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SIGN OF THE TIMES

In Germany THE PRISONER was first shown in August of 1969. And for many years people now in their late forties and fifties probably remembered best seeing the show "first hand". Apart from one early repeat in 1972 of only seven episodes information on it was scarce. No books and no video recording devices were available at the time. When, by the mid 1980s, commercial TV was established the series was rescreened but passed widely unnoticed by the public. In 1991/92, eventually, video tape recorders enabled people to watch it repeatedly whenever they wanted. And it wasn't until 2010 that the series was broadcast again by Franco-German TV station Arte. The first-ever screening in Germany of all 17 episodes and in German language.

Spoiler alert! Those of you who haven't seen the show, watch it and then come back and read this text. Just keep following the signposts!

"The sky is the limit. Be seeing you!" . Wir sehen uns!
Patrick McGoohan

< Chess Lawn

For clarity of expressions and names, on this website the series is referred to as NUMMER 6 or THE PRISONER, written in capital letters. The principal character, played by Patrick McGoohan, is referred to as "Number Six" or "Nummer Sechs" and somtimes as "The Prisoner". German language texts are marked (D).

In retrospect, what is most astonishing about it is that it was commerical TV entertainment. That's what made it a flop at first. THE PRISONER series is a torso basically, unfinished or arbitrarily brought to an end. Hardly anyone working in the TV business before had been endowed with such an amount of money per episode to work with and, at the same time, been given carte blanche regarding freedom for his artistic decisions. There is lots of mysterious stuff in it, some of it made enigmatic intentionally, some strange things mixed up with contemporary citicism of the media and society. Which must also have been at odds with late 60s tastes and feelings. At the centre of it all it's the role of individualism in the age of information. An good deal of Kafka was also inserted in some of the scripts.

The space craze and cold war phenomena made up the main ingredients of some adventureous, utopic stuff. Intelligence duo Emma Peel and John Steed british-elegantly saved the day in MIT SCHIRM, CHARME UND MELONE (THE AVENGERS) and won the hearts of millions of viewers as did Napoleon Solo and Illya Kuryakin in SOLO FÜR O.N.C.E.L. (THE MAN FROM U.N.C.L.E.) on the other side of the Atlantic ocean. Because of their sympathetic kinkyness and futuristic looking weaponry these shows scored the big points.

David Vincent fared harder, though, because nobody would believe that he'd actually seen the INVASION VON DER WEGA (THE INVADERS). This series was rather formulaic and faded away rather quickly. But creator Larry Cohen provided some furor in 1974 releasing a fang-fitted killer baby from the WIEGE DES BÖSEN (IT'S ALIVE!).

Let's not forget RAUMPATROUILLE ("Space Patrol"), German pearl from the age of flat-iron technology. Dietmar Schönherr played Commander Cliff Alister McLane. He commanded the fast space cruiser Orion with a barely hidden smile on his face against the orders always delivered by the Supreme Space Authority in a creaky tone. This mini series of seven parts was much more popular than STAR TREK would ever be in this country. One of the actresses provided the German voice of Nadia in PRISONER episode "The Chimes Of Big Ben".

Shortly after the first walk on the moon one British show came across the Channel under the equally vague as well as vaguely significant title: NUMMER 6.