Thought For The Day

    I know that the Supervisor No.28 turned out also to be a member of the delegates in Free For All, but so too did No.93 a former Unmutual in the episode A Change Of Mind, and before that he was a Guardian in The General, but then his number was 256. So is it a demotion for the former 256 to the number 93 because of his fall from grace as an Unmutual, or promotion? I can never make up my mind. I suppose seeing as how No.1 is the boss, being made up from No.256 to 93 must surely be a promotion upwards. In any case, it would seem that confession is good not only for the soul, but for getting-on in the Village, seeing as how 93 went on to become a member of the Assembly!  BCNU

I say, You're Not the Duke Of Wellington Are You?

    In the episode The Girl Who Was Death, No.6 tells three children a fairy tale, and puts No.2 in the role of Napoleon Bonaparte. When No.6 as Mister X is captured by Napoleon and his daughter, and guesses that the Lighthouse is the rocket, Napoleon replies I say, you're not the Duke of Wellington are you? 
    As it happens, the book Webster's Directory of Proper Names the address of Number One, London is referred to as the old postal address of Apsley House, at Hyde Park Corner - the first Duke of Wellington's home.
   A curious point, nothing more.   Be seeing you

Pictorial Prisoner

BCNU

Observers Of Life Should Never Get Involved!

  The following article I wrote for the Prisoner based magazine Number Six in the 1990's.

BCNU

THEPRISONER

BCNU

60 Second Interview With The Colonel

  No.113 "So, this is London is it?"
  The Colonel "It's my office certainly."
   "Is it?"
   "Yes. Drink?"
   "Whiskey."
   No.113b "Smile" {click goes the camera}
   "A large one?"
   "I'm a newspaperman Colonel, what do you think?"
   "Of course. So what can I do for you?"
   "Number Six......"
   "Who?"
   "Don't you know who I'm talking about?"
   "All I know old boy, is that you came here asking for an interview.......what newspaper did you say you work for?"
   No.113b "Smile" {click goes the camera}
   "I didn't. But my photographic colleague and I contribute to The Tally Ho you know."
   "No, I didn't know. Look you had better leave."
   "Why's that Colonel?"
   "Because I'm expecting an important delivery within the next few minutes."
   "A delivery of what?"
"I rather think that's my business."
"Humour me Colonel?"
"Well, it'sd not a what, it's whom!"
"It's not Number Six is it?"
"Number Six, Number Six, who is this Number Six you keep going on about?"
"He's not been seen in the Village for twelve hours now. Nor has Number Eight for that matter. Do you think they've absconded together?"
"The Village?"
"Surely you know about the Village Colonel?"
"Look old boy........."
"Perhaps we should call Number Two!"
"Number Two..........."
"Are you naturally stupid Colonel, or do you work at it?"
{Suddenly the door of the Colonels office opens, and two men wheel a large crate into the room.}
"Hello what have we here?"
Fotheringay "Look gentlemen, you'll have to leave now. This is offical business."
No.113 "What is it, a crate full of paper clips?"
Fotherirngay "Two crates full actually. There's another crate outside in the lorry!"
The Colonel "Right Fotheringay, get the crate open."
No.113 "One-one-three b have your camera ready."
{The crate is opened}
Fortheringay "Paper clips, they're boxes and boxes of paper clips!"
The Colonel "It's the wrong crate Fotheringay. Get the other cate in here quick!"
"But the Lorry's gone Sir!"
The Colonel "Well bugger me!"
No.113 "Yes Colonel, they just might!"
No.113b "Smile"{Click goes the camera}

Reporter No.113
Photographer No.113b

If..............

......... Janet Portland, pictured here, has been keeping an eye on her fiances house in Buckingham Place, Westminster, London, who was then passing by during the episode of Do Not Forsake Me Oh My Darling and spotted the Prisoners car parked outside his house, but found someone else living there, the Colonel.
   But what if Janet Portland had been passing by on an earlier occasion, say during Many Happy Returns, and saw her fiances car parked outside in the street. She would have knocked on the door, as she did in Do Not Forsake Me Oh My Darling, only to be confronted by Mrs Butterworth, or worse, by her house maid Martha on the door step, what then?
   But if you think I've squeezed this scenario dry, then you would be wrong. What if Janet had just been passing by along Buckingham Street, a few minutes earlier, and there he is, the Prisoner, her fiance loitering outside No.1 Buckingham Place.......that scenario would certainly have messed things up for Mrs Butterworth!
    I'll be keeping an eye open for the Prisoners return!

Its Inexplicable

    Inexplicable? Yes, in the way that only the armed security guards are killed in that fire-fight of Fall Out, when everyone else got out of the cavern alive! What's more, someone took the time to place all the dead security guards on or around the dais! Plus, why isn't the cavern filled with flames instead of steam as the rocket blasts off out of it's silo?

Caught On Camera

    In Arrival, both No.6 and the new No.2 are dressed identically. Also No.2 pictured here, is the only No.2 to wear such a piped blazer. All the other No.2's save for No.2 of Free For All, wear either single or double breasted plain blazers. So, it could be said that this No.2 is either showing individual or copy-cat tendencies  Be seeing you.

THEPRISONER

You Know When You've Become A Prisoner..........

................................. When the bars slam shut, and the prison door is locked against you! Either that or you simply cannot leave McG's Prisoner alone. The Prisoner lives with me each and everyday, and not a day goes by when I do not think or write something about either series....just as I am doing now. The phrase A prisoner of the Prisoner was once a much used phrase, which certainly applies to me. I am no longer in control, and have not been so for quiute a large number of years. The Prisoner dictates to me, but perhaps only because I allow it to. Perhaps I am a weak and feeble man, so immersed in a 44 going on 45 year old television series. But do you know, well no you cannot possibly know. Although it is just over a month since I last watched the 2009 series of THEPRISONER, and it is that series which I already crave to watch again so soon after!    BCNU.

I'll Stress It In My Report!

    'I told you' No.2 said.
   'Don't worry' Nadia replied climbing the steel staircase 'It was a good idea and you did your best. I'll stress it in my report.'
    Nadia Rakovsky, if indeed that is her real name, is dressed for leaving the Village, so to whom is she going to report? An external power, or some government department, or person outside the Village? But if by any chance Nadia is going to report to No.1, in person, then she's in for a shock!
   If Nadia is leaving the Village, and going to report to someone or department in some country away from the Village, is that where the original idea behind The Chimes of Big Ben originated, and if so, then not from No.1?    Be seeing you

Arts And Crafts

   From my surreal period - a surreal Village under an sulpher sky.

                                                            BCNU

Pictorial Prisoner

                                                                     BCNU

THEPRISONER

BCNU

You Of All People!

    Roland Walter Dutton was certainly surprised to see his old colleague, now No.6 in the Village. You, of all people! I'd never have believed it Dutton tells him, this upon their first and only meeting during the Dance of the Dead.
    So why is Dutton so surprised to see his old colleague in such a situation? Is Dutton suspicious about No.6, wondering of he is a prisoner or warder? Did Dutton think that No.6 had killed the man he cast off adrift in the sea? Perhaps Dutton thought better of his old colleague, that he would be the last person he would meet in the Village! Yet there is suspicion in Dutton's voice when No.6 asks him how long he has been in the Village? To which Dutton responds You don't know? To which No.6 responds Would I ask? It's difficult for Dutton to say how long he's been in the Village, a couple of months perhaps. While No.6 arrived quite recently.......quite recenly, when Dance of the Dead is the eigth episode in the series? But of course Dance of the Dead was originally intended to be a much earlier episode in the screening order of the Prisoner, third, if not second. So if that had been the actual case, then No.6 would have been right to say he'd been in the Village only until quite recently. So why haven't No.6 and Roland Walter Dutton met sooner in the Village? Well they met by a cave on the beach, not exaclty in the Village. And seeing as how Dutton must have spent the majority of his time as a patient at the hospital, the doctor-No.40 attempting to extract as much of the information inside Dutton's head as he could, it seems highly unlikely that the two men would have met before. Don't forget what Dutton said to No.6, They'll take me back to hospital, and by the time they realise I'm telling the truth, it'll be too late. In any case, there has to be a first time, and when Dutton met No.6 in Dance of the Dead, that was the first time.
    No.6 asks Dutton how London is. Dutton replies that places don't change, only people. Some people indicating that No.6 is still as he alawys was. But Roland Walter Dutton is not the same man. For he is not as fortunate as No.6, Roland Walter Dutton is expendable!   BCNU

Lifemanship And The Prisoner

    Lifemanship, for those who do not know, is where ploys are used against those who oppose us, in order to keep oneself one-up on your opponant. Who are your opponants? Everyone who you are not one-up on. Because if you are not one-up, then you are one-down!
    Number Six finds himself constantly in a one-down situation with Number Two, except when he is occasionally one-up. Take The Chimes of Big Ben, Number Six is being interviewed by No.2 in his office. Number Two tries to get one-up on Number Six, by getting Number Six to say if he takes sugar 'One lump or two?' Number Six tells Number Two that it's in his file, 'Yes but it would save time.' 'Why, are you running out of time?' Number Six replies. So Number Two has to read 'Does not take sugar.' Number Six is now in a one-up on Number Two. Then as the interview continues, and to add insult to injury, Number Six drops three lumps of sugar into his tea, putting Number Six firmly one-up on Number Two.
    When is Number Six one-down? In Arrival when he fails to escape the Village. Then there's A B & C, and of course Free For All, in which he is continually one-down. The Schizoid Man, being one-down both to Number Two and Curtis. But then finds himself one-up on Number Two as he impersonates Curtis, but ultimately Number Six is one-down when Number Two tells him that 'Susan died a year ago.' But with the next episode The General, we have the curious situation in which everyone is in a one-down! During Many Happy Returns Number Six thinks he's in a good one-up situation, having escaped the confines of the Village. But the new Number Two soon finds herself one-up on Number Six as he is unceremoniously returned to the Village. In Dance of the Dead No.2 is definately one-up on Number Six, because he thinks Number Two will never win, but that will be very uncomfortable for Number Six. Checkmate sees Number Six in a definate one-up situation against Number Two. He has his reliable men, and all is set for an escape from the Village. But he is soon once one-down again, to Number Two, and that's thanks to the Rook-No.58. Hammer Into Anvil sees Number Six end an episode one-up on Number Two for the second time. The first time was at the end of A B & C. It's Your Funeral next, well it's the retiring Number Two who is one-up, with the help of Number Six who remains on level par, which is more then can be said of the new Number Two who is one-down after only having taken up office during the Appreciation Day ceremony! Then comes A Change of Mind, Do Not Forsake Me Oh My Darling, and Living In Harmony, in which two out of three episodes in which Number Six manages to turn the tables on Number Two, and the other puts Seltzman one-up over everybody! The Girl Who Was Death, Once Upon A Time, and Fall Out, well Number Six is one-up on Number Two because he wouldn't even drop his guard with his grandmother! And sadly I feel, Number Six is only one-up by the end of Once Upon A Time at the death of Number Two. And Fall Out, well Number Two looks as though he's definately one-up, because he's still alive and has escaped the Village. As for Number Six, well he's still one down, because even though he's back in London, he's still a prisoner!
Be seeing you

Callan

   So, what has Callan got to do with the Prisoner? Nothing as far as I'm aware. However, last night my wife and I sat watching an epiosde of Callan called Lets Kill Everybody from 1969, and it struck me how often both Callan and his colleague Mears used the phrase 'Be seeing you.' That's all, just an observation, nothing more than that.  And by the way, be seeing you.

Midnight To Six

A Literary Encounter With No.1!

     In Fall Out, No.6 comes face to face with No.1, his other self, alter ego, or doppelganger. But this was hardly an original idea, because literature is littered with such encounters in which a character meets with himself. For example the ghost story Midnight Express by Alfred Noyes, was this the inspiration of Patrick McGoohan to have No.6 meet with No.1, his other self in Fall Out? We shall never know, but in all probability, it wasn't. yet it is the connection with the meeting of No.6 and No.1 which was the inspiration behind the the following article, written for Number Six magazine in 1999.

    I'll be seeing you, preferably standing beneath a lamp, and in the lamplight on a dark and gloomy night.

THEPRISONER

The Tally Ho

    The Tally Ho is a modest little Prisoner based newsletter, which I produce in hard-copy format. Here is the front page of the Summer issue 2010.

Caught On Camera

   Alright, we know what Pat McG is up to don't we? Don't we? Of course we do, he's explaining to the presumed Police Constable, because he's not a real Policeman, what has just taken place during Fall Out, which was some time ago by the time this takes place. Because don't forget the long journey which takes place after leaving the Village.
   But I wonder what that woman, who has just passed by with a group of other people thought was going on, because there she is, looking back over her shoulder.
    Smile love, you've been caught on camera, and immortalised by the Prisoner for all time!
  BCNU

Pictorial Prisoner

BCNU

Arts And Crafts

    Simply entitled 'ESCAPE.'

BCNU

Thought For The Day

    Who put the Village mortuary in the Town Hall? Well that's where it's situated in the Prisoner episode Dance of the Dead. To my way of thinking, the Mortuary should be in the Hospital. But then I suppose it would have been difficult to arrange that scene when No.6 is making a search of the Town Hall, finds the body of the dead man in that long drawer in the Mortuary. And then the scene in which No.2 explains that like the wallet in the dead man's pocket, he will be amended..slightly. But it's still a funny place to have a Mortuary, in the Town Hall of all places!     BCNU

THEPRISONER

The Tally Ho

    Many of you reading this will not be aware, but I produce a Prisoner based newsletter The Tally Ho, which is issued four times a year, along with additional Supplementary Tally Ho's as and when called for. I have been producing this 'hard copy' newsletter for a number of years now, and it contains articles on both series of the Prisoner. I bring news to the modest readership, on whatever is happening relating to the Prisoner or Portmeirion, even that of Danger Man and the late Patrick McGoohan. I always aim to inform and entertain with each issue. What follows is the front page of the August 2009 issue, which covers the 2009 series of THEPRISONER.

Our Diminutive Friend The Butler

    The Butler serves without question, each new Number Two who comes along. Although the one exception might very well be that of Mrs Butterworth, who although we do not see her, may very well have brought her house maid, Martha with her to the Village. If that was the case, the Butler would have been unemployed for a while! Because I couldn't see Matha suffering anyone else serving her mistress. But I digress. I have often felt that there is much more than meets the eye with the Butler.
    During the prize giving ceremony at the Arts & Crafts Exhibition during the Chimes of Big Ben, it is the Butler who hands out the prizes. So in this case, does this make him more important than No.2?
    In Checkmate the Butler makes his way from the Green Dome to the top of the bandstand, from where he follows the moves of the human chessmatch on a chessboard of his own. But on the way there, the Butler has a Top-Hat Administration Official, carrying the chess set for the Butler, who protects him against the sun by carrying aloft an open umbrella, and continues to shade the Butler against the sun with said open umbrella during the whole of the chessmatch. Now the Butler often performs this same tasks for his master No.2, shading him from the sun with an open umbrella. But curiously, here is the Butler receiving the same treatment!
    The Butler also helps to officiate at the Appreciation day ceremony, but holding the Great Seal of Office on a crimson cushion.
   In A Change of Mind, the Butler can be seen officiating in the Council Chamber at meetings of the Committee with those citizens who have been brought before them for being Unmutual! I cannot imagine what duty the Butler might have at such Committee meetings, save for making the tea in time for a tea-break!
    Then comes Once Upon A Time, the Butler is the third occupant of the Embryo Room, where he looks after No.2 and No.6 for the whole week they are sealed in the room together. Making meals, washing up, making beds and the like. But more than this, he also assists the two men during their deliberations. From handling props and costumes, to creating special effects, to dishing out twelve of the best to No.6!
   And finally in Fall Out, the Butler actively engages in the violent and bloody revolution. Although one doesn't see any blood, one has to imagine the blood as the armed security men are gunned down, by No.6 and his three confederates. It is curious, that the Butler actually knows that the cage of the Embryo Room has been lowered down onto a trailer of a lorry. That the Butler knows about this Scammell Higwayman Transporter. But what is even more curious is the fact that the Butler can actually drive the lorry. By this I mean the foot pedals of brake, accelerator, and clutch, must have been adapted so that the Butlers short legs can reach the said pedals!
   Our diminutive friend may not have involved himself in the social side of the Village, but he was very active within the Village itself, often seen out and about. And somehow I think the Butler knows far more about the actual goings on within, and the working of the Village, than he ever lets on.   BCNU

Postcard From The Village

    I'm not sure of the actual date of this postcard. But when the picture was taken, it was in pre Pantheon days, there being no Green Dome in the picture, which was not constructed until 1960-61. You will also be pleased to observe, that the Stone Boat has a dinghy hanging from her dabits.   Be seeing you.

Village Pin-Up

   All time favourite, Romainian born model and actress, Nadia Gray, who of course played the role of No.8-Nadia Rakovsky in The Chimes of Big Ben.
BCNU

THEPRISONER

I Don't Want A Man Of Fragments!

   It only needs one small thing No.2 tells No.28, or is it 38 If he will answer one simple question, the rest will follow. WHY DID HE RESIGN?
   Well this No.2 obviously hadn't watched the surveillance film footage of the debriefing of the Prisoner by No.2 on the day of his arrival in the Village. Because his predecessor had the very same idea, and that didn't work either. You will recall that during the Prisoners debriefing in Arrival, when he was looking through his personal file. He spotted that the time of his birth was missing from his file. That was a very clever ploy of No.2. Well there you are! No.2 exclaimed Now lets bring it all up to date. Four-thirty-one am, nineteenth of March nineteen twenty-eight. And then the Prisoner had nothing more to say, absolutely nothing. you see No.2 of Arrival had had the same idea as No.2 had had during The Chimes of Big Ben. Get the Prisoner to answer one simple question, like the time of his birth, and the rest will follow......only it didn't! It would appear that the Prisoner was well up on any ploys that were likely to be used against him.     I'll be seeing you.

Thought For The Day

    Patrick McGoohan loved the Prisoner episode of The General. He thought that was exactly what he wanted to do. It was his cup of tea, as it was put at the time.
    Lewis Griefer, author of the episode, which he wrote under a pseudonym of Joshua Adam, his sons' names. The idea for the story line came from Griefer because of the way the educational system failed to meet his sons' needs. It appeared to Griefer that the amount of rote information being squeezed into their heads, did little for their imaginations and even less for their intelligence. Well I'm not at all sure what Speedlearn would do for them!
BCNU

It's A Question Of Why John Drake Resigned

    Why did John Drake resign? Perhaps he became disillusioned with the kind of work he was doing. Travelling the world, putting his life in danger behind both the Iron and Bamboo Curtains. Then at times, having to clear up the mess created by others. Being used for the purpose and gain of others, like General Carteret in The Black Book. John Drake is a very moral thinking man, and didn't always like the things he was asked, or forced to do. But as Drake once said Someone has to do it. Someones got to do it.....
    Not only that, but the scripts were getting a bit on the thin side, the story lines repetative. Patrick McGoohan was no longer happy acting the role of John Drake, so he resigned. It is as the new No.2 in Arrival put it, Subject shows great enthusiasm for his work. Well that's as maybe, but not towards the end he didn't. All you have to do is look at the opening sequence of Koroshi to see that.      I'm obliged.

Caught On Camera!

A woman passes by Lady 'M's dress shop in Borehamwood. One can only guess what she thought of seeing Justine Lord as a maniquin in the shop window during the filming of a scene for The Girl Who Was Death. That is, if the woman actually recognised Justine Lord, which is doubtful. But perhaps she spotted the cameraman who was also in the shop window. Whoever the woman is, whatever she might be thinking as she passes the dress shop, she appears in an episode of the Prisoner, as does anyone else who just happens to be walking or driving passed at that moment. Although they would not have realised it at the time, and not unless they actually watched the series. Be seeing you.                                                                              

THEPRISONER

The Ebb Tide Of The Dance Of The Dead

Here he is, No.6 casting adrift the dead body he found washed up on the beach. The wallet in his pocket, amended slightly with a picture of the Prisoner, together with a map, and letter giving intructions to whomsoever may find it......... But really it's no wonder that the dead body of the former No.34, whom I believe the dead man to be, found it's way into a long box of the Village mortuary in the Town Hall. Because when No.6 set the body adrift, tied to a lifebelt, the tide was actually coming in, he should have waited for the ebb tide, so that the body would be carried out to sea. All that would happen is the body would wash up on the shore for a second time! But then the chances are that the body, if carried out to sea, might very well have been picked up by the crew of M.S. Polotska, seen in the next episode Checkmate.  Be seeing you.

Excatly When Did Mrs Butterworth Take up residence........

....................... At 1 Buckingham Place, Westminster, London?

  Living in the Prisoners home, to make nothing of taking possession of the Prisoners Lotus 7! We are told by Mrs Butterworth herself that she has a taste for a little speed, but since when did an Estate Agent become car salesmen? Mrs Butterworth said that it was the Estate Agents Stumble and Croyden who arranged it all, that the car was for sale. I mean what was the Prisoners car to an Estate Agent? What's more, there was still six months lease to run on the house!
    So when did Mrs Butterworth take up residence at 1 Buckingham Place? Its very difficult to estimate. It might have been arranged a few days before the Prisoner set sail on his epic Sea voyage, so that Mrs Butterworth was safely ensconced in the hosue before the Prisoners return to London. I think was can say that Mrs Butterworth departed 1 Buckingham Place for the Village, sometime after she was interviewed about her role in this matter by either the Police or Special Branch.
    Back in the Village, No.6 soon discovers that Mrs. Butterworth is No.2, and keeping her promise, she baked him a birthday cake, which has six candles upon it. Whether Mrs Butterwoth was in the Village at the outset of the episode Many Happy Returns cannot be reckoned. She might have become involved with the plan, as we saw she was, but didn't take up her role as the new No.2 until the Prisoner was safely on his way back to the Village, having arrived there herself some little time before him.
    Actually, and this would depend upon just when Mrs Butterworth moved into 1 Buckingham Place, that she or her maid did not encounter Janet Portland of Do Not Forsake Me Oh My Darling. Because in this episode Janet Portland was walking along Buckingham Place when she was her fiances car parked outside his house. Of course she knocks on the front door and eventually encounters the Colonel, apparently having taken up residence in the Prisoners house. Now what if one day, Janet Portland had been walking along Buckingham Place, and saw her fiances car parked outside his house, thinking that he was back, from wherever he had been, approaching the house with heart beating, knocks on the front door only to encounter........Martha, Mrs Butterwoths house maid, just as the Prisoner had once done. What then? Surely Janet wouldn't accept that some woman was now living in the Prisoners house! She would wish to speak to Matha's mistress, Mrs Butterworth who would in all probability tell Janet Portland the same tale she told the Prisoner, showing Janet her lease to the house, and the log book of the car. It would be a tricky moment for Mrs Butterworth. But remember that she had been interviewed by either the Police or Special Branch, and they found her story reliable. So it would be a piece of cake for her to convince Janet Portland.....surely.
   And afterwards what? Mrs Butterworth and her house maid Martha depart London for the Village. The house returns to the former occupier, with six months still to run on the lease. And the Lotus is garaged once more. Well someone had had to be looking after the Lotus, because it couldn't be left parked on a yellow line in Buckingham Place. Parking tickets would have been placed on the windscreen, and if these had been ignored, then a Police warning notice would have been placed on the car, and eventually towed away to a Police car pound! And that is perfectly true to real life back in the 1960's. I'll be seeing you.

the Magnum Record Shop

  The Prisoner episode The Girl Who Was Death, sees Mister X being given the instruction of going to the Magnum Record Shop, the chief will speak to him there.
    At the Magnum Record Shop, Mister X gives the shop assistant a signal with his tie, and is handed a record. Mister X then goes to a booth, where he places the record on a turntable, and we hear the voice of the chief giving Mister X his briefing, and instruction of how to act next.
    This might seem a bit comical, especially when Mister X makes the comment 'Thank you very much' to which the voice on the record replies 'What was that?' 'Nothing' Mister X replies. Yet getting instructions from a record is nothing knew. Dan Briggs, of the first season of Mission Impossible on occasion, would go to a record store, and gain instructions for his next mission via a voice on a record.   Be seeing you

Pictorial Prisoner

                     And of course this was eventually changed for a numbered code which No.6 uses in the actual episode.  BCNU

THEPRISONER

Colonel Hawke-Englishe

  Colonel Hawke-English, who was murdered at the wicket, by an exploding cricket ball, just one run short of his century.
   The identity of the actor who played the brief role of Colonel Hawke-Englishe in the Prisoner episode The Girl Who Was Death, has been in question for some little time. Certainly the actor goes uncredited for his role in the episode end credits. My wife said that she had seen the actor before, in an episode of Randell & Hopkirk but couldn't remember which episode!
   I tried tracking the actor down on the Internet, hoping to find a photograph to work from, or amongst actor directories, without success. However, today I can now tell you that the actor who played the role of Colonel Hawke-Englishe is George McGrath.
    I would like to take the credit for this discovery, but it was my wife who found the actors name, credited for his role in the Girl Who Was Death, in a book by Andrew Pixley, which was published in-line with the Prisoner 40th anniversary DVD box set. So the credit must go to Andrew Pixley. However, I shall keep trying to find another picture of George McGrath, if only for my own satisfaction, to prove beyond any shadow of doubt.   Be seeing you

1955

                                                
     I know that bloke, don't I? Certainly there is something familiar about him, I saw the similarity almost at once. That's 1955, a school teacher talking to Six during THEPRIS6NER episode Anvil, played by Warrick Grier. So with whom does 1955 share a similarity?

    Well to begin with there's John Kieron, a character adopted by John Drake in the Danger Man episode Don't Nail Him Yet. Drake who adopted the pesonna of John Kieron, a school teacher, so that he could get close to the man Rawson, who is a Civil Servant suspected of being a traitor, handing over Naval secrets to a Russian agent who runs a Book Shop. Perhaps you can see the similarity between the two characters.
   And here is another one for you, Robert Fuller. John Drake impersonates Fuller in the Danger Man episode Colony Three, who goes behind the Iron Curtain to serve in a 'school for spies.' Again perhaps you can see the similarity between Fuller and 1955. Of course it is Drake who takes on the personnas of John Kieron and Robert Fuller, and it's Patrick McGoohan who plays the role of John Drake. So it might follow that there is a slight similarity between actor Warrick Grier and Patrick McGoohan. I wonder if the similarity between the two roles played by Patrick McGoohan, and the similarity of 1955 in THEPRISONER is on purpose, or merely a coincidence?         BCNU

Postcard From The Village

       From my collection of Portmeirion postcards. This one from 1956. How do I know this? Well the postcard actually passed through the post, and has a very clear postage franking stamp.
   I have stayed in both Upper and Lower Trinity cottages, on several occasions, when they used to be self-catering. Now they are Serviced rooms, as is Neptune. Neptune which used to be the home of Max Hora, who lived at Portmeirion in the 1980's to the late 1990's when he ran the Prisoner Information Shop. Max left Portmeirion, and Neptune was totally refurbished, and tunred into another Service room.    Be seeing you

It's Inexplicable!

    The way the lights suddenly go out in the Council Chamber, and seconds later when the lights come on again, the twelve members of the Committee have gone - disappeared into the darkness, so quickly, and so silently. This in the episode A Change of Mind.    BCNU

The Schizoid Man

 


    Five yard range. Nerve gas, one squirt you're paralysed. Two squirts, your dead.
                               {No.6-Curtis}

     But surely, the gas gun sends out a cloud of nerve gas, as seen in the basement of the Barbers shop in Do Not Forsake Me Oh My Darling. So without a gas mask, should Curtis pull the trigger, he would also be affected by the nerve gas....surely.    BCNU

THEPRISONER

Arts And Crafts

  This I've given the title of 'Showers later!'

BCNU

How Does It Work - That Little Black Box?

  Used in the episode of The General to collect Security Pass discs at a security checkpoint in the Town Hall. It works like this, as you see it on screen, you place your disc in the little slot, there's a loud whirring noise {you don't hear this in the episode} the lid of the black box lifts up, a little plastic hand pops out, collects the disc, and takes it into the back into the box with a snap of the lid.
   It appears to me, that despite all the technological break-throughs in the Village, that there is still room for the use of such little simple gadgets as this. The Village's Administration wastes nothing, everything is put to some use, even the most insignificant little black box, a toy really, that you could imagine.

It is ingenious enough. But how does the little black box tie into the security system of the Town Hall? I cannot believe that it is wired up to anything. I supppose that by simply taking the security Pass disc it is indicating on camera to an observer somewhere, that the Top Hat Official is legitimate and so the electrical force-field is then turned off to allow a person to 'proceed to pass.'
   Here is the little black box in question. In fact it's a Magic Money Box, I have one just like it. I have it placed in a doorway, so that I have to insert a Security Pass disc just to get into the Kitchen! No not really, but it's not a bad idea for a bit of fun that Johnny Prisoner might do.
   As No.6 approaches the security checkpoint on the town Hall during The General, he places one of his two Security Pass discs in the slot of the little black box. It doesn't immediately work, and No.6 has to just touch the disc with a finger, well that is perfectly correct, as I have to do the self same thing with mine from time to time. Just to nudge the disc to set the whirring in motion, and out pops a little plastic hand to collect the disc, and snap it back into the box. BCNU

Caught On Camera

    A lorry travelling south on the Barnet by-pass, just passed the Thatched Barn road house at Borehamwood, and not on the A20 somewhere between Dover and London, as previously sign posted, in the Prisoner episode Fall Out. So what's so interesting about this lorry? Well to the everyday fan of the Prisoner it's just another lorry. But to me, well it's the name you see, it's the Stimpson Haulage firm.  Be seeing you.