Rover (The Prisoner)

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Rover is a fictional entity from the 1967 British television program The Prisoner. It was largely responsible for the security of The Village, a prison for former intelligence agents. Rover was a large white ball that could bounce and glide across the land. It was summoned by the authorities of The Village whenever a prisoner appeared to be escaping, or otherwise needed discipline. It would emerge from the waters surrounding The Village, or sometimes from a fountain in the main square of The Village.

Rover appeared to have some sense of intelligence, and was capable of stunning or killing escapees, presumably by means of suffocation. Through unexplained means Rover would constantly produce a bleeping sound, and was occasionally capable of roaring. Its origin and physical construction were never explained in the television series, although in real life it was a weather balloon that was dragged across the set with wires. Rover was only named onscreen in one episode, The Schizoid Man. However, the name appears throughout the scripts.

Rover was originally supposed to have been a robotic, wheeled device with a siren. It resembled a circular inflatable swimming pool topped with a checker-pattern dome. Although a prop was constructed, [1] it did not work properly, and sank in the waters off Portmeirion during the initial stages of filming. The more familiar version of Rover was inspired by a weather balloon seen above Portmeirion by Patrick McGoohan.

Rover has become an icon of the series, and has been referenced numerous times in popular culture, such as in the Simpsons episodes The Joy of Sect and The Computer Wore Menace Shoes. In real life the balloons used to create Rover were very fragile, and the series required over 6,000 props during the course of production.