5 Days to London

I AM NOT A NUMBER!

I AM A FREE MAN!

If your response to these words is to laugh maniacally, then odds are you are a fan of "The Prisoner," a short-run British television show starring Patrick McGoohan from the late Sixties.

It centers around the travails of Number 6, a British spy who has abruptly resigned, and his minders want to find out why. He wakes up in The Village, a bizarre little village with whereabouts unknown. (Actualy, it's Portmeirion, an eccentric Italianate village built on the western coast of Wales.) Every episode features a new Number 2, whose mission is to crack Number 6. Number 6 schemes to escape each episode, and to avoid being broken. Take the tortured logic of a Star Trek: TOS plot, throw in some moddish British style, and a Cold War mentality, and you have "The Prisoner."

What do I find so great about "The Prisoner"? The patter, delivered with laser-like intensity by Patrick McGoohan. Example:

Woman (in tears): How can you doubt me?
Number 6: It's easy. I'm waterproof, and a little drizzle won't wash away my doubt.

Also:

Number 2 (speaking about Number 6): He can make even the act of putting on his dressing gown appear as a gesture of defiance.

And:

No.2: Well, be seeing you!
No.6: And you.” [Mumbling] “Not for long.”

I decided to stay in Porthmadog the night before I hit Portmeirion (about a 2-mile walk), giving me extra time to explore this strange little place. Hopefully I'll be able to leave the Village when I'm done!