A life time fan and Prisonerologist of the 1960's series 'the Prisoner', a leading authority on the subject, a short story writer, and now Prisoner novelist.
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Wednesday, 27 April 2011
Cartoon Capers
Peanuts by Tony Reeve
{This is especially for Moor Larkin}
Hello Moor Larkin, That's very good, your comment. I was highly amused. But let us see if we can get just one more drag out of the cigarette, shall we? I recall No.10 cigarettes, but not No.3, and as a once smoker I have smoked Embassey No.1. I also recall Cambridge cigarettes, instead of the usual cigarette coupons, Cambridge cigarettes had Green Shield stamps.
During the 1950's and 60's smoking was a socially accepted thing to do. It seemed that everyone smoked, although not everyone did. And in almost all of the 'ITC' television series smokers abounded, and of course 'Danger Man' was not an exception. John Drake smoked like a trooper. Every time Drake wanted to take a photograph of someone, he had to light a cigarette, because his micro camera was hidden in his cigarette lighter! Yet in 'the Prisoner' little is made of smoking, despite Patrick McGoohan's nicotine stained fingers! It is not until the episode of 'The Schizoid Man' that we actually see smoking in the Village. No.6 is a smoker, although he doesn't smoke that cigar, because he half chokes on it, due to the plastic running through it. Alison-No.24 is a smoker, although you would hardly know it. The only time we see Alison-No.24 with a cigarete in her hand, is when No.6 lights her cigarette for her towards the end of the episode. In 'Many Happy Returns' we see Mrs Butterworth smoking a cigarillo, that's a hybrid, part cigarette, part cigar, and came with it's own holder. And during 'Living In Harmony' No.6 as the Stranger, while in the Jail House, rolls himself a cigarette. Some fans have said he rolls himself a cigar. Well that's ludicrous, because the brown cigarette paper No.6 is using, is a liqourice paper. So why is it with 'the Prisoner,' that so little is made of smoking, after all so many people did in those days, I have often wondered. Perhaps the non-smoking society of the Village was a prediction for the future!
In the 2009 series of THEPRISONER, I don't know whether or not you have watched it. But cigarettes in the Village are illicit, and are sold from 'under the counter' in the Village Shop, in much the same way as cigarettes will be sold here in the United Kingdom, from next April I think it is, although I could be wrong about the date. Nice prediction that I thought, on the part of the writer Billa Gallagher and the producers of the series. Regards David BCNU
Hello Moor Larkin, That's right no drinking. No.6 did act as though he was drunk, but I always felt that that was brought about by a side effect of drugs he was forced to take. No.2 feigned being drunk in the Therapy Zone, and so the brewer was fake also. Oh people do drink, non-alcoholic drink which looks the same, tastes the same, but won't get you tiddly! And today non-alcoholic drinks a prevelant, have you tried any? Some of the non-alcoholic beers taste damned awful! No.1, some kind of prohibitionist, yes he might be, and that's all the worse for No.6 who likes a drink.
Ah, I had not realised that advertising of cigerettes had been stopped so soon as 1965, well only being 10 years of age at the time, I probably wouldn't, not back then. And if Patrick McGoohan had picked up on that, he did it well in 'the Prisoner.' Pity the Prisoner himself has such nicotine stained fingers, something now seen in wonderful High Definition television!
Script Editor George Markstein would have had a nightmare, if the scripts were rejected on the grounds that heroes don't smoke. Mind you heroes are not supposed to sweat either, and that's one other thing the viewer can see in High Definition, the sweat on the Prisoner's brow!
The way the Labour Exchange manager has the file on Number Six’s private past life is the same trope that was being written into Arrival. The scene with the Labour Exchange manager also reveals the perfect lie of one of the cult Club stories supposedly told to them by George Markstein. When the researching fans discovered one of the *unused* scripts (by Morrias Fahri) they asked Markstein why this script was rejected. Fatuously, the script editor made up some nonsense about McGoohan disliking it because the script had Number Six sweating under pressure and Markstein’s famous quote was that McGoohan complained, “Heroes don’t sweat”. However, the Labour Exchange mind control scene in Free For All leaves Number Six at the end of it, sweating profusely, and wiping his face with his handkerchief, revealing the comment to be as baseless as it was fatuous. http://numbersixwasinnocent.blogspot.com/2010/12/mcgoohan-introduces-himself-to-his-fans.html
Hello Moor Larkin, Yes, it's a great pity that the script 'the Outsider' by Moris Fahri, was rejected. It's a far better script than that of 'Do Not Forsake Me Oh My Darling,' and would have added much to the series in my own humble opinion. Poor old No.6, mopping his sweaty brow with his handkerchief in the Labour Exchange Managers office like that after the Truth Test in 'Free For All'.' Heroes don't sweat eh? Well No.6 sweats all the time, and no less than when he's exerting himself in 'Once Upon A Time.' I mean just look at the sweat on No.6's brow when No.2 is telling him to kill him during the fencing scene!
I was once a long time member of Six of One: The Prisoner Appreciation Society, and a proud and active member to boot. And I tell you this, I've heard and read a good many of the stories from people who worked on 'the Prisoner.' And I learned to believe some of what I was told, or read, and take a pinch of salt with the rest. I've heard some very dodgy stories. One from a local woman to Portmadog, near Portmeirion, who was in 'the Prisoner' who claimed in one story she told that she was the Spanish dancer in 'Dance of the Dead, and that's corrct, she was. But then at different times she also claims to have been all three of those bikini clad girls by the swimming pool in 'Arrival.' More than that, this woman also claimed to have been a body-double for Justine Lord in 'The Girl Who Was Death.' The only problem with that is, 'The Girl Who Was Death' wasn't filmed anywhere near Portmeirion, and Justine Lord never went to Portmeirion. Well not until this years 'Prisoner' Convention that is. And then there's Alexis Kanner, who claimed to know as much about, and undertsand 'the Prisoner' as Patrick McGoohan himself.....Kanner was only in three episodes late on into the series, and one of those was but a bit-part!
I think this was my favourite 'P-Nuts' cartoon by Tony Reeve. His work inspired me to come up with 'The Jailbird' strip for 'Six Of One'. The strips ran from 1986 to 1994.
I fondly remember chatting with both Tony Reeve and Lew Stringer (who put a good word in for me at the Buster Comic) in the Hercule's Hall bar at Portmeirion...
I don't miss 'Six Of One' quite so much - as I eventually discovered there were far more 'Warders' than 'Prisoners'.
Hello Moor Larkin,
ReplyDeleteThat's very good, your comment. I was highly amused. But let us see if we can get just one more drag out of the cigarette, shall we?
I recall No.10 cigarettes, but not No.3, and as a once smoker I have smoked Embassey No.1. I also recall Cambridge cigarettes, instead of the usual cigarette coupons, Cambridge cigarettes had Green Shield stamps.
During the 1950's and 60's smoking was a socially accepted thing to do. It seemed that everyone smoked, although not everyone did. And in almost all of the 'ITC' television series smokers abounded, and of course 'Danger Man' was not an exception. John Drake smoked like a trooper. Every time Drake wanted to take a photograph of someone, he had to light a cigarette, because his micro camera was hidden in his cigarette lighter! Yet in 'the Prisoner' little is made of smoking, despite Patrick McGoohan's nicotine stained fingers!
It is not until the episode of 'The Schizoid Man' that we actually see smoking in the Village. No.6 is a smoker, although he doesn't smoke that cigar, because he half chokes on it, due to the plastic running through it. Alison-No.24 is a smoker, although you would hardly know it. The only time we see Alison-No.24 with a cigarete in her hand, is when No.6 lights her cigarette for her towards the end of the episode. In 'Many Happy Returns' we see Mrs Butterworth smoking a cigarillo, that's a hybrid, part cigarette, part cigar, and came with it's own holder. And during 'Living In Harmony' No.6 as the Stranger, while in the Jail House, rolls himself a cigarette. Some fans have said he rolls himself a cigar. Well that's ludicrous, because the brown cigarette paper No.6 is using, is a liqourice paper. So why is it with 'the Prisoner,' that so little is made of smoking, after all so many people did in those days, I have often wondered. Perhaps the non-smoking society of the Village was a prediction for the future!
In the 2009 series of THEPRISONER, I don't know whether or not you have watched it. But cigarettes in the Village are illicit, and are sold from 'under the counter' in the Village Shop, in much the same way as cigarettes will be sold here in the United Kingdom, from next April I think it is, although I could be wrong about the date. Nice prediction that I thought, on the part of the writer Billa Gallagher and the producers of the series.
Regards
David
BCNU
Hello Moor Larkin,
ReplyDeleteThat's right no drinking. No.6 did act as though he was drunk, but I always felt that that was brought about by a side effect of drugs he was forced to take. No.2 feigned being drunk in the Therapy Zone, and so the brewer was fake also. Oh people do drink, non-alcoholic drink which looks the same, tastes the same, but won't get you tiddly!
And today non-alcoholic drinks a prevelant, have you tried any? Some of the non-alcoholic beers taste damned awful!
No.1, some kind of prohibitionist, yes he might be, and that's all the worse for No.6 who likes a drink.
Ah, I had not realised that advertising of cigerettes had been stopped so soon as 1965, well only being 10 years of age at the time, I probably wouldn't, not back then. And if Patrick McGoohan had picked up on that, he did it well in 'the Prisoner.' Pity the Prisoner himself has such nicotine stained fingers, something now seen in wonderful High Definition television!
Script Editor George Markstein would have had a nightmare, if the scripts were rejected on the grounds that heroes don't smoke. Mind you heroes are not supposed to sweat either, and that's one other thing the viewer can see in High Definition, the sweat on the Prisoner's brow!
Regards
David
BCNU
The way the Labour Exchange manager has the file on Number Six’s private past life is the same trope that was being written into Arrival. The scene with the Labour Exchange manager also reveals the perfect lie of one of the cult Club stories supposedly told to them by George Markstein. When the researching fans discovered one of the *unused* scripts (by Morrias Fahri) they asked Markstein why this script was rejected. Fatuously, the script editor made up some nonsense about McGoohan disliking it because the script had Number Six sweating under pressure and Markstein’s famous quote was that McGoohan complained, “Heroes don’t sweat”. However, the Labour Exchange mind control scene in Free For All leaves Number Six at the end of it, sweating profusely, and wiping his face with his handkerchief, revealing the comment to be as baseless as it was fatuous.
ReplyDeletehttp://numbersixwasinnocent.blogspot.com/2010/12/mcgoohan-introduces-himself-to-his-fans.html
Hello Moor Larkin,
ReplyDeleteYes, it's a great pity that the script 'the Outsider' by Moris Fahri, was rejected. It's a far better script than that of 'Do Not Forsake Me Oh My Darling,' and would have added much to the series in my own humble opinion.
Poor old No.6, mopping his sweaty brow with his handkerchief in the Labour Exchange Managers office like that after the Truth Test in 'Free For All'.' Heroes don't sweat eh? Well No.6 sweats all the time, and no less than when he's exerting himself in 'Once Upon A Time.' I mean just look at the sweat on No.6's brow when No.2 is telling him to kill him during the fencing scene!
I was once a long time member of Six of One: The Prisoner Appreciation Society, and a proud and active member to boot. And I tell you this, I've heard and read a good many of the stories from people who worked on 'the Prisoner.' And I learned to believe some of what I was told, or read, and take a pinch of salt with the rest.
I've heard some very dodgy stories. One from a local woman to Portmadog, near Portmeirion, who was in 'the Prisoner' who claimed in one story she told that she was the Spanish dancer in 'Dance of the Dead, and that's corrct, she was. But then at different times she also claims to have been all three of those bikini clad girls by the swimming pool in 'Arrival.' More than that, this woman also claimed to have been a body-double for Justine Lord in 'The Girl Who Was Death.' The only problem with that is, 'The Girl Who Was Death' wasn't filmed anywhere near Portmeirion, and Justine Lord never went to Portmeirion. Well not until this years 'Prisoner' Convention that is.
And then there's Alexis Kanner, who claimed to know as much about, and undertsand 'the Prisoner' as Patrick McGoohan himself.....Kanner was only in three episodes late on into the series, and one of those was but a bit-part!
Regards
David
BCNU
I think this was my favourite 'P-Nuts' cartoon by Tony Reeve. His work inspired me to come up with 'The Jailbird' strip for 'Six Of One'. The strips ran from 1986 to 1994.
ReplyDeleteI fondly remember chatting with both Tony Reeve and Lew Stringer (who put a good word in for me at the Buster Comic) in the Hercule's Hall bar at Portmeirion...
I don't miss 'Six Of One' quite so much - as I eventually discovered there were far more 'Warders' than 'Prisoners'.
BCNU... );oB