The Prisoner Nummer 6

The sediments at the bottom of television: series and serials, omnipresent and almost as infinite as the medium itself. Few only were successfull in touching the underside of our attentiveness.
UNWAHRSCHEINLICHE GESCHICHTEN ("Improbable Stories") was one that did, the classic TWILIGHT ZONE.
Anything associated with the expression TV-magic applies to this.

Phantastic television of the sixties, among other things, is one conjuring formula:
"Be seeing you!" or
L'année dernière
au Village:

Contributing authors:
(German knowledge required)

FRANK T. BITTERHOF BLU-RAY: DIE OFFENBARUNG ROBERT FAIRCLOUGH POP UND POLITIK HOWARD FOY ES WAR EINMAL - EIN TRIP GUILLAUME GRANIER SCHÖNER TAG! - SPÄTER... LARRY HALL DER PROZESS WHAT IT MEANS... HARALD KELLER WIR SEHEN UNS - WIEDER NUMMER SECHS NOWHERE MAN ROGER LANGLEY PRISONER'S PORTMEIRION SET PIECE - BÜHNENSTÜCK 6 PRIVATE KEVIN P. MAHONEY DER ANARCHISCHE PRISONER RICK McGRATH 35TH ANNIVERSARY DVD WARNER TROYER McGOOHAN-INTERVIEW CHRISTOPH WINDER ICH BIN KEINE NUMMER

The first episode sets the tone for everything that happens within a microcosmos of ubiquitous providence and eccentric occurences.
Without any doubt it's the very place where the outdoor shooting was made that conveys the show's overall impression. The Place (as this is the only German name) - which is pure fantasy in its eclecticistic collection of building styles and shapes - is both stunning and fundamental to the series, the most important supporting actor.

Wisely, the place is never located temporally or locally by the production. At least, that is, until the ultimate episode. But even the signposted "A20" motorway to nearby London may be a disorienting clue on a higher level of interpretation.
It is a timeless relic as well as a contemporary artefact, the place where the real matches the realistic.

< Old People's Home

"Welcome home from Home" reads a note on his desk. Upon his arrival Number Six takes a walk round an early morning place. Excited he is, wants to know where he is, he demands a map of the Place and its environs from a shop keeper. Nightmarish, perplexing and oppressing: the place is The Place, the sea is The Sea, the mountains are The Mountains... Deja-vu - tautology, a shimmering of meaning: everything is just what it is.
Cabs will undertake only local rides, public phones allow only local calls, canned food displays a "Village Food" label only. And public speaker announcements spreading anti-information in a news-like manner: ice-cream is on sale, "the flavour of the day is strawberry."

There is no questioning the outside. Inmates of this idyllic spot encounter joyfully as well as subliminally threaten each other on exchanging the Place's salutation: "Wir sehen uns!" ("Be seeing you!").

top of page