Our talk moved onto more metaphysical subjects, Faith, Hope, and Charity. After any kind of setback Patrick was always cautious "until the next time": 'One must never give up trying'.

All the while his observant eyes and quicksilver tongue danced the knife-edge between stern severity and teasing irony. At one stage he had seemed justifiably to have had enough of my questions and in a torrent of interrogation began, 'Why do you wear that watch? And why are you wearing new shoes? Why do wear a beard? And why do you wear your hair like that? ...'

But I’ve noticed in other interviews that he’s given that at some juncture there’s a challenge or “testing point” to the interviewer and/or audience after which, depending on whether the interviewer has “passed” the test or not, the interview may or may not proceed meaningfully. I think that I must have passed.

As we walked back from 'The Duke' to the Hotel, I found myself walking with a giant of a man certainly, but light on his feet in the Dublin street, insensitive to whatever weather, as I discovered the following day when I met him again in town on his way back from the dentist, who drained a tooth abscess daily, still dressed in the same style of casual jacket, open-necked shirt and trousers, in the pouring rain, as he had worn the evening before.

When we parted at the first floor landing, I knew I would be unable to sleep. He promised to meet me over breakfast, providing the studios didn't give him an early call, and I went back to my room pondering on this man with poetry in his soul, a Romantic who confessed to being impressed with the service of organisation as the foundation upon which creation can be structured, a perfectionist who recognised his limits, a man who gained artistic freedom by abandoning the business side of things to professionals he could trust.

After breakfast the following day we spoke more about the origins of THE PRISONER and recorded some of our conversation.