Observations About Wales:

From Travel To Business & Politics

first published in   May 2000

Porthmadog Natives Shine On for New Book about “The Prisoner” 

Those were the days! In 1966 Porthmadog native Heulwen Vaughan-Hatcher appeared in a Spanish dancer costume as an extra in an episode of The Prisoner.These days Ms. Vaughan-Hatcher runs Portmeirion’s Prisoner Shop. The Prisoner was the ground breaking television series of the late nineteen sixties, which was filmed in part in Portmeirion and served to put North Wales on the map of popular consciousness in Britain and America.

Ms. Vaughan-Hatcher was interviewed in May, along with sixteen of her fellow extras who were drawn mainly from neighboring Porthmadog, and neighboring areas, by Robert Fairclough for his upcoming book about The Prisoner. The book, which will focus on the background of the series, will at last give the local extras their chance to share their experiences with fans of the series. To help part the veil of the years, a short video of behind the scenes activities (otherwise known as horsing around) on set of The Prisoner was shown at the interview session. Touchingly, two of the women present requested that parts of the video be replayed, because their late husbands were on it.

Interest has been growing in the scintillating, if short, television careers of the Welsh extras. All were invited to the grand reopening of The Prisoner Shop last June. A display cabinet in the shop holds a collection of filming artifacts, many on loan from the extras. 

Saving the best for last, it can be revealed that there is a Ninnau connection in this. Faithful readers may remember Ms. Vaughan-Hatcher’s by line in these pages in the nineteen eighties. Perhaps she can be persuaded to take pen in hand once again and entertain us with her tales, which to your reporter’s ears sounded like a Welsh version of 1001 Arabian Nights. C’mon, Heulwen, tell us again about the time the Indian officer rode away with you on his charger!