Jack smiled. “Do you remember a British TV series from the sixties called The Prisoner? It starred Patrick McGoohan.”
“I certainly do,” I said. “It was one of my favorite shows.”
“Well, Portmeirion is "The Village", where the series was filmed. And it’s right on your way.” Portmeirion immediately shot up to the top of our list of places to see. In just seventeen episodes (1967-1968), The Prisoner, a British and American television series, had become a true cult classic. The story – a spy, the nameless Number Six, resigns for an undisclosed reason and is abducted to a mystery village for debriefing. Starring and co-created by Patrick McGoohan, its roots were in Cold War paranoia and growing concerns about the involvement of the state in the daily lives of its citizens. It was part spy fiction, part science fiction and part psychological drama.
Today, as Jack pointed out, Portmeirion is a vacation fantasy village in North Wales neatly hidden away on the coast of the Irish Sea. It was designed and built piecemeal by Welsh architect Sir Clough Williams-Ellis between 1925 and 1975 in the style of an Italian village. He was a leading conservationist of his day who, as creator of this resort village, fulfilled his dream for "a fusion of conscious art with nature". Portmeirion has served as the location for several films and television shows, most famously as the "Village".
Ninety-minutes due west from Ruthin we found Portmeirion neatly hidden away on a secluded peninsula. Anne got in free because the place was not supposed to be suitable for the disabled. The journey from the ticket booth to the end of the village was all downhill, but the ticket clerk said he would drive us back if we couldn’t make it. We did just fine.
The same could not be said for the unnamed protagonist of The Prisoner, so aptly played by Patrick McGoohan. In the plot he is a high-ranking intelligence agent who unexpectedly resigns. Upon doing so, he is drugged and taken into a mysterious and isolated community known only as “the Village.” Everyone there is cheerful, but not the type to ask questions, and the shadowy leaders keep control with closed-circuit television and brainwashing devices. The protagonist is made into a prisoner and given the title of “Number Six,” which he fervently rejects at first. In each episode, he matches wits with Number Two, who always wants to know the same thing: “Why did you resign?” It is only a question then of seeing who breaks first, the individualist Number Six or the conformist Villagers.
In its one-season run, The Prisoner created an enduring phenomenon, partly because it remains open to continual reinterpretation, partly because Number Six's symbolic battle against faceless state power is as potent today as when the show was first devised. The series was also greatly helped by its location at Portmeirion, with its bizarre jumble of architectural styles. To this day, the "Six of One" Prisoner Appreciation Society still holds its annual Prisoner convention there.
The tourist-oriented Llechwedd Slate Mine had already closed by the time we got there. Anne, nevertheless, said she'd already seen the abandoned slate mine back in her hometown of Walton, New York; she'd never, however, seen anything like Portmeirion!
| Author Patrick Simpson and his wheelchair-restricted wife Anne uncover their experiences exploring historical and cultural experiences around the world. Visit now to learn how independent travel for disabled persons is not only possible, it can be fun!! www.booksbypatricksimpson.com |
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