A mammoth undertaking

Christopher was big fan of The Prisoner TV series. Although we were both far too young to have watched it when it was first broadcast in the late ’60s, it was repeated in the ’80s and we both had seen it then. In his last few years, Christopher was a member of what I think was called LoveFilm, a sort of cross between Netflix and a video-library. We didn’t (and indeed I still don’t) have enough bandwidth on our broadband connection to be able to stream films, but with LoveFilm you chose films online for a monthly subscription and got DVDs sent through the post. When you had finished viewing them, you sent them back and the next lot would then turn up. It worked well, and he spent hours watching all sorts of films that I simply wasn’t bothered about. However, some of his selections were of interest to both of us, and I well remember that in about 2009 he borrowed the entire series of The Prisoner, all seventeen episodes of it, which we watched over several months.

The series is set in the Welsh village of Portmeirion – an extremely bizarre-looking Italianate village plonked down incongruously on the coast on the edge of the Snowdonia National Park. It looked fascinating on the TV, and we looked into visiting it. Unfortunately, we ran out of time and he was taken ill and died before we managed to get there.

Portmeirion main square

I don’t like unfinished business, so I decided that I should make the effort to get to Portmeirion, stay there overnight, and scatter some of Christopher’s ashes there, since it was somewhere he particularity wanted to go. The majority of the buildings in The Village are used either as self-catering cottages, or as hotel suites, so there is plenty of choice for somewhere to stay.

Portmeirion colonnade and houses

During the day, the village is heaving with day-trippers. Particularly so on hot and sunny weekends like this last one. But in the evenings, all the day-trippers are kicked out and the residents have a free run of the place in peace and quiet. That was really enjoyable – if somewhat surreal.