John Drake Debate

Many fans of The Prisoner believe that Number 6 is really John Drake, the character that Patrick McGoohan played in Danger Man (first from 1960 to 1962, then again from 1964 to 1966). In fact, Number 6's real name is never given or learned, even in episodes when he has met old colleagues or friends in the village, or in episodes where he comes into contact with his former superiors, co-workers or people in his life, they never refer to him by name, and such episodes appear to go out of their way to avoid anyone actually speaking his name.

Arguments Against

• In a 1966 interview in The Los Angeles Times, with reporter Robert Musel, McGoohan stated that "John Drake of Secret Agent is gone" (Secret Agent being the name of Danger Man in the USA).
• McGoohan stated in a 1985 interview that Number 6 is not the same character as John Drake, further adding that he had originally wanted another actor to portray the character.
• While John Drake and Number 6 look identical and have the same moral integrity, the same profession, the same skills, and the same mannerisms, some differences are noteworthy. Drake is a less emotional, more restrained character while Number 6 has a tendency to be outraged and furious as well as superior and condescending. Drake is a regular smoker of cigarettes and cigars, while Number 6 smokes only twice in The Prisoner, despite the ready availability of tobacco in the Village (during the production of The Prisoner, Patrick McGoohan smoked constantly, which suggests that Number 6's only occasional smoking is a deliberate characterisation).
• Drake is seen frequently consuming alcoholic beverages (or at least appearing to do so in the course of his undercover work) while Number 6 claims to rarely drink.
• Differences in attire: Drake seems to prefer business suits with ties while Number 6's clothing of choice is a dark sweater beneath a dress-jacket. However, the choice of clothing available to Number 6 is limited to what was available in the Village.

Arguments For

• Story editor, George Markstein, who co-created the series with McGoohan, always claimed that Number 6 is John Drake.
• According to Markstein, he conceived the Prisoner show-format as a revamp of Danger Man when McGoohan resigned. In Markstein's mind, The Prisoner was a sequel. Markstein's spy thriller concept was then melded with McGoohan's Kafka-esque ideas, which McGoohan had been developing since he first saw Portmeirion during the shooting of a Danger Man episode in 1959.
• Official novels based on the series also make this connection, specifically those written by Thomas Disch and David McDaniel, both of which directly refer to the character by the name Drake, although these are generally not considered canonical.
• In addition to this, the character of Fotheringay is played by Richard Wattis, who played one of Drake's superiors on Danger Man. Also, Christopher Benjamin plays a secret service contact named Potter in both Danger Man and "The Girl Who Was Death" episode of The Prisoner. However, Wattis' character on Danger Man was named Hardy, not Fotheringay, and Christopher Benjamin appears in early episodes of The Prisoner as an assistant to several Number 2's without being identified as Potter.
• Similarities in attire: It may be significant that in the Danger Man episode "The Paper Chase" Drake wears an outfit identical to the one worn by Number 6 in the opening credits of The Prisoner.
• The significance of Wattis and Benjamin's appearances is uncertain, especially as Potter appears only in a story being improvised by Number 6.
• For what it is worth, original shooting scripts at the beginning of shooting had the word "Drake" throughout when referring to Number 6. This was crossed out and in later amended scripts the protagonist was simply referred to as "P" for Prisoner. As evidence of the evolving nature of the protagonist and the setting this is some sort of confirmation that originally at least for Markstein this was a direct sequel to Danger Man. Equally, it could be evidence that McGoohan was simply basing his Number 6 persona off a pre-existing performance, and also adapting where possible from the previous show to use as much available material as possible.