Farewell Number Six

Patrick McGoohan exited the third density yesterday (13th Jan 2009), aged 80.

Award-winning McGoohan appeared in many distinguished stage and screen productions over a long and fruitful career, including films directed by David Cronenberg, Don Siegel, Mike Newell and Joel Schumacher.

Yet it is his incredible creation, 'The Prisoner', that will justly be considered his magnum opus. 42 years on from original broadcast, it remains one of the most inspired and mind-blowing artistic statements ever to grace a television screen.

McGoohan plays a British intelligence agent, who after unexpectedly resigning from his role, is kidnapped by unknown forces and transported to a remote and mysterious facility called 'The Village'. It is from this sinister matrix that Number Six (as he is known) endeavours to escape over the course of 17 mesmerizing hour-long episodes. The final episode 'Fallout' is undoubtedly the most defiantly enigmatic piece of television ever created.

McGoohan's alchemical blend of countercultural memes, aesthetic surrealism, political critique and sheer interpersonal intensity, makes The Prisoner addictive and compulsory viewing.

For those interested in the study of parapolitics, occult lore, secret societies and psychological symbolism, The Prisoner is laden with profound and revelatory insights that are super-relevant in these strange days of the 21st century.

The Wachowski Brothers paid homage to The Prisoner and its significant contribution to the genesis of the whole Matrix concept by embedding it in their film. During the chase scene through the tenement building, near the end of the first film, a television flashes by the screen, showing an episode of The Prisoner. To be precise, it shows ‘Number Two’ played by Guy Doleman, from the first episode 'Arrival'. See photo (click for larger version).

The Prisoner is frequently referenced in other film & tv productions including: Fight Club, The Adventures of Baron Munchausen, The Simpsons (with an appearance by McGoohan), Buffy The Vampire Slayer, Babylon 5, Killing Zoe, Battlestar Galactica (the new one), The Truman Show and many others.

Farewell Number Six.