When I attended my first academic television event back in Reading during 2013, it was called Spaces of Television – a wonderful all-encompassing title which allowed vivid and varied discussion about the space in which television was made and which it occupied in myriad meanings. And whenever a new ‘space’ was presented in terms of a studio or a setting or a suburb, my mind kept on drifting back to the north west and an amazingly eccentric hamlet which has been part of my life for almost 40 years now.
Portmeirion.
If you’ve never had the pleasure to come across this beautiful but strange little settlement on the coast of North Wales, then you’re in for a treat. Suffused with exotic global flora thanks to the freak microclimate of the Gwynedd coastline, a collection of colourful buildings evoking distinctly exotic Mediterranean architecture nestle between cove, woodland and rocky outcrop. They were established from the 1920s by the architect Sir Clough Williams-Ellis who wanted to demonstrate that it was possible to develop a natural site of beauty without defiling it. Self-financing as a tourist attraction with numerous self-catering holiday cottages between two hotels, its staff work hard to maintain Sir Clough’s creation and ensure that his vision remains something which inspires artistic and creative works and events. It’s all very inspiring and worthy.
Being shallow, naturally my wife and I both fell in love with it because it featured heavily as ‘the Village’ – the mysterious setting of the ATV film series The Prisoner (1967-1968). Low on spaceships and monsters, but the cool set design and bouncing man-eating balloons more than make up for that. It’s also been bits of Italy in Citizen Smith (1977-1980), bits of the Middle East and Austria in Danger Man (1960-1961,1964-1967), bits of an astrological past in Doctor Who (1963-TheEndOfTime), and bits of the enslaved future in The Tripods (1984-1985).
As this dreadful pandemic ceases to subside and television production grinds to a halt, gaps in the schedule have apparently allowed the broadcast on ITV of The Village (2019), a re-edit of a regional documentary series made by Slam Media which first appeared on ITV Wales back in April 2019. And it’s utterly beautiful.
Fig 1: Go on … give it a go!
Ever since I saw a documentary about docu-soaps in which a producer explained how he manufactured incident and narrative by selecting participants who resembled the Grace Brothers staff of the BBC1 sitcom Are You Being Served? (1972-1985), this sort of programming is not one that I naturally gravitate towards. But this is a brilliantly wholesome example of the genre. It’s not about rivalry or self-promotion – it’s about eleven talented people using their skills to ‘cherish the past, adorn the present, and construct for the future’.
Having been a regular visitor and resident of Portmeirion since 1983, being able to put names and faces to the staff who always make our stay the best it possibly could be across the decades is something rather special for my wife and myself. In recent years, we’ve noted that the gardens have looked keener and more colourful, and now know that we have Gwynedd to thank. And it’s clear that Rhian’s sunny nature is the warmth we invariably see reflected from her household staff as they tend our suite.
Last night, the first instalment of producer/director Aled Llŷr’s series was like a ray of spring sunshine penetrating the winter gloom of global worry. Whereas the aerial shots captured by an Alouette helicopter for The Prisoner back in 1966 have always been impressive, the use of modern drone technology enhance the beauty to a whole new level. Smooth, sweeping vistas as the eyeline shifts at low level just above the lush greenery and the optical illusions of clock towers and domed rooves. Gentle, slow motion fountains blooming amidst springtime flower beds. I don’t recall a time when this place that I’m so familiar with has ever looked so vivid or captivating on the small screen.
Of course, it was captivating for Patrick McGoohan’s character Number 6 in a very different way…
Fig 2: From a drone’s eye view
While The Prisoner may have been the catalyst for our love with Portmeirion, the colourful community with its tricks of scale and light has become a very special place for myself and my wife. We spent part of our honeymoon there (sorry Delyth – your wedding planning looks amazing but our ceremony needed to take place a few hundred miles due south of your territory) and we visit events and stay in our favourite suite as often as time and money will allow. For us, it has long outgrown being merely an elaborate backlot employed on an eye-catchingly stylish and enigmatic slice of telefantasy over half a century ago. Watching the sunset across the quaint miniature rooftops of this parish from the hillside gazebo is one of the loveliest views we know.
Nevertheless, we’re still charmed by the television connections. Last night, hearing resident artist Nigel chuckle over a favourite joke from Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975) raised a smile, but it was Martin – Portmeirion’s painter and decorator for 42 years – who charmed us the most with his comment about The Prisoner, a programme he saw being made when he was six years old.
“Sometimes if I’m stuck with some of the colours [for the buildings and ornamentation], I’ll borrow one of the DVDs and have a look at the old colours of the 1960s,” he explained while refreshing a statue within the Bristol Colonnade. “I copy them. So all the buildings are now back to the original Sir Clough colours.”
Fig 3: Martin – he’s brilliant!
And all of a sudden, I’m delighted that The Prisoner is now being used in a way that I’d never imagined. It’s helping to maintain the place where it was made. As well as bringing in much-needed cash via pilgrimages from devotees of imaginative television from across the globe – to keep those warm shades of yellow and pink on the cottage walls and the lush palms casting their shadows across the piazza. You can see why location manager Meurig is so keen to share this “magic place” with the rest of the world.
Over the last few weeks, I’ve spoken to a lot of my friends and acquaintances in lockdown. And when pondering on what they’ll do when the crisis is over and our freedom is restored, several have voiced the sentiment that the first place they want to visit is Portmeirion.
How very ironic that upon release from confinement, so many people should want to make a beeline for the very prison that Number 6 spent so long attempting to escape from…
Andrew Pixley is a retired data developer. For the last 30 years he’s written about almost anything to do with television if people will pay him – and occasionally when they won’t. He and his wife really do love Portmeirion a very great deal – it’s been part of many happy days and countless happy memories. And they’ll be delighted to get back there as soon as they can.
