I have the most appaling news about Patrick McGoohan, and what stings worse is I was left to find it out from the AMC remake website.

http://blogs.amctv.com/the-prisoner/2009/01/patrick-mcgoohan-obituary.php

I just feel crushed. The Prisoner is among my favourite TV shows, and Number 6 has been my hero for the longest time. I've also been snapping up as much Danger Man as I could find, without shelling out for the ludicrously pricey boxed set.

Like everything I've ever obsessed over, it's left an indelible mark on my interests, ideas and sense of style - from the rainbow striped umbrella (no, not a Doctor Who reference), to the fact Unmutual is now my webname of choice. Of course, I've gone through fickle changes - Ninquelosse for my Middle Earth stuff, Paranoid Anna in the Flame phase, Five Dollar Shake in my crime movie year. But Unmutual has stuck, as expressing best what I want to say about myself and the world in general. The world of The Prisoner, not to mention No. 6 himself, has always been one of my key inspirations.

Someone on the Geeksoc forum has suggested this is only what they want us to think. It's a tempting theory. With the Prisoner remake airing very soon now, it has reminded me of a Doctor Who conspiracy - namely that there are only allowed to be a certain number of Doctors in the world at any one time. Jon Pertwee died a few days after the Paul McGann TV Movie; Patrick Troughton died at a sci-fi convention before he was due to appear in a panel with the newly-announced Sylvester McCoy. I must admit holding my breath and preparing for bad news the first week after the Matt Smith announcement. Perhaps there can only be one Number Six?

There's something unfair about life - it shouldn't be able to kill off people like the Doctor and Number 6. But it does. I realise I'm getting my reality and fiction mixed up again, but with characters like those, things get sufficiently iconic that the boundary just vanishes, and there is a point at which it passes over into a sense of genuine bereavement.

In any case, it completely cancels any hope I have of doing work this afternoon. I am going shopping, NOW.



I'm probably a lot less upset about this than people like close friends and family - but having a complete stranger distracted is a sort of triumph too. Be seeing you.