IN
THE PRISONER: This location is the first (and last) to be seen in The
Prisoner, and shows McGoohan driving his Lotus down a deserted runway. It can
be seen at the beginning of the main title sequence, and at the end of "Fall
Out".THE UNMUTUAL PRISONER LOCATIONS GUIDE
HANDLEY PAGE / RADLETT AIRFIELD, HERTS
Photos: Jeff Morgan (1973). Location Report & Series Info: Rick Davy & Jeff Morgan.
IN
THE PRISONER: This location is the first (and last) to be seen in The
Prisoner, and shows McGoohan driving his Lotus down a deserted runway. It can
be seen at the beginning of the main title sequence, and at the end of "Fall
Out".
IN REALITY: There has been much discussion over the years as to the real-life location of the runway, but we believe it to be the Handley Page Airfield (also known as Radlett Airfield), which is 2 miles South of St Albans in Hertfordhire.
LOCATION REPORT: There have been at least 4 candidates for being the real-life location of the "Prisoner Runway" over the years, but thanks to a communication from Unmutual reader Martin Goldthorpe, we now believe it to be Radlett (Handley Page) Airfield. Mr Goldthorpe told us: "Many years ago I was "reliably" informed by Graham Arnold, who was the Sales Director of Lotus Cars at the time the Prisoner was filmed, that the runway was at the old Handley Page factory at Frogmore. It was actually called Radlett Airfield. Unfortunately, Graham died recently."
Opened
in 1929 as a grass aerodrome for Handley Page Civil Aircraft, the runway was
extended in 1939 to enable production of Halifax bombers. Most of the towers,
hangers and runways were demolished in the 1970s after the Company went bankrupt.
The M25 Motorway now stands on much of the site, with Redland Aggregates now
owning what's left. The photographs on this page date from shortly before demolition
of much of the site.
Other candidates for the runway were Hethel Aerodrome, near Wyndonham in Norfolk, which is the Lotus testing track. However, comparitive photographs have shown that the vegetation is vastly different to that shown in The Prisoner, and Lotus did not move their operations from Cheshunt to Hethel until late 1967 (after the runway sequences would have been shot). Some have suggested Elstree Aerodrome, which is located near to the MGM studios where much of the series was filmed, but the runway seems too short (and crowded with hangers and out-buildings) to have been used. The other rumour was Poddington Raceway, near Northampton (now known as "Santapod") but there is no documentation to support this.
In August 2006, Jeff Morgan contacted the website to offer another possibility, that of Bovingdon in Hertfordshire. He writes: "Looking at the photos at THIS WEBSITE which despite its name makes reference to The Prisoner, I have photos I have taken in 1973 that shows a similar view but these were taken at Bovingdon in Hertfordshire. Also I have a book that also shows a similar view. I have provided a couple of links to the photo in the book and one of my photos HERE. My photo is looking across the runway but clearly shows one tree in the centre of the wood that is higher than the rest as does the photo taken from The Prisoner."
If anyone reading this can help further with our investigations, please send an email, but it is felt that the evidence strongly backs up the belief that the location is Radlett.
With additional thanks to Robert Truman of http://www.controltowers.co.uk for permission to use the images, and for the additional information.