AUTOREN:

INTERVIEWS:

WHERE AM I? - YOU ARE HERE.

ORIGINAL DIALOGUE:
WHERE AM I? - IN THE VILLAGE.

In the German version there is not a proper name for what is the Village in the original except der "Ort" - the Place. The Village resembles a holiday resort, archetecural trifles that would become known as "Italianate" make up for the outward appearance. Its seaside location is quite idyllic: indifference’s belle epoque, a sanatorium of sorts. 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.

< Citizen's Advice Bureau

For over 30 years the Prisoner Appreciation Society SIX OF ONE have celebrated their annual "PRISONER Convention" in this Place. Local groups reenact famous scenes, discussions are held 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 him an eccentric. Commencing in the nineteen-twenties he traveled abroad for inspiration on realising his dream, the convergence of architectural good taste and nature. 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" 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)