The Prisoner (1967) TV series
Contributed by Alistair Hall on Feb 27th, 2015. Artwork published in
circa 1967
.
Source: www.wemadethis.co.uk License: Public Domain.
Albertus with a custom descending ‘P’ and ‘G’, as it is typical for uncial typefaces.
In the 1960s British TV show The Prisoner, an adapted version of Berthold Wolpe’s Albertus was used on everything from titles to signs and props. Many of these were hand rendered. The key adaptations were the removal of the dots from i’s and j’s, and e’s that had an uncial feel to them — although occasionally standard e’s snuck in too. I don’t currently know who created all the signs, though the show’s art director was a chap called Jack Shampan.
Source: www.wemadethis.co.uk License: Public Domain.
Source: www.wemadethis.co.uk License: Public Domain.
Source: www.wemadethis.co.uk License: Public Domain.
Source: www.wemadethis.co.uk License: Public Domain.
Source: www.wemadethis.co.uk License: Public Domain.
9 Comments on “The Prisoner (1967) TV series”
Alistair has posted more info and images on his blog.
“A village where every road sign, poster, and product sold has a single uniform font? […] That’s not at all sinister …” — usvsth3m
In 1994, Mark Heiman created a digital font to closely resemble the modified Albertus as used in The Prisoner. The freebie is available from a fan site. A superior and more original (although less close) approximation would be Gerard Unger’s Alverata. It doesn’t come with an uncial ‘e’, but features a Ukrainian letter Ie (є).
The City of London adopted Albertus for street signs.
http://usvsth3m.com/post/93213297633/the-city-of-london-uses-the-same-font-as-the-village
I love the fact that Omagari put that 'e’ into Albertus Nova as an alt.
See also the titles for The Pied Piper (Saggitarius Productions, 1971, released in 1972) for another use of this Albertus adaptation.
I’m aware that there are modified variations of the Prisoner Albertus font available for download but can you tell me, or perhaps find out if the original Albertus font used in the tv series can be downloaded even if there’s a fee involved and what that fee is?
Philip, if this version of Albertus existed as an actual font (as opposed to ad-hoc modifications) – and the second use for The Pied Piper suggests as much – then it was in some analog form, e.g. as photostats. There is definitely no original digital version. As Blythwood mentioned above, Toshi Omagari paid tribute to this version by including the uncial e as an alternate in Albertus Nova.
The Village font was designed to closely resemble that used in The Prisoner, and it’s free.
Chris, that’s correct! And already mentioned in the first comment. ;)
(I had to remove the link from your comment as that site also hosts some dubious fonts.)
When I was young and The Prisoner was first on television in the USA, I loved the series and admired the typeface very much. I used to watch the closing credits and try to memorize the letters so I could try to identify it. Of course, I was a teenager and knew nothing about typefaces, so the closest I ever came to was Garamond, which I knew wasn’t right, but it had to do. Of course, back then there were no videos, no dvds, no internet, so I had to rely on watching the credits. I am glad now to learn the facts. I wish the typeface were available to buy.