The shopkeeper-Number 19 is busy serving a female customer and speaking to her in some incomprehensible foreign language. Yet it is inexplicable as to why he should revert to English the moment the Prisoner enters the General Store. This is reminiscent of how the Welsh in Noth Wales behave when there is an Englishman is suddenly present, and start speaking in Welsh!
“She’s the new Number eight” Number 2 tells Number 6.
“What happened to the old one?” Number 6 asks.
“Oh he died.”
“There was no funeral!”
“That’s not always possible, you need a body!” {Well that’s never bothered them before}
Yes, I wonder what happened to the former Number 6? Not the one we have come to know, if one can know Number 6. I mean the former Number 6 before the new Number 6's arrival in the Village.
Again during 'The Chimes of Big Ben,' Number 6 is seen chopping down a tree, hacking off the bark and carving out the hull of his boat with a stone axe and chisel. Strange how he barely works up a sweat and yet there are no blisters on his hands after such arduous work and not a hair out of place!
BCNU
The shop scene right at the start of the series with the salesman speaking in tongues cleverly prepares for the oddness of the place, the bewilderment and the underlying surrealism, next comes the map scene! Clearly one of my favourites. No. 6 chopping trees with a stone axe, on the other hand, very much stretches our sense of acceptance and credibility even allowing him days to finish his work. Remember the broken lamp he uses to "heal" himself from the cure he was subjected to in "Schizoid" - oh no, go away! - BCNU!
ReplyDeleteHello Arno,
DeleteI enjoyed your email. The scene in the General Store is a favourite of mine. There is bewilderment in that scene, as the Prisoner newly arrived tries to find out where he is, attempts to make a telephone call.
Yes, your comment was very nicely put, and I find myself in complete agreement with you, save that I've thought it was all too easy for Number 6 to revert the conditioning he underwent. I suppose it would depend on how powerful that electric shock was. It was mains electric, so it would be pretty powerful that electric jolt. Just as well really, otherwise Number 6 might have had to electrify himself twice! That was very handy for Number 6, that faulty table lamp!
Kind regards
David
BCNU