Questions Are A Burden To Others - Answers A Prison For Oneself

    How many No.2's are there who take up office in the village?

The answer next time.
BCNU

Thought For The Day

    In Many Happy Returns, were those two men simply gun-runners, or agents of the village shadowing the Prisoner aboard his raft? I've often wondered. I mean to say if No.6 was so important to the villages administration, the reason why he resigned, and seeing No.6 having a future with them, it seems an awful risk to take. They could easily have lost No.6 at sea. So it would have been prudent insurance to have No.6 shadowed. After all the two so assumed gun-runners did turn up at a providential moment, No.6 having collapsed into unconsciousness. Having been at sea for twenty-five days. Sleeping only four out of each twenty-four hours. Wearing no weather proof clothing - No.6 should have been suffering from exposure, hypothermia even.
   Just a minute, just a minute. When No,6 was asleep for four hours, what was happening to the raft? No.6 had no drift-anchor to help hold the rafts course, no automatic steering while he was asleep, which means the raft would have drifted miles, and miles off course in those four hours!
  And don't forget that the motor cruiser in Many Happy Returns is the same motor cruiser M.S. Polotska in Checkmate.
BCNU

Caught On Camera

   The Prisoner, on the day of his arrival in the village, is being taken to the Labour Exchange, Job Centre Plus to you. But what's this? Some chap on a bicycle riding passed dressed as No.6! Could it be the new No.2 rushing to take up his new office? Because there are only two people who dress identically, and that's No.6 and the new No.2 of Arrival!
Be seeing you

Taxi!

Why? Well I suppose because I have a fondness for the village taxi, and that as a boy I had one of the Dinky models, but then a time comes when a man must put away childish things. However, I am of an age when one can get out childish things again, just a pity that model Mini-Moke I had was lost years, and years ago now. Perhaps I'll acquire another one, as in such mint condition as the one above.

I'll be seeing you

Pictorial Prisoner

BCNU

THEPRISONER

    Harmony, is what Two wants everyone to be living in. For people to know their roots. It's family that is the important thing to Two. And Two wishes for Six to belong to his family, that's why Six's brother has been brought to the village. A brother who Six lost at sea when they were boys. So family is the most important thing to Two. But what of Two's behaviour to his own family? A wife-M2 who he keeps heavily sedated, who can calmly sit down in front of, and eat a meal. Two's son, 11-12, has no memory of a toy fire engine, and has many questions. But Two loves his son, and that is all that seems to matter. But it's not enough for 11-12 who deosn't know his mother!
    At the Clinic it was suggested that 70 look for the 'Six within.' And later suggests that together Two and 70 might look for the 'Two within.' Not that Two believes in such gumph as psychological mumbo-jumbo talk-cure. During a psychological session with 70, he went on about being put on the potty sideways when he was a toddler. And because of that he wanted to sleep with his mother! Two asked 70 if he had had sex with his mother. To which 70 said "No." To which Two replied "Well dont!" This explains a good deal about Two's twisted mind. Because I think it was Two who was sat sideways on the potty when he was a child, and eventually had sex with his mother!
    So Six has a brother. He was also a Bus driver. Six also has memories of when he was a boy. Of burying a tin with a note and photograph inside it, which he finds again as an adult, buried at a disused village railway halt. Six has a family now, into which he is made very welcome. But there are doubts in his mind. And just when he has accepted his brother, 16 tells Six that he is not his brother.
   As  Bus driver Six takes a village tour bus out into the desert. He finds a rusty ships drft anchor. But to his brother, 16, it's simply a desert folly, a nothing. But to Six the anchor is symbolic of freedom. Because where there is a ships anchor, there must be a ship, or a boat......and where there is a ship or boat there is a Sea, an Ocean. But here there is nothing but desert for mile after mile in every direction........Until one day..........Six's desire to find the ocean is shared by a woman who winks at him. And so Six pursuades 147 to drive him, his brother, and the winking woman out into the desert to find the Ocean, and they do. They run splashing in the Sea........but tragedy befalls Six for a second time. For the brother he thinks he has found, but lost in the Sea when they were boys, 16 is lost to him again. Taken into the Sea by 'Rover.' And so Six is left alone to feel the pain and anguish all over again.
    Six later returns with the doctor 313, to show her the sea. But it's gone, and all there is is desert again. Desert for as far as they can see.
    The village enjoys an 'Escape' holiday resort, where lucky citizens can go for a two week vacation. Originally the original series of the Prisoner was to have had the Palace of Fun, where citizens can go to enjoy themselves.
   Two does his damndest to give Six roots, and believes that to give Six a brother, a family, would make him understand true love. But Six is a tormented soul, who believes his roots lie elsewhere.
   So we have Six in the village, and Michael in New York, and both are one and the same. In the village it would seem that 313 has been assigned to Six, and Lucy to Michael in New York. Lucy is trying to find out why Michael resigned. She tells Michael that although he has resigned from Summakor, Summakor is still in control. But does that control extend all the way to the village?
Be seeing you.

A Prisoner Of Blogging!

    It has to be said, that since I began posting my Prisoner based blog here, I feel a free man! I used to publish my blog on MySpace, and on two sites. And at the beginning it was enjoyable because I was issuing information, theories, and ideas on the Prisoner to people who were interested. People who were interested, who wanted information about the series. But it has to be said that my Prisoner blogging was becoming stale. I was failing to make it interesting. And then MySpace went and upgraded the site, and made it, well enough said. I'm not here to slag off MySpace, because I don't publish blog there any more. I resigned. No, that's not quite right. I walked out! and since that day I have felt like a free man. I started out publishing Prisoner based blog because I wanted to write about the Prisoner and see my work published. But in the end I was just going on and on, the original reason lost, and so it became it's own reason for doing it. Since I commenced writing and publishing my writings about the Prisoner here on Blogger.com, I feel a free man.
I'll be seeing you

Rock And Chips

  Rock and Chips is a spin-off of the BBC series Only Fools and Horses, showing the origins of Del Boy and Rodney Trotter, which was screened on BBC television last night. The programme is set at Christmas time in 1960, and at one point in the programme, in the Trotter flat their Grandmother was watching an episode of Danger Man, one of the 25 minute series. I believe by what I heard, and not seen unfortunately, that the episode being shown was Bury The Dead. Because I hear the sqealing of tyres as in a car chase, and at the beginning of Bury The Dead, is a car chase, or race I should say. But that of course is pure speculation.
I'm obliged, as John Drake would say.

Caught On Camera

Here it is, caught on camera, the canopied Penny Farthing bicycle. How anyone can ride such a contraption I have no idea.

What's more, after someone in the Property Department had gone to all the trouble of fitting such a canopy to the Penny Farthing bicycle it never once made an appearance in the Prisoner. Only the Penny Farthing itself without it's canopy, seen wheeled about the village and never ridden, which is a pity.

I'll be seeing you

Pictorial PRISONER

'Rover' in the Therapy Zone. The Therapy Zone where citizens of the village who are in need of treatment are sent. Such as 'dreamers,' and 'Undercovers' go when they have gone too far!
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We Want Information, Information, Informatiom

  And is this what they do with any such information extracted from inmates of the village? Perhaps 'they' file it away in grey filing cabinets such as these, much as they did with the Prisoner's computor card, filed away in the 'Resigned' cabinet, and where the information about the Prisoner's resignation would end up.
   Then I suppose the next question is, who has access to such information? Surely it's not simply filed away, untouched, and unread, for all time. If so, what would be the point in that?
BCNU

There is More Danger In The Village Than Is Dreampt!

    No.6 was over charged in Hammer Into Anvil, when he was having that personal message placed in The Tally Ho newspaper. "Y mas mal in aldea que se suena". No.6 was charged for nine words, when there are only eight.
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It's Inexplicable!

  How in The General did No.6 know that the Professor's head, as he brought that walking stick down upon, was made of plaster? And why did Madam Professor scream out? After all it was her that made that plaster cast of her husbands head. Perhaps it was not her husband she was screaming out for, but because her masterpiece was going to be smashed to pieces by No.6 and that walking stick.
Be seeing you

The Prisoner Variations

    Have you read my book at all, perhaps not, as it is out of print now. Published in 2003, it contains 29 short stories inspired by Patrick McGoohan's creation the Prisoner.
Be seeing you
 

Arts And Crafts

Quite literally Arts And Crafts, captured in a Seascape.

Be seeing you                       

Collectors Corner

    The Prisoner 30th anniversary video box set. Purchased in two halves, two videos in the black box, and three video's in a separate box, accompanied by a set of four postcards, and a No.6 bottle opener.
    By this time the 35mm film had been cleaned and restored, giving the video's excellent viewing quality.
BCNU

The Prisoner

    I was right, Arrival was better for a second screening. I seem to have taken to THEPRISONER like a duck to water, so too my wife Morag, which is more than can be said of the majority of fans of the original series. Oh I knew you would not be able to judge a series of six episodes just by watching one episode, but then I was prepared for something which would not be like the original series.
   I didn't miss the Italianate village of Portmeirion, replaced by Swakopmund in Namibia. The Mini-Moke taxis replaced by the Renault Dauphine. The Canopied Penny Farthing logo now long gone, to be replaced by something which I have heard described as a 'jelly mould!" Many of my contemporaries cannot imagine the village without Portmeirion. I like to think that like THEPRISONER, I have evolved beyond McGoohan's creation. And can see that not everyting to do with the Prisoner has to revolve around Portmeirion. I have not compared the two series, because I feel that way lies disaster. But I can see major elements of the original series, reinvented and reinterpreted in the new series, and there's no harm in that. I have not rejected, I have accepted, and have appreciation for both series.
    I can see in Arrival how 'retro' the village is, but with a hint of Portmeirion in some architectural designs. Yet there is modern day technology, and beyond. All you have to do is look at Two's lap top for that, with it's glass screen which you can see through, as Two watches something on the screen. Many vehicles of the late 1950's into the 1960's which you see in the London scenes that appear in the original series, you can see in THEPRISONER, and that includes a yellow nosed Caterham/Lotus 7, which puts in a cameo appearance in the series.
    The Prisoner is an enigma, an allegory in places, although I detest the use of that word allegory, as it means you can just about get away with anything, and McGoohan did! While THEPRISONER is action and adventure. A mystery which is in need of solving. It is a series which leaves clues throughout the series. The first clue can be seen in the very first opening seconds of Arrival.
    Six doesn't want to be a citizen of the village, he want's out. But as Two informs Six, "There is no out. There is only in."
Be seeing you

Thought For The Day

    Since 1967, Portmeirion has been  inextricably linked to the Prisoner, and the Prisoner would not be the series it is without the Italianate village of Portmeirion. The one compliments the other perfectly.
BCNU

A Peculiar Device

That Tally Ho dispenser device puts me in mind of my old mum's washing mangle - a machine for drying clothes in olden times, before spin dryers and washing machines.

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Caught On Camera

    Here we see Alexis Kanner as No.48 trying to thumb a lift on the dual carriageway of the supposed A20, which it isn't, during the episode of Fall Out. There was real traffic on that raod at the time, and one such vehicle is passing No.48 by at the moment - a Securicor van. The driver must have seen the camera and camera crew filming Alexis Kanner, as the driver of the van is looking directly at Kanner. Of course that driver would have no idea of what was going on at the time. But I wonder if he realised later, when perhaps he watched the Prisoner series, and glimped himself on the television screen in Fall Out?!
I'll be seeing you

Taxi!

The above picture is taken from the Prisoner episode Checkmate, and it is presumed that the driver of the leading taxi is that of No.8. In the taxi behind is No.6 and the Rook. However, it is very plausible that it's not No.8 behind the wheel of that leading taxi at all. You can perhaps see more clearly in the following enlarged section.

The truth of the matter is, that during September 1966, while the Prisoner was being filmed at Portmeirion, guests were still staying at the Italianate village, that being one of Clough Williams-Ellis's stipulations for allowing the filming to go ahead. That guests would still be allowed to stay at Portmeirion, and not be disturbed, also day vistors to be allowed into the village. So when I say that may not be No.8 behind the wheel of that leading taxi, it might very well be an employee of Portmeirion on his or her way to Minnfford railway station, just a mile or so away, to collect a guest staying at Portmeirion, or taking a guest to the railway station. Many of the taxis seen about the village, had Portmeirion employees as drivers. In this way guests could be moved about the village without disrupting the filming which was taking place there. And of course, equally important to Clough Williams-Ellis, it also meant business as usual at Portmeirion.
Be seeing you

THEPRISONER - Reinvented

    I have to say that when I sat and watched the first episode of Arrival for the first time, I was not immediately captivated by it, certainly not in the same way I was with the original series. THEPRISONER doesn't grab you by the throat and say "Hey, look at me."
   This series is more subtle than that of the original, it's not full in the face. But there's plenmy going on, perhaps too much to take in for a first time viewing, especially with all the flashbacks, as I thought they were at the time. I didn't realise that.......well I mustn't get too far ahead of myself. Suffice to say, that I understood, and appreciated Arrival much better for a second screening, as indeed did my wife Morag.

   Like it's predecessor the canopied Penny Farthing, this new logo is seen everywhere in the village, and on everything from the village taxi, to teacups, beer and wine bottles. It's on badges, the Map of The Village, and signposts all around the village.
    There is no question of which side runs the village, as there seems to be no sides! Where is the village? Who runs the village? Who is the Prisoner? Why has he been brought to the village? And who is Number One? Are still prime questions in this series. But one thing we do know, and that is the name of the Prisoner - it's Michael, well in New York at any rate. Because we see some of Michael's life in New York, and the company Summakor from which he resigned his job.
   At first it seems that THEPRISONER has no opening sequence, but it does, and comes after a few minutes into each episode, of which there are only six.
    At the outset of Arrival, the Prisoner helps an old man in a desert somewhere. An old man who is being persued by armed men with dogs, who are shooting at him - the men, not the dogs. The Prisoner carries the old man into a cave, who tells him to go and say that he finally got out. To go and find 455 and say that he had got out. But the old man dies, and the Prisoner buries the old man by a dead tree. Of the armed men and dogs there is no further sign.
    Eventually, after a long trek through the desert, the Prisoner arrives in the village. It's not difficult to put the village in time. Because it has the look and feel of the 1950's. The decor of citizens homes are 1950's style, as are the television sets, and furnishings. Vehicles are form either the 1950's or early 60's, even bicycles are of that time. The village even has a bus service!
    Phrases are resued, Be seeing you, I am not a number, I am a free man, are used, but not the village hand salute as in the original series.
    At the first watching of Arrival, I had formed no ideas, or theories of what was taking place. I was far too busy trying to take in some of what was happening on the screen. But I did, instantly take to Two. Where as in the original series it was No.6 where my sympathies lay. This time it's with Two that they lie!
   The taxi servcie is still 'local service only.' when 147's taxi is hailed by the Prisoner, and is asked to take him to the nearest town, or railroad station, 147 replies "This is a local service. I do local destinations." So no change there then! There's a Village Shop, which sells mainly maps of The Village. "Buy one, get one free. Makes the perfect gift!" That's according to 37927-the Shopkeeper.
   The Prisoner, having been given the number Six, pays a call on 93's apartment, which has something familiar to the television viewer. There's the familiar arch. Two lava lamps. 93's apartment is not a direct copy of '6 Private,' No.6's cottage of the original series, but there is something very familiar about it. So, is 93, the old man the Prisoner came across out there in the desert, the former No.6? I'd say he was, even though 93 is not played by Patrick McGoohan, but it is a role he turned down!
    There is a coincidence in Arrival, with that of the original series. You see in the original series of Arrival, Cobb was supposed to have commited suicide by jumping ouit of a hospital window. But of course he didn't, but nevertheless a funeral for Cobb is staged, so as to maintain the pretence of his death. In the reinterpretation of Arrival the old man 93 dies. The village is rife with the rumour, started by the Prisoner, and carried on by 455 and other 'dreamers,' that 93 has got out of the village, that he's escaped! Two cannot have that, and so it is announced over the public address system that the body of 93 has been found and that he had died of heart failure. Then so to keep up the pretence of 93's supposed death, Two holds a funeral for 93, who is deserving of such.
    There are no locked door in the village. Nor is there escape. There is no escape, because there is nowhere to escape to, well according to Two there isn't. But there is 'Rover', the village guardian, which Six encounters out in the desert, stopping him from escape!
   Oh and 'dreamers,' I didn't tell you about them did I. Dreamers are those citizens who dream of the 'other place.' That 'other place' being anywhere other than the village!
I'll be seeing you, and writing more of THEPRISONER

Arts And Crafts

Spooky, or surreal, call it what you like.

BCNU

Village Pin-Up

A real favourite is Nadia Gray, Nadia Rakovsky-No.8 of The Chimes of Big Ben.
BCNU

A Prisoner Christmas!

   Amongst the mass of presents was the cd soundtrack of the 2009 series of THEPRISONER, marvellous, wonderful, and having played the soundtrack 6 times, I have a real appreciation for it, and I bet that's more than most can say. Here is the front and back cover.

                                      
This is one cd which I have wanted since I becamse aware of the 2010 premier here in the UK. Indeed, in January I went to my local HMV store in order to order the cd, but was told that it had been deleted from the sales list. This some months before the premier. So there is no-way I could buy this cd here in the UK, save via the Internet, but for reasons of my own, I didn't. So, this cd sountrack came either from America, or Switzerland, the countries from which this soundtrack is available, but no-one will tell me. But it has to be one or the other.
   I can understand why this soundtrack was deleted from the sales list, it's music hardly grabs you in the same way as the soundtrack to the original series. Sometimes the music is in the background and you hardly notice it. It's not discriptive music, not scene setting, nor is it stand alone music. It's more ..................something, well its's something I'm happy to own, as it's going to be a real collectors item, especially here in the UK.
Be seeing you.

To Whomsoever May Read This............

       A Very Merry Christmas To You.

The Prisoner - A Prediction Of The Future?

This is a picture taken from the Prisoner episode The Schizoid Man. In it you will observe the old man in the wheelchair is wearing a tinted visor. In fact many citizens in the village are seen to be wearing such  visors. However, I wonder if this was a sign for the future? Because a month or so back, I watched a piece on reginal television, about life in an Old People's Village. Two elderly gentlemen were having a game of 'Conkers.' Nothing unusual in that, save for the fact that one of the elderly gentlemen was wearing a clear perspex visor! That's Health & Safety for you.
I'll be seeing you

Collectors Corner

Two limited edition of 500 prints by John Napper, reproduced from original pen and ink drawings dated 1992.

Number 110

Number 111

Be seeing you

Arts And Crafts

A watercolour view of the village - of the quayside and Old People's Home, and the Camera Obscura in the distance.

BCNU

It's Your Funeral

    Why bother going through all the palaver of an assassination plot? If you're going to purge the village of all malcontents, then just get on and do it! I mean no-one's going to question the village Administration's actions, or stand up for the citizens human rights, well save for No.6 perhaps!
Be seeing you.

Thoght For The Day

    "Breath in, breath out..............more Village."
BCNU

Prismatic Reflection

    Having watched the film Inception, I can see the Prisoneresque content in the film. As the film began, the character of Cobb {first nod to the Prisoner} played by Leonardo De Caprio, wakes up somewhere in the surf on a beach. This in much the same way that Jim Caviezel wakes up in a desert in the first episode of THEPRISONER.
   Inception, as those who have seen the film will know, is basically about a team, led by Cobb, who infiltrate a man's mind, and dream, and makes the dream last longer by the aid of a drug to keep the subject heavily sedated. This in much the same way that Two in THEPRISONER maintains his wifes sedation and dream of the village, by the use of drugs. But when someone wakes from a dream in Inception, the dream collapses. When Two's wife, M2, wakes up, holes begin to appear in the village.
    The infiltration of a subjects dream in Inception, and the manipulation of, is reminiscent of the Prisoner episode A B & C, how the doctor-No.14 is able to use a drug to get into No.6's dream, and manipulate it from within.
   Inception gives several nods to the original series of the Prisoner, as when Cobb gains acccess to a safe in the early stages of the film, in order to steal an envelope, which contains nothing but blank sheets of paper. This in much the same way, when during the episode Hammer Into Anvil No.6 hides an envelope containing blank sheets of paper in the Stoneboat. Also Inception was diretced by Christopher Nolan, who was up to direct a Hollywood film of the Prisoner!
Be seeing you

Village Pin-Up

 Nadia Gray, who played Nadia Rakovsky-No.8 in the Prisoner episode The Chimes of Big Ben. The date of the photograph is unknown, but possibly taken sometime in the late 1950's, or early 60's, and the location is possibly France.

BCNU

Pictorial Prisoner

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Number 34

 During the Dance of the Dead, we learn that No.240 was the Observer for No.34, until he died that is. I am of the opinion that the dead body No.6 finds during that episode, washed up on the beach, is that of No.34 What's more No.34 could have been a plant in the village, and being suspect, that is why he had his own observer.
    So how did No.34 die, and in what circumstances? It is quite on the cards, that No.34 died at the membrane of the village guardian, suffocated to death, or half drowned and suffocated to death. Possibly because 34 was out after curfew, was waiting for something or someone. Perhaps he died because he was in possession of a radio, which No.6 took from the dead man's pocket. How No.34 was able to smuggle a transister radio into the village is beyond me. It might be that it was smuggled to him once he was in the village by person or persons unknown, possibly working in Adminstration. But the fact of the matter is, No.34 had a radio, not a transmitter, but a receiver only. And I think that the message No.6 heard whilst listening to the radio later in the episode, was meant for No.34. Apparently, according to the message, the appointment could not be fulfilled.That there were more important things to be done that night. So, No.34 had been 'hung out to dry' by his own people. Sent to infiltrate the village, those whom No.34 had expected to come to the village, would not be arriving. I wonder how 34 thought about that? So having heard that radio message, meant for the dead man, No.34, that would explain why No.6 was down on the beach that night. He was looking for a light, a plane, or a boat. Someone from his world.
   No.6 once infiltrated a village, that of Colony Three. This was to find out where so many people were disappearing to, and why. People with specialist knowledge, or expertise, who were recruited to Colony Three, somewhere behind the Iron Curtain. People who once there, then cease to exist. But luckily for John Drake, British Military Intelligence had a man in Section 1.
Be seeing you

Caught On Camera

It was while I was looking at the Prisoner episode Checkmate, that I made a previously unknown discovery. To be perfectly honest I made the discovery by mistake, because I was looking for something else at the time. It was when I saw this frame of film, that I was astounded by what I saw. Well astounded might be too strong a word, but certainly I was amazed.

Because on the wall screen, as the Supervisor and the doctor search for No.6, just to the left of the Supervisors shoulder, you can see a little girl standing at some railings, watching what it taking place on the beach, watching her father perhaps. Here is an enlarged section containing the little girl.

The railings by which the girl stands, are those of the cottage of White Horses at Portmeirion, where Patrick McGoohan and his family stayed during the month of September 1966, when the Prisoner was being filmed. Now Patrick McGoohan had three daughters, and the little girl is one of his daughters, who has been filmed inadvertently, and who now appears in the Prisoner, although she didn't know it at the time, and neither did Patrick McGoohan! Because while filming was taking place, his wife, nor his children were allowed out and about in Portmeirion. They were confined to White Horses cottage - or so the story goes.
I'll be seeing you

Arts And Crafts

A watercolour study of No.6.

BCNU

Caught On Camera

Generally speaking No.6 is the only citizen in the village to wear the style of piped blazer he does. But in one particular case the new No.2 of Arrival, not only wears an identical blazer to No.6, but also the same clothes in general!

Be seeing you.

No.6 Rejects His Number!

    On the morning after his arrival in the village, the Prisoner is given a new identity, along with a credit card, employment card, card of identity, and a health and welfare card. And upon the left lapel of his piped blazer he wears, but for a few seconds, his badge of identity, that of No.6 which he removes and tosses onto a back seat of the taxi. He nevers wears that No.6 badge again, save for one time during the episode of The Schizoid Man, when it suits No.6's purpose to do so.
   But No.6 is not the only one to go about the village not wearing a numbered badge. The doctor who conducted No.6's medical in Arrival didn't wear a badge. The Butler, No.2's manservant doesn't wear a badge. What's more both the Professor and his wife in The General are allowed not to wear their numbered badges. Perhaps that's one of their certain privilages both the Professor and Madam Professor enjoy!
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What No.6 Want's Is What We All Want Ultimately - To Escape!

   However it's a strange thing, but No.6 only attempts to escape his confinement of the village only on four occasions. Twice in Arrival - then again during The Schizoid Man, and once more in Checkmate. I haven't counted either Free For All, Many Happy Returns or Fall Out, as they are both special cases. In Free For All No.6 was elected to the lofty position of being the new No.2, and he instantly tried to organsie a mass breakout of the village, and that was of course his intention right from the very beginning. But it would never have worked, as No.6 was never in control, because 'they' knew exactly what No.6's game was. Then in Many Happy Returns they allowed No.6 to leave the village, because the village might have seemed deserted, but I cannot believe that the whole village was evacuated for the benefit of No.6, and then repopulated once he had departed on his Kon Tiki style raft. As for Fall Out, there was a violent revolution, and the village was evacuated. Everyone got away from the village, No.6 and No.1 included!
Be seeing you

Downright Weird!

This steel see-saw device situated in the Control Room, must be the weirdest thing employed. It has a monitor and an Observer at either end, and goes up and down, as it revolves round and round. What might be the idea behind this strange device, could be that when sat watching a monitor for long periods of time, one fails to notice what is taking place on the screen. The duration for a person watching surveillance screens is about twenty minutes. After that one should take a break. So it might be that the movement of the see-saw gives a longer time to the Observers watching the monitors at either end. The motion of the see-saw being a destraction to them.

Be seeing you.

Thought For The Day

    In Many Happy Returns, how did that black cat manage to smash a cup and saucer? Not only that. But the same cat which was sat on a table on the lawn of the Old People's Home, when No.6 set out on his sea voyage - was still sat there in the same position on the day No.6 was so unceremoniously returned to the village almost a month later!
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The Chimes Of Big Ben

   If we are to believe Nadia Rakovsky's story, as No.6 was forced to, then the question must surely arise of how Nadia's contact man, who had been waiting at that cave, knew Nadia had escaped the village, and was on her way? Indeed, if Nadia-No.8 was a real Prisoner in the village, how would it be possible for her to contact Karel, her contact man in the cave? No.6 didn't consider how it was possible that Karel knew when Nadia was escaping the village. Perhaps it simply never occured to him to question Nadia about it, that her contact was already there waiting for her in that cave. Or it might be that Karel had been waiting there just on the off chance - nah! Of course Nadia's contact man was actually Post Five whom No.2 had contacted about Nadia and No.6 being on their way to him. But No.6 didn't know that.....did he?
Be seeing you.

The Case Of The Disappearing Hearse!

Here we see a scene from the Prisoner episode Do Not Forsake Me Oh My Darling, as the Prisoner, in the guise of the Colonel, played by Nigel Stock, parks his Lotus outside his London home of 1 Buckingham Place. Already parked in the street is a black hearse, that has shadowed the Prisoner/Colonel through the streets, so as to arrive in Buckingham Place first. Which is almost exactly what happened in the opening sequence of the Prisoner after he had tendered his resignation from Military Intelligence. Indeed much of what we see as the Prisoner drives through London is actually taken from Arrival!

    This second image is also from Do Not Forsake Me Oh My Darling, but there is no sign whatsoever of  the hearse. The hearse is nowhere to be seen in the street! What's more, the Lotus has been parked a little further on. And that's not Nigel Stock having just climbed out of the Lotus, but that of Patrick McGoohan!

There are more holes in this episode of Do Not Forsake Me Oh My Darling than there is in the village when M2's awake!

BCNU.

Caught On Camera

 On the left is No.240, an observer who was assigned to watch No.34, whom she got to know well. However No.34 didn't know her! She was then assigned to be No.6's observer, whom she was unawar, was following her to the Town Hall!

  And above is the Butler, manservant, personal Valet, Gentleman's gentleman to No.2. He, both serves and obeys intructions without question, each new master that comes along. However these two characters do have one thing in common - they both wear their village capes inside out! Village capes are generally colourful striped affairs, with brown linings. But here we observe that both No.240 and the Butler wear their capes with the brown lining on the outside, you can just see a flash of red colour underneath that of 240's cape. Why? Well it might very well be that both 240 and the Butler are showing individual tendencies. On the other hand, maybe Norma West, who plays No.240, and Angelo Muscat as the Butler, didn't want to look stupid in such garish and colourful attire!
Be seeing you

Dance Of The Dead

    Mary Morris plays No.2 in the episode of Dance of The Dead, and her costume for the Ball is that of Peter Pan. A strange selection for a woman one might think, however originally there had been another choice - that of Father Time!
     However Mary Morris was not the first choice to play the role of No.2, originally Trevor Howard, pictured here, was to have been given the role, but was too ill at the time to accept. His costume for the Ball, as in the episode, was to have been that of Jack The Ripper.
                                                          
  However certain lines of the script remain unchanged, such as the final line of the episode when she says to No.6 "Then how very uncomfortable for you old chap." A masculine line which Mary Morris was comfortable with saying, like so many masculine lines in Dance of the Dead, which has, over the years, brought this No.2's sexuality into question.
    One other thing about Dance of the Dead, is that originally at the end, all the citizens, including No.2, and excluding No.6, were to have died in a frenzy that was the Dance of the Dead!
I'll be seeing you

Arts And Crafts

   Keeping an open surviellance eye!

BCNU

It's Inexplicable!

   It's Your Funeral - if the innocent citizens of the village were going to be blamed for the assassination of the retiring No.2, why should a rebellious soul like No.6 be concerned for their welfare!
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Thought For The Day

    In the episode It's Your Funeral, the plan was to assassinate/execute the retiring No.2, who had about his neck the Great Seal of Office which was worn at all official ceremonies. A replica of the Greal Seal had been made by the Watchmaker-No.51, and the explosive was to be detonated by radio as the Great Seal hung about No.2's head and shoulders as he stood on the balcony giving an address to the good citizens of the community. But it wasn't, and as the new No.2 hurredly gave his speech to the gathered citizens he was sweating that the explosive should be detonated whilst the Great Seal hung about his head and shoulders. But surely it would not have mattered whose head and shoulders the Great Seal of Office hung. For as the explosive was detonated the bomb would have killed more people standing on the balcony, and think of the blood, bone, and gore which would have been spread over those who might have survived the explosion!
Be seeing you

Prismatic Reflection

    Over the years there has often been the question of 'continuity' within and between episodes of the Prisoner, and looking as though there isn't any. I mean one moment during Free For All No.6 is wearing a piped blazer with continuous piping around the lapels, and the next it's broken piping. Or in Hammer Into Anvil No.6's copy of The Tally Ho newspaper is folded long ways in one scene, and in another its folded squarely! And it's no better between the episodes, and here is a prime example. Both episodes of Many Happy Returns and Dance of the Dead were written by the same scriptwriter Anthony Skene, so at least there should be some continuity here. At the end of Many Happy Returns a scene at the end of the episode was changed after No.6 had been so unceremoniously returned to the village. When No.2-Mrs Butterworth comes into No.6's cottage bearing a birthday cake, instead she gives him a copy of The Tally Ho, the headline reads Plane Lost At Sea. No Hope Of Survivors. "Give in and enjoy being dead" No.2 tells him. No.6 screws up the newspaper and replys "I'll die first!"
    The fact that No.6 was ejected out of the Gloster Meteor jet, demonstrates his untimely return to the village. However, what of the plane and the pilot? Originally the plane would have been ditched in the sea, becasue the pilot was quite obviously an agent working for the village. And so being he could hardly return to England without the navigator, hence No.6 having died in an accident at sea. But then why was this reported in the village newspaper, why didn't No.2 show No.6 a copy of The Times, or Daily Mirror, a newspaper from the outside world?
    But seeing as how that part of the final scene of Many Happy Returns was altered, Anthony Scene was able to fit it into a scene in Dance of the Dead. A scene between No.2 and No.6 in the mortuary in the Town Hall whilst discussing the body in one of the long drawers.
No.6 "In his pocket."
No.2 "The wallet? It's still there, amended slightly. We'll amend him slightly. It's you who's dead, in an accident at sea."
"So to the outside world....."
"Which you only dream about."
"I'll be dead" No.6 condedes.
"A small confirmation of a known fact" No.2 concludes.
    This is by some way making up for the altered final scene of the previous episode Many Happy Returns, or confirming that which was written in the script, but didn't happen in the episode! But either way, because of a different scriptwriter for the episode Do Not Forsake Me Oh My Darling, the fact that the Prisoner's reported death to the outside world, in an earlier episode appears to have been forgotten! Certainly Sir Chales Portland and his daughter Janet in Do Not Forsake Me Oh My Darling were completely unaware of such a reported death. After all the Prisoner was Janet Portland's fiance, and an ex-colleague of Sir Charles Portland.
I'll be seeing you

Portmeirion In The Snow

    The four following images were taken a few moments ago, via Portmeirion's four webcams.

{Battery Squeare}

{The central Piazza}

{Hecules Hall}

{Hotel and Quayside}

Be seeing you...Brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr it's cold.

                                               

Caught On Camera

There's the raft that No.6 built in the episode Many Happy Returns, but that's not No.6 {Patrick McGoohan}, It's No.6 Frank Maher, McGoohan's stunt double!

BCNU