| Topic Review |
prisoner5
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![[*]](./images/thevillage/default_icon.gif) posted on 6-12-2006 at 10:23 AM |
Apart from the ITC series mentioned,i'd like to add THE LIARS, THE CORRIDOR PEOPLE, and ADVENTURES OF DON QUICK as being good examples of
'60s original television drama.
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vincent
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posted on 6-10-2006 at 01:22 AM |
what is not surreal, when you think about it?\
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Panopticon
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posted on 7-7-2004 at 09:10 AM |
Many of our American friends will be fully aware of the 'sureal' nature of 'The Prisoner' - it is one of the show’s most endearing
(or disturbing) features...
But this fantasy-like quality was not just restricted to this famous and internationally successful cult series.
There are a host of other less well recognized 60s British TV series that shared this sense of the surreal. And any student of the
'Prisoner' should take a peek at them to understand a little of how McGoohan's hit developed it's 'flavour'.
The most obvious - and nearly as successful - is, of course, 'The Avengers'. In deed there are certain sequences in 'The Avengers'
that could have been straight out of an episode of 'The Prisoner' (or vice versa).
But other less well known series are also worth hunting down.
'Quatermass', 'The Champions', 'Department S', 'Randal & Hopkirk', to name but a few; all had an eerie
'alternative universe' back-drop...*
But the question is this - (and this is VERY important in understanding why 'The Prisoner' looked the way it did) - was the surreal quality
of these shows because of a general flirtation with Post Modern notions and budding psychedelia, OR was it driven by the financial constraints of the
British TV studios at the time?
(Obvious) Example: 'Dr. Who'.
One of the feature that made this show most popular (particularly) in the United States was it's 'kitchness'...And while Americans
might believe this was artistic choice, the truth is that the BBC budget was ridiculously low and so this drove the 'look' of the
program.
'The Prisoner' was no less driven by budgetary constrains...Or at least the 'habit' of British technicians and program staff
having to work to them.
This gave 60s Brit TV shows their 'essence'.
Of course I do not pretend that this is the ONLY reason they 'look' the way they do. But I think it is true to say that this 'make
do' attitude drove British producers to be rather more imaginative with their visual interpretations (they had to be!), and far more reliant on
imaginative scripting to keep the audience entertained.
Just a thought...
PS...One last point about this 'shared surealism' - British TV is a very small 'family'. Many of the same script writers and
technicians worked on these shows!
* (In fact) Many of these shows were shot on the same 'backlot'...And even more sureal, some of these shows (shot by Lew Grade's ITC
company) even used some of the SAME stock footage...
There is one very famous stock scene of a car going over a cliff and bursting into flames. This SAME scene was used in practically ALL of ITC's
shows!
(Moral: Necessity is the mother of invention!!!)
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