It only ran for 17 episodes forty years ago, but "The Prisoner," starring Patrick McGoohan, remains a cult favorite to this day for its thriller/sci-fi/Kafkaesque mix. The premise: after a British secret agent decides to resign, he is hustled off to a mysterious, inescapable village where the people who run the place try to get the agent to reveal exactly why he resigned. AMC has just announced they're remaking the series with the UK's Sky One. You can watch the old one on DVD now that the complete series is available. And here's something for die-hard fans: much of the atmosphere of the original series came from the location filming in northern Wales, in a village called Portmeirion. There's a coffee table book just out celebrating Portmeirion's 80th anniversary, and "Prisoner" fans hold a convention there every year. In 2007, it takes place from March 23rd to 25th.
written on Tuesday Jan 9, 2007
prisoner,
Wales,
thriller.
