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Fall
Out: The Unofficial and Unauthorised Guide to The Prisoner
is a total waste of time and money. Avoid it at all cost.
The
Prisoner is about to get another DVD release - a fully restored
version on the Network label. There’s also talk about
an HD release, so the timing of this book couldn’t be
better. It’s almost as it were planned...
The
show, of course, is one of the most talk about in cult TV
circles. The story of a trapped spy, the nameless Number 6,
imprisoned as he tries to leave the service for a normal life,
has as many admirers as it does detractors. However, what
is clear is that after 40 years The Prisoner is still
a highly regarded - albeit left field - TV show.
So
does Fall Out add anything to The Prisoner canon
or is it just another roundup of fan ‘insight’ and
fact listing? You’ll be glad to hear that it’s neither,
although exactly what the book is, is a harder thing to define.
First
it’s unbelievably pompous. According to the back of the
book: "The impact of the 1967 ATV thriller series The
Prisoner upon society was explosive, transforming art,
storytelling and popular culture like no other television
programme before of since."
No.
The Prisoner didn’t change a thing, unlike say,
Cathy Come Home, Boys
from the Black Stuff, Doomwatch or The
Singing Detective. These shows changed public
and political thinking or reshaped TV narrative. Their effects
were long lasting - and still have echoes in TV today.
The
authors also tell us that their book isn’t going to be
too analytical. Really? It certainly includes great swathes
of copy that appears to be deeply analytical, although on
closer reading much of the critique is really adventitious
presupposition, so I suppose the writers are correct to a
fashion.
Apparently,
episode five, The Schizoid Man is "one of the
most visually enjoyable and thought-provoking" of the
series. Is it? Says who? It’s this sort of blanket statement,
trotted out without perspicacious advocacy that makes these
sorts of self-indulgent fan books so endlessly tedious.
For
example, do we really need to be told how much a cup of coffee
costs in the village? Two credits, if you must know. It adds
nothing to our appreciation of the show and gives no great
insight other than we finally understand that the authors
really should get out more often.
However,
it’s at the very end of their analysis of The General
that you really want to reach into the page and wag your finger
admonishingly. Apparently it’s a story that "addresses
contemporary themes of the time in a way that is still relevant
to modern educators and students". The story, in case
you don’t know, is about a speed learning technique that
offers a university education in minutes. The computer behind
the process is finally destroyed by The Prisoner when
he asks it ‘Why?’. See any relevance? No, thought
not... more fatuous balderdash.
After
many more pages of asinine rambling, masquerading as thought-provoking
commentary, this mighty text finally concludes on page 222.
Blimey! If you add up the numbers they make the number 6.
Maybe the book’s something special after all.
Don’t
be fooled. This book, after all, tells us that the lyrics
to The Beatles’ All You Need is Love "emphasise
simultaneously the contrasts of absolute freedom and absolute
tyranny". B*llocks it does.
Fall
Out: The Unofficial and Unauthorised Guide to The Prisoner
is a worrying waste of paper. Avoid it at all cost, especially
if you find the word "metatextual" irksome.
Anthony
Clark
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