In late 1976 I had started watching the re runs of the Prisoner in the ATV area. I was fascinated by the series , I found it truly inspiring, I was still at school at the time and my other friends who I talked to about it didn’t really seem to “get it “ I found the imagery so powerful and the concepts that it touched on very relevant to my life at the time even though it was made in 1967 nearly 10 years before, the ideas from the series were spinning round my head and I was looking for answers to the questions that it posed, I was so excited when I watched Once Upon A Time when at the end number 6 had beaten number 2 and his reward was to be taken to number 1, I couldn’t hardly wait the week until the next episode would be show. With all the answers I was looking for I would finally know who number 1 was, why the Prisoner resigned and if he would escape, well I sort of got these answers but they weren’t what I was expecting they were in the form of more questions, when I sat down to watch the last episode Fall Out it became apparent that this was totally different to any TV program that I had seen.
Before, the first reveal was where the Village was. It was filmed in Portmeirion in Wales, as number 6 was taken to meet number 1 he defended into the bowels of the village along a corridor of jukeboxes playing the Beatles all you need is love, I was totally blown away and confused it was not what I was expecting as the episode went along I wasn’t getting the answer I wanted it was getting more confusing and surreal right until the last shot of the Prisoner driving in his car towards the camera which was the same shot as at the beginning of the series! Did he really escape or was he still in the village forever trapped? Just as the theme music played one last time and Rover disappeared into the horizon I heard the continuity announce say if anyone would like to find out more about this series please get in touch with Dave Barrie by writing into 39 Union Street Cheltenham, I was startled and started looking for some paper and a pen to write the address down my father had been watching with me and had a good memory so he repeated the address to make sure that I got it, I was so full of anticipation, I couldn’t go to sleep (it was around 0.30 Sunday morning)
I stayed up and composed my letter I was so eager to get in touch with other people who understood the Prisoner and hopefully they would help explain to me the last episode as I felt it was a little over my head, I must have written the letter about 3 times I was so excited I was rushing to get it all down , all the question I wanted answering about the Prisoner, I found it hard to sleep that night, I had to wait until Monday morning to get to the post office as I needed some stamps for the SAE, I popped my letter in the post and waited for my reply any bit of information would have been great I talked to my friends in the 6th form about Fall Out but no one had any idea what was going on no one else had written, I had to play the waiting game and see what response I got.
I was so surprised when I got my reply it was a printed letter apologising for it not being had written but due to the volume of replies over 400 a had written reply was not possible but Dave had put a handwritten note on my letter about my question of the American novels he said it was an aim of PAS (Prisoner Appreciation Society) to locate these, I must have read this letter over 20 times it was telling me that there were lots more people who liked the Prisoner and that they would be forming a society so we could communicate with each other and share our ideas and discuss the concepts raised in the series, I was so excited and full of hope and anticipation of what the future would bring, who knew where it would lead me….
