I AM (NOT) A NUMBER

In this ongoing 50th anniversary year of 'The Prisoner' the latest book to appear on the series comes from film director Alex Cox. He was always sung the praises of Patrick McGoohan and 'The Prisoner', even using his 'Moviedrome' series on BBC2 to champion both. In his 1993 introduction to a screening of 'Escape from Alcatraz' he proclaimed, "There are some, myself included, who believe that it was the greatest TV series of all time." However, in his new book 'I Am Not A Number: Decoding The Prisoner' Cox offers a different and in some ways controversial slant on the series.

The book consists, logicaly enough, of 17 chapters, each correponding to one of the episodes, sandwiched between an introduction and a final chapter entitled 'Decoding The Prisoner.' The writer's stated view on the series is that everything needed to understand 'The Prisoner' "can be found in its 17 episodes", adding that he will draw his conclusions solely from those. The comment is a little overtated, given that Cox does cover other aspects, including the series' 1960s setting, the making of the episodes and location filming in Portmeirion, plus the public reaction to the end of the series. This isn't a disadvantage, as the individual chapters don't always offer much that is new. Cox runs through the action, refers to the scripts and call sheets at times and drops in some interesting contextual facts from the outside world. He ends each chapter with a 'What Have We Learned?' section, in which he summarises 'facts' he draws from any particular episode. Here it is Cox's drawn conclusions that are the interesting element as his interpretations hang on study of the episodes in their order of filming, not screning.

The running order of The Prisoner has in itself engendered much debate over the years and I think it has to be borne in mind that by drawing on call sheets and scripts Cox is viewing the series in a way original viewers never could have. Considering the series in a shooting order is an interesting concept, although in a sense artificial. For example, Once Upon a Time may have been filmed as the 6th episode, but was never intended to be broadcast at that position as it was meant to become the cliffhanger ending to a proposed first series of 13 stories. However, although the shooting was not the planned broadcast order, this does allow Cox an interesting angle of exploring the direction the show was taking and the transition from more spy-based straightforward episodes to the more radical adventures of the post-Markstein stories.

After guiding us through his thoughts on each particular story and what he draws from it, Cox comes to his own final conclusion as to Number 6's former occupation, based upon his reading of the episodes. This will no doubt find favour with some readers and not with others, but I will reveal no more here. One reaction I had on a different score arose from Cox taking a rather too literal approach to episodes plots and screen action. For example, in describing the end of Fall Out, the writer submits: "The rocket might contain Britain's first astronaut.The Prisoner and his three unlikely allies escape The Village and discover it is on the English coast, a short drive from London. There can be no question as to who ran The Village now." Such a matter-of-fact approach is diametricallyopposed to McGoohan's own repeated assertion that the series' finale was allegorical.

Cox seems to favour his literal and logical approach throughout, assuming that the amount of conscious planning and thought that went into The Prisoner, particularly in the latter episodes, was much more than was actually the case. Althought there was a structure and an outline at the beggining of filming, we know this often mutated as the show went on, and Cox's interpretation assumes that what finaly came to our screens was what the makers had in mind initially. Iprefer to think that the series grew and developed organically and that its 17 disparate parts should never be expected to make complete, logical sense.

Any reading of a show as complex as The Prisoner is by necessity going to be subjective; Cox's interpretation of the series is certainly original, though I didn't always find it convincing. His views are intensely personal, with his references to "sexy" Village maids and a Bunuel-esque element bringing a film-maker's and film buff's eye to the series. The epilogue is one of the pithier and more weighty sections, in which Cox contrasts the world of 50 years ago, in which The Prisoner was made, with our modern one. Sentiments expressed here did resonate with my views and to be honest I did think there was plenty of scope for Cox to have explored the concepts of the series to a greater extent. The modest 40,000 word count could have benifited in my view from having more debate and analysis, less of the personally devised interpretations, despite the writer saying from the outset that his approach was one of concentrating on the content of the episodes. However, for those who find Alex Cox an unusual and interesting figure, it is these personal views which will be the appeal of the book.