Screenhead

In what is personally deeply saddening news, actor/writer/director Patrick McGoohan died on Tuesday. McGoohan is best known as the protagonist, labelled as Number Six (although he always proclaimed “I am not a number, I am a free man!”) in the cult British TV series The Prisoner.

This series was really McGoohan crowning glory. The actor was known for a spy series called Danger Man, but McGoohan became increasingly unhappy with the formulaic show. Given an opportunity, he created The Prisoner, which subverted the spy genre. It involved a spy who quit his job, without reason, and so he was sent to a mysterious village, guarded by a constantly watching controller and a strange orb-shaped guardian, and forced to confess his reasons for quitting, or to conform with the village’s rules and regulations. Each week saw Number Six struggle to beat the system at whatever psychological plot was thrown at him, while using that to his advantage as a means for escaping. The show was a deliberate critique of an intrusive governing force that attempts to crush individuality. The final episodes (written by McGoohan) caused uproar in the UK when aired- the final episode aimed for the metaphorical, revealing the Village’s real leader, Number One, but not quite explaining itself, as Six makes his last attempt to escape the village. It was an undeniably brave piece of programming, denying the path of predictable narrative in order to make a more philosophical statement. It was the kind of risk taken that made TV shows like Twin Peaks and Lost possible.

McGoohan lived by his philosophy, and kept out of the public eye, despite the cult popularity that The Prisoner gained. He dabbled in acting roles, including a role as the warden in Clint Eastwood’s Escape from Alcatraz. He had a significant role in sci-fi horror Scanners. In the 90’s he churned out a bile-filled portrayal of the King of England in Braveheart, and due to that success turned up in the occasional Hollywood flick, including The Phantom, and the Grisham adaptation A Time to Kill. McGoohan even showed a sense of humour by guest-starring in the Simpsons, playing a cartoon version of Number Six in an episode referencing (and even mocking) the show.

Not exactly a household name, McGoohan will always be an inspiration for me (Hell, my first ever email address was derived from the character of Number Six). The Prisoner was a testament to moral rebellion against a mainstream of conformity, and an inspiration of television-making. As testament to the greatness of his creation, The Prisoner has been remade into a mini-series in the UK, starring Jim Caviezel as Six and Ian McKellen as Number Two, and is due out next year.

I really do hope that McGoohan’s gravestone reads: He never was a number.

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