"Prisoner" passes away.
Posted by: BigH47 on 14 January 2009
He's finally escaped 
Very sad news - Pat McGoohan was just about my favourite actor - no there is no just about in the sentence - he was the best and most engaging motion picture actor I have ever had the privilege to watch - he played the greatest secret agent of all - John Drake.
Of course he made one the most challenging TV series ever in The Prisoner - I have the Prisoner on VHS and DVD, I also have the complete Danger Man episodes both the 30 minute and 60 minutes ones.
Pat featured in some wonderful films - Silver Streak, Ice Station Zebra, Hell Drivers and ... the list goes on.
If you get a chance try to see
David Cronenberg's 1981 horror film is a darkly paranoid story of a homeless man (Stephen Lack) mistakenly believed to be insane, when in fact he can't turn off the sound of other people's thoughts in his telepathic mind. Helped by a doctor (Patrick McGoohan) and enlisted in a program of "scanners"--telepaths who also can will heads to explode--he becomes involved in a battle against nefarious forces.
The plot sounds ridiculous, but Pat's performance is just so good that I'd rate this as one the best films I have ever seen.
So RIP Patrick and remember that
Every government has its secret service branch. America it's CIA; France Deuxieme Bureau; England MI5. NATO also has it's own. A messy job? Well that's when they call on me. Or someone like me. Oh yes by the way, my name is Drake, John Drake
Or someone like me. There was nobody like you - totally unique - the world is a sadder place without you.
Of course he made one the most challenging TV series ever in The Prisoner - I have the Prisoner on VHS and DVD, I also have the complete Danger Man episodes both the 30 minute and 60 minutes ones.
Pat featured in some wonderful films - Silver Streak, Ice Station Zebra, Hell Drivers and ... the list goes on.
If you get a chance try to see
David Cronenberg's 1981 horror film is a darkly paranoid story of a homeless man (Stephen Lack) mistakenly believed to be insane, when in fact he can't turn off the sound of other people's thoughts in his telepathic mind. Helped by a doctor (Patrick McGoohan) and enlisted in a program of "scanners"--telepaths who also can will heads to explode--he becomes involved in a battle against nefarious forces.
The plot sounds ridiculous, but Pat's performance is just so good that I'd rate this as one the best films I have ever seen.
So RIP Patrick and remember that
Every government has its secret service branch. America it's CIA; France Deuxieme Bureau; England MI5. NATO also has it's own. A messy job? Well that's when they call on me. Or someone like me. Oh yes by the way, my name is Drake, John Drake
Or someone like me. There was nobody like you - totally unique - the world is a sadder place without you.
Number Six's Lotus 7, registration KAR 120C, was supposed to be a car he built with his own hands. It features in the opening titles with Number Six driving past the Houses of Parliament and then in to an underground car park. The titles appear before each episode except for Living In Harmony, which is the one set in wild west and Fall Out, which is the final episode. This was because for Living In Harmony. it was not supposed to be evident that it was an episode of The Prisoner until well in to the story, but the ITA ruined this effect by plastering the graphic in prisoner font across the screen at the start. Fall Out was the continuation of the penultimate episode Once Upon a Time and didn't need an opening sequence.
The Lotus 7 is also in the episodes Many Happy Returns, Do Not Forsake Me and Fall Out. However, IIRC, it is not the same Lotus 7 throughout because they hadn't planned on using beyond the first episode Arrival.
Danger Man has two opening sequence - the first 30 minute ones start with Drake introducing himself as a Nato agent with the words as in my earlier post, The later 60 minute episodes have Drake being shown as a photo-negative before that amazing signature tune High Wire starts.
ATB Rotf