An allegory for bad TV?

The British TV network Sky One is going to remake The Prisoner.

Damien Timmer, who has been lined up to executive produce the show for Granada, told Broadcast the new series would take "liberties with the original" and would not retain its arty feel.

"Although it will be a radical reinvention, it will still be a heightened show," he added.

...

Bill Gallagher, the writer of the BBC's crime drama Conviction, is reported to be writing the new version.

This link (scroll down a few entries on that link) says something about the new version lacking the arty "pop" feel of the original. And if that's the case, as every fan of the bizarre 17-episode 1967 serial knows, it's a damn shame!

They’re also not filming in it in Portmeirion, Wales, but I’m sure the production company can find an equally odd setting, assuming they’ll set their minds to it.

The original invited – nay, begged – anyone with a theory degree to weigh in with allegorical, semiotic, or otherwise ill-advised interpretations. And a grand time was had by all. For the record, Patrick McGoohan, the lead actor and a creator of the series, has pretty much disavowed all kinds of symbolism and statements that folks have tried to attribute to it. So, I love it because it drives everyone - including me - fucking nuts, and if there's any statement to make, it's that absurdity has its own, sometimes sinister, logic.

The Prisoner centers on a British spy who’s kidnapped to an isolated community called “The Village,” where the faux-democratic administration and its agents among the other inmates use hook and crook to learn why he resigned from his job. Has he sold out? Will he sell out? Can he be bought? For his part, the Prisoner tries to learn who runs the island, without even a hint of whether it's a project of his own government.

Oh, and everyone goes by a number, and there are crazy big white balls that guard The Village, and everyone sells out everyone, and the government knows way too much, and, and, and ...

Go rent the original before it's sullied.

(At least it's not a US company doing it!)

Another fansite, Six of One.