The Prisoner

How many of you remember the TV series The Prisoner which was broadcast in the late 60s? It was a spy fiction, come science fiction series starring Patrick McGoohan who also co-created it. There were also some elements of a psychological drama.

It followed a British former secret agent who is held prisoner in a mysterious seaside village. His captors try to find out why he abruptly resigned from his job. The exteriors for the series were primarily filmed on the grounds of the Hotel Portmeirion in Penrhyndeudraeth, North Wales which was the location that partially inspired the show. At the request of Portmeirion's designer Sir Clough Williams-Ellis, the location of the series was not disclosed until the credits at the end of the last episode.

So why the plate?

Well, Portmeirion is a popular tourist village in Gwynedd, North Wales. It was designed and built by Sir Clough Williams-Ellis between 1925 and 1975 in the style of an Italian village and is now owned by a charitable trust. As well as serving as the location for numerous films and television shows, Portmeirion Pottery came into being in 1960 when the pottery designer Susan Williams-Ellis (daughter of Sir Clough Williams-Ellis) and her husband Euan Cooper-Willis, took over a small pottery decorating company in Stoke-on-Trent called A. E. Gray Ltd. Susan Williams-Ellis had been working with A.E. Gray for some years, commissioning designs to sell at the gift shop in Portmeirion Village, the items bearing the back stamp "Gray's Pottery Portmeirionware". In 1961 the couple purchased a second pottery company, Kirkhams Ltd that had the capacity to manufacture pottery, and not only decorate it. These two businesses were combined and Portmeirion Potteries was born.

This plate was bought in Portmeirion Village along with 3 others and all 4 of them are now prisoners in my home.