The actor Patrick McGoohan has died, he was 80 years old. He appeared in everything from “Ice Station Zebra” to “Braveheart” but he was best known for his 1960s TV series “The Prisoner”, which
followed his starring role in the long-running spy drama “Danger Man”.
I would not hesitate to describe the best episodes of “The Prisoner” as art. McGoohan took his personal situation as a TV star trapped in a famous role and escaped it by holding a mirror up to the mid-20th Century global village. Largely concerned with the issue of personal freedom in a mediatised surveillance society, the series has only grown in relevance. DVDs of the series are easy to find, and if you can’t watch any others then at least watch “Free For All” (which satirises the media and the electoral process) and “Once Upon A Time” (which is a classic two-characters-in-a-room drama).