40 Fun Facts About The Prisoner (TV Series)

Which Welsh resort village provided the exterior setting of the Village in The Prisoner?

Portmeirion was kept out of the credits until the finale, at the request of the architect who built it.

Rover, the white guardian that hunts escapees in The Prisoner, was made on set from which object?

A weather balloon replaced the planned Rover, a wheeled machine topped with a flashing light that did not work properly on location.

Patrick McGoohan reprised Number Six from The Prisoner in a 2000 episode of which animated comedy?

The Simpsons cast Homer as a fellow inmate of a mysterious island, where he escapes on a raft that Number Six had spent more than thirty years building.

Writers of which later television drama said Rover from The Prisoner inspired its Smoke Monster?

Lost is one of the series The Guardian said could not have existed without The Prisoner, which it called the Citizen Kane of British TV.

Which film role did Patrick McGoohan refuse on moral grounds before he created The Prisoner?

James Bond was the part he was considered for in the first 007 film, and the success of those films is credited with reviving his own spy show.

Which type of cycle, drawn with a canopy, is the logo of the Village in The Prisoner?

A penny-farthing also appears behind the closing credits, where a drawing of it slowly assembles in stop-frame animation.

Which heavy metal band recorded Back in the Village, one of its two songs inspired by The Prisoner?

Iron Maiden put the first song, named after the series itself, on the 1982 album The Number of the Beast, and the second on Powerslave.

Patrick McGoohan played secret agent John Drake in which spy series before he made The Prisoner?

Danger Man was retitled Secret Agent in America, where it gained the hit theme song Secret Agent Man, sung by Johnny Rivers.

In the opening titles of The Prisoner, which vehicle trails Number Six home before he is gassed?

A hearse pulls up outside his London home, and a man dressed as an undertaker pumps knockout gas through the keyhole.

Which theatrical knight played Number Two in AMC's 2009 remake of The Prisoner?

Ian McKellen took a part Patrick McGoohan had eyed: by the producer's account, McGoohan declined a cameo in the remake and suggested he play Two instead.

Which future Rumpole of the Bailey star played Number Two in three episodes of The Prisoner?

Leo McKern found the role punishing: filming his week-long duel with Number Six reportedly brought on a breakdown or a heart attack and halted production.

What sets the Butler who serves each Number Two in The Prisoner apart from other regulars?

He never speaks in any of his 14 episodes, yet actor Angelo Muscat was the only performer besides the star treated as a co-star of the series.

In the Prisoner episode The General, what does the unseen General behind Speed Learn turn out to be?

A computer built to answer any question, the General destroys itself when Number Six feeds it a single one-word question it cannot resolve.

After Number Six escapes to London in The Prisoner and is flown back, what does the new Number Two give him?

A birthday cake greets him back in the Village after an escape to London, brought by the woman he had found settled in his old house.

In the Prisoner episode A. B. and C., Number Two drugs Number Six in order to watch and steer what?

His dreams of an elegant party are meant to expose a buyer for his secrets, until he takes control of them and unmasks Number Two as the spymaster.

In the Prisoner episode The Girl Who Was Death, the whole spy adventure turns out to be what?

A bedtime story told to Village children, it was watched by Number Two in the hope that Number Six would drop his guard.

Which actor took over the role of Number Six for AMC's six-part 2009 remake of The Prisoner?

Jim Caviezel played him as Michael, a man who has quit a surveillance firm and wakes in a Village set in a desert instead of beside the sea.

What is the title of the Prisoner finale, written and directed by Patrick McGoohan himself?

Fall Out baffled and angered viewers so much that McGoohan said he had to go into hiding for a while afterwards.

Which composer of the Doctor Who theme also wrote the theme music used on The Prisoner?

Ron Grainer was the third composer tried, after theme tunes by Robert Farnon and Wilfred Josephs had been rejected or dropped.

In the human chess game of the Prisoner episode Checkmate, which piece does Number Six play?

The queen's pawn is also the piece Alice plays in Through the Looking-Glass, and the episode was first going to be named after it.

Which Prisoner episode is a Western, with Number Six as a sheriff who refuses to carry a gun?

Living in Harmony was held back from the first American run, and authors disagree over whether its gun-shy sheriff was the reason.

Which film took Patrick McGoohan away when Nigel Stock played Number Six in one Prisoner episode?

Ice Station Zebra kept him in America, so the writers had Number Six's mind transplanted into another man's body for the episode.

Number Six wins the craft show in The Prisoner with a sculpture that secretly doubles as what?

A boat is hidden in the pieces of his entry, titled Escape, and he buys another prizewinner's tapestry to use as its sail.

In the Prisoner episode The Schizoid Man, how is Number Six retrained so his double seems genuine?

To use his left hand is one result of aversion therapy that also changes his tastes, and he undoes it by giving himself an electric shock.

Number Six places a Don Quixote quotation as an advert in which Village newspaper in The Prisoner?

The Tally Ho is the Village daily, and its masthead carries the same cycle logo found on almost everything else there.

Which Jeep-like car serves as the Village taxi in The Prisoner?

The Mini Moke was conceived as a lightweight military vehicle, but the Army found its ground clearance too poor and it was sold to civilians instead.

In The Prisoner, Number Six is summoned by telephone to meet Number Two at which Village building?

The Green Dome sits above the Embryo Room, the locked chamber where the last battle of wills with Number Two takes place.

Which ITC boss agreed to make The Prisoner after Patrick McGoohan pitched the idea to him out loud?

Lew Grade approved the series on a spoken agreement, and by McGoohan's 1977 account did so despite not understanding it.

The Prisoner episode The Chimes of Big Ben claims the Village is on which country's Baltic coast?

Lithuania is a lie: the escape it prompts ends in a fake London office, betrayed when a borrowed watch matches the chimes with no time difference.

Which country saw the world premiere of The Prisoner in September 1967, weeks before Britain did?

Canada aired it on the CTV network from 5 September 1967, more than three weeks ahead of its British debut.

Guest roles on which American detective series won Prisoner star Patrick McGoohan two Emmy Awards?

Columbo kept him busy from 1974 to 2000: he also directed five episodes, wrote one, and appeared in one with his daughter Catherine.

Mark Frost called The Prisoner a large influence on which small-town mystery series he co-created?

Twin Peaks and The X-Files both owe it a debt: a producer of the latter called The Prisoner the Gone with the Wind of its genre.

In the Prisoner finale, what does Number Six set counting down to force the Village to evacuate?

A rocket hidden beneath the Village lifts off as he drives away in a cage on the back of a lorry with the Butler and two fellow rebels.

The Prisoner drew on a wartime resort-like prison for people who knew too much, in which country?

Scotland held Inverlair Lodge, in the Highlands, which script editor George Markstein came across while researching the Second World War.

Which trampoline-based contact sport does Number Six practise in the Village gym in The Prisoner?

Kosho was made up for the series, and Patrick McGoohan wore its uniform to the press launch in September 1967.

Which architect built the Italianate resort that stood in for the Village in The Prisoner?

Clough Williams-Ellis spent fifty years on it, from 1925 to 1975, and was knighted at 88, then the oldest person ever to receive the honour.

Which risky technique locks Number Two in a room with Number Six for a week late in The Prisoner?

Degree Absolute sends Number Six's mind back to childhood so that Number Two can replay his life with him, playing father, headmaster and employer in turn.

Under which pen name did Patrick McGoohan write a Prisoner episode about a rigged election?

Paddy Fitz joined Paddy, the Irish short form of Patrick, to the start of Fitzpatrick, his mother's family name.

In the Prisoner episode Dance of the Dead, which animal met by Number Six proves to be a spy?

A black cat spies for that episode's Number Two, played by Mary Morris, and turns up again in the episode Many Happy Returns.

In the Prisoner finale, which animal's mask does Number One wear beneath his first mask?

A gorilla face comes off to show a man who looks exactly like Number Six, a glimpse that lasts about four seconds.