English Chess Forum

Evidence has emerged for a remake of the cult series The Prisoner.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-64730255

You know how normally everyone says "oh they could never remake that old show and it be as good as the original" well here is a case that could easily break that rule - I watched the entire prisoner series back in the day and the final episodes are the most mental hour of acid trip nonsense ever committed to film, ripe for a decent remake as the actual premise of the story was quite interesting and had a lot of potential.

Final *episode* rather than plural IMO (the penultimate one is generally considered amongst the best)

I don't think that even Patrick McGoohan himself actually understood the finale. He apparently got hate mail and even threats over it.

I heard a theory that the programme makers made the end of series episode deliberately weird, so that everyone would be fascinated, and eager to see the explanation in episode one of the new series. Unfortunately, the TV company thought instead, "This is garbage - we have to cancel it."

Of course the explanation could have been the rather tired old, "it was all a dream", (as "Dallas" incredibly did for an entire series), or the more modern, but shocking for the time, "bad trip".

It was rather pleasing when Patrick McGoohan did one of his many (four?) appearances in "Columbo", that when he exited one scene, he said, "Be seeing you!"

I don't think they ever intended the series to go on as long as it did so spent all the early episodes putting layer after layer of mystery and secrets but when push came to shove and they were asked to wrap it up they had nothing so instead took a bunch of drugs and wrote down an episode of such audacious gibberish it makes Alan Llewellyns rants look like a PhD thesis by comparison.

As you may, or may not know, a re-make of The Prisoner was aired in 2009

https://www.imdb.com/video/vi644220185/ ... _=tt_ov_vi

To say it paled in comparison to the original is quite an understatement. To call it an embarrassment is closer to the mark. I don't suggest you watch it.

You actually piqued my interest in it being worse then the original, I'd actually be quite keen on seeing if it now enters the "so bad it's good" territory

It was terrible, just watch the trailers on youtube and you will see what I mean. The original was very reasonable thought a bit shabby in certain respects I think.

MJMcCready wrote: ↑

Wed May 15, 2024 12:11 am

It was terrible, just watch the trailers on youtube and you will see what I mean. The original was very reasonable thought a bit shabby in certain respects I think.

What were the shabby aspects?

John Upham wrote: ↑

Wed May 15, 2024 10:33 am

What were the shabby aspects?

Read what I posted a year or so ago - absolutely mental final episode which ruined a series that was already going completely off track with continual twists and secrets that led nowhere...

Well yes, they sort of ran out of ideas. Sometimes they could produce a decent episode still and other times definitely not but yes the ending left a lot to be desired.

John Upham wrote: ↑

Wed May 15, 2024 10:33 am

MJMcCready wrote: ↑

Wed May 15, 2024 12:11 am

It was terrible, just watch the trailers on youtube and you will see what I mean. The original was very reasonable thought a bit shabby in certain respects I think.

What were the shabby aspects?

Wouldn't know where to start as I am -wrongly- a big fan of it, and even went to PortMerion in the winter once upon a time. As you may know, initially only 7 episodes were written then a bunch more had to be written very quickly so as to sell the series, many of those were not well-thought through at all. That aside there are mistakes throughout the entire series on many levels, some are much more obvious than others. The backdrop of the cold war is effective enough but it doesn't wash to ask whose side are you on to another actor with another English accent (not Russian) with knowledge of the same government, and yes of course the ending to the series was not thought out at all and is rather embarrassing to put it mildly.

MJMcCready wrote: ↑

Wed May 15, 2024 8:35 pm

Well yes, they sort of ran out of ideas. Sometimes they could produce a decent episode still and other times definitely not but yes the ending left a lot to be desired.

Are you referring to the famous Episode 17?

John Upham wrote: ↑

Wed May 15, 2024 11:38 pm

MJMcCready wrote: ↑

Wed May 15, 2024 8:35 pm

Well yes, they sort of ran out of ideas. Sometimes they could produce a decent episode still and other times definitely not but yes the ending left a lot to be desired.

Are you referring to the famous Episode 17?

Aha, what to say, well they kinda ran out of ideas about 5 episodes before that and started experimenting with episodes not connected to others and not based in the village also, like The girl who was death and do not forsake me oh my darling, as well as living in harmony, but the last two epiodes are connected and should be seen as one but most of that consists of a duel between Leo McKern and McGoohan, who were very good friends but yes, as any Prisoner fan will tell you they didn't really know how to finish it effectively and the concept of No.6 being Number.1 was really just a last minute thing to solve an ongoing problem throughout the series they couldn't decide over, its inconclusive, unconvincing, poorly scripted and symptomatic of a lack of ideas, intelligence, and pissed many, many people off, and caused McGoohan to go into hiding briefly. The show is like that with a lot of things actually but then given the inspiration is partly taken from Thunderball and there were only supposed to be 7 episodes intially, what else would you expect?