WHERE AM
I? - YOU ARE HERE.
ORIGINAL DIALOGUE: WHERE AM I? - IN THE VILLAGE.
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 |
The
Village - there isn’t a German name except the Place (der Ort) -
resembles a holiday resort. "Italian" archetecural trifles make
up the outward appearance, quite idyllic its seaside location: indifference’s
belle epoque, a sanatorium. But hard to tell what is being cured
here.
Every now
and then the camera follows Number Six through streets and footpaths,
past flower beds and balusters, up on the bell tower and to the Stone
Boat by the sea. Never more present is the Village than when it is devoid
of people.
During its initial TV run the identity of the location - Hotel Portmeirion in Northern Wales - was kept top secret.
For almost 30 years the Prisoner Appreciation Society SIX OF ONE have celebrated their annual "Prisoner Convention" in this Place. Local groups reenact famous scenes, have discussions together with people involved in the making and puzzle over intentions its creator wouldn’t even know they existed. The backdrop-cum-alive.
Portmeirion’s founder was Welsh architect Sir Clough Williams Ellis, some would call an eccentric. Commencing in the nineteen-twenties he traveled abroad for inspiration realising his dream of architectural good taste. And so he founded his show-piece in the northern hemisphere. He did not omit a bell tower, called Campanile, a cupola building, the Pantheon, cobblestone-paved archways and turrets to make the place feel mediterranean. It’s the p.o.v. that dominates viewing. Few things are what they appear to be. Like the cypresses that in reality aren’t more real as are wall-painted windows and the stone-built ship at the pier. Until the 1970s he used to collect houses, parts of mansions bound for demolition and reerected them on the shore of that wind-sheltered bay he had bought, a "home for fallen buildings".
Both the secluded location and the contrasting architectural features early-on made Portmeirion a favourite place for poets and writers. McGoohan himself came to like the spot after Portmeirion had been used for the two DANGER MAN episodes "A View From The Villa" and "Name, Date & Place" as an Italian small town.
Co-author
George Markstein who had
outlined the series in general and then because of conflicting with McGoohan
about the way the series should develop had left the production utilized
information of his military service time during WW II about secret camps
designated for inactive intelligence personnel who knew too much. McGoohan
himself went further and developped his allegorical tale under the impression
of the really phantastic backdrop of the real Village:
"More than anything else I believe in the freedom of the individual.
Loss of identity is a true nightmare. Have a look and you will see."
(McGoohan)
