Tag: Patrick McGoohan

5,740 words

Having already published two extensive articles on The Prisoner (see here and here), I didn’t expect to ever write about the series again. But times have changed, and so has The Prisoner. Works of art are living things, and their meaning changes over time. This ultimately has little to do with the artist’s intentions. That The Prisoner had changed was brought home to me one evening when, on a whim, I chose to revisit an episode I had always disliked. (more…)

8,581 words

Editor’s Note:

I am reprinting Collin Cleary’s classic essay on Patrick McGoohan’s The Prisoner as a sequel to Andrew Hamilton’s article on Danger Man. Cleary’s essay is available in print form in his Summoning the Gods: Essays on Paganism in a God-Forsaken World, (more…)

Danger Man star Patrick McGoohan

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“Somewhere along the line I am going to meet with an arm of this octopus, and when I do it will lead me to a head, and when I find that I shall cut it off.” — John Drake in “You Are Not in Any Trouble, Are You?” (1965)

I recently watched the 1960s English television series Danger Man (1960–1962, 30 mins.; 1964–1968, 1 hour) starring Patrick McGoohan. It was a popular spy show that made McGoohan a star and enabled him to produce his cult television series The Prisoner (UK, 1967–1968). (more…)

Patrick McGoohan in The Prisoner

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A number of years ago I wrote an essay offering an interpretation of the cult TV series The Prisoner (anthologized in Summoning the Gods, published by Counter-Currents).

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