It has been confirmed by several members of the production crew who worked on the Prisoner, that Patrick McGoohan was dead set against the use of in-jokes being put into the filming of the series, unless of course McGoohan himself was behind any such in-joke. The biggest in-joke on the part of McGoohan being him singing and humming Oh Danny Boy, which is considered by many to be the lyrics of the National anthem of Northern Ireland. Oh Danny Boy is a ballad about someone from Ireland, but was actually written by an English Lawyer Frederic Weatherby in 1910, and is usually set to the tune of the Londonderry Air.
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So all the in-jokes were McGoohan's ideas? Cool!! I knew he was clever, but never realised HOW clever!! The series was chock full of double-meaning and quirky little sidelong dialogue. Personally I think the fact that the first dialogue heard in the show was betweeen McGoohan and Ralph Smart's sister was a sign of things to come. But then of course, that was after the script editor had been seen in the opening titles.
ReplyDeleteAnd the fact that 007 is in the very first shot we see..... imagery of a man in a Lotus 7. But after that......... the Number 7 is only notable by it's almost complete absence.
Who is Number One?
You are Number Six.
Hello Moor Larkin,
ReplyDeleteMcGoohan chose the Lotus 7 because he saw it as a car of individuality, one fit for a rebel. Originally KAR 120C was black, McGoohan had Lotus respray the car in 'the Prisoner' livery. And as you say it is the only time a '7' appears in 'the Prisoner.' there is no number 7 in the village. Take the electronic Free Information Board in 'Arrival' and 'Free For All.' The number 7 is replaced by a second number 6, and and number containing the digit 7 does not appear amongst the numbered buttons, replaced by another number, or are sub- divided numbers as 66b for example. Yet having said that, one number does appear in the village containing the digit 7, No.73 of 'Hammer Into Anvil.' Originally McGoohan didn't want the number 7 to appear in the village, because it is considerd to be a lucky number, as 13 is thought to be an unlucky number. Well, that's how the story goes.
Regards
David
BCNU