The bad news is that Sky One have cancelled Hex and Dream Team.
The good news is that the programming budget freed up by this is going to make a new series of The Prisoner.
If you haven’t seen The Prisoner already, go and buy it now. I’ll wait.
Back? Good.
While you’re waiting for the DVDs to arrive I’ll tell you this:
The Prisoner is about a secret agent who retires.
He wakes up in The Village, a place where people who hold secrets are sent.
The Village is run by one side or the other.
The series about a man who will not break or bend. Ever.
It’s one of the all-time cult classic shows. And there’s a reason for that – superb acting, superb writing, superb direction.
Facing up to that legacy? That takes cojones, and big ones.
It’s not taking a show that people remember from their childhood but that died unloved and remaking it, like Doctor Who or Battlestar Galactica. You’re talking about remaking one of the shows that’s respected by just about everyone that’s seen it.
The new series has the potential to be unutterably brilliant or unutterably awful. I don’t see that it can fall in the middle.
I wouldn’t want to call it one way or another at this point, but damn, that’s a brave move.
And perhaps more than any other show, this one will live or die by the quality of the writing.
It’ll be interesting to watch.
4 responses to “Whose side are you on?”
What the article doesn’t mention is that Christopher Eccleston is today’s hot tip for the role. In which case, expect this reboot to last approximately as long as the original.
Bill Gallagher’s a terrific writer, so we’ll see how it goes. Personally, I’m more excited about new Robin Hood.
Me too.
Sing with me now… “Robin.., Robin.., the hooded man.”
Another show up against some tough predecessors.
The first two seasons of Robin of Sherwood were excellent TV.
So was the third. Don’t laugh, it was!
Brutal fight scenes, hash smoking Saracans, and Richard O’Brien at his most maniacally unhinged – brilliant! Top that, Aunty!