I love the fact Patrick turned down James Bond because he didn't like the characters loose morals,,,it wouldn't have worked like Connery he was his own man and didn't like too much fuss ,,,
In America, "The Prisoner" was first broadcast in 1968 by CBS as a summer replacement for Jackie Gleason. It proved so popular that it was rerun the next summer.
Back in 1967 I recorded this and the "Man in a Suitcase" theme on my $20 Woolworth's reel to reel recorder so I could play them over and over. Had to hold that crystal mic close to the Philco speaker to get that "perfect" sound ;-). Just found the 3" reel that I recorded them on...what a hoot!!!
An excellent rendition of the music that heralded a TV series that was decades ahead of it's time. No company would dare do this today - too 'different', too 'non mainstream'. Love it !
This music fascinated me as a 10 year old boy who watched the show with my family on CBS (I think) in the mid-60's. I found it strangely futuristic in a way that made me feel as though my connection to it would always be there, and that in fact has been the case.
Bafta had other ideas,and gave all the plaudits to the Forsyte Saga. Totally ignoring the performances of a lifetime,given out by serious Actors during 17 episodes. Perhaps that is one of the reasons McGoohan turned his back on the UK.
This tune, one of the greatest intros of 1960's . Rolling the clock back I could remember how boring most british tv shows were, as I grew older, an understand of the common. But, here in the US, our struggles are not without obsticles. Patrick Magohan , excellent actor, director, shows how, with service, the underbelly of the powers that be. I would like more marching bands, play this tune, as reminder of our struggles.
This is the first time I've ever heard the full "Prisoner" theme without the sound effects (i.e. the thunderclap at the beginning, Number 6's car, the second thunderclap when he drops his resignation letter on his boss' desk, the sleeping gas through the keyhole of his condo's front door, etc.).
This superb atmospheric piece - I can almost see that white bubble chasing Number - whatever, he was, not a number, a free man - together with Ron Grainer's excellent whistling theme to the movie Only When I Larf and the superb Man in a Suitcase theme, are the stuff of legends.
I watched this when it was first broadcast when I was 9 - I think it was on on Sunday afternoons in my ITV region (Granada). Didn’t understand it , but I loved the theme music! Loved The Avengers which was on on Sunday evenings in that era too!
I have this on DVD and books. This version was only used in the first episode. The episode that was banned in the USA was Living In Harmony The last bit of this is heard in Fall Out. I also have Danger Man on DVD.
“The new Number 2” ... the implication being that, having failed to break his spirit, the old Number 2 was replaced with somebody else to have another try. Who was your favourite Number 2? I think it had to be Leo McKern. He started the series off, and ended it. And he was the only one who could carry out the opening dialogue while keeping it natural, rather than stilted and declamatory.
The red phone,would light up,at the end of the episode,with whoever,was No-2,looking at it with dread. Peter Wyngarde was excellent,and matched Mcgoohan,every step of the way. Along with Sir Roger Moore,the three biggest names in British TV at that time.
First watched this as a teenager in the early-to-mid-80s on Channel 4 on a small black & white portable TV with a slightly dodgy aerial. I think it was on every Monday night at 9:00pm and once I'd seen episode 1, it was all I could think about all day on Mondays whilst I was at school because I knew it was 'Prisoner night'. I was hooked! Absolutely LOVED the theme tune too and to use a modern phrase, doesn't this version go a bit 'badass' for a time on 3:00? Since been to Portmeirion twice - fab place!
Interesting to hear an extended version of the theme. I enjoyed this in '68 - as a 10 year old, even though I preferred The Avengers [Emma Peel era]. I found it strangely fascinating and thought PM was a terrific actor. Watching re-runs of the series in recent years left me appreciating only parts of it; other bits hadn't worn all that well IMO.
They reckon,The Avengers was the very reason this series never took off.As everyone in the UK and US was hooked on them.Only for a year later,for that to be shelved.The 60's was awash with spy capers,they came and went.But this one never went,as it ended unexplained.
It went nowhere like Patrick McGoonans character. Still a underated actor. There was a movie or Tv series in the last few years? Good show for its time.🇬🇧
@@kevindouglas8652 Actually Patrick only wanted to do a mini series. He want 7 episodes only. The network and Sir Lew Grade wanted a full seasons worth. They settled for 17.
McGoohan was considered for James Bond, but he didn’t approve of the character. Instead, he created John Drake in _Danger Man_ , the anti-James Bond, who preferred to get out of sticky situations using his wits and his charm instead of blowing things up, who treated women with respect, and wouldn’t carry a gun. His character in _The Prisoner_ was basically Drake, but having walked away from _Danger Man_ production at short notice and leaving all that bad blood behind, he couldn’t explicitly add insult to injury by admitting that he had taken the character with him. So this character ends up nameless, just being “Number Six” and nothing more.
The 60's in colour ! well it was very colourful for me, as a young boy, Wouldn't mind popping back for a spell, that would be great, But I may abscond.
The Canadian label Disques Cinémusique recently released excerpts from two soundtracks composed and conducted by Ron Grainer in the early sixties : Nothing But the Best and The Moon-Spinners. Available as download and stream on most digital stores online.
Ron Grainger was an Australian composer. The Weekend Australian newspaper March 11-12, 2017 has an excellent article about him. I've never seen the series, 'The Prisoner', but I'm so glad I've heard its theme music as I don't think I've heard anything quite like it before.
If you get the chance, you should see all 17 episodes of "The Prisoner". Aside from the final episode, they are pretty straightforward. The final episode is very thought stimulating and bizarre...Enjoy...
Americans DID get it...it ran on CBS, the #1 network at the time, and its because of US there are more episodes than originally intended: CBS put up the dough. And if that wasn't enough, Patrick McGoohan was an American by birth in New York and after his success an American by choice until the end of his life.
Besides noticing him as "Secret Agent (Man)" my intro to "Paddy" was by way of (believe it or not) Walt Disney in two films, one broadcast on Stateside TV as The Scarecrow of Romney Marsh, in which he played "Dr. Syn," and the other, The Three Lives of Thomasina. Try to find Hell Drivers for one of his earliest roles with at least three other character actors Before We Knew Them As. And he's as Irish as he can possibly get in The Quare Fellow. Truly a talent.
ONE striking feature of that entire series was that you could watch the episodes over and over again and still get more and more out of them. this is one of the greatest TV series ever made. *And it was done without being Politically Correct or using foul language or resorting to sex scenes to hold the viewing audience. That's more than Hollyweird or the various studios can do today. Patrick McGoohan was never given the recognition he deserved.
There was a house record around 1989 which incooperated the theme. Steve Wright used to play it on his afternoon programme but never gave the artist name. I found it once but think it has been deleted. Very rare I think...
No its not the MC No6 one. I vaguely remember it being called Fallout or being by an artist called Fallout when it was on YT. There were no vocals it had a housey bassline similar to late 80's stuff at the time, had a string melody interspersed with the main Prisoner theme and a typical house piano break similar in style to the one by Guru Josh's Infinity. Probably taped it off the radio at the time but will take me several years to trawl through old cassettes to find it!
Genius theme tune but Grainer never credited that it was an arrangement, not an original composition. Go listen at Rimsky-Korsakov's: Scheherazade. Both are absolutely wonderful pieces, each in their own way. Love 'em.
Видеоклипы
![Sean Rii, Karyon, Sharzkii - Taungule [My Love] (Official Music Video)](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/eJoMuypbSzQ/mqdefault.jpg)
The show was decades ahead of it's time. The ultimate series with the ultimate actor who wrote and directed it.
It was decades ahead , much lie myself.
Un génie, grand bonhomme ❤🙏
It was paradoxically, both decades ahead of it's time, but also distinctly of it, I remember watching as a child on first broadcast on ATV in 1967.
I love the fact Patrick turned down James Bond because he didn't like the characters loose morals,,,it wouldn't have worked like Connery he was his own man and didn't like too much fuss ,,,
Arguably the best theme song ever made.
Oddly enough this has, for me at least, run neck and neck with another Grainer TV title theme-“Man in a Suitcase” (1967)
Certainly up there. My own choice would be the persuaders
@@dlamiss Agreed…but if you toss John Barry into the mix, one can’t neglect “The Adventurer”.
@@michaelschramm1064 True the adventurers theme was certainly better than the show which was bloody awful
@@dlamiss Yes, I was so hoping would enjoy it because I like Gene Barry…but what a terrible job of miscasting.
One of the most groundbreaking And innovative TV show's ever made
Pure brilliance - This is how to write a theme
Agreed 👍
In America, "The Prisoner" was first broadcast in 1968 by CBS as a summer replacement for Jackie Gleason.
It proved so popular that it was rerun the next summer.
Back in 1967 I recorded this and the "Man in a Suitcase" theme on my $20 Woolworth's reel to reel recorder so I could play them over and over. Had to hold that crystal mic close to the Philco speaker to get that "perfect" sound ;-). Just found the 3" reel that I recorded them on...what a hoot!!!
I was born in 2003 and up into my early teens I did the same
I had this,along with Marty Feldman's Mad house that was on before it,Circa;1971.50 years mate,and we are still here.
@@kevindouglas8652 Not familiar with that one, as I'm in the US. Need to track it down!
My brother and I used to do the same thing with a cassette recorder. Got the best theme songs like this one and Star Trek.
@@bl75025 Ah those were the days for sure!!!
An excellent rendition of the music that heralded a TV series that was decades ahead of it's time.
No company would dare do this today - too 'different', too 'non mainstream'. Love it !
Ron Grainer. Mr Music.
Ron Grainer was terrific!
One of the most successful TV series ever, everything fitted so well........
This music fascinated me as a 10 year old boy who watched the show with my family on CBS (I think) in the mid-60's. I found it strangely futuristic in a way that made me feel as though my connection to it would always be there, and that in fact has been the case.
PETER JOHN BRANDAL same here it’s always there !
Bafta had other ideas,and gave all the plaudits to the Forsyte Saga. Totally ignoring the performances of a lifetime,given out by serious Actors during 17 episodes. Perhaps that is one of the reasons McGoohan turned his back on the UK.
Always loved the British tv drama theme tunes, class.
I had and a1966 Lotus7 because of this piece of music.
I now have another Lotus 7 because of this piece of music.
All hail Ron grainer, so many great themes.
This tune, one of the greatest intros of 1960's . Rolling the clock back I could remember how boring most british tv shows were, as I grew older, an understand of the common. But, here in the US, our struggles are not without obsticles. Patrick Magohan , excellent actor, director, shows how, with service, the underbelly of the powers that be. I would like more marching bands, play this tune, as reminder of our struggles.
Love those bongos keeping it all together.
So many musical themes of that era had bongos as a prominent ingredient.
And the trumpets!.
rqcist!
Most exciting title sequence ever ...almost a lost art today ....
Between The Prisoner, Doctor Who, Man In A Suitcase, and Steptoe and Son ("Old Ned"), it is safe to say the man was a genius.
Don't forget The Omega Man, Shelley and Tales of the Unexpected. Genius is the word.
Absolute masterpiece! 👍
Loved this when i was young it depicts era that we’ll never see again Brilliant 👍👌
This is the first time I've ever heard the full "Prisoner" theme without the sound effects (i.e. the thunderclap at the beginning, Number 6's car, the second thunderclap when he drops his resignation letter on his boss' desk, the sleeping gas through the keyhole of his condo's front door, etc.).
Cool 😎
I feel that those sounds were as much a part of the theme as the other instruments.
You can see his face throughout.
i now have a new song to angrily drive around town listening to.
This is such an iconic 60's T V theme, There was some really exciting ones. but few could match this ! Danger man is another classic.
Every time I visit portmerion I’m humming this in my head. Classic and epic
Who isn't :) Be seeing you!
Was looking after a friends holiday home nearby years ago. Went visiting here. Fantastic! Watched it when next on TV. Superb!!
Clough Williams-Ellis got fed up of the whole business.
With the Lotus Super Seven, too! So cool!!
Everybody wanted that.
I had a 1966 s2 7 because of this music.
Best opening of any show ever.
This superb atmospheric piece - I can almost see that white bubble chasing Number - whatever, he was, not a number, a free man - together with Ron Grainer's excellent whistling theme to the movie Only When I Larf and the superb Man in a Suitcase theme, are the stuff of legends.
Those were "Rovers"
Dr. Who!
Number 6.
I used to love The Prisoner.
I still do but I used to too.
I just finished to watch for third time in my life this series. I was needing this full version and now I want this playing non-stop on my funeral.
That programme was mental!!!
I had to get this series. Loved the theme song.
Great to hear this again. it takes me back to when I was a teen.
Best theme ever.
this opening is great cause it represents the hero refusal to yield no matter what
Nothing of this standard today. How they got it to fit the scenes is unbelievable.
great drummer and bongo players.
I like the crystal top treble on the guitar as a cut through sound.
One of the greatest TV themes (and series!) of all time. Grainer also did a great score for "The Omega Man." Under-rated composer, for sure.
Ron Grainer was the composer of the Doctor Who theme as well.
@@mortalhellionAnd that of Steptoe and Son, proving if nothing else just how versatile he was.
love this tune
I watched this when it was first broadcast when I was 9 - I think it was on on Sunday afternoons in my ITV region (Granada). Didn’t understand it , but I loved the theme music! Loved The Avengers which was on on Sunday evenings in that era too!
The Prisoner is like what if James Bond were set in a surreal Orwellian 1984 but directed by Alfred Hitchcock and David Lynch
Love the guitar work on this piece!
The REAL national anthem.
Superbe série, acteur magistral et la musique !
Great theme tune and great show.
Second only to Ron’s soundtrack for Man in a suitcase.... both wonderful....😎👍
Be seeing you!
❤
'First Class; Without Doubt Superb'. ☆☆☆☆☆.!!!!!!!
Be Seeing You...
👁👌
hahaha, we know what you've been watching!!,,,,, be seeing you!!
That would be telling.
Thank you very much for this, I was looking for it since I saw the first episode! Great!
Totally Cool!
Esse seriado marcou o inicio de minha adolescência. Assisti todos os episódios. Uma viagem. Era fascinante, principalmente para a época.
I have this on DVD and books. This version was only used in the first episode. The episode that was banned in the USA was Living In Harmony The last bit of this is heard in Fall Out. I also have Danger Man on DVD.
“The new Number 2” ... the implication being that, having failed to break his spirit, the old Number 2 was replaced with somebody else to have another try.
Who was your favourite Number 2? I think it had to be Leo McKern. He started the series off, and ended it. And he was the only one who could carry out the opening dialogue while keeping it natural, rather than stilted and declamatory.
The red phone,would light up,at the end of the episode,with whoever,was No-2,looking at it with dread. Peter Wyngarde was excellent,and matched Mcgoohan,every step of the way. Along with Sir Roger Moore,the three biggest names in British TV at that time.
Legendary, British spy beat!
Great !!
First watched this as a teenager in the early-to-mid-80s on Channel 4 on a small black & white portable TV with a slightly dodgy aerial. I think it was on every Monday night at 9:00pm and once I'd seen episode 1, it was all I could think about all day on Mondays whilst I was at school because I knew it was 'Prisoner night'. I was hooked!
Absolutely LOVED the theme tune too and to use a modern phrase, doesn't this version go a bit 'badass' for a time on 3:00? Since been to Portmeirion twice - fab place!
ALL TIME CLASSIC SERIES, ALL TIME CLASSIC TV THEME.
Great soundtrack for the 'ol getaway car! LOL
Awesome musical talent - check out what else he did!
Loved the Prisoner when I a young ‘un.
Made me leave the pub early on Sunday lunchtimes!
Interesting to hear an extended version of the theme.
I enjoyed this in '68 - as a 10 year old, even though I preferred The Avengers [Emma Peel era]. I found it strangely fascinating and thought PM was a terrific actor.
Watching re-runs of the series in recent years left me appreciating only parts of it; other bits hadn't worn all that well IMO.
They reckon,The Avengers was the very reason this series never took off.As everyone in the UK and US was hooked on them.Only for a year later,for that to be shelved.The 60's was awash with spy capers,they came and went.But this one never went,as it ended unexplained.
It went nowhere like Patrick McGoonans character. Still a underated actor. There was a movie or Tv series in the last few years? Good show for its time.🇬🇧
@@kevindouglas8652 Actually Patrick only wanted to do a mini series. He want 7 episodes only. The network and Sir Lew Grade wanted a full seasons worth. They settled for 17.
If PMG had made it in cinema in the US he would have been one of the greatest actors of the century, Orson Welles said so.
McGoohan was considered for James Bond, but he didn’t approve of the character. Instead, he created John Drake in _Danger Man_ , the anti-James Bond, who preferred to get out of sticky situations using his wits and his charm instead of blowing things up, who treated women with respect, and wouldn’t carry a gun.
His character in _The Prisoner_ was basically Drake, but having walked away from _Danger Man_ production at short notice and leaving all that bad blood behind, he couldn’t explicitly add insult to injury by admitting that he had taken the character with him. So this character ends up nameless, just being “Number Six” and nothing more.
The 60's in colour ! well it was very colourful for me, as a young boy, Wouldn't mind popping back for a spell, that would be great, But I may abscond.
If you haven't had enough of the Avengers then this is just as cool. The tv version of psychedelic rock ,
Brilliant one of the all-time greats be seeing you
The Canadian label Disques Cinémusique recently released excerpts from two soundtracks composed and conducted by Ron Grainer in the early sixties : Nothing But the Best and The Moon-Spinners. Available as download and stream on most digital stores online.
Yes!!
I’ve wanted to find this theme!! By the way the whole show is on Tubi for free!
Great background music for a tabletop espionage RPG. :-)
Be seeing you ! I am not a number, I am a free man.
Echoes of his Omega Man theme...love it!
Ron Grainger was an Australian composer. The Weekend Australian newspaper March 11-12, 2017 has an excellent article about him. I've never seen the series, 'The Prisoner', but I'm so glad I've heard its theme music as I don't think I've heard anything quite like it before.
If you get the chance, you should see all 17 episodes of "The Prisoner". Aside from the final episode, they are pretty straightforward. The final episode is very thought stimulating and bizarre...Enjoy...
More effort went into this theme tune than writing the plots of most modern TV shows
Most theme music was better than the music of today .
awesome
How awesome is this? :)
genius
This television show was way ahead of its time. Even today, I doubt of any American tv watchers would get it!
+Vic Glazer Who anywhere in the world could?>
Just watch it and enjoy the ride!
Oh, it's all about Americans for Vic
This one did, though I'll cheerfully admit that final episode took awhile to...think my way out of?
Americans DID get it...it ran on CBS, the #1 network at the time, and its because of US there are more episodes than originally intended: CBS put up the dough. And if that wasn't enough, Patrick McGoohan was an American by birth in New York and after his success an American by choice until the end of his life.
Besides noticing him as "Secret Agent (Man)" my intro to "Paddy" was by way of (believe it or not) Walt Disney in two films, one broadcast on Stateside TV as The Scarecrow of Romney Marsh, in which he played "Dr. Syn," and the other, The Three Lives of Thomasina. Try to find Hell Drivers for one of his earliest roles with at least three other character actors Before We Knew Them As. And he's as Irish as he can possibly get in The Quare Fellow. Truly a talent.
“ im not a number I’m a free man “
He also wrote the Dr Who theme, and the Omega Man score.
ありがとう👍🏻
Freeview (channel 149) starting to show this from tomorrow (Thursday 10th March 2022)! Enjoy again...
Me realising that I have homework due today while walking there be like
now...who has the THUNDERCLAP?!
ONE striking feature of that entire series was that you could watch the episodes over and over again and still get more and more out of them. this is one of the greatest TV series ever made. *And it was done without being Politically Correct or using foul language or resorting to sex scenes to hold the viewing audience. That's more than Hollyweird or the various studios can do today. Patrick McGoohan was never given the recognition he deserved.
This is my show, this is my life,I wanted to be Number One, lol,😂💕
You are, we all are
There was a house record around 1989 which incooperated the theme. Steve Wright used to play it on his afternoon programme but never gave the artist name. I found it once but think it has been deleted. Very rare I think...
M.C.NO 6 SEARCH THAT MIGHT BE IT
You've got some memory. I only knew the Country and Western song he used,when he came back to BBC. Something about a Main Road.
No its not the MC No6 one. I vaguely remember it being called Fallout or being by an artist called Fallout when it was on YT.
There were no vocals it had a housey bassline similar to late 80's stuff at the time, had a string melody interspersed with the main Prisoner theme and a typical house piano break similar in style to the one by Guru Josh's Infinity. Probably taped it off the radio at the time but will take me several years to trawl through old cassettes to find it!
LOOL
GGOD TUNE
Strange without the FX & dialogue in background.
FAB & Far Out, man,
Be seeing you.
Very appropriate now for our period of house arrest, aka lockdown.
Yes, now we are all in The Village!
Lol
Number 10 has a lot to answer for.
02:34 As heard only from the beginning of Fall Out.
Nous sommes tous des prisonniers
so btitish i like it !:)
It's a perfect intro for The Prisoner. The tempo speed and the horns were on point.
Genius theme tune but Grainer never credited that it was an arrangement, not an original composition. Go listen at Rimsky-Korsakov's: Scheherazade. Both are absolutely wonderful pieces, each in their own way. Love 'em.
Great show great tune what was it all about Haha why he never got the bond job he was great mates with big Sean roger Moore and Michael Caine 😅
Best theme ever.RIP Pat.
First time I noticed the trumpet goof at 0:59.
65-67. Brilliant series about a global village, and one non-conformist.
I am not a number, I am a free man!
You are Number Six.
I will not be pushed, filed, stamped, indexed, briefed, debriefed or numbered! My life is my own.
"And don't you ever forg- Oh wait, I'm number 5"
Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahhaha
Who would ever think,Fenella Fielding was the Tanoy Announcer.