our house from The Stolen Earth on Saturday, which we re-watched last night. What a fantastic episode. Still, more on that anon. Back to The Prisoner news, it was also up on The Prisoner Online pretty speedily, and The Unmutual link to the full press release at The Futon Critic.

Several quick comments. The team looks excellent and inspires some confidence. I rate Caviezel highly, and McKellen is of course brilliant. But the casting of each raises questions. Is Caviezel going to be an American secret agent? If so, that will be a serious difference from the original, and not entirely welcome. Imagine if one remade Doctor Who with an American as the doctor, or imagine rebooting the James Bond franchise and making him American. McGoohan himself is Irish, and the series was British through-and-through, from the shots of Big Ben, the house of commons and the Mall through to all the actors playing Number 2. In a re-imagination, there are of course certain things that will change, but the London-based beginning, and the returns to London throughout ("Chimes of Big Ben", "Many Happy Returns", "Do Not Forsake Me" and "Fall Out") -- these are some of the basics that give it its charm.

I commented previously (More on The Prisoner Remake) on the apparent departure from the original in having a constant Number 2 present. In the original, we had a different guest star playing Number 2 each week, sometimes even in the same episode, and again this was one of those things that made it so fascinating. So while the casting of McKellen is welcome, I am a little disappointed that we won't have "the new Number 2" appearing each week.

And, of course, what about Portmeirion? It seems certain that they are not going to film there, the original filming location in 1966-7, and one of my favourite places in the world. I think that that was probably inevitable -- it is difficult to know quite how you could shoot in Portmeirion in 2008 and make it work (though I'd love to see them try). But I hope that they have found some location that at least attempts to echo some of the magic of the original.

TV remakes and re-imaginations have had mixed success. The Bionic Woman was promising but was not given enough time. Battlestar Galactica is pretty good, if a bit too intense. Doctor Who is the example par excellence of how to do it brilliantly, even to improve on the original while remaining faithful to its basics and its spirit. So much of that is down to one man, Russell T. Davies. If there is anything to learn about how to re-imagine a classic series, he is surely the man to talk to.

More on The Prisoner remake

Six of One have more on the remake of The Prisoner (previous comments here: No Prisoner Remake, Prisoner Remake Back on the Agenda), which now sounds like it is about to get off the ground, with filming in Namibia and Cape Town to start soon, and Sir Ian McKellen as Number Two and James Caviezel as Number Six. It's a six episode series. Presumably this means that it will leave open the way for a second series if the first is successful. ITV seem to be working in these blocks of six these days -- Primeval has been a good example of a Saturday night six-parter, one each year for the last two years. The casting of James Caviezel is interesting to me because of his role as Jesus in The Passion of the Christ, the Mel Gibson directed 2004 film, about which I have written quite a bit, both in print (book details) and on my academic blog. The one other element of interest in this tidbit of news is that only McKellen is listed as playing Number Two. In the original series, the actor playing Number Two changed each week, and it was one of the most compelling things about the series that each week there would be a new guest actor. Perhaps McKellen is just the first and most famous, or perhaps this is one major element in the "re-imagining"? Whichever one, McKellen could be very interesting indeed in this role.

Today a podcast talked back to me

When you inhabit a world of podcasts, you never expect them to talk back to you. I have my MP3 player with me whenever I am out walking, or driving in the car, or doing housework, or any time I am not doing research, watching television or communing with other human beings. I have recently begun subscribing to Jump the Pod, which I found from a podcast I have listened to for a long time, Doctor Who Podshock; the two podcasts share the presenters Louis Trapani and Ken Deep. Jump the Pod (MySpace page here) discusses science fiction more generally, in connection with the Jumpcon series of events. I recently emailed them a couple of lines (following on from a discussion on the podcast that linked The Prisoner through Jim Caviezel to The Passion of the Christ, and which I further wanted to link, through John Debney, to Doctor Who) and I got a mention on the most recent podcast. It was great -- really made my day! A podcast has never talked back to me before.

Prisoner Remake back on the agenda

I think I am pleased to hear the news that the remake of The Prisoner is back on the agenda again, after Sky TV pulled out a couple of years ago (No Prisoner remake . . .). ITV are making it, but there is precious little information so far. The two actors currently mentioned in connection with the role of Number Six would both be interesting choices, Christopher Eccleston (brilliant as the ninth doctor in the revived Doctor Who in 2005) and Jim Caviezel. Both actors have "Jesus" connections, Eccleston in the Russell T. Davies drama, The Second Coming in 2003, and Jim Caviezel in Mel Gibson's Passion of the Christ. I doubt that either figure will end up in the role, but either would be very interesting.

The best news article on the proposed remake is on BBC News, Prisoner remake "set to go ahead". The Prisoner Online is keeping watch; so too are The Unmutual, Six of One and Portmeirion's own website.

Death of the TV Title Sequence

Den of Geek counted down their Top 10 TV Title Sequences of All Time (Part Two; the winner) this week and mostly got it right, e.g. The Prisoner and Doctor Who are both in the top five, which has to be right. I like the inclusion of The Tomorrow People in the top ten too -- watching that YouTube clip still makes me tingle with a kind of anxious nostalgia.

These days, the art of the great title sequence is dying a death, especially in the USA, and it's a development I am not keen on. I think it goes back to the first season of Lost, which made do with a three-four second mood-graphic instead of a proper title sequence, and the programme is poorer for it. I find myself not wanting to give it the benefit of the doubt. And then Heroes came along last year and tried to do the same thing. If any programme needs a good, old fashioned title sequence to pull you into the excitement of the subject matter, it's Heroes, and imagine how good it could have been, with all those drawings of key characters, and clips of actions of them doing their thing. Now, this year, with several new programmes airing, they are all following Lost's lead, with no decent title sequence. Bionic Woman, Chuck, Journeyman, all of these, this week airing their first episodes, failed to capture the viewers attention with an exciting title sequence. A shame.

No Prisoner Remake but More Doctor Who

When asked to name my favourite TV series, I am often tempted to list the cult 60s classic The Prisoner right at the top. I first watched it in 1984, when it was shown not long after the launch of Channel 4. I even used to go along to the conventions with my brother Jonathan; and for years we had had family holidays to Portmeirion, where the series was filmed. Given the cult status of the original, I have not quite known what to make over the planned remake of The Prisoner over the last year or so. Initially, the news was that Sky One was to remake the show, partnering with AMC in the USA. But it now seems that the plan has been abandoned. A Digital Spy interview with Richard Wolfe (head of Sky One) featured the following comment:

What happened with the planned remake of The Prisoner?
"The Prisoner is not happening. It's a very quintessentially British drama and there were too many creative differences trying to share it with an American partner. I didn't want to be responsible for taking something that is quintessentially British and adapting it in a way that I didn't feel was reflective of the way people would remember it and the way people would want it to be. So we called time on that."

Although some on the web are commenting on this as breaking news, it is worth adding that Sky actually pulled out of this project some months back; the Daily Telegraph reported this in April:

Sky One Pulls Out of Prisoner Remake
Neil Midgley

It was Sky One’s biggest drama commission of 2007 – but now the channel has pulled out of an £8million remake of cult 60s TV drama The Prisoner after an acrimonious row with US cable movie channel AMC, its co-funding partner. “We love the original Prisoner series but on this occasion we have decided not to proceed with our co-production partners,” said a Sky spokesman . . . .

At that point they were still talking about the possibility of finding other funding for the project, but it does not sound like that has come to anything.

Meanwhile, there has been good news this week has been of the continued production of Doctor Who, now confirmed right through to 2010. We already knew of the fourth series next year, currently in production, but the latest official news is that there will be three specials in 2009, written by Russell T. Davies and starring the current doctor David Tennant, and a full length series in 2010. That is excellent news, even if we will be a little short in 2009. It looks like David Tennant really is set to make the role his own, and I am delighted with the news that Russell T. Davies is going to stay with the show for the time being since he is responsible for the brilliant re-invention of the series over the last few years, and he has written some fine episodes.