Six of One - The Prisoner - Patrick McGoohan

51	Patrick McGoohan wrote and directed Free For All, Once Upon A Time and Fall Out. The name appearing on his Once Upon A Time original script was Archibald Schwartz.
52	In the Columbo episode Identity Crisis, there were many Prisoner-like references and even one or two in McGoohan's only other TV series after The Prisoner, Rafferty.
53	He also directed episodes Many Happy Returns and A Change of Mind under the pseudonym Joseph Serf. His script for Once Upon A Time closely followed the 'Seven Ages of Man' lines from Shakespeare's play, As You Like It.
54	In some UK screenings of Free For All the ‘Rover worshipping’ sequence and violent beating of No. 6 were omitted.
55	The expression ‘Be seeing you’ and accompanying hand salute were a greeting or an ominous reference to constant surveillance. A more modern abbreviation became popular as 'BCNU'. Who thought to use the expression or salute in The Prisoner is not known.
56	Some past screenings of Living In Harmony have omitted parts of the hanging scene.
57	David Tomblin was an assistant film director with McGoohan on Danger Man, as well as being a company co-director of the outfit used for making The Prisoner, Everyman Films. He produced all the Prisoner episodes as well as writing and directing Living In Harmony and directing The Girl Who Was Death.
58	Tomblin claimed that he and McGoohan had the idea for The Prisoner many years before it was made. This was the third of such claims, the others having come from McGoohan and script editor George Markstein.
59	Another Harmony scene sometimes excluded on TV was the assault upon Kathy by the Kid.
60	The Rover giant white balloon was partly a living organism and partly a radio-controlled robot. It was seen being released from the seabed, or growing in size from the fountain and was also witnessed being de-activated.
61	Arrival had no standard opening sequence but episodes 2-12 inclusive and 15 and 16 did.
62	Ron Grainer composed the Prisoner theme and released a jazzed-up version of it on record in 1967, which was less popular than the original theme. Other earlier musical compositions were put forward by composers Robert Farnon and Wilfred Josephs but rejected. Albert Elms provided most other incidental music along with many pieces from the Chappells' library. The theme has been released on vinyl, tape and CD several times.
63	Episode 13 had the standard opening sequence preceded by a tag sequence.
64	Futuristic aspects of the series such as cordless phones, computer screens and closed circuit television have since become commonplace.
65	Episode 14 had a non-standard opening sequence.
66	The Beatles' hit anthem All You Need Is Love was heard twice in the final episode. The song was a No. 1 hit for the group in July 1967, six months before Fall Out's first UK showing.
67	Episode 17 began with no standard opening sequence but with a montage of shots from the previous episode.
68	The pub in The Girl Who Was Death was the Thatched Barn Hotel (since demolished) just down the road from the studio. In the same story, when two sports cars were turning round, the pub was the not far off Mops and Brooms. The strange 'paternoster' lift or elevator in Forsake was inside the GEC building in Borehamwood (still there).
69	Fall Out's escape tunnel was a disused railway one at Mayfield, Sussex (since demolished).
70	The number '1' on the door of the prisoner's London home was real - at 1 Buckingham Place, SW1. Other various London series locations were used, as well as a few shops along Borehamwood’s main street.
71	Fairground scenes from The Girl were shot at the Kursaal funfair at Southend. Lighthouse scenes featured Beachy Head in Sussex.
72	Three different cricket grounds were seen in The Girl, being Meopham in Kent and Eltisley in Cambridge, plus an unknown location for the close-up action.
73	Although the last two episodes were a two-parter, part 16 was filmed several months prior to the creation of episode 17.
74	Patrick McGoohan accepted Honorary Presidency of The Prisoner's official appreciation society, Six of One, on its chosen inception date, 6th January 1977 (Sixth of the First).
75	Arrival’s beach taxi chase and Free For All's boat pursuit were filmed at roughly the same spot, except that the former used the open stretch of sands and the latter occurred after the estuary’s high tide.
76	For 25 years Six of One has held large-scale conventions in Portmeirion which re-created major scenes from the episodes. There was also a major 10th birthday party for the society as well as events celebrating the 25th and 30th anniversaries of The Prisoner. In attendance on these occasions were many stars and crew from the series.
77	The World Cameras photographic shop in Forsake was at Southampton Row, London.
78	Some episodes were originally filmed under different titles. Checkmate was The Queen’s Pawn and Forsake was Face Unknown. A. B. and C. was either Play in 3 Acts, or at one point 1, 2 & 3. Finally, Once Upon A Time was initially called Degree Absolute.
79	Apart from The Beatles' Fall Out hit, The Four Lads' 'Dry Bones' and Carmen Miranda's 'I, Yi, Yi, Yi, Yi (I Like You Very Much)' were heard in the final episode. Throughout the series were also featured various passages of classical music (Bizet, Strauss, Vivaldi) nursery rhymes and traditional songs.
80	It was claimed that of the Rover balloons, obtained from a nearby meteorological station, hundreds were used. Some were helium-filled, some shown by way of reversed film and some simply tied by string to the back of a boat or McGoohan's foot.
81	The idea for the series, something agreed by both McGoohan and Markstein, arose from the use of wartime internment camps, particularly one at Invelair Lodge in Scotland. However, from various scriptwriters’ pens, the episodes introduced different themes, such as education, politics and drugs, as well as freedom of the individual.
82	The results of each day’s filming in 1966 were screened at the Coliseum cinema, in nearby Porthmadog.
83	The opening Arrival shot of the sportscar is identical to that of Fall Out's closing shot, making the series seem cyclical or circular.
84	Living in Harmony was not screened in the USA during its initial run. Claims have been made that because of the Vietnam war, the refusal to take up a gun by No. 6 was unpatriotic. It was also alleged that it was the story's hallucinatory drug content which offended US censors.
85	The For Sale board outside the Prisoner’s home in Fall Out displayed the surname of John Lageu, the series' set dresser. Also, in the Girl episode, street signs in Witchwood show the names Brendan (Stafford) Bull, David (Tomblin) Dough and Leonard (Harris) Snuffit.
86	Apart from the Ron Grainer 1967 commercially released record and published sheet music, the only other item of merchandise at the time was a Dinky Toys Mini Moke Village taxi.
87	In 1969/70 three novelisations appeared in the USA, reprinted in the UK a decade later. These only loosely followed the series' format and were not well received.
88	It was not until the mid 1980s that videos and other records as well as reference books began to appear.
89	In the 1990s a greater amount of new Prisoner merchandise was released than during the whole of the previous two decades.
90	The Napoleon character in the Girl was originally envisaged as Hitler. The idea was dropped as it was not considered appropriate.
91	Mary Morris’s female Peter Pan character in Dance Of The Dead was initially to be Old Father Time, written for male actor Trevor Howard (or even at first Jack The Ripper).
92	The series' appreciation society, through its active members, has tracked down and retained costumes and props from the series, badges and Tally Ho newspapers, original drawings and 8mm cine film of the Portmeirion location filming.
93	Christopher Benjamin, who appeared three times in The Prisoner, played Potter in The Girl, as well as in the Danger Man story Koroshi. Both were made at around the same time.
94	In the late 1970s a Canadian university ran a course based on The Prisoner and published booklets with a sociological angle of study.
95	A documentary on the series ‘Six Into One - The Prisoner File' was screened by Channel 4 and S4C in the UK in the early 1980s. Numerous other TV features on The Prisoner have occurred, as have many music promotional videos based on the series and spoof shows.
96	There have been Prisoner marathon screenings of all 17 episodes, on TV and at selected theatres. Some television companies have even provided an analyst or psychiatrist at the beginning and end of episodes to explain the stories' meanings. There have been interactive screenings where viewers could type responses, shown along the bottom of the screen.
97	Various Prisoner trivia party, computer or board games have been produced. Strangely, the most requested and sought-after item has always been an example of No. 6’s blazer (update: a mobile phone Prisoner theme ring tone is now often requested!)
98	False road signs were erected in Forsake and Fall Out to confuse the viewer as to locations being used. At the end of Fall Out, the Thatched Barn Hotel was visible at the side of the dual carriageway road.
99	McGoohan filmed his own one-hour documentary on the series in the early 80s, although this was never screened.
100	Patrick McGoohan and Alexis Kanner teamed up again in the late ‘70s to make the Canadian film, ‘Kings and Desperate Men’. The two actors held great respect for each other and the movie has echoes of the many times in The Prisoner when both players improvised during the series' dramatic scenes.
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