By Hook or by Crook

Julian Sanchez | November 18, 2005

Franklin Harris notes that the British satellite channel Sky One is planning a remake of the paranoid '60s classic The Prisoner. Before you get too excited, though, consider:

Damien Timmer, who has been lined up to executive produce the show for Granada, told Broadcast the new series would take "liberties with the original" and would not retain its arty feel.

"Taking liberties" is fine—I'm as big a fan of the show as anyone, but it's fairly seriously dated at this point, and you'd expect a lot of changes in a remake. But "would not retain its arty feel" sounds an awful lot like exec-speak for "we're going to turn it into a generic spy show with a few witless, predictable 'twists' thrown in as a gesture toward the original." I am holding out a little hope, though, in that Granada's also responsible for the excellent Jeremy Brett/Edward Hardwicke Sherlock Holmes Mysteries series.

Comments

|11.18.05 @ 7:25PM|#

From the wording of the article, it may not be a remake. A sequel would be nice. Cold war vets from both side find the abandoned Village and turn it into a re-education camp. It becomes Gitmo for the out-of-control Cheneys of the world.

Franklin Harris|11.18.05 @ 7:27PM|#

My first thought is that this is a very bad idea.

My second is, the BBC is an excellent job reviving "Doctor Who."

My third is, doesn't Sky One air "Footballers Wives"?

My fourth is, no that's ITV.

|11.18.05 @ 7:32PM|#

Somebody needs to inform our own Number 6.

|11.18.05 @ 7:38PM|#

You know, McGoohan ain't dead just yet. How about, um, getting him involved? Oh, yeah, if they do that, then they can't just completely ignore the original show to do some stupid new one. Kind of like making Mr. Phelps a bad guy if you were to remake Mission Impossible. What's the point of trading on a name you're essentially going to defame?

I just looked at the IMDB entry for Number 6. He--

• 
  
• Was the first choice for Gandalf
  
• Was the first choice for Dumbledore
  
• Turned down The Saint (TV)
  
• Turned down James Bond (Live and Let Die)
  
• Was said to have intimidated Orson Friggin' Welles with his stage presence
  

|11.18.05 @ 8:13PM|#

Jeff P:

That's actually a pretty damned good idea...

Mike|11.18.05 @ 8:59PM|#

In its infancy UPN had a series that was similar to The Prisoner called "Nowhere Man." It was a great show, too bad it got cancelled after one season.

|11.18.05 @ 9:25PM|#

I just hope they don't ruin it as badly as the movies have desecrated the memory of the TV series "Mission: Impossible." The original TV show tended to have smart scripts with smart characters. The movies dumbed things down and made it just another "blow 'em up" piece of stupidity.

|11.18.05 @ 9:56PM|#

Dean Motter did an excellent Prisoner sequel graphic novel some years ago:
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0930289536/reasonmagazineA/

Also, the middle part of V for Vendetta deals with a will-breaking prison environment. I won't spoil it for those who didn't read it, but it runs a thematically similar path as The Prisoner.

Lastly, in my slightly geekier days I started a crossover fanfic story about Steed & Peel being asigned to find a missing agent in a secluded Village prison. I din't recall many details, except I managed to include the retired Major from Fawlty Towers and Diana Trent from Waiting for God (who was a war journalist) in the investigation.
I am the saddest man ever...

|11.18.05 @ 10:31PM|#

"I am the saddest man ever"

No, that would only be the case if your story included a "slash" scene between Steed and No. 6....

|11.19.05 @ 2:19AM|#

They should get McGoohan to play Number 1 in the last episode, if he agrees to it. That would be friggin' sweet.

James Anderson Merritt|11.19.05 @ 2:35AM|#

McGoohan as Gandalf! McGoohan as Dumbledore!

The nearby parallel universes seem to have better movies than we do. Maybe they have better TV, too.

|11.19.05 @ 9:15AM|#

From the original post: "the new series would take 'liberties with the original' and would not retain its arty feel."

Maybe it's just me, but isn't the "arty feel" a large part of why a nearly 40(!) year-old TV show that only ran for 17 episodes still has a well-defined fan base and continues to influence pop culture to this day?

|11.19.05 @ 10:56AM|#

A while back ('97 or so) I had heard rumblings about McGoohan himself working on a remake. Guess it didn't materialize.

Shame...as he was one of the creators as well as occassional writer and director for the original.

What a great show.

fyodor|11.19.05 @ 2:16PM|#

Before you get too excited

I think the original is way cool, but I'm none too excited about pretty much any remake of something great, especially stuff from the 60's which were inevitably very much of their time.

That said, a few folks here have already made more intelligent comments than what I just wrote (but couldn't resist writing anyway), but I'm gonna shout out Jack cause he's correct, only I'll add that it was the original's "arty feel" PLUS the fact that they did it right that explains its appeal. I'm not sure which would be worse: a modern Prisoner stripped of all the arty psycho/political/surreal attributes that made it what it was, or a sincere attempt to recreate the feel of the original that fails as miserably as one of 6's escape attempts.

|11.19.05 @ 6:44PM|#

The Prisoner was always one of my favorite Iron Maiden songs. Based on the series too!

|11.19.05 @ 9:41PM|#

Than again, he did sign up for Scanners; boy he really had aged by 1981. Of course, you know in
this version, it will turn out, the Village is
run by either Halliburton or Enron (Or the Umbrella Corporation)

|11.20.05 @ 1:32AM|#

Or Hillary.

|11.20.05 @ 12:57PM|#

Procedurally, don't you think they should remake "Secret Agent" first, before they remake "The Prisoner?" (Johnny Rivers is still alive to re-record the themesong.)

Bonus fun Patrick McGoohan fact: He was born in Astoria, Queens.

Bonus opinion: Remaking "The Prisoner" is a really, really bad idea.

|11.20.05 @ 6:50PM|#

From the wording of the article, it may not be a remake. A sequel would be nice. Cold war vets from both side find the abandoned Village and turn it into a re-education camp. It becomes Gitmo for the out-of-control Cheneys of the world.

Actually, I was thinking it would be cool if your last "Gitmo" metaphor was not just a metaphor. Let's put the new Village was in some tropical location and keep dropping hints that it's located "somwhere not far from Cuba." (Number Two is always puffing away on cigars ... damn fine cigars, you can't find cigars like these just anywhere.) And make Number 6 a swarthy bearded kinda guy. And his captors insist that he must ahve some very, very important information ... And maybe Kiefer Sutherland guest-stars in one episode as a guy who tries to break him just by beating the crap out of him.

Let's turn some sympathies on their heads.

|11.20.05 @ 7:17PM|#

I think they should have Valery Plame play "The Girl Who was Death". Wouldn't that be fitting.
Joe Wilson could be the "New Number 2" for that episode.
Saddam Hussein could have a cameo as Number 12.

|11.21.05 @ 11:30AM|#

So did Number 6 really escape or not? That last episode seemed more like Number 6 going nuts than anything associated with reality.

I think my favorite episode was either "The Schizoid Man" (the one where they fool with his body to make him think he's someone else) or "The Chimes of Big Ben" (the one where they trick him into thinking he escaped until he hears "Big Ben").

By the way, who is y'all's favorite Number 2? I've got to go with Leo McKern.

|11.21.05 @ 12:12PM|#

"the new series would take 'liberties with the original' and would not retain its arty feel."

Sounds to me like rather than the show being a vision of one person, as the original was basically McGoohan's vision and he had most of the control, this one would be by committee.

I hope I'm wrong.

|11.21.05 @ 12:14PM|#

"By the way, who is y'all's favorite Number 2? I've got to go with Leo McKern."

Well, duh.

|11.21.05 @ 1:13PM|#

Nowhere Man was great.

Robert Goodman|11.21.05 @ 3:56PM|#

You want arty? Watch the current TV series "Lost". Though not explicitly advertised as such, it's an adaptation of "Watchmen". It's great, and heavy stuff for broadcast TV. I happen to have known the executive producer (being a friend of his father) since I saw him in plays in high school, and he's brilliant. It helps if you share his love of magic tricks.

|11.21.05 @ 5:55PM|#

You must be thinking of a different Watchmen than I am...

|11.21.05 @ 11:07PM|#

As long as they don't invite Moby as musical director we might at least get a half-decent remake of the theme song.