Tributes Paid To Patrick McGoohan, the Nearly-Bond.

Tributes have appeared around the world to Patrick McGoohan, who died in Los Angeles on 13 January, 2009, aged 80. The Irish star was probably best known as the creator and star of the rather surreal 1960s TV series The Prisoner, but also played secret agent John Drake in Danger Man.

McGoohan’s character in The Prisoner was a former secret agent who was kidnapped and mysteriously found himself a prisoner in ‘The Village’, where he was referred to not by his name but merely as a number (‘Number Six’). The Village is run by a mysterious hierarchy, and the whole population are known only by their allocated numbers.

He is constantly trying to find ways of escaping The Village (which was actually in real-life the beautiful and Italian-style holiday village of Portmeirion in north-west Wales). The series left many people puzzling for years afterwards about the precise message McGoohan was trying to deliver through the show. His rallying cry in the 17 episodes was often “I am not a number – I am a free man!”. It seemed to be about paranoia and dehumanization.

Although in the series McGoohan’s character met several strange and sinister ‘Number Twos’, he could never find out who ‘Number One’ was. This was nearly resolved in the last episode, when he pulled off the false face of the person he finally believed to be ‘Number One’, only to find a monkey’s face underneath. When this in turn was pulled off, Number Six found his own face starring back.

Curiously, this ‘monkey’ scenario was reminiscent of one of the early bizarre ideas for the screenplay of the first Bond movie, Dr. No, when the writers seriously contemplated the part of Julius No being taken by a monkey!

Not many people realise that ‘Number Six’ was once a possible candidate to play 007 in the early 1960s, when the producers were searching for an actor for their new franchise. McGoohan was having great success as Danger Man, and was apparently approached by EON movie scouts. However, McGoohan made it clear that he was not interested in the role of James Bond, as he didn’t  like 007’s reliance on guns and attitude to women.

This did not prevent McGoohan’s name from appearing regularly on ‘Bond candidates’ lists published by movie magazines throughout the 1960s, especially when Sean Connery indicated he was tiring of the role.

A number of actors now familiar to Bond fans can be seen in episodes of The Prisoner, including George Baker (who went on to play Sir Hilary Bray in On Her Majesty’s Secret Service).

A remake of The Prisoner has recently been filmed by the British ITV network, with US actor James Caviezel as ‘Number Six’, and rumours continue to circulate about Hollywood interest in a possible new big-screen version.