Will analysing Trump’s cult be as productive as cult TV series ‘The Prisoner’?

Although I was really too much of a tiny to understand it, I was around when Patrick McGoohan was able to bring his TV series ‘The Prisoner’ to us.

Little did anyone, then at least, think this odd production would still be going strong in 2023 (it’s had two UK airings I know about this year), and be the subject of various university courses/studies (so I’m told).

It’s also spawned various groups which follow it, websites, research it, create fan productions, and merchandise is still going strong too.

Personally, it gave me the chance to make numerous visits to Portmeirion when times were better, something I’ll never forget.

In recent weeks, I’ve taken to following the progress of four indictments and 91 criminal cases – not forgetting the small matter of classified documents misappropriated at Mar-a-Lago, or losing a rape case, or having business licences cancelled, or being kicked off the Forbes 400 list of wealthiest people, or being found guilty of multiple counts of fraud, or.ENOUGH! – against some called Donald J Trump, who claims to be a billionaire, but is really just a grifter, lucky enough to have inherited enough money to allow him to perpetrate numerous frauds with horrendous amounts of money (other people’s, of course).

It’s going to be interesting to see what come out of this in comparison to the various academic studies spawned by The Prisoner.

In light of the Trump gaslighting – but now I am used to it – it would be hard to believe the way he walks out of court and immediately announces to the press “WE WON – THE JUDGE IS CRAZY. THE CASE SHOULD BE DISMISSED. THE PROSECUTOR IS DERANGED”, I wonder if we will see various doctors and mental health professionals make a career out of analysing Trump in years to come, much as The Prisoner was analysed.

There’s just too much to choose from, but this brief gem was just one more summary of mindless echoes that must be going around all that empty space between Trump’s ears.

Consider what you think about when you go home at night, especially if you are lucky enough to have family to share that time with.

Then think about what must be going in defendant Trump’s head.

In his speeches, he has recently referred to President Obama stealing his win at the last election, how we could soon be in World War 3, the need to present ID to buy bread, how you could be electrocuted if you were in a sinking electric boat, and many more.

I’d be embarrassed to show my face outside if I made ONE of those gaffs, yet his cult followers don’t even appear to notice them, despite their ongoing occurrences, and appear to be completely swayed by his gaslighting. Indeed, you will find cultists on YouTube who have stated that if Trump is not elected as the next President of the US, they want to die.

Truly, some psychiatrists and analysts are going to be feeding off this for years.

And, just for completeness, here’s one of the latest ‘speeches’ by the man himself.

Again, if I behaved like this in public, I’d EXPECT to taken away and locked up in a nice room with soft walls,

Any Scottish fans of ‘The Prisoner’ left?

I used to be a regular visitor to Portmeirion (no longer a secret that this was where ‘The Prisoner’ was filmed prior to broadcast in 1967), able to drive down during annual convention weekends. I was also a happy member of Six of One, The Prisoner Appreciation Society, until both came to an end for me some time after 1998.

Six of One imploded (as seen from my distant perspective as a subscriber), the conventions came to an end, the society appeared to lose favour with Portmeirion, and even the little Prisoner shop in the village closed. I hadn’t been able to make it there again (having to abort the next drive down as work meant I started the trip too late in the day), and later read that some attendees’ behaviour had led to apologies being issued to Portmeirion. Details never really emerged, but the invitation for Prisoner events seemed to evaporate for some years (as did my ability to get back there). As that was my last opportunity to make the trip, I ended up being glad I had aborted the trip, and wasn’t part of whatever happened that weekend.

I bumped into the former committee when the WorldCon came to Glasgow a few later, but they weren’t particularly approachable when I tried to say ‘Hello’, so that was that.

But, fast-forward a few years and The Unmutual Website (TUW) appeared.

Unusually, and unlike the acrimonious f0rmer society, there is no membership for TUW – just visit the web site and participate as you like.

I’ve done so for some years now, and the (very) nice man who runs it seems happy to hear from anybody.

Even me, with odd bits of trivia, such as this penny-farthing duo I found nearby one day.

Penny Farthing Twins

I’ve followed the site for years now, and it has grown from a small start into a vast resource of wide and varied Prisoner related information.

For someone who was once there every year, it has assorted galleries of changes that have taken place in Portmeirion over the years, which helps make up for the loss of visits (and the 300 miles drive, ending with the remarkably Scottish looking final section through North Wales).

50th Anniversary

As noted above, 2017 marked the 50th anniversary of The Prisoner’s first broadcast, so this was a special year, as noted by TUW’s opening para on its report page:

‘The Prisoner’ 50th anniversary- an in-depth photo report on the event

September 29th 2017 marked the 50th anniversary of the first UK screening of ‘Arrival’ (at 7.30pm on ATV Midlands on 29/9/1967).

NETWORK were the hosts and organisers of the official 50th anniversary event at Portmeirion, fifty years on, on 29th September 2017.

With The Unmutual Website advertising the event well in advance, most of the invited guests had been well publicised, as had the various screenings, so nothing less than a feast was promised. What was to follow exceeded even that, and proved to be an unforgettable smorgasbord of Prisoner delicacies!

The report continues with a lengthy and detailed description of the event, and coverage of the many members of the original cast able to attend, it was a unique picture opportunity too.

Fenella Fielding provided the Village Voice in the original series, so who better to announce each of the days events over a PA/speaker system which covered the whole of Portmeirion, caught on video – and looking amazing for 90!

A notable ‘first”reported from the event was the live performance of a Big Finish episode inside The Green Dome.

As a central location, Number 2’s residence, it was a little disappointing that this particular building was never accessible during any of the previous conventions or my visits, even it was a fantasy location that existed only as a set, and not actually under the dome. I did look closely during those early visits, and access was probably not really practical as the place was then in something of a state internally, and clearly in need of restoration, which it now seems to have had in good measure.

While you can go look up more related videos on YouTube, there’s one more I’d like to include here, and that’s the dedication by daughter Catherine McGoohan as she unveils a bust of Patrick McGoohan which will now mark his presence in the village.

On Patrick McGoohan

Regular readers will know I have a long standing interest in The Prisoner, and its notional setting of Portmeirion in North Wales, and this provides the start of this month’s blogging. Seriously, if you love Scotland you should race through England and visit North Wales – you could easily get lost there as so many places look just like ‘home’. I’m not really suggesting there is anything wrong with England, but there are so many wide open flat plains that just seem to go on and on and…

It was almost a surprise to read that two years had elapsed since McGoohan’s passing, it doesn’t feel as if it was that long ago yet, but it is.

In that time, we’ve seen a number of developments as interest in the series continues unabated, and there has been the mockery of the ‘re-imagining’ of the series which we had to watch last year. No wonder McGoohan refused to have anything to do with the thing. If it was something a cat could have found, it would have taken it away and buried it!

I note that AMC (the company behind that rubbish), having hosted an original Prisoner section in its web space prior to the broadcast of its effort, has now excised all content and references to the original. That gesture probably says more than I ever could about the ‘re-imagining’.

Portmeirion also made the news at the start of this year, but for the wrong reason – as we learnt that Robin Llywelyn, managing director of Portmeirion, had slipped and fractured his skull while out walking. Mr Llywelyn is the grandson of Portmeirion founder Sir Clough Williams Ellis. The news story tells us he spent a few days in hospital, but was then released home to recuperate, and is keen to get back to work as soon as he can.

There have been a number of articles published over the past two years about McGoohan’s career and his production of The Prisoner, and without being negative, it’s fairly true to say that while they may often concentrate on one specific aspect or another, they are arguably reworking of existing material, so once you’ve read a few, you have probably read them all.

The following article originated on the Pacific Palisades Patch web site, which is a fairly extensive community web site serving the Palisades, where McGoohan had his home. The content is a little different to the usual revision of well-known material, and it’s the first one I think I have come across that has content provided by his wife, Joan McGoohan:

The Prisoner: “Where am I?”

Number Two: “In The Village.”

The Prisoner: “What do you want?”

Number Two: “Information.”

The Prisoner: “Which side are you on?”

Number Two: “That would be telling. We want information, information, information…”

The Prisoner: “You won’t get it.”

Number Two: “By hook or by crook we will.”

The Prisoner: “Who are you?”

Number Two: “The new Number Two.”

The Prisoner: “Who is Number One?”

Number Two: “You are Number Six.”

The Prisoner: “I am not a number. I am a free man.”

Number Two: “Ha, ha, ha, ha…”

You might say The Prisoner never left the Village.

On this date two years ago, when the Emmy Award-winning actor Patrick McGoohan died at the age of 80, Pacific Palisades lost a great thespian…as well as a longtime Palisadian of three decades.

Best known for The Prisoner, a surreal 1960s espionage show laced with commentary on society that he starred, wrote, directed and produced, as well as his nefarious turn in Braveheart, McGoohan had lived in Pacific Palisades since the 1970s, when he and his wife, actress Joan Drummond McGoohan, settled in town.

“He would get up at the crack of dawn, get The New York Times, and get some coffee at Mort’s or Starbucks,” Joan Drummond McGoohan told this reporter in 2009, on the week of her husband’s passing. “He wrote. Always, always.”

The McGoohans enjoyed eating at Sam’s at the Beach in Santa Monica Canyon. In the Village, they often frequented the Italian restaurant Modo Mio.

McGoohan won two Emmys for acting in  Columbo in 1975 and 1990. He directed episodes of the original 1970s version of Peter Falk’s program, and was very involved behind the scenes of the latter-day Columbo TV movies as a producer.

…

Read more – The Passing of ‘The Prisoner’.

Patrick McGoohan R.I.P.

Patrick McGoohan - The Prisoner Number 6

Those who look in here on a reasonably regular basis may have detected my appreciation for Patrick McGoohan and his part as Number Six in his 1960’s television series, The Prisoner, and it with some sadness that I note his passing:

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Patrick McGoohan, an Emmy-winning actor who created and starred in the cult classic television show “The Prisoner,” has died. He was 80.

McGoohan died Tuesday in Los Angeles after a short illness, his son-in-law, film producer Cleve Landsberg, said Wednesday.

McGoohan won two Emmys for his work on the Peter Falk detective drama “Columbo,” and more recently appeared as King Edward Longshanks in the 1995 Mel Gibson film “Braveheart.”

But he was best known as the title character Number Six in “The Prisoner,” a surreal 1960s British series in which a former spy is held captive in a small village and constantly tries to escape.

Patrick McGoohan obituary, by Roger Langley (pdf)

Coincidentally, ITV 4 began a rerun of the original series only last week, making this airing somewhat more significant, and the recently completed remake of the series is also due for airing by ITV this year.

His parts in Columbo were also intriguing and usually rather special, with the added extra for Prisoner devotees, as he would usually slip a reference to the original series somewhere into the dialogue of the shabby detective’s story.

If for nothing else, I (and my family) are grateful to McGoohan and his choice of the Welsh village of Portmeirion, created by Sir Clough Williams-Ellis, as the setting for his original, classic series, especially once we discovered it was real place, and that we could jump in the car and be there the same day. One of the fascinating aspects of the trip was the similarity of North Wales to Scotland, and how noticeable the difference (or should that be similarity to home) was once one had left England and driven on for an hour or so.

A view over The Village - Portmeirion

Patrick McGoohan and Clough Williams-Ellis

Original series promotional footage

Unadulterated Prisoner theme music

Be seeing you.

PM2008 celebrates The Prisoner at Portmeirion July 13

I haven’t mentioned this before, but can’t resist now that the events are being finalised. I’d be including this anyway, but the subject does actually have valid Scottish credentials, which you can read about in our article about Inverlair Lodge.

It’s ages since I was last able to visit, and it would be nice to pop down for the day, but the thought of the travel cost now, even without the lesser cost of food and accommodation, sends a chill down my spine.

PM2008, a one-day celebration of The Prisoner, Patrick McGoohan, Danger Man, and Portmeirion, takes place on Sunday 13th July in Portmeirion’s Hercules Hall. Tickets are still available for this event at http://www.theunmutual.co.uk/pm2008.htm

Confirmed events so far include:

*Special guest Robert Rietti interviewed live on stage.

*Special guest Bettine Le Beau interviewed live on stage.

*Archive screening of “The Vise” from 1956 starring Patrick McGoohan.

*Special guest Robert Fairclough updates us on Prisoner merchandise and his research, including an exclusive first look at the 2009 calendar and a special edition novel on sale at PM2008 only.

*Book launch of “Wiffle Lever to Full” with writer Bob Fisher.

*Memorabilia auction including signed items donated by Patrick McGoohan.

*Guided tour of Portmeirion.

*Guest signings, charity raffle, merchandise stall, displays.

Plus other screenings and events to be announced!

Tickets for this event are priced at £17 per person. This includes entry to the Hercules Hall events mentioned above, but does *not* include the price of entry to Portmeirion. Thanks to Portmeirion, PM2008 ticket holders will, however, be allowed entry to The Village at a discounted rate. The event is non-profit making, and ticket prices will pay for guest expenses, and equipment/venue hire etc.