Richard Cartwright - The Prisoner

"The Prisoner"

The Prisoner was a 1960's television series starring Patrick McGoohan who also wrote and directed a number of the episodes. The location filming took place at Portmeirion in North Wales.

Patrick McGoohan plays a man who resigns from a top secret position and is abducted from his London home. He finds himself in a beautiful village where everything is bright and cheerful – the people, their clothes, the buildings, the flowers.

But hidden by this inviting facade the village serves a sinister purpose...

People are forcibly taken there in order to have their valuable knowledge protected or extracted. Everyone in the village is assigned a number instead of a name – McGoohan's character is Number Six. The Chief Interrogator and administrator is Number Two, but he isn’t the one in charge – an unseen Number One is the boss.

Failure is not tolerated in the village, and most episodes feature a new Number Two, though some are privileged to return for a second chance to break Number Six and discover why he resigned. The Prisoner struggles to keep this information from his captors and to find out which side runs the village and where it is. He resists all attempts to make him conform - "I am not a number, I am a free man". He strives to discover the identity of Number One, and above all, he attempts to escape.

In addition to taking part in re-enactments of various scenes from episodes of the TV series at the Annual Convention (Portmeiricon) at Portmeirion I also take part in Festival No.6 (held at Portmeirion), as well as engaging in other Prisoner-related activities.

I am a founding member of "The Prisoner Virtual Convention" group - an independent group who organise Internet-based virtual Conventions related to The Prisoner television series.