Patrick McGoohan, star and man responsible for The Prisoner, as No. 6:

The Prisoner has always been high up on my list.  Not only was it a well written and provocative show, the set and costume design were unreal.  I don’t believe the show would have resonated as much as it has had the design been less conscientious.  Choosing Portmeirion as the location, using the penny-farthing bicycle as the logo for the Village and having no. 6 sport a black jacket with white piping trim, were all very interesting and ultimately defining design choices.  

I hear that AMC is redoing the series.  I’m more than a little worried about it.  They have done a terrific job with Mad Men, with the writing, set design and costumes.  But it seems to me that they are sort of doomed if they do one thing and doomed if they do another.  If they go the updated route and set The Prisoner in the modern day, I fear it may lose a lot of the “charm” that the original had.  These days we tend to make our fictitious authoritarian regimes so sterile.  If they try and keep the 60’s touch, it may feel forced and inauthentic.

There are some things that a prime for reinterpretation.  Others, like The Prisoner, are unique one-offs that belong to a place and time.