PREMIERE : We would like to pass through your career and review your achievements.
Patrick McGoohan: Goodness, a little walk through it all, it is not possible to select from such a big choice, it is very hard to say what is truly interesting.
P.  : You have not appeared in a film for ten years, why BRAVEHEART ?
P.McG. : My friend Mel Gibson asked me to take the role, it's as simple as that.
P.  : You were very wicked in the role.
P.McG : Yep !
P.  : However a little bit comic.
P.McG. : Aaaah !, I am delighted, truly delighted, yes I play the infamous King, but I hoped you would notice that I have tried to slip in a little comedy.
P.  : You express a quiet sinister anger when in the film you throw someone out of a window.
P.McG. : Hum !, that's true, in the film I am not to be crossed, but that is not part of my personality, that's for sure.
P.  : What have you been doing for the last 10 years ?
P.McG. : Mostly I have been writing, I have been occupied with property affairs, I have also written, produced and sometimes acted in some episodes of  ' Columbo '. Before Braveheart I have made a film ' The Best of Friends ' for British television with Dame Wendy Hiller, Sir John Gielgud and myself, I am the re incarnation of George Bernard Shaw, a truly formidable piece of work.
P.  : Yet, when we see you in ' Columbo '......
P.McG. : It is a series with a slow rhythm, previously Peter Falk was making eight episodes a year, now on the whole it's one per year. When he asks me to write a new episode I have to dine with him for two weeks.
P. : You have grown to be friends ?
P.McG. : Very good friends.
P.  : Likewise with John Cassavetes ?
P.McG. : Peter is, he has worked with John for a large number of years, they both live in New York and they have a close relationship, like brothers, me I am not part of this group and John disappears for long periods of time, so ....
P.  : Are you part of a group ?
P.McG. : Not at all, I am truly not interested in the profession.
P.  : Do you have an achievement that is of sentimental value ?
P.McG. : No, I have nothing special, I would just like to be remembered as a true professional.
P.  : Does that bore you ?
P.McG. : Boredom, that is not a fair term, I also do other things, I write poems, I make sculptures and lots of other things interest me.
P.  : You are an actor, but you also write and produce, you have touched a little on music, and now you are writing a romance ?

P.McG. : It is nearly finished, but I leave it to one side and I do not wish to speak of it, I am not sure I will complete it.
P.  : And your poems ?
P.McG. : I don't want to talk about them, they are very personal things for my family, my wife, when I am dead, my children can publish them.
P.  : What is your official profession ?
P.McG. : My official profession... official profession.... living from day to day, that perhaps my official profession.
P.  : Is it also a way out ?
P.McG. : No, it is simply the first time I have ever been asked that question, its the first time I have had to think about it. You get up in the morning and ..... its very true... you ask yourself  " And now what ? " I do not like every day to be the same.

At that moment Simply Red comes on the radio, Patrick asks the bar maid if it is possible to turn down the volume of the music.

P.McG. : Excuse me, I am very bad to interview but I detest that sort of thing.

P. : What is your nationality ?
P.McG. : American, I am from New York, I an American citizen, sometimes, when I live in England I take on dual nationally. I am from Jersey City just outside New York, my parents were originally from Ireland, they were farmers, and I say that with pride !. With so many other Irish they emigrated to New York just after their marriage, my mother's five brothers also emigrated and some worked for the New York police. My parents lived in New York for three years, after my birth they returned to the land but the land was not as fertile as expected so we all returned to Ireland when I was eight. Later we moved to Sheffield, this was a steel town but it always had an active artistic life, in fact it is a formidable place to grow up in. I had several jobs in the theatre before I became an actor, what's more that is where I met my wife ( the actress Joan Drummond by whom he has three daughters ) She was at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, that was forty six years ago !. There are not a lot of people in this business who can say they have been married for that length of time and its as if it was only yesterday, she makes me laugh and she teases me, she will never leave me that's for certain.
P.  : You intended to be a Priest ?
P.McG. : Oh ! that was when I was very young ! my parents were brought up in the Catholic religion, it is very strict and was a good thing to begin with. My mother had promised God that if she had a child and it was a boy then he would become a priest ! Ha Ha Ha Ha. That lasted until I was 15 years old, then I decided that I would not make a very good priest.
P: Isn't it much harder to "believe" today?

P.McG: That's one of our truly great problems.  This absence of spiritual convictions.  I believe in an all-powerful being who transcends me and who has made all the things that surround us.  When you go diving and you see all the marvellous fish, these magnificent colours that not even a Picasso has yet found the recipe for... It's just got to be someone else.  So, yes, I  believe in a great force, before which one feels oneself humbled, really humbled.

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