Friday 27 May 2011

Six Of One Half A Dozen Of The Other

    That's what they say ins't it, six of one, half a dozen of the other......well it's all the same to me. It's no skin off my nose why the Prisoner resigned, or indeed what it was he resigned from. Although I've come to think that the Prisoners resignation was brought about by the events of Fall Out. After all, in the ending of Fall Out do we not see the beginning of Arrival. In my end is my beginning, as T.S. Elliot wrote.
    It matters not one whit which side runs the Village. It doesn't matter who No.1 is, because if you don't know by this time you never will.
    I have never worn a piped blazer as No.6 does, I've never once had the inclination to do so. And for what it is worth, I've never been to the Italianate Village of Portmeirion. Mine has been something of a purist appreciation of the Prisoner. I've never desired any of the trappings which comes with the series, the books, pens, photographs, posters, mugs etc. But I do have the Prisoner on video and DVD, and cd series soundtrack which I enjoy listening to very much.
    What's more I never allowed myself to join any Prisoner related group or society. Many people have felt the need to join and connect with like minded people, they are the fans. They go to meetings and the Prisoner convention at Portmeirion. Oh I like to keep myself appraised of what's going on in the Village of the Prisoner, the fandom world. Some fans feel the need to off burden themselves, to put their ideas on what the Prisoner is upon others. I suppose I've done much the same with my own column from time to time. Every fan the world over has his or her own take on what the Prisoner means to them, and they'd be right. Ask one thousand people what the Prisoner means, and you'd get one thousand different answers, and each one would be right. Who would we be to say otherwise?
    And then there are the extremes........by this fans who go that one step too far. There used to be this chap, I've no idea of he is still a fan of the Prisoner these days, as it was a good few years ago now. But this chap always 'talked Prisoner!' By this I mean if you were unfortunate to have engaged in conversation with this chap, he would always reply to you using dialogue, quotes, and speech from the Prisoner! But if this chap could find no rersponse in 'Prisoner talk,' he would say That would be telling! I don't think even Johnny Prisoner has gone that far!
    Mentioning Johnny Prisoner, he once told me that when he used to attend Prisoner conventions, there used to be this woman who brought a Thunderbird puppet with her to the conventions, that of Alan Tracy! Why? Well because the head of the puppet of Alan Tracy of Thunderbirds was actually modelled on Derren Nessbit of the episode It's Your Funeral, perfectly true. It's the lip you see, Derren Nesbitt has the perfect Thunderbird puppet lower lip! Not extreme enough? Well that's as may be, but this woman treated the puppet as though it were a real person!!!!!!!! They are the extremes of Prisoner appreciation.
    Of course now there is the 2009 series of THEPRISONER to appreciate, the series I watched on television, then went out and purchased the DVD box set of the series just as soon as it was available. And of course there is the cd soundtrack of the 2009 series, well there would have been if it were not for the fact that the cd soundtrack of THEPRISONER was not deleted from the sales list long before the series premiered in the United Kingdom, long before the DVD box set of the series went on sale! So now the cd soundtrack is only available in America and Switzerland!! But neverthe less I was fortunate to obtain a copy of the cd soundtrack of the 2009 seris of THEPRISONER. And as far as this series goes, it is most definately one for the purist, as the merchandise connected to THEPRISONER is based in America. Merchandise available over the World wide web yes, but not for me.
    The fan base for the 2009 series is in the minority. As for the majority of fans of the original series of the Prisoner, well they don't know what they are missing. For myself, well I'm just happy to be breathing in, breathing out...........more Village!
I'm Piet Hein

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