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Tomo wrote:Mind you, with all this surveillance we live under in the UK, maybe we're already in The Village. Did you know that if you stand outside George Orwell's London flat, you can be seen by 32 cameras?

A celebration of 80 years of Jelly Babies!
Jelly babies were born at the end of the First World War, although at the time they were christened Peace Babies. They went out of production due to shortages during the Second World War and weren’t revived until 1953, when they were renamed as Jelly Babies.

themagicwand wrote:While I'm a big fan of the Prisoner, for me the numero uno 60's TV show has to be the Avengers. Mrs. Peel I love you.

ITV1 to remake The Prisoner/McKellen in Prisoner remake
American actor Jim Caviezel is to succeed Patrick McGoohan in a new version of cult '60s drama The Prisoner being made for ITV1, writes Jonathan Donald.

Caviezel, 39, whose credits include Jesus in Mel Gibson's The Passion Of Christ, will play Number Six in the fantasy thriller.

Sir Ian McKellen will co-star as his sinister nemesis Number Two in the six-part series to air in 2009

Tomo wrote:Only a six-part series?

IT'S OFFICIAL AT LAST - nearly 4 weeks after Six of One exclusively broke the Prisoner remake story, ITV's

official press release of 30th June led to numerous media sources announcing the news of a 2009 mini-series. The

Prisoner Appreciation Society has monitored events since the winter of 2006 and this page has carried all updates.

The news can now rest here - until 2009, when the Prisoner is free (or not) to enthrall us all again. Be seeing you!

6th June, 2008 - SIX OF ONE EXCLUSIVE - The 2009 mini-series of the The Prisoner will feature six one-hour episodes, all written by Bill Gallagher (Clocking Off; Conviction; Lark Rise to Candleford). Sir Ian McKellen (The Lord of the Rings; The Da Vinci Code) is in the role of Number Two and James Caviezel (Deja Vu; The Passion of the Christ) plays Number Six. The producer is Trevor Hopkins (Dracula; Agatha Christie: Poirot; William and Mary) and direction is by Jon Jones (Cold Feet; Northanger Abbey; Diary of Anne Frank). Location filming is in Namibia and Cape Town, with shooting commencing in the first week of August, 2008. The "pacy, radical reinvention of the original show" is a joint production between AMC (American Movie Channel) and ITV (UK).

THE PRISONER REMAKE FOR ITV - CONFIRMED
01 July 2008

ITV1 has finally confirmed that Sir Ian McKellen and Jim Caviezel will be the stars in the the long awaited second series of the 1960s The Prisoner series, scheduled for broadcast in 2009.

Jim Caviezel is best known for his role in The Thin Red Line. He has been cast as Number 6, played by Patrick McGoohan in the original series. No 6 is the secret agent who is kidnapped after his resignation and finds himself a prisoner in a surreal but beautiful place only known as The Village. He does not know how he got there, where he is or who is holding him.

Sir Ian McKellen is probably best known for playing Gandalf in the Lord of the Rings, is cast as Number Two, the sinister deputy head of The Village (His superior, Number One is never seen).

ITV Productions is co-producing the six-part series with Granada International and AMC, the US cable network behind Mad Men. A worldwide premiere is scheduled for 2009.

The second series was first proposed for Sky One, but the satellite broadcaster pulled out of the project in 2006.

ITV have said that the remake, scripted by Bill Gallagher, "will reflect 21st century concerns and anxieties, such as liberty, security and surveillance, yet also showcase the same key elements of paranoia, tense action and socio-political commentary seen in McGoohan's enigmatic original".

Gallagher, who wrote BBC1's Lark Rise to Candleford, said: "I was haunted by The Prisoner when I saw it as a boy on its first broadcast. Here was something that was more than television, something I couldn't quite grasp but couldn't let go of. It's a unique opportunity for a writer to be able to go back to The Village and tell some new stories about that strange place and its surreal menace.

"We have a terrific cast and a wonderful director, so we hope to serve up something as beguiling and disturbing as the original was."

The Prisoner is an AMC and ITV Productions co-production and the deal gives ITV Worldwide all international rights, as well as sales and remake right to the original series. ITV DVD holds home entertainment rights.

Gallagher will also executive produce along with Michele Buck, Damien Timmer and Rebecca Keane for ITV, and AMC's Charlie Collier, Christina Wayne and Vlad Wolynetz.

The series' producer is Trevor Hopkins, who recently worked on the BBC1 Christmas adaptation of Dracula. The director is Jon Jones, whose credits include the ITV1 adaptation of Northanger Abbey and BBC4's The Alan Clark Diaries.


The ground breaking first series is widely acknowledged to be a television classic. It has been shown in many countries, dubbed into several languages (most notably into French) and has had an influence on several generations. It has been the subject of books, articles, documentaries, university courses and even featured in an episode of The Simpsons. Many well known actors took part in the series, alongside a large cast of extras who were recruited locally, many of whom worked at the Porthmadog telephone exchange. For more information on The Prisoner visit Six of One the official Prisoner appreciation society.

Portmeirion Village Managing Director Robin Llywelyn said "We have heard about a Prisoner remake off and on for the past ten or twelve years but nothing has come of it to date. In 1997 things seemed to be progressing and we had some correspondence with Mr McGoohan about a Hollywood blockbuster. Two years ago there was again speculation that Sky TV was working on a remake, but this again came to nothing. We are delighted that a second series has finally been confirmed and as far as Portmeirion is concerned this is very good news. The Prisoner is an important part of Portmeirion's heritage and we are proud to be associated with the series. It brought the village to a wider audience and has brought people to Portmeirion who would never otherwise have heard of the place. Although Portmeirion will not be used as a location this time I'm sure that the second series will create new interest in the first series and bring this classic to a new audience."

Sir Clough Williams-Ellis, architect of Portmeirion, said of the series in his book "Portmeirion: the Place and its Meaning "One unexpected ally in publishing Portmeirion has been Patrick McGoohan's ingenious and indeed mysterious television series 'The Prisoner' which stands alone for its revealing presentation of the place. When seen in colour at the local cinema, a performance he kindly arranged, Portmeirion itself seemed, to me at least, to steal the show from its human cast.

"McGoohan took the greatest trouble to cause the minimum of disturbance of the place's normal life, by his large cast. I certainly appreciated his care, and the subsequent showings of 'The Prisoner' added thousands to Portmeirion's 'gate', an increase which has persisted to this day. I hope the results were as satisfactory to him, but, as the serial has been broadcast many times, I imagine that it must have proved financially successful."