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"The writers" was McGoohan!

There is a perfectly good explanation of whom Number 1 is- which is what finally puts the icing on the cake of why The Prisoner is the greatest drama ever. The final two episodes are, with the first episode, and the one where he is 'out of the Village'- ending at the lighthouse-, the best of the lot.

Watch them again and see if you can work it out.

There was nothing like it before, and has been nothing like it since---although it has influenced so much TV drama. At its best, it is an examination of the human condition. If Kafka, Le Carre, Camus and Lewis Carrol had collaborated, it's possible they might have come up with The Prisoner.

Every time someone talks about remaking it, I shudder with horror.

Well wikipedia reflects my view of the last episode. See in particular George Marksteins view.

Patrick is 80 today.Bought the DVD set Around Xmas havent watched all yet as there are stons of extras

One reviewer on imdb.com recommended you should dip into it sparingly---treat it like a fine wine. The show is over 40 years old and people are still debating what it's all about; think that says all that needs to be said about its quality.

Happy viewing, Steve.

As for Tarquin, perhaps you should just find an opinion on a subject and stick to it, rather than seeking wikipedia approval for it. It's called independent thinking, something The Prisoner advocates.

As Mike says higher up in the thread, the rot started to set in in the early '90s when the old regional franchises went, to be replaced by awful "corporate branding".

Even leaving aside the mindless "chav TV" dross that now makes up 99% of ITV programming, these days it's all about advertising and sponsorship (what the fuck is all that about: "The Bill sponsored by Jeyes PowerWipes").

And it seems to me that the bean-counters and money-men seem to regard having actual programmes between all the ad breaks (which now take up 25 % of ITV on-air time, i.e. 16 minutes of every 1-hour slot) as a necessary evil.

As recently as the late '90s, we were still getting 50 minutes of programme per hour (I know this as I still have some off-air video tapings from that time). Now it's down to 44 minutes per hour.

Incidentally: Those "sponsored by ..." ads each run to about 18 seconds. And in a one hour slot, you get one before the programme starts, one at the start and end of each of the 3 commercial breaks, and another when the programme ends.

That makes 8 in total.

So in a 1-hour slot, that's nearly 2 1/2 minutes less programme so as to make way for the fucking sponsorship ads. And that's on top of your regular ads.

ITV? More like AdTV.

- Eric

Flat_Eric wrote:

> And it seems to me that the bean-counters and money-men seem to
> regard having actual programmes between all the ad breaks
> (which now take up 25 % of ITV on-air time, i.e. 16 minutes of
> every 1-hour slot) as a necessary evil.

ITV are now asking for the advert breaks to be increased.

Each break in The Bill lasts four minutes, so you can do the maths yourself and work out just how much of an hour show is taken up with ads.

About 47-50mins tops

Wikipedia supported the view i have had on the Prisoner ever since it was made. I havent changed my view to comply with wikipedia.