'The Prisoner' Is 50: But Who Was Patrick McGoohan's No. 6 Really... And Who Is No. 1?

Patrick McGoohan's clever, intelligent and way ahead of its time TV series The Prisoner turns 50 today. I loved the show when I was a teenager in the 1960s.

Morgan Jeffery at digitalspy.com looks back at the series and attempts to provide answers that viewers have been asking for 50 years.

Classic '60s series The Prisoner turns 50 today - September 5, 2016 - and half a century since Patrick McGoohan's protagonist arrived in the mysterious Village, two questions persist...

Who was No. 6, and who is No. 1?

The set-up for the surreal show saw McGoohan's secret agent abruptly resign from his post, only to be captured and held captive in the sinister Village.

We never learnt our hero's real name - instead, he was given the moniker 'No.6' as shadowy forces worked to break his spirit... and find out why he resigned.

The true identity of McGoohan's character is still a fierce point of debate for fans of The Prisoner - and even the show's creative team were divided on who No. 6 used to be.

You can read the rest of the piece via the below link:

http://www.digitalspy.com/tv/feature/a806924/the-prisoner-is-50-but-who-was-patrick-mcgoohans-no-6-really/

You can also read an earlier post on Patrick McGoohan's and The Prisoner via the below link:

http://www.pauldavisoncrime.com/2014/04/patrick-mcgoohan-spy-who-started-it-all.html

Patrick McGoohan's Secret Agent (AKA Danger Man): The Complete Series DVD To Be Released On December 9th

Spy thrillers were the big thing in the 1960s when I was a teenager.

I was watching Sean Connery as Ian Fleming's iconic character James Bond at the movies and on TV I was watching Patrick McGoohan as John Drake in Secret Agent.

For those of you from my generation who may wish to recapture their youth by watching John Drake in action again, or for younger viewers who have never seen Patrick McGoohan's classic TV spy drama, Shout Factory announced that they will be releasing Secret Agent: The Complete Series on DVD on December 9th.

Shout Factory offers the below synopsis:

“Every government has its secret service branch. America, CIA; France,Deuxième Bureau; England, MI5. NATO also has its own. A messy job? Well that's when they usually call on me or someone like me. Oh yes, my name is Drake, John Drake.”

Patrick McGoohan (The Prisoner) stars as John Drake in Secret Agent, the popular television series from the Golden Age of Spy Thrillers, the 1960s. Travelling the world to capture international criminals, John Drake rarely solved problems with a gun, preferring to use charm and wit over violence to bring in the bad guys.

Encompassing all 86 episodes from its successful broadcast run, Secret Agent (known in the United Kingdom as Danger Man) is an essential addition to the collection of any fan of the spy game.      

I purchased a Secret Agent DVD set last year and over the course of the year I watched all of the Secret Agent episodes.

Patrick McGoohan is terrific as the cool and resourceful British agent. Secret Agent is an intelligent and clever show that holds up very well after all these years.

Note: You can read Patrick McGoohan's obituary in the Los Angeles Times via the below link:

http://www.latimes.com/local/obituaries/la-me-patrick-mcgoohan15-2009jan15-story.html

Danger Man: A Classic Spy TV Program from the 1960s

A web site dedicated to all things James Bond, http://www.mi6.co.uk/, is offering an interesting piece on one of Bond's competitors, Danger Man.
 

http://www.mi6.co.uk/sections/beyond_bond/danger_man.php3?t=&s=&id=02329
 

Danger Man, which aired on TV in the 1960s, starred Patrick McGoohan as secret agent John Drake.

Drake was a cool, tough agent like Bond, but he didn't carry a gun, shoot anyone or seduce women.
 

I was and am a big fan of the early James Bond films in the 1960s and the Ian Fleming thrillers, but I also liked Danger Man, or Secret Agent, which was what the program was called in the United States.
 

I like McGoohan's next TV program, The Prisoner, even better. It was a clever, interesting program way ahead of its time.
 

Sadly, we recently lost Patrick McGoohnan. He was a talented man.