Did someone forget both countries speak English?

Quote: terapined

The Avengers
The Prisoner.

The whole idea of eccentric fantasy seems to be unknown to American TV in the 1960's. There was Bewitched , Time Tunnel, Twilight zone, Star Trek, and Dark Shadows which were all some kind of fantasy or sci-fi, but the Brits really brought home the idea of plots that didn't resolve themselves, or the eccentric element that was in those two shows.

Quote: Pacomartin

or the eccentric element that was in those two shows.

I remember "The Prisoner". Now remember one thing. In World War two, Britain really did indeed have a remote village where people went about a "normal life" but it clearly was a prison camp. Some notables who would be there for the duration, some lesser types who would only be there for a few months and a lot in between. It was real. It was wartime and certain things had to be done.

One of the shorter term residents of the village was a sergeant who had helped train Monty's double. The entire operation of having a character actor put into uniform and given an opportunity to learn Montgommery's personal habits and then go on a distant tour of all forward units impersonating Monty was simply too big a secret to let the trusted sergeant free to talk in some pub or let something slip somewhere. So some military types kidnapped the sergeant and brought him to the Scottish prison encampment for a few months of open unrestricted living in the Village but no questions and no way to get out. People who knew too much were kept there as free-living prisoners.

This very real situation was combined with an absurd "Orange Alert" wherein some giant orange bubble pursued escapees and brought them back. Viewers of the show who had missed an episode would often ask "was there an Orange Alert" before they would ask about the plot interactions for that episode.

Such is Hollywood. Take a dead serious historically accurate situation of a place where Minds and Tongues had to be imprisoned without trial and add in some utter nonsense about an omniscient orange bubble ... and you've got a hit TV show.