It was said of the three children in The Girl Who Was Death, that the likes of which were not seen before or since in the series. Well that's not quite true. Here are two pictures taken from the episode Living In Harmony.
Here you can see children on the right of the picture, taken during the fight scene, when the Judges 'boys' were trying to teach the man With No Name that it isn't safe to go about not wearing a gun.
And here in the above picture, a young boy stands looking on, after the fight it over. Obviously they are children of members of the production crew, but dressed appropriately for the episode, therefore there are children living in the village. But then again, seeing as Living In Harmony is all in the Prisoner's mind, so too are the children! Be seeing you
Curiously enough, one of the criticisms I've read of the episode The Girl Who Was Death is that it uses children as a plot device and yet children had never been seen in the Village up to that point - yet another Fan Myth, as you can see. Did McGoohan introduce them in Living in Harmony for precisely the purpose of utilising the device of children in the very next episode? Who knows? You decide for yourself, but bear in mind that children were specifically requested for Living in Harmony, according to Frank Maher, who provided his own as two of them.
ReplyDeletehttp://numbersixwasinnocent.blogspot.com/2010/01/mcgoohan-on-my-mind-harmonising.html
Hello Moor Larkin,
ReplyDeleteYou are quite right about the children used in 'The Girl Who Was Death' as being a plot device. How they actually came to be in the village is anyones guess. Born in the village I should imagine, but then as you rightly say, there have never been children seen in the village up to that point.
My wife always thought that the children seen in 'Living In Harmony,' to be children of members of the prodcution crew, who were possibly on half-term from school, asked if they could be in the episode. Well perhaps that was the case, or it could be that Patrick McGoohan especially asked for children to appear in the episode. And Frank Maher did indeed provide his own children. And why shouldn't there be children in 'Living In Harmony?' After all there would have been in real life, so why not the fantasy?
Regards
David
BCNU