P.  : Do you have principles ?
P.McG. : I wish to believe I have principles to which standard I am able to bring up my children, these principles are shared by my wife and its a what I call decency, I also believe in charity to others outside my family.
P.  : Is that a rule that is easy to follow in Hollywood ?
P.McG. : I have absolutely nothing to do with Hollywood, never !, that would be too big a sacrifice to settle that low. I never go to premieres, I never attend receptions. My friends are nearly all on the outside of all the hype, but attention, I love the profession of acting, when you face a camera, that's another story, you are someone else.
P.  : In Braveheart you are at last Number 1....
P.McG. : Number 1 !!
P.  : Yes.. in the role of Edward 1st.
P.McG. : Ah ! yes, ha ha, and Edward Vl has more problems than Edward l.. but good, enough to have the best of us.
P.  : What are you writing at the moment ?
P.McG. : A scenario.. for the film  of the' The  Prisoner ' that will be produced by Polygram which should take place in 1996.
P.  :Ah good ?
P.McG. : Yes , that is going ahead, I have signed the contract, Polygram have invested a lot of money in the project, they start filming next year and expect to see it released in 1997. In the project the television series will serve as the starting point and the memory of the series will be respected. At home, I get up early, about 3 a.m. and I work for seven hours, when I travel wherever, I am up by 5 a.m. and work for 3 hours.
P.  : Will you return to ' The Village ', at Portmeirion ?
P.McG. : Partly, it will not only be for the people who have seen the series, we will return to Portmeirion for the beginning and the end, there will also be the balloon....
P.  : Is the film to be the same as the series ?
P.McG. : It will be a film that follows on from the series.
P.  : Will you produce it ?
P.McG. : No, I have never handled that size of budget, they expect to spend about 65 million dollars. I am sure they would not let me loose with that amount of money, besides that is not what I want, the director will know my ideas and I will be executive producer.
P.  : Why have you signed with Polygram ?
P.McG. : Up to now they have participated in co-productions with ' 4 Weddings ' and more recently ' French Kiss ' which I have not seen. With ' The Prisoner ' it will be a sole production.
P.  : And what becomes of Number 6 ?
P.McG. : Ah that. I am afraid I do not wish to tell you any more, I  know what I see, but is sill not settled...
P.  : A rumour says that Kevin Costner will play Number 6 ?
P.McG. : Kevin Costner will not be the Prisoner, the rumour has not reached me, he will not be in the film otherwise I will not be involved !!
P.  : Our readers ( Premiere 's ) have chosen Hugh Grant...
P.McG. : Ah ! remarkable, that's another face to imagine for the project, but that's impossible, it is necessary maybe to think of older people.
P.  : Is the person you would like for the part a big star ?
P.McG. : Yes.
P.  : Is he sufficiently angry ?
P.McG. : It is necessary for him to have fire in the guts.
P.  : Do you find it bizarre the cult that has grown up around a series that exhaults the individual in society ?.
P.McG. : The danger with groups is that it can become a little dull if taken to the extreme, one can see the phenomenon with ' Star Trek', if people form a group it should be to celebrate the individual. The Prisoner follows the individuals struggle with the bureaucratic tensions and restrictions of society, an individual who says " I am myself and you have no right to know my intimate thoughts, you are trying to learn my intimate thoughts and I will do everything that is possible so that you do not reach them ! " ha ha . As you are here it is as well you ask these things, but not even my wife knows my intimate thoughts !. Coming back to the ' group ', I suppose that they want to identify themselves as individuals and dress differently, good luck to them !. If it gives them pleasure then I have nothing more to say. People are not all the same they live by different rules, so if this helps them be happy... bliss, the trick is to have the power to make a choice.
P.  : Are you doing anything else at the moment ?
P.McG. : Oh, I have a lot that occupies me at the moment ! I will be in two films this autumn, The Phantom in Australia and a Time To Kill an adaptation from the first book by John Grisham, produced by Joel Schumacher. This big production is being filmed by the Mississippi featuring Samuel L Jackson and Sandra Bullock. I am travelling back and forth between Australia and Mississippi whilst continuing to write my script each morning,

P.  : The final episode of The Prisoner was not very understandable ?
P.McG. : When I was writing the last episode of the series everyone thought I was mad, and in effect I was !. When the three other writers brought me their scripts I hated them, it was very very difficult for them to understand what I wanted. I wished for the story to be more oblique, always oblique, it would then be for the public to decide, to give it their own interpretation, I did not want to give the answer that I had in my head it was to be left as an allegorical conundrum.
P. : David Tomblin was the first assistant producer on Braveheart, was he the same David Tomblin that worked on The Prisoner ?.
P.McG. : Yes, we are very close friends, I remember him on the first television series I as in ' Dangerman ', David was the assistant director on the hour long episodes. We have grown to be very good friends, when I was making The prisoner I found it necessary several times to leave him in total charge because I was working all day as an actor and often as writer and director. I found it necessary to have someone to trust, that was David, since then he has done a lot of work as assistant director. If there is a problem he is the best in the world ! He has worked on three of Spielberg's films and also on Out Of Africa and Gandhi... the scene of the burial of Gandhi, probably one of the most enormous scenes in history and that was filmed in a single day !. He had in front of him half a million extra and he still filmed this in one day with nine cameras, that was all down to David's organisation.