Podcasts about McGoohan

Mike and Chris slip into the shadows with Identity Crisis, Columbo's espionage-laced foray into cloak-and-dagger territory. Directed by none other than Patrick McGoohan—who also stars as a smug, sartorially superior spy—this episode finds the Lieutenant matching wits with a killer who's as cool as he is cold-blooded. The guys dive into the episode's slick style, surreal touches, and McGoohan's unmistakable fingerprints all over the production. Is this Columbo at its most cerebral—or just a secret agent detour too far? Join the investigation and find out.

(2:00) The Ethics of the Unabomber and the Healthcare AssassinWhat does the government say is their evidence for Luigi Mangione as the assassin of the health insurance CEO?What is his background and worldviewWas this assassination justified?  Was the Unabomber justified?In Luigi's online review of Unabomber he says "we're animals like everything else on this planet, except we've forgotten the law of the jungle and bend over for our overlord" and concludes only coward and predators say 'violence never solved anything'.  What does the Christian say to that?(38:42) LIVE comments about assassination (43:48) Daniel Penny and the Threat of Racial Violence BLM Calls "Vigilantes"The race war narrative and the useful idiots who believe itWhy Daniel Perry's actions are NOT criminal, but Soros DA Alvin Braggs' actions ARE CRIMINALTrial showed that the "victim" was alive when police arrived and THEY chose not to give medical aidGermany let off illegal aliens who gang raped a woman but punished people who criticized the rapists — and now they're coming after a woman who defended herself against rape(1:13:31) LIVE comments (1:17:31) Gates — International CriminalGates' deal with politicians to give him and his foundation diplomatic immunity to crimes and to taxes hits a bump in the wallIt's not just Kenya or poor nations — USA gives legal immunity as wellMore calls for Gates' arrest after his comments about using India "as a lab" to test drugs they couldn't test elsewhereGates' population control agenda (both depopulation and tracking surveillance) continues as he pushes for age verification to begin digital ID(1:44:05) The BioweaponThe amazingly low uptake of the jab by doctors & health care workers — but they're afraid to tell YOUWhen Trump understated autism on Sunday, was he referring to those who have been harmed by the shot he's so proud of?  It looks like TrumpVax will be more common than autism(1:44:05) MOST DANGEROUS LIE they're telling you nowHow can we be certain there WAS NO PANDEMIC?  Look at the TSA (2:11:57) Will you hold DOLLARS or MONEY?Morgan Stanley says it's time to SELL the dollar — why?Analyst - biggest financial changes since Nixon are coming in next 1 to 3 yearsBlackRock rapidly expands tokenization for money market fund (and everything else)(2:24:35) A Real "Rover" from McGoohan's "The Prisoner"It appears that governments want to make EVERY aspect of every dystopian film reality.  Patrick McGoohan's "The Prisoner" could serve as the model for 15 Minute Cities — but China's new cop-bot is a harder tougher version of the mysterious sphere that guarded escape (2:33:20) Mystery Drones, AI Weather forecasting, and a Geoengineering Report that's pure "limited hangout" (2:46:22) General Patton's connection to "It's a Wonderful Life" (2:50:27) Satanic Temple Joins with the Seminaries of Satan (Public Schools)If you would like to support the show and our family please consider subscribing monthly here: SubscribeStar https://www.subscribestar.com/the-david-knight-show Or you can send a donation throughMail: David Knight POB 994 Kodak, TN 37764Zelle: @DavidKnightShow@protonmail.comCash App at: $davidknightshowBTC to: bc1qkuec29hkuye4xse9unh7nptvu3y9qmv24vanh7 Money should have intrinsic value AND transactional privacy: Go to DavidKnight.gold for great deals on physical gold/silver For 10% off Gerald Celente's prescient Trends Journal, go to TrendsJournal.com and enter the code KNIGHTBecome a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-david-knight-show--2653468/support.

(2:00) The Ethics of the Unabomber and the Healthcare AssassinWhat does the government say is their evidence for Luigi Mangione as the assassin of the health insurance CEO?What is his background and worldviewWas this assassination justified?  Was the Unabomber justified?In Luigi's online review of Unabomber he says "we're animals like everything else on this planet, except we've forgotten the law of the jungle and bend over for our overlord" and concludes only coward and predators say 'violence never solved anything'.  What does the Christian say to that?(38:42) LIVE comments about assassination (43:48) Daniel Penny and the Threat of Racial Violence BLM Calls "Vigilantes"The race war narrative and the useful idiots who believe itWhy Daniel Perry's actions are NOT criminal, but Soros DA Alvin Braggs' actions ARE CRIMINALTrial showed that the "victim" was alive when police arrived and THEY chose not to give medical aidGermany let off illegal aliens who gang raped a woman but punished people who criticized the rapists — and now they're coming after a woman who defended herself against rape(1:13:31) LIVE comments (1:17:31) Gates — International CriminalGates' deal with politicians to give him and his foundation diplomatic immunity to crimes and to taxes hits a bump in the wallIt's not just Kenya or poor nations — USA gives legal immunity as wellMore calls for Gates' arrest after his comments about using India "as a lab" to test drugs they couldn't test elsewhereGates' population control agenda (both depopulation and tracking surveillance) continues as he pushes for age verification to begin digital ID(1:44:05) The BioweaponThe amazingly low uptake of the jab by doctors & health care workers — but they're afraid to tell YOUWhen Trump understated autism on Sunday, was he referring to those who have been harmed by the shot he's so proud of?  It looks like TrumpVax will be more common than autism(1:44:05) MOST DANGEROUS LIE they're telling you nowHow can we be certain there WAS NO PANDEMIC?  Look at the TSA (2:11:57) Will you hold DOLLARS or MONEY?Morgan Stanley says it's time to SELL the dollar — why?Analyst - biggest financial changes since Nixon are coming in next 1 to 3 yearsBlackRock rapidly expands tokenization for money market fund (and everything else)(2:24:35) A Real "Rover" from McGoohan's "The Prisoner"It appears that governments want to make EVERY aspect of every dystopian film reality.  Patrick McGoohan's "The Prisoner" could serve as the model for 15 Minute Cities — but China's new cop-bot is a harder tougher version of the mysterious sphere that guarded escape (2:33:20) Mystery Drones, AI Weather forecasting, and a Geoengineering Report that's pure "limited hangout" (2:46:22) General Patton's connection to "It's a Wonderful Life" (2:50:27) Satanic Temple Joins with the Seminaries of Satan (Public Schools)If you would like to support the show and our family please consider subscribing monthly here: SubscribeStar https://www.subscribestar.com/the-david-knight-show Or you can send a donation throughMail: David Knight POB 994 Kodak, TN 37764Zelle: @DavidKnightShow@protonmail.comCash App at: $davidknightshowBTC to: bc1qkuec29hkuye4xse9unh7nptvu3y9qmv24vanh7 Money should have intrinsic value AND transactional privacy: Go to DavidKnight.gold for great deals on physical gold/silver For 10% off Gerald Celente's prescient Trends Journal, go to TrendsJournal.com and enter the code KNIGHTBecome a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-real-david-knight-show--5282736/support.

This week on the blog, a podcast interview with playwright and screenwriter Jeffrey Hatcher on Columbo, Sherlock Holmes, favorite mysteries and more!LINKSA Free Film Book for You: https://dl.bookfunnel.com/cq23xyyt12Another Free Film Book: https://dl.bookfunnel.com/x3jn3emga6Fast, Cheap Film Website: https://www.fastcheapfilm.com/Jeffrey Hatcher Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/jeffrey.hatcher.3/The Good Liar (Trailer): https://youtu.be/ljKzFGpPHhwMr. Holmes (Trailer): https://youtu.be/0G1lIBgk4PAStage Beauty (Trailer): https://youtu.be/-uc6xEBfdD0Columbo Clips from “Ashes to Ashes”Clip One: https://youtu.be/OCKECiaFsMQClip Two: https://youtu.be/BbO9SDz9FEcClip Three: https://youtu.be/GlNDAVAwMCIEli Marks Website: https://www.elimarksmysteries.com/Albert's Bridge Books Website: https://www.albertsbridgebooks.com/YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/BehindthePageTheEliMarksPodcastTRANSCRIPTJohn: Can you remember your very first mystery, a movie, book, TV show, play, a mystery that really captured your imagination? Jeffrey: You know, I was thinking about this, and what came to mind was a Disney movie called Emile and the Detectives from 1964. So, I would have been six or seven years old. It's based on a series of German books by Eric Kastner about a young man named Emile and his group of friends who think of themselves as detectives. So, I remember that—I know that might've been the first film. And obviously it's not a play because, you know, little kids don't tend to go to stage thrillers or mysteries and, “Daddy, please take me to Sleuth.But there was a show called Burke's Law that I really loved. Gene Barry played Captain Amos Burke of the Homicide Division in Los Angeles, and he was very rich. That was the bit. The bit was that Captain Burke drove around in a gorgeous Rolls Royce Silver Ghost, and he had a chauffeur. And every mystery was structured classically as a whodunit.In fact, I think every title of every episode was “Who Killed Cock Robin?” “Who Killed Johnny Friendly?” that kind of thing. And they would have a cast of well-known Hollywood actors, so they were all of equal status. Because I always think that's one of the easiest ways to guess the killer is if it's like: Unknown Guy, Unknown Guy, Derek Jacobi, Unknown Guy, Unknown Guy. It's always going to be Derek Jacobi. John: Yeah, it's true. I remember that show. He was really cool. Jim: Well, now I'm going to have to look that up.Jeffrey: It had a great score, and he would gather all of the suspects, you know, at the end of the thing. I think my favorite was when he caught Paul Lynde as a murderer. And, of course, Paul Lynde, you know, kept it very low key when he was dragged off. He did his Alice Ghostly impersonation as he was taken away.John: They did have very similar vocal patterns, those two.Jeffrey: Yep. They're kind of the exact same person. Jim: I never saw them together. John: You might have on Bewitched. Jim: You're probably right.Jeffrey: Well, I might be wrong about this, either Alice Ghostly or Charlotte Ray went to school with Paul Lynde. And Charlotte Ray has that same sound too. You know, kind of warbly thing. Yes. I think they all went to Northwestern in the late 40s and early 50s. So maybe that was a way that they taught actors back then. John: They learned it all from Marion Horne, who had the very same warble in her voice. So, as you got a little older, were there other mysteries that you were attracted to?Jeffrey: Yeah. Luckily, my parents were very liberal about letting me see things that other people probably shouldn't have. I remember late in elementary school, fifth grade or so, I was reading Casino Royale. And one of the teachers said, “Well, you know, most kids, we wouldn't want to have read this, but it's okay if you do.”And I thought, what's that? And I'm so not dangerous; other kids are, well they would be affected oddly by James Bond? But yeah, I, I love spy stuff. You know, The Man from Uncle and The Wild Wild West, all those kind of things. I love James Bond. And very quickly I started reading the major mysteries. I think probably the first big book that I remember, the first novel, was The Hound of the Baskervilles. That's probably an entrance point for a lot of kids. So that's what comes in mind immediately. Jim: I certainly revisit that on—if not yearly basis, at least every few years I will reread The Hound of the Baskervilles. Love that story. That's good. Do you have, Jeffrey, favorite mystery fiction writers?Jeffrey: Oh, sure. But none of them are, you know, bizarre Japanese, Santa Domingo kind of writers that people always pull out of their back pockets to prove how cool they are. I mean, they're the usual suspects. Conan Doyle and Christie and Chandler and Hammett, you know, all of those. John Dickson Carr, all the locked room mysteries, that kind of thing. I can't say that I go very far off in one direction or another to pick up somebody who's completely bizarre. But if you go all the way back, I love reading Wilkie Collins.I've adapted at least one Wilkie Collins, and they read beautifully. You know, terrifically put together, and they've got a lot of blood and thunder to them. I think he called them sensation novels as opposed to mysteries, but they always have some mystery element. And he was, you know, a close friend of Charles Dickens and Dickens said that there were some things that Collins taught him about construction. In those days, they would write their novels in installments for magazines. So, you know, the desire or the need, frankly, to create a cliffhanger at the end of every episode or every chapter seems to have been born then from a capitalist instinct. John: Jeff, I know you studied acting. What inspired the move into playwriting?Jeffrey: I don't think I was a very good actor. I was the kind of actor who always played older, middle aged or older characters in college and high school, like Judge Brack in Hedda Gabler, those kind of people. My dream back in those days was to play Dr. Dysart in Equus and Andrew Wyke in Sleuth. So, I mean, that was my target. And then I moved to New York, and I auditioned for things and casting directors would say, “Well, you know, we actually do have 50 year old actors in New York and we don't need to put white gunk in their hair or anything like that. So, why don't you play your own age, 22 or 23?” And I was not very good at playing 22 or 23. But I'd always done some writing, and a friend of mine, Graham Slayton, who was out at the Playwrights Center here, and we'd gone to college together. He encouraged me to write a play, you know, write one act, and then write a full length. So, I always say this, I think most people go into the theater to be an actor, you know, probably 98%, and then bit by bit, we, you know, we peel off. We either leave the profession completely or we become directors, designers, writers, what have you. So, I don't think it's unnatural what I did. It's very rare to be like a Tom Stoppard who never wanted to act. It's a lot more normal to find the Harold Pinter who, you know, acted a lot in regional theaters in England before he wrote The Caretaker.Jim: Fascinating. Can we talk about Columbo?Jeffrey: Oh, yes, please. Jim: This is where I am so tickled pink for this conversation, because I was a huge and am a huge Peter Falk Columbo fan. I went back and watched the episode Ashes To Ashes, with Patrick McGowan that you created. Tell us how that came about. Jeffrey: I too was a huge fan of Columbo in the 70s. I remember for most of its run, it was on Sunday nights. It was part of that murder mystery wheel with things like Hec Ramsey and McCloud, right? But Columbo was the best of those, obviously. Everything, from the structure—the inverted mystery—to thw guest star of the week. Sometimes it was somebody very big and exciting, like Donald Pleasence or Ruth Gordon, but often it was slightly TV stars on the skids.John: Jack Cassidy, Jim: I was just going to say Jack Cassidy.Jeffrey: But at any rate, yeah, I loved it. I loved it. I remembered in high school, a friend and I doing a parody of Columbo where he played Columbo and I played the murderer of the week. And so many years later, when they rebooted the show in the nineties, my father died and I spent a lot of time at the funeral home with the funeral director. And having nothing to say to the funeral director one day, I said, “Have you got the good stories?”And he told me all these great stories about, you know, bodies that weren't really in the casket and what you can't cremate, et cetera. So, I suddenly had this idea of a Hollywood funeral director to the stars. And, via my agent, I knew Dan Luria, the actor. He's a close friend or was a close friend of Peter's. And so, he was able to take this one-page idea and show it to Peter. And then, one day, I get a phone call and it's, “Uh, hello Jeff, this is Peter Falk calling. I want to talk to you about your idea.” And they flew me out there. It was great fun, because Falk really ran the show. He was the executive producer at that point. He always kind of ran the show. I think he only wrote one episode, the one with Faye Dunaway, but he liked the idea.I spent a lot of time with him, I'd go to his house where he would do his drawings back in the studio and all that. But what he said he liked about it was he liked a new setting, they always liked a murderer and a setting that was special, with clues that are connected to, say, the murderer's profession. So, the Donald Pleasant one about the wine connoisseur and all the clues are about wine. Or the Dick Van Dyke one, where he's a photographer and most of the clues are about photography. So, he really liked that. And he said, “You gotta have that first clue and you gotta have the pop at the end.”So, and we worked on the treatment and then I wrote the screenplay. And then he asked McGoohan if he would do it, and McGoohan said, “Well, if I can direct it too.” And, you know, I've adored McGoohan from, you know, Secret Agent and The Prisoner. I mean, I'd say The Prisoner is like one of my favorite television shows ever. So, the idea that the two of them were going to work together on that script was just, you know, it was incredible. John: Were you able to be there during production at all? Jeffrey: No, I went out there about four times to write, because it took like a year or so. It was a kind of laborious process with ABC and all that, but I didn't go out during the shooting.Occasionally, this was, you know, the days of faxes, I'd get a phone call: “Can you redo something here?” And then I'd fax it out. So, I never met McGoohan. I would only fax with him. But they built this whole Hollywood crematorium thing on the set. And Falk was saying at one point, “I'm getting pushback from Universal that we've got to do all this stuff. We've got to build everything.” And I was saying, “Well, you know, 60 percent of the script takes place there. If you're going to try to find a funeral home like it, you're going to have all that hassle.” And eventually they made the point that, yeah, to build this is going to cost less than searching around Hollywood for the right crematorium, And it had a great cast, you know, it had Richard Libertini and Sally Kellerman, and Rue McClanahan was our murder victim.Jim: I'll tell you every scene that Peter Falk and Mr. McGoohan had together. They looked to me as an actor, like they were having a blast being on together. Jeffrey: They really loved each other. They first met when McGoohan did that episode, By Dawn's Early Light, where he played the head of the military school. It's a terrific episode. It was a great performance. And although their acting styles are completely different, You know, Falk much more, you know, fifties, methody, shambolic. And McGoohan very, you know, his voice cracking, you know, and very affected and brittle. But they really loved each other and they liked to throw each other curveballs.There are things in the, in the show that are ad libs that they throw. There's one bit, I think it's hilarious. It's when Columbo tells the murderer that basically knows he did it, but he doesn't have a way to nail him. And, McGoohan is saying, “So then I suppose you have no case, do you?” And Falk says, “Ah, no, sir, I don't.” And he walks right off camera, you know, like down a hallway. And McGoohan stares off and says, “Have you gone?” And none of that was scripted. Peter just walks off set. And if you watch the episode, they had to dub in McGoohan saying, “Have you gone,” because the crew was laughing at the fact that Peter just strolled away. So McGoohan adlibs that and then they had to cover it later to make sure the sound wasn't screwed up. Jim: Fantastic. John: Kudos to you for that script, because every piece is there. Every clue is there. Everything pays off. It's just it is so tight, and it has that pop at the end that he wanted. It's really an excellent, excellent mystery.Jim: And a terrific closing line. Terrific closing line. Jeffrey: Yeah, that I did right. That was not an ad lib. Jim: It's a fantastic moment. And he, Peter Falk, looks just almost right at the camera and delivers that line as if it's, Hey, check this line out. It was great. Enjoyed every minute of it. Can we, um, can I ask some questions about Sherlock Holmes now?Jeffrey: Oh, yes. Jim: So, I enjoyed immensely Holmes and Watson that I saw a couple summers ago at Park Square. I was completely riveted and had no, absolutely no idea how it was going to pay off or who was who or what. And when it became clear, it was so much fun for me as an audience member. So I know that you have done a number of Holmes adaptations.There's Larry Millet, a St. Paul writer here and I know you adapted him, but as far as I can tell this one, pillar to post was all you. This wasn't an adaptation. You created this out of whole cloth. Am I right on that? Jeffrey: Yes. The, the idea came from doing the Larry Millet one, actually, because Steve Hendrickson was playing Holmes. And on opening night—the day of opening night—he had an aortic aneurysm, which they had to repair. And so, he wasn't able to do the show. And Peter Moore, the director, he went in and played Holmes for a couple of performances. And then I played Holmes for like three performances until Steve could get back. But in the interim, we've sat around saying, “All right, who can we get to play the role for like a week?” And we thought about all of the usual suspects, by which I mean, tall, ascetic looking actors. And everybody was booked, everybody was busy. Nobody could do it. So that's why Peter did it, and then I did it.But it struck me in thinking about casting Holmes, that there are a bunch of actors that you would say, you are a Holmes type. You are Sherlock Holmes. And it suddenly struck me, okay, back in the day, if Holmes were real, if he died—if he'd gone over to the falls of Reichenbach—people probably showed up and say, “Well, I'm Sherlock Holmes.”So, I thought, well, let's take that idea of casting Holmes to its logical conclusion: That a couple of people would come forward and say, “I'm Sherlock Holmes,” and then we'd wrap it together into another mystery. And we're sitting around—Bob Davis was playing Watson. And I said, “So, maybe, they're all in a hospital and Watson has to come to figure out which is which. And Bob said, “Oh, of course, Watson's gonna know which one is Holmes.”And that's what immediately gave me the idea for the twist at the end, why Watson wouldn't know which one was Holmes. So, I'm very grateful whenever an idea comes quickly like that, but it depends on Steve getting sick usually. Jim: Well, I thoroughly enjoyed it. If it's ever staged again anywhere, I will go. There was so much lovely about that show, just in terms of it being a mystery. And I'm a huge Sherlock Holmes fan. I don't want to give too much away in case people are seeing this at some point, but when it starts to be revealed—when Pierce's character starts talking about the reviews that he got in, in the West End—I I almost wet myself with laughter. It was so perfectly delivered and well written. I had just a great time at the theater that night. Jeffrey: It's one of those things where, well, you know how it is. You get an idea for something, and you pray to God that nobody else has done it. And I couldn't think of anybody having done this bit. I mean, some people have joked and said, it's kind of To Tell the Truth, isn't it? Because you have three people who come on and say, “I'm Sherlock Holmes.” “I'm Sherlock Holmes.” “I'm Sherlock Holmes.” Now surely somebody has done this before, but Nobody had. Jim: Well, it's wonderful. John: It's all in the timing. So, what is the, what's the hardest part about adapting Holmes to this stage?Jeffrey: Well, I suppose from a purist point of view‑by which I mean people like the Baker Street Irregulars and other organizations like that, the Norwegian Explorers here in Minnesota‑is can you fit your own‑they always call them pastiches, even if they're not comic‑can you fit your own Holmes pastiche into the canon?People spend a lot of time working out exactly where Holmes and Watson were on any given day between 1878 and 1930. So, one of the nice things about Holmes and Watson was, okay, so we're going to make it take place during the three-year interregnum when Holmes is pretending to be dead. And it works if you fit Holmes and Watson in between The Final Problem and The Adventure of the Empty House, it works. And that's hard to do. I would say, I mean, I really love Larry Millett's book and all that, but I'm sure it doesn't fit, so to speak. But that's up to you to care. If you're not a purist, you can fiddle around any old way you like. But I think it's kind of great to, to, to have the, the BSI types, the Baker Street Irregular types say, “Yes, this clicked into place.”Jim: So that's the most difficult thing. What's the easiest part?Jeffrey: Well, I think it's frankly the language, the dialogue. Somebody pointed out that Holmes is the most dramatically depicted character in history. More than Robin Hood, more than Jesus Christ. There are more actor versions of Holmes than any other fictional character.We've been surrounded by Holmes speak. Either if we've read the books or seen the movies or seen any of the plays for over 140 years. Right. So, in a way, if you're like me, you kind of absorb that language by osmosis. So, for some reason, it's very easy for me to click into the way I think Holmes talks. That very cerebral, very fast, sometimes complicated syntax. That I find probably the easiest part. Working out the plots, you want them to be Holmesian. You don't want them to be plots from, you know, don't want the case to be solved in a way that Sam Spade would, or Philip Marlowe would. And that takes a little bit of work. But for whatever reason, it's the actor in you, it's saying, all right, if you have to ad lib or improv your way of Sherlock Holmes this afternoon, you know, you'd be able to do it, right? I mean, he really has permeated our culture, no matter who the actor is.Jim: Speaking of great actors that have played Sherlock Holmes, you adapted a movie that Ian McKellen played, and I just watched it recently in preparation for this interview.Having not seen it before, I was riveted by it. His performance is terrific and heartbreaking at the same time. Can we talk about that? How did you come to that project? And just give us everything.Jeffrey: Well, it's based on a book called A Slight Trick of the Mind by Mitch Cullen, and it's about a very old Sherlock Holmes in Surrey, tending to his bees, as people in Holmesland know that he retired to do. And it involves a couple of cases, one in Japan and one about 20 years earlier in his life that he's trying to remember. And it also has to do with his relationship with his housekeeper and the housekeeper's son. The book was given to me by Anne Carey, the producer, and I worked on it probably off and on for about five years.A lot of time was spent talking about casting, because you had to have somebody play very old. I remember I went to meet with Ralph Fiennes once because we thought, well, Ralph Fiennes could play him at his own age,‑then probably his forties‑and with makeup in the nineties.And Ralph said‑Ralph was in another film that I'd done‑and he said, “Oh, I don't wear all that makeup. That's just far too much.” And I said, “Well, you did in Harry Potter and The English Patient, you kind of looked like a melted candle.” And he said, “Yes, and I don't want to do that again.” So, we always had a very short list of actors, probably like six actors in the whole world And McKellen was one of them and we waited for him to become available And yeah, he was terrific. I'll tell you one funny story: One day, he had a lot of prosthetics, not a lot, but enough. He wanted to build up his cheekbones and his nose a bit. He wanted a bit, he thought his own nose was a bit too potatoish. So, he wanted a more Roman nose. So, he was taking a nap one day between takes. And they brought him in, said, “Ian, it's time for you to do the, this scene,” and he'd been sleeping, I guess, on one side, and his fake cheek and his nose had moved up his face. But he hadn't looked in the mirror, and he didn't know. So he came on and said, “Very well, I'm all ready to go.” And it was like Quasimodo.It's like 5:52 and they're supposed to stop shooting at six. And there was a mad panic of, Fix Ian's face! Get that cheekbone back where it's supposed to be! Knock that nose into place! A six o'clock, we go into overtime!” But it was very funny that he hadn't noticed it. You kind of think you'd feel if your own nose or cheekbone had been crushed, but of course it was a makeup. So, he didn't feel anything. Jim: This is just the, uh, the actor fan boy in me. I'm an enormous fan of his work straight across the board. Did you have much interaction with him and what kind of fella is he just in general?Jeffrey: He's a hoot. Bill Condon, the director, said, “Ian is kind of methody. So, when you see him on set, he'll be very decorous, you know, he'll be kind of like Sherlock Holmes.” And it was true, he goes, “Oh, Jeffrey Hatcher, it's very good to meet you.” And he was kind of slow talking, all that. Ian was like 72 then, so he wasn't that old. But then when it was all over, they were doing all those--remember those ice Dumps, where people dump a tub of ice on you? You have these challenges? A the end of shooting, they had this challenge, and Ian comes out in short shorts, and a bunch of ballet dancers surrounds him. And he's like, “Alright, everyone, let's do the ice challenge.” And, he turned into this bright dancer. He's kind of a gay poster boy, you know, ever since he was one of the most famous coming out of the last 20 some years. So, you know, he was suddenly bright and splashy and, you know, all that old stuff dropped away. He has all of his headgear at his house and his townhouse. He had a party for us at the end of shooting. And so, there's a Gandalf's weird hat and there's Magneto's helmet, you know, along with top hats and things like that. And they're all kind of lined up there. And then people in the crew would say, can I take a picture of you as Gandalf? “Well, why, of course,” and he does all that stuff. So no, he's wonderful. Jim: You do a very good impression as well. That was great. Now, how did you come to the project, The Good Liar, which again, I watched in preparation for this and was mesmerized by the whole thing, especially the mystery part of it, the ending, it was brilliant.How did you come to that project?Jeffrey: Well, again, it was a book and Warner Brothers had the rights to it. And because Bill and I had worked on Mr. Holmes--Bill Condon--Bill was attached to direct. And so I went in to talk about how to adapt it.This is kind of odd. It's again based in McKellen. In the meeting room at Warner Brothers, there was a life size version of Ian as Gandalf done in Legos. So, it was always, it'll be Ian McKellen and somebody in The Good Liar. Ian as the con man. And that one kind of moved very quickly, because something changed in Bill Condon's schedule. Then they asked Helen Mirren, and she said yes very quickly.And it's a very interesting book, but it had to be condensed rather a lot. There's a lot of flashbacks and going back and forth in time. And we all decided that the main story had to be about this one con that had a weird connection to the past. So, a lot of that kind of adaptation work is deciding what not to include, so you can't really be completely faithful to a book that way. But I do take the point with certain books. When my son was young, he'd go to a Harry Potter movie, and he'd get all pissed off. Pissed off because he'd say Dobby the Elf did a lot more in the book.But if it's a book that's not quite so well-known—The Good Liar isn't a terribly well-known book, nor was A Slight Trick of the Mind--you're able to have a lot more room to play. Jim: It's a very twisty story. Now that you're talking about the book, I'll probably have to go get the book and read it just for comparison. But what I saw on the screen, how did you keep it--because it was very clear at the end--it hits you like a freight train when it all sort of unravels and you start seeing all of these things. How did you keep that so clear for an audience? Because I'll admit, I'm not a huge mystery guy, and I'm not the brightest human, and yet I was able to follow that story completely.Jeffrey: Well, again, I think it's mostly about cutting things, I'm sure. And there are various versions of the script where there are a lot of other details. There's probably too much of one thing or another. And then of course, you know, you get in the editing room and you lose a couple of scenes too. These kinds of things are very tricky. I'm not sure that we were entirely successful in doing it, because you say, which is more important, surprise or suspense? Hitchcock used to have that line about, suspense is knowing there's a bomb under the table. And you watch the characters gather at the table. As opposed to simply having a bomb blow up and you didn't know about it.So, we often went back and forth about Should we reveal that the Helen Mirren character knows that Ian's character is doing something bad? Or do we try to keep it a secret until the end? But do you risk the audience getting ahead of you? I don't mind if the audience is slightly ahead. You know, it's that feeling you get in the theater where there's a reveal and you hear a couple of people say, “Oh, I knew it and they guessed it may be a minute before. But you don't want to get to the point where the audience is, you know, 20 minutes or a half an hour ahead of you.Jim: I certainly was not, I was not in any way. It unfolded perfectly for me in terms of it being a mystery and how it paid off. And Helen Mirren was brilliant. In fact, for a long time during it, I thought they were dueling con men, the way it was set up in the beginning where they were both entering their information and altering facts about themselves.I thought, “Oh, well, they're both con men and, and now we're going to see who is the better con man in the end.” And so. when it paid off. In a way different sort of way, it was terrific for me. Absolutely. Jeffrey: Well, and I thank you. But in a way, they were both con men. Jim: Yes, yes. But she wasn't a professional con man.Jeffrey: She wasn't just out to steal the money from him. She was out for something else. She was out for vengeance. Jim: Yes. Very good. Very, if you haven't seen it, The Good Liar folks, don't wait. I got it on Amazon prime and so can you.Jeffrey: I watched them do a scene, I was over there for about five days during the shooting.And watching the two of them work together was just unbelievable. The textures, the tones, the little lifts of the eyebrow, the shading on one word versus another. Just wonderful, wonderful stuff. Jim: Yeah. I will say I am a huge Marvel Cinematic Universe fan along with my son. We came to those together and I'm a big fan of that sort of movie. So I was delighted by this, because it was such a taut story. And I was involved in every second of what was going on and couldn't quite tell who the good guys were and who the bad guys were and how is this going to work and who's working with who?And it was great. And in my head, I was comparing my love for that sort of big blow it up with rayguns story to this very cerebral, internal. And I loved it, I guess is what I'm saying. And, I am, I think, as close to middle America as you're going to find in terms of a moviegoer. And I thought it was just dynamite. Jeffrey: It was very successful during the pandemic--so many things were when people were streaming--but it was weirdly successful when it hit Amazon or Netflix or whatever it was. And, I think you don't have to be British to understand two elderly people trying to find a relationship. And then it turns out that they both have reasons to hate and kill each other. But nonetheless, there is still a relationship there. So, I pictured a lot of lonely people watching The Good Liar and saying, “Yeah, I'd hang out with Ian McKellen, even if he did steal all my money.” John: Well, speaking of movies, I am occasionally handed notes here while we're live on the air from my wife. And she wants you to just say something about the adaptation you did of your play, Stage Beauty, and what that process was like and how, how that process went.Jeffrey: That was terrific because, primarily Richard Eyre--the director who used to run the National Theater and all that--because he's a theater man and the play's about theater. I love working with Bill Condon and I've loved working with Lassa Hallstrom and other people, but Richard was the first person to direct a film of any of my stuff. And he would call me up and say, “Well, we're thinking of offering it to Claire Danes.” or we're thinking…And usually you just hear later, Oh, somebody else got this role. But the relationship was more like a theater director and a playwright. I was there on set for rehearsals and all that.Which I haven't in the others. No, it was a wonderful experience, but I think primarily because the, the culture of theater saturated the process of making it and the process of rehearsing it and—again--his level of respect. It's different in Hollywood, everybody's very polite, they know they can fire you and you know, they can fire you and they're going to have somebody else write the dialogue if you're not going to do it, or if you don't do it well enough. In the theater, we just don't do that. It's a different world, a different culture, different kind of contracts too. But Richard really made that wonderful. And again, the cast that he put together: Billy Crudup and Claire and Rupert Everett and Edward Fox and Richard Griffiths. I remember one day when I was about to fly home, I told Richard Griffiths what a fan Evan-- my son, Evan--was of him in the Harry Potter movie. And he made his wife drive an hour to come to Shepperton with a photograph of him as Mr. Dursley that he could autograph for my son. John: Well, speaking of stage and adaptations, before we go into our lightning round here, you did two recent adaptations of existing thrillers--not necessarily mysteries, but thrillers--one of which Hitchcock made into a movie, which are Dial M for Murder and Wait Until Dark. And I'm just wondering what was that process for you? Why changes need to be made? And what kind of changes did you make?Jeffrey: Well, in both cases, I think you could argue that no, changes don't need to be made. They're wildly successful plays by Frederick Knott, and they've been successful for, you know, alternately 70 or 60 years.But in both cases, I got a call from a director or an artistic director saying, “We'd like to do it, but we'd like to change this or that.” And I'm a huge fan of Frederick Knott. He put things together beautifully. The intricacies of Dial M for Murder, you don't want to screw around with. And there are things in Wait Until Dark having to do just with the way he describes the set, you don't want to change anything or else the rather famous ending won't work. But in both cases, the women are probably not the most well drawn characters that he ever came up with. And Wait Until Dark, oddly, they're in a Greenwich Village apartment, but it always feels like they're really in Westchester or in Terre Haute, Indiana. It doesn't feel like you're in Greenwich Village in the 60s, especially not in the movie version with Audrey Hepburn. So, the director, Matt Shackman, said, why don't we throw it back into the 40s and see if we can have fun with that. And so it played out: The whole war and noir setting allowed me to play around with who the main character was. And I know this is a cliche to say, well, you know, can we find more agency for female characters in old plays or old films? But in a sense, it's true, because if you're going to ask an actress to play blind for two hours a night for a couple of months, it can't just be, I'm a blind victim. And I got lucky and killed the guy. You've got a somewhat better dialogue and maybe some other twists and turns. nSo that's what we did with Wait Until Dark. And then at The Old Globe, Barry Edelstein said, “well, you did Wait Until Dark. What about Dial? And I said, “Well, I don't think we can update it, because nothing will work. You know, the phones, the keys. And he said, “No, I'll keep it, keep it in the fifties. But what else could you What else could you do with the lover?”And he suggested--so I credit Barry on this--why don't you turn the lover played by Robert Cummings in the movie into a woman and make it a lesbian relationship? And that really opened all sorts of doors. It made the relationship scarier, something that you really want to keep a secret, 1953. And I was luckily able to find a couple of other plot twists that didn't interfere with any of Knott's original plot.So, in both cases, I think it's like you go into a watch. And the watch works great, but you want the watch to have a different appearance and a different feel when you put it on and tick a little differently. John: We've kept you for a way long time. So, let's do this as a speed round. And I know that these questions are the sorts that will change from day to day for some people, but I thought each of us could talk about our favorite mysteries in four different mediums. So, Jeff, your favorite mystery novel”Jeffrey: And Then There Were None. That's an easy one for me. John: That is. Jim, do you have one?Jim: Yeah, yeah, I don't read a lot of mysteries. I really enjoyed a Stephen King book called Mr. Mercedes, which was a cat and mouse game, and I enjoyed that quite a bit. That's only top of mind because I finished it recently.John: That counts. Jim: Does it? John: Yeah. That'll count. Jim: You're going to find that I am so middle America in my answers. John: That's okay. Mine is--I'm going to cheat a little bit and do a short story--which the original Don't Look Now that Daphne du Murier wrote, because as a mystery, it ties itself up. Like I said earlier, I like stuff that ties up right at the end. And it literally is in the last two or three sentences of that short story where everything falls into place. Jeff, your favorite mystery play? I can be one of yours if you want. Jeffrey: It's a battle between Sleuth or Dial M for Murder. Maybe Sleuth because I always wanted to be in it, but it's probably Dial M. But it's also followed up very quickly by Death Trap, which is a great comedy-mystery-thriller. It's kind of a post-modern, Meta play, but it's a play about the play you're watching. John: Excellent choices. My choice is Sleuth. You did have a chance to be in Sleuth because when I directed it, you're the first person I asked. But your schedule wouldn't let you do it. But you would have been a fantastic Andrew Wyke. I'm sorry our timing didn't work on that. Jeffrey: And you got a terrific Andrew in Julian Bailey, but if you wanted to do it again, I'm available. John: Jim, you hear that? Jim: I did hear that. Yes, I did hear that. John: Jim, do you have a favorite mystery play?Jim: You know, it's gonna sound like I'm sucking up, but I don't see a lot of mystery plays. There was a version of Gaslight that I saw with Jim Stoll as the lead. And he was terrific.But I so thoroughly enjoyed Holmes and Watson and would love the opportunity to see that a second time. I saw it so late in the run and it was so sold out that there was no coming back at that point to see it again. But I would love to see it a second time and think to myself, well, now that you know what you know, is it all there? Because my belief is it is all there. John: Yeah. Okay. Jeff, your favorite TV mystery?Jeffrey: Oh, Columbo. That's easy. Columbo.John: I'm gonna go with Poker Face, just because the pace on Poker Face is so much faster than Columbo, even though it's clearly based on Columbo. Jim, a favorite TV mystery?Jim: The Rockford Files, hands down. John: Fair enough. Fair enough. All right. Last question all around. Jeff, your favorite mystery movie? Jeffrey: Laura. Jim: Ah, good one. John: I'm going to go with The Last of Sheila. If you haven't seen The Last of Sheila, it's a terrific mystery directed by Herbert Ross, written by Stephen Sondheim and Anthony Perkins. Fun little Stephen Sondheim trivia. The character of Andrew Wyke and his house were based on Stephen Sondheim. Jeffrey: Sondheim's townhouse has been for sale recently. I don't know if somebody bought it, but for a cool seven point something million, you're going to get it. John: All right. Let's maybe pool our money. Jim, your favorite mystery movie.Jim: I'm walking into the lion's den here with this one. Jeffrey, I hope this is okay, but I really enjoyed the Robert Downey Jr. Sherlock Holmes movies. And I revisit the second one in that series on a fairly regular basis, The Game of Shadows. I thought I enjoyed that a lot. Your thoughts on those movies quickly? Jeffrey: My only feeling about those is that I felt they were trying a little too hard not to do some of the traditional stuff. I got it, you know, like no deer stalker, that kind of thing. But I thought it was just trying a tad too hard to be You know, everybody's very good at Kung Fu, that kind of thing.Jim: Yes. And it's Sherlock Holmes as a superhero, which, uh, appeals to me. Jeffrey: I know the producer of those, and I know Guy Ritchie a little bit. And, I know they're still trying to get out a third one. Jim: Well, I hope they do. I really hope they do. Cause I enjoyed that version of Sherlock Holmes quite a bit. I thought it was funny and all of the clues were there and it paid off in the end as a mystery, but fun all along the road.Jeffrey: And the main thing they got right was the Holmes and Watson relationship, which, you know, as anybody will tell you, you can get a lot of things wrong, but get that right and you're more than two thirds there.

Get your coffee (or hard cider!) with bread and butter and join us as we chat all about By Dawn's Early Light starring Peter Falk, Patrick McGoohan, Burr DeBenning, Bruce Kirby, Bruno Kirby and more.    We chat filming locations including the Charleston Harbor, how Patrick McGoohan was cast, music and much more!   Other topics we discussed: -The Scarecrow starring Patrick McGoohan -The Prisoner starring Patrick McGoohan -the Dardenne brothers (filmmakers) -Western (2017 film) -and lots more!   We have EXCLUSIVE content available on Patreon!  Get video recordings of the podcast & monthly updates & behind the scenes. Head to https://patreon.com/trenchcoatcigar to join today!   If you'd like to add to our conversation, you can email us at trenchcoatcigar@gmail.com.  Follow us on Instagram at @trenchcoatcigar to see photos from today's episode.   Get podcast merch on RedBubble: https://www.redbubble.com/people/trenchcoatcigar/shop?asc=u  

In this special episode of Free For All, Cai Ross and Chris Bainbridge discuss Patrick McGoohan's work on the classic detective show, Columbo. The pair look at McGoohan's contribution to the show as director, writer and actor, which earned him a special place in Peter Falk's circle of trust. Joining Cai and Chris is Columbo expert Mark Dawidziak, author of The Columbo Phile. As ever, minutiae will be scrutinised and tangents will be explored with discussion, interpretation, trivia and humour. The only Prisoner podcast produced in north Wales, home of the Village itself, Portmeirion. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

TVC 602.2: Peter Berk, son of longtime television writer Howard Berk and the co-author of the sci-fi action thriller Time Lock, talks to Ed about his dad's experience working with Peter Falk on Columbo; the extent to which Patrick McGoohan contributed to the teleplay of “By Dawn's Early Light,” the episode of Columbo, written by Howard Berk, for which McGoohan won the first of his two Emmy Awards; and Peter's experience collaborating with Dick Van Patten on the nonfiction book Launching Your Child in Show Biz. Time Lock is available wherever books are sold through IESnaps, an imprint of IngramElliott. Want to advertise/sponsor our show? TV Confidential has partnered with AdvertiseCast to handle advertising/sponsorship requests for the podcast edition of our program. They're great to work with and will help you advertise on our show. Please email sales@advertisecast.com or click the link below to get started: https://www.advertisecast.com/TVConfidentialAradiotalkshowabout Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Jess and Chris continue their monthly journey into the weird world of single seasons TV shows with a continued look at 1967's spy science fiction mashup The Prisoner. The show, created by the main star Patrick McGoohan, follows Number Six, a secret agent who, after turning in his resignation, is kidnapped by unseen forces and sent to the Island after turning in his resignation. The Island is a home for dissenters, and other individuals deemed too dangerous to live unchecked in public. As Number Six attempts to unravel the mystery behind why he has been sent to the Island, he must also rebuff attempts at cracking his psyche to figure out what secrets he may know. Jess and Chris talk about the fourteenth and fifteenth episodes "Living in Harmony" and "The Girl Who Was Death", following the Six of One fan order.You can follow Jess @writerjessbyard, Chris @chrismasclaus, and @oneseasonshow, along with a big thanks to Chalalatas for their song "Mustaches and Martinis."

Changing daily habits can be difficult so I chatted with Nikki McGoohan from Propel2gether to learn about some tools which we can use to embed healthier habits into our daily routine. Nikki mentioned some tools including the quadrant and Pomodoro and while these are considered to be business tools, they can absolutely be used to manage our work life balance and to support our efforts to embed healthier daily habits. Full disclosure, Nikki is my sister and one of my favourite people! Check out her website and social media and I really hope that you take at least one tip away from this chat! Our store cupboard staple for this episode is Blueberries and there are links below to some recipes and some other resources for you too... #nutrition #changes #newhabits #healthylifestyle #makingchanges #coaching #healthyfood #blueberries #pomodoro www.propel2gether.ie https://www.lynsharkeynutrition.ie/2021/10/07/blueberry-oat-muffins/ https://www.lynsharkeynutrition.ie/2021/09/15/chia-overnight-oats https://www.peacockridgefarm.com/the-best-lemon-blueberry-bread-recipe-gluten-free-and-dairy-free/ https://health.clevelandclinic.org/benefits-of-blueberries/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3582325/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4192974/

This week's episode looks at “All You Need is Love”, the Our World TV special, and the career of the Beatles from April 1966 through August 1967. Click the full post to read liner notes, links to more information, and a transcript of the episode. Patreon backers also have a thirteen-minute bonus episode available, on "Rain" by the Beatles. Tilt Araiza has assisted invaluably by doing a first-pass edit, and will hopefully be doing so from now on. Check out Tilt's irregular podcasts at http://www.podnose.com/jaffa-cakes-for-proust and http://sitcomclub.com/ NB for the first few hours this was up, there was a slight editing glitch. If you downloaded the old version and don't want to redownload the whole thing, just look in the transcript for "Other than fixing John's two flubbed" for the text of the two missing paragraphs. Errata I say "Come Together" was a B-side, but the single was actually a double A-side. Also, I say the Lennon interview by Maureen Cleave appeared in Detroit magazine. That's what my source (Steve Turner's book) says, but someone on Twitter says that rather than Detroit magazine it was the Detroit Free Press. Also at one point I say "the videos for 'Paperback Writer' and 'Penny Lane'". I meant to say "Rain" rather than "Penny Lane" there. Resources No Mixcloud this week due to the number of songs by the Beatles. I have read literally dozens of books on the Beatles, and used bits of information from many of them. All my Beatles episodes refer to: The Complete Beatles Chronicle by Mark Lewisohn, All The Songs: The Stories Behind Every Beatles Release by Jean-Michel Guesdon, And The Band Begins To Play: The Definitive Guide To The Songs of The Beatles by Steve Lambley, The Beatles By Ear by Kevin Moore, Revolution in the Head by Ian MacDonald, and The Beatles Anthology. For this episode, I also referred to Last Interview by David Sheff, a longform interview with John Lennon and Yoko Ono from shortly before Lennon's death; Many Years From Now by Barry Miles, an authorised biography of Paul McCartney; and Here, There, and Everywhere: My Life Recording the Music of the Beatles by Geoff Emerick and Howard Massey. Particularly useful this time was Steve Turner's book Beatles '66. I also used Turner's The Beatles: The Stories Behind the Songs 1967-1970. Johnny Rogan's Starmakers and Svengalis had some information on Epstein I hadn't seen anywhere else. Some information about the "Bigger than Jesus" scandal comes from Ward, B. (2012). “The ‘C' is for Christ”: Arthur Unger, Datebook Magazine and the Beatles. Popular Music and Society, 35(4), 541-560. https://doi.org/10.1080/03007766.2011.608978 Information on Robert Stigwood comes from Mr Showbiz by Stephen Dando-Collins. And the quote at the end from Simon Napier-Bell is from You Don't Have to Say You Love Me, which is more entertaining than it is accurate, but is very entertaining. Sadly the only way to get the single mix of "All You Need is Love" is on this ludicrously-expensive out-of-print box set, but the stereo mix is easily available on Magical Mystery Tour. Patreon This podcast is brought to you by the generosity of my backers on Patreon. Why not join them? Transcript A quick note before I start the episode -- this episode deals, in part, with the deaths of three gay men -- one by murder, one by suicide, and one by an accidental overdose, all linked at least in part to societal homophobia. I will try to deal with this as tactfully as I can, but anyone who's upset by those things might want to read the transcript instead of listening to the episode. This is also a very, very, *very* long episode -- this is likely to be the longest episode I *ever* do of this podcast, so settle in. We're going to be here a while. I obviously don't know how long it's going to be while I'm still recording, but based on the word count of my script, probably in the region of three hours. You have been warned. In 1967 the actor Patrick McGoohan was tired. He had been working on the hit series Danger Man for many years -- Danger Man had originally run from 1960 through 1962, then had taken a break, and had come back, retooled, with longer episodes in 1964. That longer series was a big hit, both in the UK and in the US, where it was retitled Secret Agent and had a new theme tune written by PF Sloan and Steve Barri and recorded by Johnny Rivers: [Excerpt: Johnny Rivers, "Secret Agent Man"] But McGoohan was tired of playing John Drake, the agent, and announced he was going to quit the series. Instead, with the help of George Markstein, Danger Man's script editor, he created a totally new series, in which McGoohan would star, and which McGoohan would also write and direct key episodes of. This new series, The Prisoner, featured a spy who is only ever given the name Number Six, and who many fans -- though not McGoohan himself -- took to be the same character as John Drake. Number Six resigns from his job as a secret agent, and is kidnapped and taken to a place known only as The Village -- the series was filmed in Portmeirion, an unusual-looking town in Gwynnedd, in North Wales -- which is full of other ex-agents. There he is interrogated to try to find out why he has quit his job. It's never made clear whether the interrogators are his old employers or their enemies, and there's a certain suggestion that maybe there is no real distinction between the two sides, that they're both running the Village together. He spends the entire series trying to escape, but refuses to explain himself -- and there's some debate among viewers as to whether it's implied or not that part of the reason he doesn't explain himself is that he knows his interrogators wouldn't understand why he quit: [Excerpt: The Prisoner intro, from episode Once Upon a Time, ] Certainly that explanation would fit in with McGoohan's own personality. According to McGoohan, the final episode of The Prisoner was, at the time, the most watched TV show ever broadcast in the UK, as people tuned in to find out the identity of Number One, the person behind the Village, and to see if Number Six would break free. I don't think that's actually the case, but it's what McGoohan always claimed, and it was certainly a very popular series. I won't spoil the ending for those of you who haven't watched it -- it's a remarkable series -- but ultimately the series seems to decide that such questions don't matter and that even asking them is missing the point. It's a work that's open to multiple interpretations, and is left deliberately ambiguous, but one of the messages many people have taken away from it is that not only are we trapped by a society that oppresses us, we're also trapped by our own identities. You can run from the trap that society has placed you in, from other people's interpretations of your life, your work, and your motives, but you ultimately can't run from yourself, and any time you try to break out of a prison, you'll find yourself trapped in another prison of your own making. The most horrifying implication of the episode is that possibly even death itself won't be a release, and you will spend all eternity trying to escape from an identity you're trapped in. Viewers became so outraged, according to McGoohan, that he had to go into hiding for an extended period, and while his later claims that he never worked in Britain again are an exaggeration, it is true that for the remainder of his life he concentrated on doing work in the US instead, where he hadn't created such anger. That final episode of The Prisoner was also the only one to use a piece of contemporary pop music, in two crucial scenes: [Excerpt: The Prisoner, "Fall Out", "All You Need is Love"] Back in October 2020, we started what I thought would be a year-long look at the period from late 1962 through early 1967, but which has turned out for reasons beyond my control to take more like twenty months, with a song which was one of the last of the big pre-Beatles pop hits, though we looked at it after their first single, "Telstar" by the Tornadoes: [Excerpt: The Tornadoes, "Telstar"] There were many reasons for choosing that as one of the bookends for this fifty-episode chunk of the podcast -- you'll see many connections between that episode and this one if you listen to them back-to-back -- but among them was that it's a song inspired by the launch of the first ever communications satellite, and a sign of how the world was going to become smaller as the sixties went on. Of course, to start with communications satellites didn't do much in that regard -- they were expensive to use, and had limited bandwidth, and were only available during limited time windows, but symbolically they meant that for the first time ever, people could see and hear events thousands of miles away as they were happening. It's not a coincidence that Britain and France signed the agreement to develop Concorde, the first supersonic airliner, a month after the first Beatles single and four months after the Telstar satellite was launched. The world was becoming ever more interconnected -- people were travelling faster and further, getting news from other countries quicker, and there was more cultural conversation – and misunderstanding – between countries thousands of miles apart. The Canadian media theorist Marshall McLuhan, the man who also coined the phrase “the medium is the message”, thought that this ever-faster connection would fundamentally change basic modes of thought in the Western world. McLuhan thought that technology made possible whole new modes of thought, and that just as the printing press had, in his view, caused Western liberalism and individualism, so these new electronic media would cause the rise of a new collective mode of thought. In 1962, the year of Concorde, Telstar, and “Love Me Do”, McLuhan wrote a book called The Gutenberg Galaxy, in which he said: “Instead of tending towards a vast Alexandrian library the world has become a computer, an electronic brain, exactly as an infantile piece of science fiction. And as our senses have gone outside us, Big Brother goes inside. So, unless aware of this dynamic, we shall at once move into a phase of panic terrors, exactly befitting a small world of tribal drums, total interdependence, and superimposed co-existence.… Terror is the normal state of any oral society, for in it everything affects everything all the time.…” He coined the term “the Global Village” to describe this new collectivism. The story we've seen over the last fifty episodes is one of a sort of cultural ping-pong between the USA and the UK, with innovations in American music inspiring British musicians, who in turn inspired American ones, whether that being the Beatles covering the Isley Brothers or the Rolling Stones doing a Bobby Womack song, or Paul Simon and Bob Dylan coming over to the UK and learning folk songs and guitar techniques from Martin Carthy. And increasingly we're going to see those influences spread to other countries, and influences coming *from* other countries. We've already seen one Jamaican artist, and the influence of Indian music has become very apparent. While the focus of this series is going to remain principally in the British Isles and North America, rock music was and is a worldwide phenomenon, and that's going to become increasingly a part of the story. And so in this episode we're going to look at a live performance -- well, mostly live -- that was seen by hundreds of millions of people all over the world as it happened, thanks to the magic of satellites: [Excerpt: The Beatles, "All You Need is Love"] When we left the Beatles, they had just finished recording "Tomorrow Never Knows", the most experimental track they had recorded up to that date, and if not the most experimental thing they *ever* recorded certainly in the top handful. But "Tomorrow Never Knows" was only the first track they recorded in the sessions for what would become arguably their greatest album, and certainly the one that currently has the most respect from critics. It's interesting to note that that album could have been very, very, different. When we think of Revolver now, we think of the innovative production of George Martin, and of Geoff Emerick and Ken Townshend's inventive ideas for pushing the sound of the equipment in Abbey Road studios, but until very late in the day the album was going to be recorded in the Stax studios in Memphis, with Steve Cropper producing -- whether George Martin would have been involved or not is something we don't even know. In 1965, the Rolling Stones had, as we've seen, started making records in the US, recording in LA and at the Chess studios in Chicago, and the Yardbirds had also been doing the same thing. Mick Jagger had become a convert to the idea of using American studios and working with American musicians, and he had constantly been telling Paul McCartney that the Beatles should do the same. Indeed, they'd put some feelers out in 1965 about the possibility of the group making an album with Holland, Dozier, and Holland in Detroit. Quite how this would have worked is hard to figure out -- Holland, Dozier, and Holland's skills were as songwriters, and in their work with a particular set of musicians -- so it's unsurprising that came to nothing. But recording at Stax was a different matter.  While Steve Cropper was a great songwriter in his own right, he was also adept at getting great sounds on covers of other people's material -- like on Otis Blue, the album he produced for Otis Redding in late 1965, which doesn't include a single Cropper original: [Excerpt: Otis Redding, "Satisfaction"] And the Beatles were very influenced by the records Stax were putting out, often namechecking Wilson Pickett in particular, and during the Rubber Soul sessions they had recorded a "Green Onions" soundalike track, imaginatively titled "12-Bar Original": [Excerpt: The Beatles, "12-Bar Original"] The idea of the group recording at Stax got far enough that they were actually booked in for two weeks starting the ninth of April, and there was even an offer from Elvis to let them stay at Graceland while they recorded, but then a couple of weeks earlier, the news leaked to the press, and Brian Epstein cancelled the booking. According to Cropper, Epstein talked about recording at the Atlantic studios in New York with him instead, but nothing went any further. It's hard to imagine what a Stax-based Beatles album would have been like, but even though it might have been a great album, it certainly wouldn't have been the Revolver we've come to know. Revolver is an unusual album in many ways, and one of the ways it's most distinct from the earlier Beatles albums is the dominance of keyboards. Both Lennon and McCartney had often written at the piano as well as the guitar -- McCartney more so than Lennon, but both had done so regularly -- but up to this point it had been normal for them to arrange the songs for guitars rather than keyboards, no matter how they'd started out. There had been the odd track where one of them, usually Lennon, would play a simple keyboard part, songs like "I'm Down" or "We Can Work it Out", but even those had been guitar records first and foremost. But on Revolver, that changed dramatically. There seems to have been a complex web of cause and effect here. Paul was becoming increasingly interested in moving his basslines away from simple walking basslines and root notes and the other staples of rock and roll basslines up to this point. As the sixties progressed, rock basslines were becoming ever more complex, and Tyler Mahan Coe has made a good case that this is largely down to innovations in production pioneered by Owen Bradley, and McCartney was certainly aware of Bradley's work -- he was a fan of Brenda Lee, who Bradley produced, for example. But the two influences that McCartney has mentioned most often in this regard are the busy, jazz-influenced, basslines that James Jamerson was playing at Motown: [Excerpt: The Four Tops, "It's the Same Old Song"] And the basslines that Brian Wilson was writing for various Wrecking Crew bassists to play for the Beach Boys: [Excerpt: The Beach Boys, "Don't Talk (Put Your Head on My Shoulder)"] Just to be clear, McCartney didn't hear that particular track until partway through the recording of Revolver, when Bruce Johnston visited the UK and brought with him an advance copy of Pet Sounds, but Pet Sounds influenced the later part of Revolver's recording, and Wilson had already started his experiments in that direction with the group's 1965 work. It's much easier to write a song with this kind of bassline, one that's integral to the composition, on the piano than it is to write it on a guitar, as you can work out the bassline with your left hand while working out the chords and melody with your right, so the habit that McCartney had already developed of writing on the piano made this easier. But also, starting with the recording of "Paperback Writer", McCartney switched his style of working in the studio. Where up to this point it had been normal for him to play bass as part of the recording of the basic track, playing with the other Beatles, he now started to take advantage of multitracking to overdub his bass later, so he could spend extra time getting the bassline exactly right. McCartney lived closer to Abbey Road than the other three Beatles, and so could more easily get there early or stay late and tweak his parts. But if McCartney wasn't playing bass while the guitars and drums were being recorded, that meant he could play something else, and so increasingly he would play piano during the recording of the basic track. And that in turn would mean that there wouldn't always *be* a need for guitars on the track, because the harmonic support they would provide would be provided by the piano instead. This, as much as anything else, is the reason that Revolver sounds so radically different to any other Beatles album. Up to this point, with *very* rare exceptions like "Yesterday", every Beatles record, more or less, featured all four of the Beatles playing instruments. Now John and George weren't playing on "Good Day Sunshine" or "For No One", John wasn't playing on "Here, There, and Everywhere", "Eleanor Rigby" features no guitars or drums at all, and George's "Love You To" only features himself, plus a little tambourine from Ringo (Paul recorded a part for that one, but it doesn't seem to appear on the finished track). Of the three songwriting Beatles, the only one who at this point was consistently requiring the instrumental contributions of all the other band members was John, and even he did without Paul on "She Said, She Said", which by all accounts features either John or George on bass, after Paul had a rare bout of unprofessionalism and left the studio. Revolver is still an album made by a group -- and most of those tracks that don't feature John or George instrumentally still feature them vocally -- it's still a collaborative work in all the best ways. But it's no longer an album made by four people playing together in the same room at the same time. After starting work on "Tomorrow Never Knows", the next track they started work on was Paul's "Got to Get You Into My Life", but as it would turn out they would work on that song throughout most of the sessions for the album -- in a sign of how the group would increasingly work from this point on, Paul's song was subject to multiple re-recordings and tweakings in the studio, as he tinkered to try to make it perfect. The first recording to be completed for the album, though, was almost as much of a departure in its own way as "Tomorrow Never Knows" had been. George's song "Love You To" shows just how inspired he was by the music of Ravi Shankar, and how devoted he was to Indian music. While a few months earlier he had just about managed to pick out a simple melody on the sitar for "Norwegian Wood", by this point he was comfortable enough with Indian classical music that I've seen many, many sources claim that an outside session player is playing sitar on the track, though Anil Bhagwat, the tabla player on the track, always insisted that it was entirely Harrison's playing: [Excerpt: The Beatles, "Love You To"] There is a *lot* of debate as to whether it's George playing on the track, and I feel a little uncomfortable making a definitive statement in either direction. On the one hand I find it hard to believe that Harrison got that good that quickly on an unfamiliar instrument, when we know he wasn't a naturally facile musician. All the stories we have about his work in the studio suggest that he had to work very hard on his guitar solos, and that he would frequently fluff them. As a technical guitarist, Harrison was only mediocre -- his value lay in his inventiveness, not in technical ability -- and he had been playing guitar for over a decade, but sitar only a few months. There's also some session documentation suggesting that an unknown sitar player was hired. On the other hand there's the testimony of Anil Bhagwat that Harrison played the part himself, and he has been very firm on the subject, saying "If you go on the Internet there are a lot of questions asked about "Love You To". They say 'It's not George playing the sitar'. I can tell you here and now -- 100 percent it was George on sitar throughout. There were no other musicians involved. It was just me and him." And several people who are more knowledgeable than myself about the instrument have suggested that the sitar part on the track is played the way that a rock guitarist would play rather than the way someone with more knowledge of Indian classical music would play -- there's a blues feeling to some of the bends that apparently no genuine Indian classical musician would naturally do. I would suggest that the best explanation is that there's a professional sitar player trying to replicate a part that Harrison had previously demonstrated, while Harrison was in turn trying his best to replicate the sound of Ravi Shankar's work. Certainly the instrumental section sounds far more fluent, and far more stylistically correct, than one would expect: [Excerpt: The Beatles, "Love You To"] Where previous attempts at what got called "raga-rock" had taken a couple of surface features of Indian music -- some form of a drone, perhaps a modal scale -- and had generally used a guitar made to sound a little bit like a sitar, or had a sitar playing normal rock riffs, Harrison's song seems to be a genuine attempt to hybridise Indian ragas and rock music, combining the instrumentation, modes, and rhythmic complexity of someone like Ravi Shankar with lyrics that are seemingly inspired by Bob Dylan and a fairly conventional pop song structure (and a tiny bit of fuzz guitar). It's a record that could only be made by someone who properly understood both the Indian music he's emulating and the conventions of the Western pop song, and understood how those conventions could work together. Indeed, one thing I've rarely seen pointed out is how cleverly the album is sequenced, so that "Love You To" is followed by possibly the most conventional song on Revolver, "Here, There, and Everywhere", which was recorded towards the end of the sessions. Both songs share a distinctive feature not shared by the rest of the album, so the two songs can sound more of a pair than they otherwise would, retrospectively making "Love You To" seem more conventional than it is and "Here, There, and Everywhere" more unconventional -- both have as an introduction a separate piece of music that states some of the melodic themes of the rest of the song but isn't repeated later. In the case of "Love You To" it's the free-tempo bit at the beginning, characteristic of a lot of Indian music: [Excerpt: The Beatles, "Love You To"] While in the case of "Here, There, and Everywhere" it's the part that mimics an older style of songwriting, a separate intro of the type that would have been called a verse when written by the Gershwins or Cole Porter, but of course in the intervening decades "verse" had come to mean something else, so we now no longer have a specific term for this kind of intro -- but as you can hear, it's doing very much the same thing as that "Love You To" intro: [Excerpt: The Beatles, "Here, There, and Everywhere"] In the same day as the group completed "Love You To", overdubbing George's vocal and Ringo's tambourine, they also started work on a song that would show off a lot of the new techniques they had been working on in very different ways. Paul's "Paperback Writer" could indeed be seen as part of a loose trilogy with "Love You To" and "Tomorrow Never Knows", one song by each of the group's three songwriters exploring the idea of a song that's almost all on one chord. Both "Tomorrow Never Knows" and "Love You To" are based on a drone with occasional hints towards moving to one other chord. In the case of "Paperback Writer", the entire song stays on a single chord until the title -- it's on a G7 throughout until the first use of the word "writer", when it quickly goes to a C for two bars. I'm afraid I'm going to have to sing to show you how little the chords actually change, because the riff disguises this lack of movement somewhat, but the melody is also far more horizontal than most of McCartney's, so this shouldn't sound too painful, I hope: [demonstrates] This is essentially the exact same thing that both "Love You To" and "Tomorrow Never Knows" do, and all three have very similarly structured rising and falling modal melodies. There's also a bit of "Paperback Writer" that seems to tie directly into "Love You To", but also points to a possible very non-Indian inspiration for part of "Love You To". The Beach Boys' single "Sloop John B" was released in the UK a couple of days after the sessions for "Paperback Writer" and "Love You To", but it had been released in the US a month before, and the Beatles all got copies of every record in the American top thirty shipped to them. McCartney and Harrison have specifically pointed to it as an influence on "Paperback Writer". "Sloop John B" has a section where all the instruments drop out and we're left with just the group's vocal harmonies: [Excerpt: The Beach Boys, "Sloop John B"] And that seems to have been the inspiration behind the similar moment at a similar point in "Paperback Writer", which is used in place of a middle eight and also used for the song's intro: [Excerpt: The Beatles, "Paperback Writer"] Which is very close to what Harrison does at the end of each verse of "Love You To", where the instruments drop out for him to sing a long melismatic syllable before coming back in: [Excerpt: The Beatles, "Love You To"] Essentially, other than "Got to Get You Into My Life", which is an outlier and should not be counted, the first three songs attempted during the Revolver sessions are variations on a common theme, and it's a sign that no matter how different the results might  sound, the Beatles really were very much a group at this point, and were sharing ideas among themselves and developing those ideas in similar ways. "Paperback Writer" disguises what it's doing somewhat by having such a strong riff. Lennon referred to "Paperback Writer" as "son of 'Day Tripper'", and in terms of the Beatles' singles it's actually their third iteration of this riff idea, which they originally got from Bobby Parker's "Watch Your Step": [Excerpt: Bobby Parker, "Watch Your Step"] Which became the inspiration for "I Feel Fine": [Excerpt: The Beatles, "I Feel Fine"] Which they varied for "Day Tripper": [Excerpt: The Beatles, "Day Tripper"] And which then in turn got varied for "Paperback Writer": [Excerpt: The Beatles, "Paperback Writer"] As well as compositional ideas, there are sonic ideas shared between "Paperback Writer", "Tomorrow Never Knows", and "Love You To", and which would be shared by the rest of the tracks the Beatles recorded in the first half of 1966. Since Geoff Emerick had become the group's principal engineer, they'd started paying more attention to how to get a fuller sound, and so Emerick had miced the tabla on "Love You To" much more closely than anyone would normally mic an instrument from classical music, creating a deep, thudding sound, and similarly he had changed the way they recorded the drums on "Tomorrow Never Knows", again giving a much fuller sound. But the group also wanted the kind of big bass sounds they'd loved on records coming out of America -- sounds that no British studio was getting, largely because it was believed that if you cut too loud a bass sound into a record it would make the needle jump out of the groove. The new engineering team of Geoff Emerick and Ken Scott, though, thought that it was likely you could keep the needle in the groove if you had a smoother frequency response. You could do that if you used a microphone with a larger diaphragm to record the bass, but how could you do that? Inspiration finally struck -- loudspeakers are actually the same thing as microphones wired the other way round, so if you wired up a loudspeaker as if it were a microphone you could get a *really big* speaker, place it in front of the bass amp, and get a much stronger bass sound. The experiment wasn't a total success -- the sound they got had to be processed quite extensively to get rid of room noise, and then compressed in order to further prevent the needle-jumping issue, and so it's a muddier, less defined, tone than they would have liked, but one thing that can't be denied is that "Paperback Writer"'s bass sound is much, much, louder than on any previous Beatles record: [Excerpt: The Beatles, "Paperback Writer"] Almost every track the group recorded during the Revolver sessions involved all sorts of studio innovations, though rarely anything as truly revolutionary as the artificial double-tracking they'd used on "Tomorrow Never Knows", and which also appeared on "Paperback Writer" -- indeed, as "Paperback Writer" was released several months before Revolver, it became the first record released to use the technique. I could easily devote a good ten minutes to every track on Revolver, and to "Paperback Writer"s B-side, "Rain", but this is already shaping up to be an extraordinarily long episode and there's a lot of material to get through, so I'll break my usual pattern of devoting a Patreon bonus episode to something relatively obscure, and this week's bonus will be on "Rain" itself. "Paperback Writer", though, deserved the attention here even though it was not one of the group's more successful singles -- it did go to number one, but it didn't hit number one in the UK charts straight away, being kept off the top by "Strangers in the Night" by Frank Sinatra for the first week: [Excerpt: Frank Sinatra, "Strangers in the Night"] Coincidentally, "Strangers in the Night" was co-written by Bert Kaempfert, the German musician who had produced the group's very first recording sessions with Tony Sheridan back in 1961. On the group's German tour in 1966 they met up with Kaempfert again, and John greeted him by singing the first couple of lines of the Sinatra record. The single was the lowest-selling Beatles single in the UK since "Love Me Do". In the US it only made number one for two non-consecutive weeks, with "Strangers in the Night" knocking it off for a week in between. Now, by literally any other band's standards, that's still a massive hit, and it was the Beatles' tenth UK number one in a row (or ninth, depending on which chart you use for "Please Please Me"), but it's a sign that the group were moving out of the first phase of total unequivocal dominance of the charts. It was a turning point in a lot of other ways as well. Up to this point, while the group had been experimenting with different lyrical subjects on album tracks, every single had lyrics about romantic relationships -- with the possible exception of "Help!", which was about Lennon's emotional state but written in such a way that it could be heard as a plea to a lover. But in the case of "Paperback Writer", McCartney was inspired by his Aunt Mill asking him "Why do you write songs about love all the time? Can you ever write about a horse or the summit conference or something interesting?" His response was to think "All right, Aunt Mill, I'll show you", and to come up with a lyric that was very much in the style of the social satires that bands like the Kinks were releasing at the time. People often miss the humour in the lyric for "Paperback Writer", but there's a huge amount of comedy in lyrics about someone writing to a publisher saying they'd written a book based on someone else's book, and one can only imagine the feeling of weary recognition in slush-pile readers throughout the world as they heard the enthusiastic "It's a thousand pages, give or take a few, I'll be writing more in a week or two. I can make it longer..." From this point on, the group wouldn't release a single that was unambiguously about a romantic relationship until "The Ballad of John and Yoko",  the last single released while the band were still together. "Paperback Writer" also saw the Beatles for the first time making a promotional film -- what we would now call a rock video -- rather than make personal appearances on TV shows. The film was directed by Michael Lindsay-Hogg, who the group would work with again in 1969, and shows Paul with a chipped front tooth -- he'd been in an accident while riding mopeds with his friend Tara Browne a few months earlier, and hadn't yet got round to having the tooth capped. When he did, the change in his teeth was one of the many bits of evidence used by conspiracy theorists to prove that the real Paul McCartney was dead and replaced by a lookalike. It also marks a change in who the most prominent Beatle on the group's A-sides was. Up to this point, Paul had had one solo lead on an A-side -- "Can't Buy Me Love" -- and everything else had been either a song with multiple vocalists like "Day Tripper" or "Love Me Do", or a song with a clear John lead like "Ticket to Ride" or "I Feel Fine". In the rest of their career, counting "Paperback Writer", the group would release nine new singles that hadn't already been included on an album. Of those nine singles, one was a double A-side with one John song and one Paul song, two had John songs on the A-side, and the other six were Paul. Where up to this point John had been "lead Beatle", for the rest of the sixties, Paul would be the group's driving force. Oddly, Paul got rather defensive about the record when asked about it in interviews after it failed to go straight to the top, saying "It's not our best single by any means, but we're very satisfied with it". But especially in its original mono mix it actually packs a powerful punch: [Excerpt: The Beatles, "Paperback Writer"] When the "Paperback Writer" single was released, an unusual image was used in the advertising -- a photo of the Beatles dressed in butchers' smocks, covered in blood, with chunks of meat and the dismembered body parts of baby dolls lying around on them. The image was meant as part of a triptych parodying religious art -- the photo on the left was to be an image showing the four Beatles connected to a woman by an umbilical cord made of sausages, the middle panel was meant to be this image, but with halos added over the Beatles' heads, and the panel on the right was George hammering a nail into John's head, symbolising both crucifixion and that the group were real, physical, people, not just images to be worshipped -- these weren't imaginary nails, and they weren't imaginary people. The photographer Robert Whittaker later said: “I did a photograph of the Beatles covered in raw meat, dolls and false teeth. Putting meat, dolls and false teeth with The Beatles is essentially part of the same thing, the breakdown of what is regarded as normal. The actual conception for what I still call “Somnambulant Adventure” was Moses coming down from Mount Sinai with the Ten Commandments. He comes across people worshipping a golden calf. All over the world I'd watched people worshiping like idols, like gods, four Beatles. To me they were just stock standard normal people. But this emotion that fans poured on them made me wonder where Christianity was heading.” The image wasn't that controversial in the UK, when it was used to advertise "Paperback Writer", but in the US it was initially used for the cover of an album, Yesterday... And Today, which was made up of a few tracks that had been left off the US versions of the Rubber Soul and Help! albums, plus both sides of the "We Can Work It Out"/"Day Tripper" single, and three rough mixes of songs that had been recorded for Revolver -- "Doctor Robert", "And Your Bird Can Sing", and "I'm Only Sleeping", which was the song that sounded most different from the mixes that were finally released: [Excerpt: The Beatles, "I'm Only Sleeping (Yesterday... and Today mix)"] Those three songs were all Lennon songs, which had the unfortunate effect that when the US version of Revolver was brought out later in the year, only two of the songs on the album were by Lennon, with six by McCartney and three by Harrison. Some have suggested that this was the motivation for the use of the butcher image on the cover of Yesterday... And Today -- saying it was the Beatles' protest against Capitol "butchering" their albums -- but in truth it was just that Capitol's art director chose the cover because he liked the image. Alan Livingston, the president of Capitol was not so sure, and called Brian Epstein to ask if the group would be OK with them using a different image. Epstein checked with John Lennon, but Lennon liked the image and so Epstein told Livingston the group insisted on them using that cover. Even though for the album cover the bloodstains on the butchers' smocks were airbrushed out, after Capitol had pressed up a million copies of the mono version of the album and two hundred thousand copies of the stereo version, and they'd sent out sixty thousand promo copies, they discovered that no record shops would stock the album with that cover. It cost Capitol more than two hundred thousand dollars to recall the album and replace the cover with a new one -- though while many of the covers were destroyed, others had the new cover, with a more acceptable photo of the group, pasted over them, and people have later carefully steamed off the sticker to reveal the original. This would not be the last time in 1966 that something that was intended as a statement on religion and the way people viewed the Beatles would cause the group trouble in America. In the middle of the recording sessions for Revolver, the group also made what turned out to be their last ever UK live performance in front of a paying audience. The group had played the NME Poll-Winners' Party every year since 1963, and they were always shows that featured all the biggest acts in the country at the time -- the 1966 show featured, as well as the Beatles and a bunch of smaller acts, the Rolling Stones, the Who, the Yardbirds, Roy Orbison, Cliff Richard and the Shadows, the Seekers, the Small Faces, the Walker Brothers, and Dusty Springfield. Unfortunately, while these events were always filmed for TV broadcast, the Beatles' performance on the first of May wasn't filmed. There are various stories about what happened, but the crux appears to be a disagreement between Andrew Oldham and Brian Epstein, sparked by John Lennon. When the Beatles got to the show, they were upset to discover that they had to wait around before going on stage -- normally, the awards would all be presented at the end, after all the performances, but the Rolling Stones had asked that the Beatles not follow them directly, so after the Stones finished their set, there would be a break for the awards to be given out, and then the Beatles would play their set, in front of an audience that had been bored by twenty-five minutes of awards ceremony, rather than one that had been excited by all the bands that came before them. John Lennon was annoyed, and insisted that the Beatles were going to go on straight after the Rolling Stones -- he seems to have taken this as some sort of power play by the Stones and to have got his hackles up about it. He told Epstein to deal with the people from the NME. But the NME people said that they had a contract with Andrew Oldham, and they weren't going to break it. Oldham refused to change the terms of the contract. Lennon said that he wasn't going to go on stage if they didn't directly follow the Stones. Maurice Kinn, the publisher of the NME, told Epstein that he wasn't going to break the contract with Oldham, and that if the Beatles didn't appear on stage, he would get Jimmy Savile, who was compering the show, to go out on stage and tell the ten thousand fans in the audience that the Beatles were backstage refusing to appear. He would then sue NEMS for breach of contract *and* NEMS would be liable for any damage caused by the rioting that was sure to happen. Lennon screamed a lot of abuse at Kinn, and told him the group would never play one of their events again, but the group did go on stage -- but because they hadn't yet signed the agreement to allow their performance to be filmed, they refused to allow it to be recorded. Apparently Andrew Oldham took all this as a sign that Epstein was starting to lose control of the group. Also during May 1966 there were visits from musicians from other countries, continuing the cultural exchange that was increasingly influencing the Beatles' art. Bruce Johnston of the Beach Boys came over to promote the group's new LP, Pet Sounds, which had been largely the work of Brian Wilson, who had retired from touring to concentrate on working in the studio. Johnston played the record for John and Paul, who listened to it twice, all the way through, in silence, in Johnston's hotel room: [Excerpt: The Beach Boys, "God Only Knows"] According to Johnston, after they'd listened through the album twice, they went over to a piano and started whispering to each other, picking out chords. Certainly the influence of Pet Sounds is very noticeable on songs like "Here, There, and Everywhere", written and recorded a few weeks after this meeting: [Excerpt: The Beatles, "Here, There, and Everywhere"] That track, and the last track recorded for the album, "She Said She Said" were unusual in one very important respect -- they were recorded while the Beatles were no longer under contract to EMI Records. Their contract expired on the fifth of June, 1966, and they finished Revolver without it having been renewed -- it would be several months before their new contract was signed, and it's rather lucky for music lovers that Brian Epstein was the kind of manager who considered personal relationships and basic honour and decency more important than the legal niceties, unlike any other managers of the era, otherwise we would not have Revolver in the form we know it today. After the meeting with Johnston, but before the recording of those last couple of Revolver tracks, the Beatles also met up again with Bob Dylan, who was on a UK tour with a new, loud, band he was working with called The Hawks. While the Beatles and Dylan all admired each other, there was by this point a lot of wariness on both sides, especially between Lennon and Dylan, both of them very similar personality types and neither wanting to let their guard down around the other or appear unhip. There's a famous half-hour-long film sequence of Lennon and Dylan sharing a taxi, which is a fascinating, excruciating, example of two insecure but arrogant men both trying desperately to impress the other but also equally desperate not to let the other know that they want to impress them: [Excerpt: Dylan and Lennon taxi ride] The day that was filmed, Lennon and Harrison also went to see Dylan play at the Royal Albert Hall. This tour had been controversial, because Dylan's band were loud and raucous, and Dylan's fans in the UK still thought of him as a folk musician. At one gig, earlier on the tour, an audience member had famously yelled out "Judas!" -- (just on the tiny chance that any of my listeners don't know that, Judas was the disciple who betrayed Jesus to the authorities, leading to his crucifixion) -- and that show was for many years bootlegged as the "Royal Albert Hall" show, though in fact it was recorded at the Free Trade Hall in Manchester. One of the *actual* Royal Albert Hall shows was released a few years ago -- the one the night before Lennon and Harrison saw Dylan: [Excerpt: Bob Dylan, "Like a Rolling Stone", Royal Albert Hall 1966] The show Lennon and Harrison saw would be Dylan's last for many years. Shortly after returning to the US, Dylan was in a motorbike accident, the details of which are still mysterious, and which some fans claim was faked altogether. The accident caused him to cancel all the concert dates he had booked, and devote himself to working in the studio for several years just like Brian Wilson. And from even further afield than America, Ravi Shankar came over to Britain, to work with his friend the violinist Yehudi Menuhin, on a duet album, West Meets East, that was an example in the classical world of the same kind of international cross-fertilisation that was happening in the pop world: [Excerpt: Yehudi Menuhin and Ravi Shankar, "Prabhati (based on Raga Gunkali)"] While he was in the UK, Shankar also performed at the Royal Festival Hall, and George Harrison went to the show. He'd seen Shankar live the year before, but this time he met up with him afterwards, and later said "He was the first person that impressed me in a way that was beyond just being a famous celebrity. Ravi was my link to the Vedic world. Ravi plugged me into the whole of reality. Elvis impressed me when I was a kid, and impressed me when I met him, but you couldn't later on go round to him and say 'Elvis, what's happening with the universe?'" After completing recording and mixing the as-yet-unnamed album, which had been by far the longest recording process of their career, and which still nearly sixty years later regularly tops polls of the best album of all time, the Beatles took a well-earned break. For a whole two days, at which point they flew off to Germany to do a three-day tour, on their way to Japan, where they were booked to play five shows at the Budokan. Unfortunately for the group, while they had no idea of this when they were booked to do the shows, many in Japan saw the Budokan as sacred ground, and they were the first ever Western group to play there. This led to numerous death threats and loud protests from far-right activists offended at the Beatles defiling their religious and nationalistic sensibilities. As a result, the police were on high alert -- so high that there were three thousand police in the audience for the shows, in a venue which only held ten thousand audience members. That's according to Mark Lewisohn's Complete Beatles Chronicle, though I have to say that the rather blurry footage of the audience in the video of those shows doesn't seem to show anything like those numbers. But frankly I'll take Lewisohn's word over that footage, as he's not someone to put out incorrect information. The threats to the group also meant that they had to be kept in their hotel rooms at all times except when actually performing, though they did make attempts to get out. At the press conference for the Tokyo shows, the group were also asked publicly for the first time their views on the war in Vietnam, and John replied "Well, we think about it every day, and we don't agree with it and we think that it's wrong. That's how much interest we take. That's all we can do about it... and say that we don't like it". I say they were asked publicly for the first time, because George had been asked about it for a series of interviews Maureen Cleave had done with the group a couple of months earlier, as we'll see in a bit, but nobody was paying attention to those interviews. Brian Epstein was upset that the question had gone to John. He had hoped that the inevitable Vietnam question would go to Paul, who he thought might be a bit more tactful. The last thing he needed was John Lennon saying something that would upset the Americans before their tour there a few weeks later. Luckily, people in America seemed to have better things to do than pay attention to John Lennon's opinions. The support acts for the Japanese shows included  several of the biggest names in Japanese rock music -- or "group sounds" as the genre was called there, Japanese people having realised that trying to say the phrase "rock and roll" would open them up to ridicule given that it had both "r" and "l" sounds in the phrase. The man who had coined the term "group sounds", Jackey Yoshikawa, was there with his group the Blue Comets, as was Isao Bito, who did a rather good cover version of Cliff Richard's "Dynamite": [Excerpt: Isao Bito, "Dynamite"] Bito, the Blue Comets, and the other two support acts, Yuya Uchida and the Blue Jeans, all got together to perform a specially written song, "Welcome Beatles": [Excerpt: "Welcome Beatles" ] But while the Japanese audience were enthusiastic, they were much less vocal about their enthusiasm than the audiences the Beatles were used to playing for. The group were used, of course, to playing in front of hordes of screaming teenagers who could not hear a single note, but because of the fear that a far-right terrorist would assassinate one of the group members, the police had imposed very, very, strict rules on the audience. Nobody in the audience was allowed to get out of their seat for any reason, and the police would clamp down very firmly on anyone who was too demonstrative. Because of that, the group could actually hear themselves, and they sounded sloppy as hell, especially on the newer material. Not that there was much of that. The only song they did from the Revolver sessions was "Paperback Writer", the new single, and while they did do a couple of tracks from Rubber Soul, those were under-rehearsed. As John said at the start of this tour, "I can't play any of Rubber Soul, it's so unrehearsed. The only time I played any of the numbers on it was when I recorded it. I forget about songs. They're only valid for a certain time." That's certainly borne out by the sound of their performances of Rubber Soul material at the Budokan: [Excerpt: The Beatles, "If I Needed Someone (live at the Budokan)"] It was while they were in Japan as well that they finally came up with the title for their new album. They'd been thinking of all sorts of ideas, like Abracadabra and Magic Circle, and tossing names around with increasing desperation for several days -- at one point they seem to have just started riffing on other groups' albums, and seem to have apparently seriously thought about naming the record in parodic tribute to their favourite artists -- suggestions included The Beatles On Safari, after the Beach Boys' Surfin' Safari (and possibly with a nod to their recent Pet Sounds album cover with animals, too), The Freewheelin' Beatles, after Dylan's second album, and my favourite, Ringo's suggestion After Geography, for the Rolling Stones' Aftermath. But eventually Paul came up with Revolver -- like Rubber Soul, a pun, in this case because the record itself revolves when on a turntable. Then it was off to the Philippines, and if the group thought Japan had been stressful, they had no idea what was coming. The trouble started in the Philippines from the moment they stepped off the plane, when they were bundled into a car without Neil Aspinall or Brian Epstein, and without their luggage, which was sent to customs. This was a problem in itself -- the group had got used to essentially being treated like diplomats, and to having their baggage let through customs without being searched, and so they'd started freely carrying various illicit substances with them. This would obviously be a problem -- but as it turned out, this was just to get a "customs charge" paid by Brian Epstein. But during their initial press conference the group were worried, given the hostility they'd faced from officialdom, that they were going to be arrested during the conference itself. They were asked what they would tell the Rolling Stones, who were going to be visiting the Philippines shortly after, and Lennon just said "We'll warn them". They also asked "is there a war on in the Philippines? Why is everybody armed?" At this time, the Philippines had a new leader, Ferdinand Marcos -- who is not to be confused with his son, Ferdinand Marcos Jr, also known as Bongbong Marcos, who just became President-Elect there last month. Marcos Sr was a dictatorial kleptocrat, one of the worst leaders of the latter half of the twentieth century, but that wasn't evident yet. He'd been elected only a few months earlier, and had presented himself as a Kennedy-like figure -- a young man who was also a war hero. He'd recently switched parties from the Liberal party to the right-wing Nacionalista Party, but wasn't yet being thought of as the monstrous dictator he later became. The person organising the Philippines shows had been ordered to get the Beatles to visit Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos at 11AM on the day of the show, but for some reason had instead put on their itinerary just the *suggestion* that the group should meet the Marcoses, and had put the time down as 3PM, and the Beatles chose to ignore that suggestion -- they'd refused to do that kind of government-official meet-and-greet ever since an incident in 1964 at the British Embassy in Washington where someone had cut off a bit of Ringo's hair. A military escort turned up at the group's hotel in the morning, to take them for their meeting. The group were all still in their rooms, and Brian Epstein was still eating breakfast and refused to disturb them, saying "Go back and tell the generals we're not coming." The group gave their performances as scheduled, but meanwhile there was outrage at the way the Beatles had refused to meet the Marcos family, who had brought hundreds of children -- friends of their own children, and relatives of top officials -- to a party to meet the group. Brian Epstein went on TV and tried to smooth things over, but the broadcast was interrupted by static and his message didn't get through to anyone. The next day, the group's security was taken away, as were the cars to take them to the airport. When they got to the airport, the escalators were turned off and the group were beaten up at the arrangement of the airport manager, who said in 1984 "I beat up the Beatles. I really thumped them. First I socked Epstein and he went down... then I socked Lennon and Ringo in the face. I was kicking them. They were pleading like frightened chickens. That's what happens when you insult the First Lady." Even on the plane there were further problems -- Brian Epstein and the group's road manager Mal Evans were both made to get off the plane to sort out supposed financial discrepancies, which led to them worrying that they were going to be arrested or worse -- Evans told the group to tell his wife he loved her as he left the plane. But eventually, they were able to leave, and after a brief layover in India -- which Ringo later said was the first time he felt he'd been somewhere truly foreign, as opposed to places like Germany or the USA which felt basically like home -- they got back to England: [Excerpt: "Ordinary passenger!"] When asked what they were going to do next, George replied “We're going to have a couple of weeks to recuperate before we go and get beaten up by the Americans,” The story of the "we're bigger than Jesus" controversy is one of the most widely misreported events in the lives of the Beatles, which is saying a great deal. One book that I've encountered, and one book only, Steve Turner's Beatles '66, tells the story of what actually happened, and even that book seems to miss some emphases. I've pieced what follows together from Turner's book and from an academic journal article I found which has some more detail. As far as I can tell, every single other book on the Beatles released up to this point bases their account of the story on an inaccurate press statement put out by Brian Epstein, not on the truth. Here's the story as it's generally told. John Lennon gave an interview to his friend, Maureen Cleave of the Evening Standard, during which he made some comments about how it was depressing that Christianity was losing relevance in the eyes of the public, and that the Beatles are more popular than Jesus, speaking casually because he was talking to a friend. That story was run in the Evening Standard more-or-less unnoticed, but then an American teen magazine picked up on the line about the Beatles being bigger than Jesus, reprinted chunks of the interview out of context and without the Beatles' knowledge or permission, as a way to stir up controversy, and there was an outcry, with people burning Beatles records and death threats from the Ku Klux Klan. That's... not exactly what happened. The first thing that you need to understand to know what happened is that Datebook wasn't a typical teen magazine. It *looked* just like a typical teen magazine, certainly, and much of its content was the kind of thing that you would get in Tiger Beat or any of the other magazines aimed at teenage girls -- the September 1966 issue was full of articles like "Life with the Walker Brothers... by their Road Manager", and interviews with the Dave Clark Five -- but it also had a long history of publishing material that was intended to make its readers think about social issues of the time, particularly Civil Rights. Arthur Unger, the magazine's editor and publisher, was a gay man in an interracial relationship, and while the subject of homosexuality was too taboo in the late fifties and sixties for him to have his magazine cover that, he did regularly include articles decrying segregation and calling for the girls reading the magazine to do their part on a personal level to stamp out racism. Datebook had regularly contained articles like one from 1963 talking about how segregation wasn't just a problem in the South, saying "If we are so ‘integrated' why must men in my own city of Philadelphia, the city of Brotherly Love, picket city hall because they are discriminated against when it comes to getting a job? And how come I am still unable to take my dark- complexioned friends to the same roller skating rink or swimming pool that I attend?” One of the writers for the magazine later said “We were much more than an entertainment magazine . . . . We tried to get kids involved in social issues . . . . It was a well-received magazine, recommended by libraries and schools, but during the Civil Rights period we did get pulled off a lot of stands in the South because of our views on integration” Art Unger, the editor and publisher, wasn't the only one pushing this liberal, integrationist, agenda. The managing editor at the time, Danny Fields, was another gay man who wanted to push the magazine even further than Unger, and who would later go on to manage the Stooges and the Ramones, being credited by some as being the single most important figure in punk rock's development, and being immortalised by the Ramones in their song "Danny Says": [Excerpt: The Ramones, "Danny Says"] So this was not a normal teen magazine, and that's certainly shown by the cover of the September 1966 issue, which as well as talking about the interviews with John Lennon and Paul McCartney inside, also advertised articles on Timothy Leary advising people to turn on, tune in, and drop out; an editorial about how interracial dating must be the next step after desegregation of schools, and a piece on "the ten adults you dig/hate the most" -- apparently the adult most teens dug in 1966 was Jackie Kennedy, the most hated was Barry Goldwater, and President Johnson, Billy Graham, and Martin Luther King appeared in the top ten on both lists. Now, in the early part of the year Maureen Cleave had done a whole series of articles on the Beatles -- double-page spreads on each band member, plus Brian Epstein, visiting them in their own homes (apart from Paul, who she met at a restaurant) and discussing their daily lives, their thoughts, and portraying them as rounded individuals. These articles are actually fascinating, because of something that everyone who met the Beatles in this period pointed out. When interviewed separately, all of them came across as thoughtful individuals, with their own opinions about all sorts of subjects, and their own tastes and senses of humour. But when two or more of them were together -- especially when John and Paul were interviewed together, but even in social situations, they would immediately revert to flip in-jokes and riffing on each other's statements, never revealing anything about themselves as individuals, but just going into Beatle mode -- simultaneously preserving the band's image, closing off outsiders, *and* making sure they didn't do or say anything that would get them mocked by the others. Cleave, as someone who actually took them all seriously, managed to get some very revealing information about all of them. In the article on Ringo, which is the most superficial -- one gets the impression that Cleave found him rather difficult to talk to when compared to the other, more verbally facile, band members -- she talked about how he had a lot of Wild West and military memorabilia, how he was a devoted family man and also devoted to his friends -- he had moved to the suburbs to be close to John and George, who already lived there. The most revealing quote about Ringo's personality was him saying "Of course that's the great thing about being married -- you have a house to sit in and company all the time. And you can still go to clubs, a bonus for being married. I love being a family man." While she looked at the other Beatles' tastes in literature in detail, she'd noted that the only books Ringo owned that weren't just for show were a few science fiction paperbacks, but that as he said "I'm not thick, it's just that I'm not educated. People can use words and I won't know what they mean. I say 'me' instead of 'my'." Ringo also didn't have a drum kit at home, saying he only played when he was on stage or in the studio, and that you couldn't practice on your own, you needed to play with other people. In the article on George, she talked about how he was learning the sitar,  and how he was thinking that it might be a good idea to go to India to study the sitar with Ravi Shankar for six months. She also talks about how during the interview, he played the guitar pretty much constantly, playing everything from songs from "Hello Dolly" to pieces by Bach to "the Trumpet Voluntary", by which she presumably means Clarke's "Prince of Denmark's March": [Excerpt: Jeremiah Clarke, "Prince of Denmark's March"] George was also the most outspoken on the subjects of politics, religion, and society, linking the ongoing war in Vietnam with the UK's reverence for the Second World War, saying "I think about it every day and it's wrong. Anything to do with war is wrong. They're all wrapped up in their Nelsons and their Churchills and their Montys -- always talking about war heroes. Look at All Our Yesterdays [a show on ITV that showed twenty-five-year-old newsreels] -- how we killed a few more Huns here and there. Makes me sick. They're the sort who are leaning on their walking sticks and telling us a few years in the army would do us good." He also had very strong words to say about religion, saying "I think religion falls flat on its face. All this 'love thy neighbour' but none of them are doing it. How can anybody get into the position of being Pope and accept all the glory and the money and the Mercedes-Benz and that? I could never be Pope until I'd sold my rich gates and my posh hat. I couldn't sit there with all that money on me and believe I was religious. Why can't we bring all this out in the open? Why is there all this stuff about blasphemy? If Christianity's as good as they say it is, it should stand up to a bit of discussion." Harrison also comes across as a very private person, saying "People keep saying, ‘We made you what you are,' well, I made Mr. Hovis what he is and I don't go round crawling over his gates and smashing up the wall round his house." (Hovis is a British company that makes bread and wholegrain flour). But more than anything else he comes across as an instinctive anti-authoritarian, being angry at bullying teachers, Popes, and Prime Ministers. McCartney's profile has him as the most self-consciously arty -- he talks about the plays of Alfred Jarry and the music of Karlheinz Stockhausen and Luciano Berio: [Excerpt: Luciano Berio, "Momenti (for magnetic tape)"] Though he was very worried that he might be sounding a little too pretentious, saying “I don't want to sound like Jonathan Miller going on" --

      "Once Upon a Time" UK Airing: January 25, 1968 US Airing: September 14, 1968     "Fallout" UK Airing: February 1, 1968 US Airing September 21, 1968 A previous Number 2 returns to the Village and is given permission to crack the Prisoner using Degree Absolute. When it fails, it appears that the Prisoner is put on trial, but it is actually his recent tormentors who are which ultimately leads to escape. Pulling back the curtain, the production of this final episode is as disjointed as the two TV episodes themselves. The audio for "Once Upon a Time", recorded over a year ago, was lost and so John and writer Jim Beard attempt to discuss the key points of an episode that Jim in particular, is not fond of in the least. They also talk about McGoohan's thumbing his nose (or perhaps biting his thumb?) at ITV when they cut short the series with a finale that makes absolutely no sense. Comment on this podcast by writing us at thechronicrift@gmail.com or by leaving your thoughts right here on the page.

Slip into your cardigan, roll yourself a jazz cigarette, and prepare to savor one of Patty McG's juiciest performances as a malefactor as our lovely theme-song singer Casey Erin Clark joins us to deconstruct All Night Long, director Basil Dearden's 1962 adaptation of Othello set in the London jazz scene. PLUS! Casey draws upon her expertise as a voice coach and musician to examine several of McGoohan's most distinctive vocal performances, and presents her findings to the court. All Night Long Screenplay by Neil King and Paul Jarraco Directed by Basil Dearden Released February 6, 1962 Write to the Citizens Advice Bureau at adegreeabsolute dot gmail! Leave us a five-star review with your hottest Prisoner take on Apple Podcasts! Follow @NotaNumberPod! Our song: "A Degree Absolute!" Music and Lyrics by Chris Klimek Arranged by Casey Erin Clark and Jonathan Clark Vocals and Keyboards by Casey Erin Clark Guitar, Percussion, Mixing by Jonathan Clark Bass by Marcus Newstead  

A movie for McGoohan die-hards that creator Alexis Kanner the Once-Boxed sued the makers of Die Hard over! Paddy McG and Kanner! Squaring off, with a Montreal radio show as their Thunderdome. A film with all the makings of a taut thriller involving hostages, a building wired with explosives, and McG in fine form: Rolling them Rs! Slamming them consonants! Playing drunk! Almost evincing sexual-adjacent desire! Features more overlapping dialogue than if you played Nashville, A Wedding, and McCabe & Mrs. Miller all at once! Kings and Desperate Men Shot 1977; released (sort of) 1981 Write to the Citizens Advice Bureau at adegreeabsolute dot gmail! Leave us a five-star review with your hottest Prisoner take on Apple Podcasts! Follow @NotaNumberPod! Our song: "A Degree Absolute!" Music and Lyrics by Chris Klimek Arranged by Casey Erin Clark and Jonathan Clark Vocals and Keyboards by Casey Erin Clark Guitar, Percussion, Mixing by Jonathan Clark Bass by Marcus Newstead "All-Time High" Music by John Barry; lyrics by Tim Rice Performed by Townland, from their fine new album Honey on the Hi-Fi Special thanks to Linda Holmes, Gene Demby, and Jessica Reedy

Released at the same time as 2001, how does this Cold War classic starring Patrick McGoohan hold up for modern audiences? The movie was not commercially successful, but that's okay, because we rewrite it for you to come up with an approach that would have been a big hit! Also, should this movie be considered a part of The Prisoner canon? Listen to hear our surprising conclusion! Us Twitter: @WorthWatching4 Facebook

*In Plus Expenses #40 we talk about: *Goodbye 2021, Eppy recommends The Spine of Night (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt3885422/), Nathan just isn't watching movies, the Rockford Files is still good!, the triple-edged (?) sword of making your hobby your job, Nathan recommends The Prisoner (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0061287/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_3), TV theme songs, Crossbow (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0140731/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0), McGoohan Season continues, Be Seeing You (https://timeoftribes.itch.io/be-seeing-you) (RPG), the Columbo episode Identity Crisis (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0072804/), the newest Bond film (No Time to Die (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2382320/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0)), media study musings on horror movies, horror and wonder, things that are Written, acting in things that are and aren't Written, coming up on 100 eps of Two Hundred a Day, the wood anniversary of the show, the remaining episodes, last thoughts on our last year of the show, and a Happy (belated) Epimas! We have another podcast: Plus Expenses. Covering our non-Rockford media, games and life chatter, Plus Expenses is available via our Patreon (https://www.patreon.com/twohundredaday) at ALL levels of support. Want more Rockford Files trivia, notes and ephemera? Check out the Two Hundred a Day Rockford Files Files (http://tinyurl.com/200files)! We appreciate all of our listeners, but offer a special thanks to our patrons (https://www.patreon.com/twohundredaday). In particular, this episode is supported by the following Gumshoe and Detective-level patrons: * Richard Hatem (https://twitter.com/richardhatem) * Brian Perrera (https://twitter.com/thermoware) * Eric Antener (https://twitter.com/antener) * Bill Anderson (https://twitter.com/billand88) * Dael Norwood's historical research (https://daelnorwood.com/) * Chuck from whatchareading.com (http://whatchareading.com) * Paul Townend, who recommends the Fruit Loops podcast (https://fruitloopspod.com) * Shane Liebling's Roll For Your Party dieroller app (https://rollforyour.party/) * Jay Adan's Miniature Painting (http://jayadan.com) * Jay Thompson, Matthew Lee, Kip Holley, Dave P, and Dave Otterson! Thanks to: * Fireside.fm (https://fireside.fm) for hosting us * Audio Hijack (https://rogueamoeba.com/audiohijack/) for helping us record and capture clips from the show * Spoileralerts.org (http://spoileralerts.org) for the adding machine audio clip * Freesound.org (https://www.freesound.org/) for other audio clips

In this second episode, hosts Cai Ross and Chris Bainbridge continue discussing the first episode of The Prisoner, Arrival. Chris and Cai discuss the prescience of McGoohan's masterpiece as Arrival sets out to create the world of The Prisoner and set out its own unique set of rules. Regular feature Who's the Two? looks at Guy Doleman and George Baker's portrayals as the village administrator, shedding light on their work and careers. As ever, your hosts will cast their critical eyes over the episode, with discussion on interpretation, trivia, humour and an exploration of the production process. The only Prisoner podcast produced in north Wales, home of the Village itself, Portmeirion. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

DID YOU KNOW that Columbophiles are properly nomenclatured Columboheads or Trenchcoatheads? DID YOU KNOW that fans who divide their sympathies equally among Patrick McGoohan and Peter Falk are formally designated McGalks? Pal Linda Holmes joins Glen & Chris to investigate Patty McG's historic run as a four-time Columbo killer / five-time Columbo director. Brandon Routh, the George Lazenby of Supermen despite being admirably heighted to the role, also gets a surprising quotient of airtime on this typically tangent-tolerant episode of our private, personal, by-hand, punchcard-driven podcast! Read Linda's November 2020 essay on her pandemic discovery of Columbo here. And follow her on Twitter, obviously. Write to the Citizens Advice Bureau at adegreeabsolute dot gmail! Leave us a five-star review with your hottest Prisoner take on Apple Podcasts! Follow @NotaNumberPod! Our song: "A Degree Absolute!" Music and Lyrics by Chris Klimek Arranged by Casey Erin Clark and Jonathan Clark Vocals and Keyboards by Casey Erin Clark Guitar, Percussion, Mixing by Jonathan Clark Bass by Marcus Newstead   "Watcing the Detectives" written and performed by Declan Patrick McManus

Original Date: January 19, 2009It's Martin Luther King Day – a holiday for most, but not for Dean and Phil, who pack even more into an hour (plus) than usual! From discussing the legacies of the dearly departed Patrick McGoohan and Ricardo Montalban, to answering the screenwriting questions of their loyal listener the Venerable Pooh, to filling out their Screen Actors Guild Awards ballots on the air, there's something for everyone in this week's show.

Patty McG has claimed he was driven out of England after this puzzling final episode of The Prisoner debuted on Feb. 1, 1968. McGoohan admitted to financier Lew Grade that he'd been bluffing a year prior when he told the moneyman that he had an ending in mind for the strange new series he'd proposed. While this episode certainly reflects its creator's exasperation and exhaustion, it's more satisfying than any conventional resolution of the show's myriad mysteries could possibly have been... isn't it? "Fall Out" Written and directed by Patrick McGoohan Original airdate February 1, 1968 Write to the Citizens Advice Bureau at adegreeabsolute dot gmail! Leave us a five-star review with your hottest Prisoner take on Apple Podcasts! Follow @NotaNumberPod! Our song: "A Degree Absolute!" Music and Lyrics by Chris Klimek Arranged by Casey Erin Clark and Jonathan Clark Vocals and Keyboards by Casey Erin Clark Guitar, Percussion, Mixing by Jonathan Clark Bass by Marcus Newstead

"The Girl Who Was Death" UK Airing: January 18, 1968 US Airing: September 7, 1968 The Prisoner appears to have returned to London and is sent on a mission to find Professor Schnipps' rocket that is set to destroy London. But he must contend with a lovely female assassin first. John and writer Jim Beard discuss this episode that both agree is fluff, but one finds it charming while the other just can't wait to get it over with. They also talk about McGoohan's pervious series, Danger Man, some of the better elements of this episode. Comment on this podcast by writing us at thechronicrift@gmail.com or by leaving your thoughts right here on the page.

Prolific screenwriter, prosewriter, comic book writer, and podcaster Ben Blacker — co-creator of the magnificent monthly-live-show-turned-podcast The Thrilling Adventure Hour, and its delightful Western parody feature, Sparks Nevada, Marshal on Mars, among his many other notable and impressive credentials — joins us this week to dissect "Living in Harmony," perhaps the curviest of The Prisoner's curveball episodes.   With script editor George Markstein out, Patty McG and David Tomblin put out a call for The Prisoner story ideas. Ian Rakoff, a film editor with no prior screenwriting experience, responded with a pitch for a Western-themed episode, and did not learn until the episode was broadcast in the last days of 1967 that Tomblin had reduced his credit to an "idea by" nod while taking sole writing credit himself. McGoohan stunt double/series stunt arranger Frank Maher also claims to have inspired "Living in Harmony," saying he and McGoohan cooked up the idea while playing squash. The episode gives Maher his only credited onscreen role in the series, as Third Gunman. (Also, I love knowing that McGoohan and Maher hung out together, like fading star Rick Dalton and his assistant/stuntman Cliff Booth in Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood.) Guest stars Alexis Kanner and Valerie French had played lovers only months earlier in an episode of the ITV series Love Story entitled "Cinema Verité", where their relationship was, one hopes, more... consensual than the one depicted here, between Kanner's mute sociopathic killer The Kid and French's working girl Kathy. David Bauer, who plays the crooked judge who controls Harmony and wants Six to be Sheriff (i.e., his enforcer) was an American actor who fled the blacklist and ended up in a pair of Bond flicks, 1967's You Only Live Twice and 1971's dreary Diamonds Are Forever. "Living in Harmony" Written by David Tomblin and Ian Rakoff Directed by David Tomblin Original airdate December 29, 1967 Write to the Citizens Advice Bureau at adegreeabsolute dot gmail! Leave us a five-star review with your hottest Prisoner take on Apple Podcasts! Follow @NotaNumberPod! Our song: "A Degree Absolute!" Music and Lyrics by Chris Klimek Arranged by Casey Erin Clark and Jonathan Clark Vocals and Keyboards by Casey Erin Clark Guitar, Percussion, Mixing by Jonathan Clark Bass by Marcus Newstead  

It seems Patty McG had softened his "don't call it television because television cuts corners and we'll never ever do that" position by the time of The Prisoner's much-abbreviated second and final season, because for most of the production of this week's episode he decided his time would be better spent in Los Angeles co-starring in John Sturges' unmemorable 1968 thriller Ice Station Zebra with Rock Hudson, Ernest "Resistance Is Futile" Borgnine, and Jim Brown. "Chimes of Big Ben" screenwriter Vincent Tilsey got the unenviable job of coming up with a Prisoner story that would require neither the show's star nor its key location, Portmerion in North Wales. He came up with a brain-swapping scenario that would allow hardworking actor Nigel Stock to play Number Six. Upon his return from the States, McGoohan demanded extensive changes to the show that had been made in his absence. But he did not demand that Stock un-kiss Six's left-behind fiancee Janet (Zena Walker), who was never mentioned prior to this episode and shall never be again. Also, the head of MI6 was going to be SIx's father-in-law, apparently. Script editor George Markstein was long gone by this point and no one was minding the store. The mailbag overfloweth this week, so we moved the listener mail segment to the back half of the episode. Thank you for your correspondence. "Do Not Forsake Me, Oh My Darling" Written by Vincent Tilsley Directed by Pat Jackson Original airdate December 22, 1967 Write to the Citizens Advice Bureau at adegreeabsolute dot gmail! Leave us a five-star review with your hottest Prisoner take on Apple Podcasts! Follow @NotaNumberPod! Our song: "A Degree Absolute!" Music and Lyrics by Chris Klimek Arranged by Casey Erin Clark and Jonathan Clark Vocals and Keyboards by Casey Erin Clark Guitar, Percussion, Mixing by Jonathan Clark Bass by Marcus Newstead  

In the latest episode of All Things HR, Barry explores why values matter with business leader Nikki McGoohan of Propel2gether. Values are basic and fundamental beliefs that guide or motivate attitudes or actions in life. Our values help us to determine what is important to us. Values describe the personal qualities we choose to embody to guide our actions; the sort of person we want to be; the manner in which we treat ourselves and others, and our interaction with the world around us. They provide the general guidelines for conduct in our everyday lives. All Things HR Contact Details: Website: allthingshr.org Twitter: twitter.com/thehrprof Email: barry.hughes@outlook.com Interesting reading: Organisational Values blog by Nikki McGoohan

Podcast for a deep examination into the career and life choices of Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson. An April Fools episode for the delight and amusement of all. But Nick Cage threatens to ruin the magic the holiday. Will Lev be able to disarm the rising tension between the hosts? Find out on this week's episode of 'What the Hell Happened to Them?' Email the cast at whathappenedtothem@gmail.com Disclaimer: This episode was recorded in March 2021. References may feel confusing and/or dated unusually quickly. 'Rampage' is available on DVD, Blu-ray, and VHS (why not?): https://www.amazon.com/Rock-Blu-ray-Sean-Connery/dp/B000X418UE Music from "We Will Rock You" by Max Raabe ft. DJ Alquin "Steven Spielberg vs Alfred Hitchcock: Epic Rap Battles of History" - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_wYtG7aQTHA Artwork from BJ West   quixotic, united, skeyhill, vekeman, dwayne, rock, johnson, syzygy, bay, connery, harris, candyman, raabe, rock, alcatraz, eastwood, mcgoohan, poison, needle, stabbing, criterion, kar, wai, wong

Central Garden and Pet CEO Tim Cofer and CMO Mike McGoohan describe how they have executed a brand centered around nurturing happy and healthy homes for over 40 years to become the market leader in the garden and pet industries with over 65 high-quality brands. The duo discusses how they are executing strategies to build innovative, digital-centered brands for the future of the pet and garden industries. Learn how they kept up with increased demand and the shift to eCommerce over the past year.

Welcome to The Tally Ho, a podcast about the classic TV series The Prisoner. In this episode we had the pleasure of speaking to Dr Santiago Sanchez-Pagés about his new book 'No Soy Un Número' ('I Am Not a Number'), the world's first book written about The Prisoner in Castilian.Ten years in the making, Santiago's book explores McGoohan's TV masterpiece in the cultural context of the 1960s in which it emerged, with fascinating insights into its cinematic influences and lasting impact.'No Soy Un Número' is available now from Applehead Books. You can also find more of Santiago's writing on economics, politics and pop culture via his website.Santiago is an Associate Professor in Economics at Kings College London and his latest academic work can be found on the university's website, and you can also follow him on Twitter.Time for Cakes and Ale, a podcast featuring geeky ramblings with Becks & Eeson, and also home to "Time for Cherry Pie and Coffee", a Twin Peaks podcast, and "The Tally Ho", a Prisoner podcast.Follow us on Twitter @TFCAALike us on FacebookVisit our Website See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

It's the final return of Columboys favorite Patrick McGoohan in the directing and starring roles. In this Modernish Classic episode of Columbo, McGoohan plays a funeral home director who murders beloved Golden Girls star Rue McClanahan to protect his reputation. We've all thought about it, but only Patrick had the guts to actually go through with it!

In which Dan’s sister Kari stops by to talk about PATRICK MCGOOHAN in HELL DRIVERS (1957) and a 1975 episode of COLUMBO. (Warning: contains spoilers and some content may be triggering.)

                              Copperplate Time 330                                                                       presented by Alan O'Leary                        www.copperplatemailorder.com           1. Bothy Band:   Green Groves/Flowers of Red Hill. 1975 2. The Drunken Gaugers  The Broken Windscreen.                            The Drunken Gaugers 3. Eileen O’Brien & Anne Conroy Burke:    Down the Hill/          The Lane to the Glen.    The Fiddler’s Choice4. Tommy McCarthy & Louise Costello:            The Broken Pledge/The Boy in the Gap.     Grace Bay 5. Mick Sands & Clive Carroll:          Lough Erne’s Shore. The Ominous & The Luminous 6. Mick O’Brien & Caoimhin O’Raghallaigh:               An Londubh/Gan Ainm.     Kitty Lie Over7. Paddy Carty  &  Conor Tully:The Hide & Go Seek/Eddie Kelly’s.                 Paddy Carty & Conor Tully 8. The Outside Track:  Eleanor Plunkett.  Rise Up 9. Tommy Peoples:    Ban Chnoic Eireann O/Trip to Durrow.                             Tommy Peoples 10. Seamus Ennis:   Ask My Father/ Pat Ward’s Jig.                          The Best of Irish Piping                                                      11. At The Racket:    The Darling Girl from Clare.    At The Racket 12. Paddy O’Brien:  Michael Coleman’s/The Rose of Lough Gill.                              The Sailor’s Cravat   13. Michael Coleman:   Lord McDonald’s/Ballinasloe Fair.   Download 14. Eilis Kennedy:   Ciumhais Charrag Aonair.  So Ends This Day15. Michael Gorman:   The Strayaway Child.                  The Great Fiddle Player 16. Burke/Conway/Dolan:  The Luck Penny/The Pipe on the Hob                          A Tribute to Andy McGann 17. PJ Crotty & James Cullinane:       Harvest Moon/Johnny     McGoohan’s/Dwyer’s.    Happy to Meet 18. Teresa Mullane:   Cailleach an Airgid.    Lan Mara 19. Johnny Henry:   Dinny O’Brien’s/Farewell to Connaught.                    One Out of the Fort 20. Bert Jansch:   October Song.  Crimson Moon                                                    21. DANU:  Neilli/Dan Sullivan’s Shamrock Swing Band/Doyne Thomas’s/ Jazzing With Mag Leary. The Road Less Traveled 22. Bothy Band:   Green Groves/Flowers of Red Hill. 1975

Tonight I look at the '60s television show the prisoner and how it's more relevant today than when it aired.

"The Schizoid Man" UK Airing: October 27, 1967 US Airing: July 6, 1968 The Prisoner awakens to find himself in a new home with a new look and everyone calling him Number Twelve.  And who is this Number Six who looks exactly like him? John and writer Jim Beard discuss the appearance of actress Jane Merrow, the use of Rover, and McGoohan's performance as both The Prisoner and Number Twelve.   Take a moment to comment on the episode here or by writing thechronicrift@gmail.com.  

                                     Copperplate Time 314                                    presented by Alan O'Leary                                www.copperplatemailorder.com                                                1. The Bothy Band: Green Groves of Erin/Flowers of Red Hill. 1975 2. Teada:  Sarah’s Delight/Paddy Sean Nancy’s/The Ireland         We Knew/  The Ewe Reel. Inne. Imarach Imarach                                             3. Crawford/Farrell/Doocey:   The Pure Irish Drops.                       Music & Mischief4. Andy Irvine:    The Creggan White Hare.   Parallel Lines5. Bobby Casey:    Colonel Fraser/Toss The Feathers.                           Spirit of West Clare                                                      6. Niall & Cillian Vallely:  Humours of Derryloughlin/                       Old Tipperary.  Callan Bridge 7. Kevin Burke:    Ballydesmond Polkas.   Sligo Made 8. Eilis Kennedy:    The Saucy Sailor.    Westward 9. Johnny Og Connolly:   Fanagan’s & Kimmel’s Jigs.                           Fear Inis Bearachain 10. PJ Crotty & James Cullinane:    Harvest Moon/            Johnny    McGoohan’s/Dwyer’s.      Happy to Meet 11. John Doyle:   The Path of Stones. The Path of Stones 12. Leonard Barry:   Pol Halpenny/Moran’s Fancy.   New Road 13. Michael Gorman:   Down the Broom/Pidgeon on the Gate.                                           The Great Fiddle Player 14.  Brian McNeil:   Sell Your Labour, Not Your Soul.    No Silence 15. Aly Bain: Waiting for the Federals. Transatlantic Sessions Vol 1  16. Jerry Holland:    Andy De Jarlis/Igonisg Jig/Mrs McGhee.                                         The Fiddlestix Collection 17. Paddy O’Brien :   Kitty’s Rambles/Paddy Fahy’s x 2.                     The Sailor’s Cravat 18. Sandy Denny   Full Moon.   Rendavouz 19. The Bothy Band:  Green Groves of Erin/Flowers of Red Hill.  1975

The group is joined by Vice President of Business Devlopment for the Carolina Panthers, Paul McGoohan. The group discusses their time so far in England, preview the game against the Bucs, and so much more. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Mike McGoohan, Biofreeze (@Biofreeze) CMO joins us to discuss the company's strategy with sports sponsorships including sponsorship of the brand new Golden State Warriors Performance Center, the jersey patch for the NBA's Portland Trail Blazers and partnerships with the New York Yankees, Boston Red Sox, Chicago Cubs, Boston Celtics and San Francisco Marathon. McGoohan also discusses the importance of authenticity in marketing and branding. Biofreeze is the #1 clinically recommended pain relief product. The company started 25 years ago but just became available over the counter in the past 2 years. Listen to the Sports Business Radio podcast on iTunes and Spotify. Follow us on Twitter @SBRadio and on Instagram @SportsBusinessRadio.

David Cronenberg. Michael Ironside. Mcgoohan. Heads exploding. What else do you need? Ok fine: BAHUBALI.

Be seeing you.

This 1967 British TV show is revered as a cult classic that was radical and countercultural, while symbolizing philosophical arguments about individualism vs. collectivism. We take a deeper look at star Patrick McGoohan and the commercial interests behind the show to ask if it's ultimately more conservative than pop culture likes to remember. Interested in the media we discussed this episode? Please support the show by purchasing it through our affiliate store: The Prisoner Additional Resources: A Spy Trapped in a Nightmare of Psychedelia GEORGE MARKSTEIN interviewed by Chris Rodley Number Six At 50: The 50th Anniversary Of 'The Prisoner' How did The Prisoner ever get made? Patrick McGoohan Explains The Meaning Of The Prisoner, A TV Cult Classic Alan Moore Remembers Patrick McGoohan’s “The Prisoner”: Part 1 What on earth was The Prisoner all about? McGuire, J. T. (2014). A Mentor-Protégé Relationship?: Orson Welles, Patrick McGoohan, and The Prisoner Television Series. Quarterly Review of Film & Video, 31(7), 647. Hanna, E. (2014). Be Selling You: The Prisoner As Cult and Commodity. Television & New Media, 15(5), 433. Woodman BJ. Escaping Genre’s Village: Fluidity and Genre Mixing in Television’s The Prisoner. Journal of Popular Culture. 2005;38(5):939

This week we head to the jungle where Billy Zane is to be found in a tight-fitting suit and packing some impressive weaponry.  Join us for...The Phantom. We've recently launched a Patreon, so fans can now support the show and help keep the lights on at ISTYA towers.    There are various benefits on offer, and we can assure you that Joe wearing his rubber dungarees isn’t one of them.   To sign up please visit https://www.patreon.com/istya   If you want to contact the show, or simply have a chinwag with the chaps, then please pop by our Facebook page -    https://www.facebook.com/isawthatyearsago   or follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/istyashow   Join in the conversation on our Reddit page https://www.reddit.com/r/isawthatyearsago/   You can even contact us on good old email by sending your missives to - show@isawthatyearsago.com

Katie and Ian discuss the sound of their own voices. Night swimming, reversing the ageing process, and who's going to win the six nations. Special appearance from our Northern southern correspondent, McGoohan.Support the show (https://www.fetcheveryone.com/invite.php)

This month's show revolves around a television classic, the 17 episode maxi series "The Prisoner" a show that despite it's short run has an impact on television to this very day. Along the way, we discuss Doctor Who, Starlog, Baby Secret of the Lost Legend, Danger Man, Columbo, Jason's adventures with tequila, Brian's gift to Mr. McGoohan and Chuck the Security guard.  Be Seeing You. Please join us on the Pod Stallions Facebook page and let us know what you think!  give us spirited debate on our facebook wall.  Download the Show HereListen here PODSTALLIONS ON ITUNESPODSTALLIONS RSS FEED

Billy Connolly! Film scoring action! A rusty elevator! Tuxedo rental clues! We’re getting close to the end, with Season Ten’s McGoohan-directed “Murder with Too Many Notes.” Joining in will be author and film archivist Jenny Hammerton (Cooking with Columbo).

The Tally Ho welcomes you to The Village as we continue our journey through classic TV series The Prisoner. In this follow-up to our discussion about Once Upon A Time, we talk to documentary filmmaker and writer Chris Rodley about this classic episode, the gladiatorial battle of wits between Patrick McGoohan and Leo McKern, and why this is his favourite piece of television. We also discuss how it leads in to the finale Fall Out and the impact that these two episodes had on the television landscape. There are significant SPOILERS for Fall Out for those who have not yet seen the finale!Chris made the wonderful documentary film In My Mind about Patrick McGoohan and The Prisoner. The film chronicles Chris' interviews in 1983 with McGoohan for the now unavailable Channel 4 documentary Six Into One: The Prisoner File, made in anticipation of the high profile re-run of the series on the channel in 1984. The interviews were derailed by technical hiccups, an inexperienced crew and a subject who was notoriously hard to pin down, and indeed tried to take control of the production. Revisiting the original footage in 2017 for the show's 50th anniversary, In My Mind is filled with previously unseen footage from these inteviews and provides a startling insight into the elusive McGoohan.You can also check out our previous interview with Chris about In My Mind in our podcast from earlier this year. Be seeing you!Part of the Time for Cakes and Ale podcast. If you enjoy it, please subscribe!Follow us on Twitter @TFCAALike us on FacebookVisit our Website See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

The Tally Ho welcomes you to The Village as we continue our journey through classic TV series The Prisoner. In this episode we look at Do Not Forsake Me Oh My Darling, the thirteenth episode of The Prisoner. Number 6 is subjected to a bizarre experiment in which is mind is transferred into the body of a another man (Nigel Stock). Placed back in his London home with his memories of The Village erased, his only hope may be to track down Professor Seltzman, the missing scientist who invented procedure. But it seems that everyone is looking for Seltzman, and hoping that Number 6 will lead them straight to him...Join us as we discuss this strange episode in which Patrick McGoohan is notably absent! We are then joined by actor and writer Rupert Booth, the author of the wonderful McGoohan biography Not A Number to discuss McGoohan's life and work. We also get our usual news round-up from Rick Davy of The Unmutual. And we take a look at some of our Twitter followers' suggestions for their dream actor to have played Number 2 in the series! Be seeing you!Part of the Time for Cakes and Ale podcast. If you enjoy it, please subscribe!Follow us on Twitter @TFCAALike us on FacebookVisit our Website See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Two terrorists -- Daniel Kremer and Jonathan Marlow -- break into The Projection Booth to discuss the 1981 Canadian thriller Kings and Desperate Men.Produced by, directed by, and starring Alexis Kanner, the movie is the story of an arrogant talk show host -- played by Patrick McGoohan. He and his family are taken hostage by a handful of gun-wielding terrorists. The main terrorist -- played by Kanner -- goes on the air with McGoohan's character and they engage in tense battle of words.Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Two terrorists -- Daniel Kremer and Jonathan Marlow -- break into The Projection Booth to discuss the 1981 Canadian thriller Kings and Desperate Men. Produced by, directed by, and starring Alexis Kanner, the movie is the story of an arrogant talk show host -- played by Patrick McGoohan. He and his family are taken hostage by a handful of gun-wielding terrorists. The main terrorist -- played by Kanner -- goes on the air with McGoohan’s character and they engage in tense battle of words.

Two terrorists -- Daniel Kremer and Jonathan Marlow -- break into The Projection Booth to discuss the 1981 Canadian thriller Kings and Desperate Men. Produced by, directed by, and starring Alexis Kanner, the movie is the story of an arrogant talk show host -- played by Patrick McGoohan. He and his family are taken hostage by a handful of gun-wielding terrorists. The main terrorist -- played by Kanner -- goes on the air with McGoohan’s character and they engage in tense battle of words.

In this episode, we talk to writer, artist and actor Brian Gorman about his love of The Prisoner and the creation of his one-man show EVERYMAN, a celebration of the life and early career of Patrick McGoohan. Since its inception, EVERYMAN has gone on to become a graphic novel and audiodrama, with Brian's great respect for McGoohan shining through in his work. He also discusses his long-running Joy Division-themed play New Dawn Fades and tells us about his exciting new show ONE MAN BOND: Every Bond Film In 60 Minutes in which he single-handedly chronicles the James Bond movie franchise, which is about to go on a UK tour. Be seeing you!Part of the Time for Cakes and Ale podcast. If you enjoy it, please subscribe!Follow us on Twitter @TFCAALike us on FacebookVisit our Website See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

In the final episode of The Prisoner, all becomes clear. Number Six finally meets Number One. We find out why he resigned, and who exactly runs the Village. No wait that's rubbish. We don't learn a damn thing, and all that's left is to hound McGoohan and pound on his door demanding answers.

In this episode, we talk to documentary filmmaker and author Chris Rodley about his wonderful new film In My Mind about Patrick McGoohan and The Prisoner. The film chronicles Chris' interviews in 1983 with McGoohan for the now unavailable Channel 4 documentary Six Into One: The Prisoner File. The interviews were derailed by technical hiccups, an inexperienced crew and a subject who was notoriously hard to pin down, and indeed tried to take control of the production. Revisiting the original footage in 2017 for the show's 50th anniversary, In My Mind is filled with previously unseen footage from these inteviews and provides a startling insight into the elusive McGoohan.Chris talked to us about the making of In My Mind, and how the original interviews with McGoohan helped shape his career. He also dicusses his love of The Prisoner, and its lasting impact on the television landscape.This is the first of a two-part interview. In the next installment, Chris joined us for our Twin Peaks podcast, Time of Cherry Pie and Coffee, to discuss the world of David Lynch and his recent return to Twin Peaks. Be seeing you!Part of the Time for Cakes and Ale podcast. If you enjoy it, please subscribe!Follow us on Twitter @TFCAALike us on FacebookVisit our Website See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Nigel Stock stands in for Patrick McGoohan in this unusual The Prisoner. Mind transference, forgotten fiances and an especially potent scientist are featured on this clip show episode while McGoohan filmed Ice Station Zebra in Hollywood.

By train, biplane, or stolen police cruiser, it turns out you CAN catch the Streak! Join Jonny and Darin as they welcome their first special guest, filmmaker Duane Andersen, for a discussion on the 1976 action comedy SILVER STREAK, starring Gene Wilder and Richard Pryor. But will this be a calm, relaxing trip down memory lane, or will we want off before the train reaches the station? Hop on board and find out!   Recorded at Art City Sound, Springville UT.   Download or stream SILVER STREAK on Vudo, Amazon Prime, Fandango Now, or Google Play!

Season thirteen’s “Ashes to Ashes” sees Patrick McGoohan as a Hollywood mortician with several casketsful of sleazy secrets who murders gossip columnist Rue McClanahan when she threatens to crack one of the worst ones open. It’s the last time Falk and McGoohan (who also directs!) meet as Columbo and killer. Molly Eichel (The AV Club, Philadelphia Inquirer) […]

GOTV! Time to vote for your candidate for killer with a mustache in a 90s Columbo who’s tripped up by not finishing a tiny snack. Your clear choice is Patrick McGoohan, in “Agenda for Murder.” McGoohan (who also directs) is Oscar Finch, a criminal defense attorney and political fixer whose ambitions are put in jeopardy when a racketeer […]

After a break, we are back. This time, it’s still a 90s episode, but it’s a McGoohan! Season nine’s “Agenda for Murder,” which is directed by and stars Patrick McGoohan (Double-threat! Okay, triple-threat, if you count killing a guy). Chris Sims and Matt Wilson will join Jon and RJ on the discussion. The episode is […]

Welcome back! This week Wes and I cover Free For All, Patrick McGoohan’s first foray into writing and directing on The Prisoner. We get into the ins and outs of public service in the Village, the return of the Rover Hands, and touch on a bit of McGoohan’s personal views toward lady co-stars, all backed […]

Big Finish is proud to announce the return of a sixties classic - The Prisoner. Big Finish is proud to announce that it has entered into a licence agreement with ITV Studios Global Entertainment to produce a series of full-cast audio dramas based on the world renowned, cult classic 1967 TV series, The Prisoner — bursting with state-of-the-art sound design and a brand new dramatic score.   January 16th 1967. A secret agent suddenly resigns from MI6, then wakes to find himself imprisoned in ‘The Village' — a bizarre community with a cheery veneer, but an underbelly of threat and mystery. Re-branded as Number Six, our agent must enter into a battle of wits with the sinister Number Two, whose sworn aim is to discover why Number Six resigned. But Number Six refuses to divulge his secrets and must fight off increasingly outlandish and deadly attempts to break him, as he fights to escape and find out…  ‘Who is Number One?'.   The new audio series of The Prisoner is to be written and directed by Big Finish's  co-executive producer, Nicholas Briggs: ‘The Prisoner has been a great love of mine for many years, ever since my late father told me all about it back in the 1960s. It actually premiered on British TV in 1967 on my sixth birthday! I finally got the chance to see it as a teenager when ITV repeated it on Saturday evenings in 1977. I instantly fell in love with the series and have been avidly re-watching it ever since. The chance to re-imagine the 1967 series for audio drama is a great privilege and I can't wait to get started — actually, I've already started.'   Giles Ridge, SVP Content and Brand Development, ITV Studios Global Entertainment, said: ‘The Prisoner changed the landscape of British television in the 1960s — a thought-provoking series that feels as fresh and dynamic now as it did almost fifty years ago. Big Finish are renowned for their audio plays based on cult properties and we are delighted to be working with Nick and his team on this true classic.'   The new audio version of The Prisoner will be very much based on the original, which starred Patrick McGoohan. ‘It won't simply be a slavish retelling of all the original episodes,'explains Nick. ‘But aficionados of the original series will certainly recognise much of what they loved about it. A lot of the familiar iconography will be there, but my aim is to push the boundaries, all the while pursuing McGoohan's stated agenda of the fight against rampant progress and dehumanisation.'   No casting decisions have yet been made. ‘For Number Six, we're looking for someone who can portray that vital determination and anger, creating a lethal package of dynamite charisma' says Nick. ‘They need to be compelling and powerful as well as having great enthusiasm for the series.'   The initial release of a lavish, collectors' edition box set of five CDs (four hour-long episodes and a behind-the-scenes documentary, with full-colour, souvenir booklet) is set for January 2016, with other box sets to follow. You can pre-order it here –

Patrick McGoohan- actor, director, murderer. He’s a triple threat! Molly Eichel (AV Club, Philadelphia Daily News) joins Jon and RJ to talk about “Identity Crisis,” a season five episode directed by McGoohan and co-starring Leslie Nielsen (for the first 20 minutes, at least). Spies, lies, fancy houses, CIA agents, amusement parks, halter tops and class issues […]

For the sixth episode of THE PALACE OF GLITTERING DELIGHTS, Andrew returns to The Village, to look at Patrick McGoohan's seminal 60's mind trip, THE PRISONER, only with a difference. Instead of looking at the series as a whole, Andrew only looks at the episodes McGoohan himself considers essential. These core 7 are - Arrival, Free For All, Dance of the Dead, Checkmate, The Chimes of Big Ben, Once Upon a Time and Fall Out. Is it a work of staggering genius or utter toss? Why don't you tune in and find out.Feedback for this show can be sent to: heykidscomics@virginmedia.com

For the sixth episode of THE PALACE OF GLITTERING DELIGHTS, Andrew returns to The Village, to look at Patrick McGoohan's seminal 60's mind trip, THE PRISONER, only with a difference. Instead of looking at the series as a whole, Andrew only looks at the episodes McGoohan himself considers essential. These core 7 are - Arrival, Free For All, Dance of the Dead, Checkmate, The Chimes of Big Ben, Once Upon a Time and Fall Out. Is it a work of staggering genius or utter toss? Why don't you tune in and find out.Feedback for this show can be sent to: heykidscomics@virginmedia.com

For the sixth episode of THE PALACE OF GLITTERING DELIGHTS, Andrew returns to The Village, to look at Patrick McGoohan’s seminal 60’s mind trip, THE PRISONER, only with a difference. Instead of looking at the series as a whole, Andrew only looks at the episodes McGoohan himself considers essential. These [...]