If it had not been for Portmeirion - the Village would have been a Butlins Holiday camp! And that would not have been quite the article would it? Ah, but it might have been, because if filming had been out of the question at Portmeirion, for whatever reason, then we would not have had Portmeirion as the Village in the first place!
BCNU
Thursday, 30 June 2011
The Commuinty Must Live..............
....................... And So Must No.6.
And you might be surprised just how often the Prisoner responds to, and accepts his number. In fact the Prisoner hadn't been in the Village ten minutes when he's asked on the telephone if his number is Number Six, to which he responds that it is. Although the Prisoner might just be reacting to the number on his telephone 6. And of course it is not the new Number Two who gives the Prisoner his nominated number, but the Supervisor-No.28 in the Control Room.
During The Chimes of Big Ben the Prisoner freely admits to No.8 that he is No.6. Yet by the time of Free For All, when the telephone operator asks if he is Number 6, the Prisoner, in defiance, tells the operator that that is the number of this place, meaning his cottage.
In The Schizoid Man when the Prisoner has had even his identity as Number Six taken away from him, he then proceeds to prove that he is Number Six, and freely wears his numbered badge, but only because it suits him to do so! Then having woken up in what appears to be a deserted Village in Many Happy Returns, the Prisoner collects provisions, a copy of The Tally Ho newspaper, a loudspeaker, camera and film from the General Store, and writes out an IOU for 964 work unints and signs himself No.6? But the thing is, the Prisoner didn't have to write anything for what he had taken from the General Store! Yet in Dance of the Dead, when asked by the postman to sign his number for the postal delivery, the Prisoner refuses to do so!
The Prisoner lives in '6 Private.' At the gymnasium he puts his clothes and personal belongings in the locker marked 6. Okay, the Prisoner is at times, is contradictory, and perhaps there are few times when Number 6 actually accepts, and responds to his number. But somehow it seemed a lot at the time! BCNU
And you might be surprised just how often the Prisoner responds to, and accepts his number. In fact the Prisoner hadn't been in the Village ten minutes when he's asked on the telephone if his number is Number Six, to which he responds that it is. Although the Prisoner might just be reacting to the number on his telephone 6. And of course it is not the new Number Two who gives the Prisoner his nominated number, but the Supervisor-No.28 in the Control Room.
During The Chimes of Big Ben the Prisoner freely admits to No.8 that he is No.6. Yet by the time of Free For All, when the telephone operator asks if he is Number 6, the Prisoner, in defiance, tells the operator that that is the number of this place, meaning his cottage.
In The Schizoid Man when the Prisoner has had even his identity as Number Six taken away from him, he then proceeds to prove that he is Number Six, and freely wears his numbered badge, but only because it suits him to do so! Then having woken up in what appears to be a deserted Village in Many Happy Returns, the Prisoner collects provisions, a copy of The Tally Ho newspaper, a loudspeaker, camera and film from the General Store, and writes out an IOU for 964 work unints and signs himself No.6? But the thing is, the Prisoner didn't have to write anything for what he had taken from the General Store! Yet in Dance of the Dead, when asked by the postman to sign his number for the postal delivery, the Prisoner refuses to do so!
The Prisoner lives in '6 Private.' At the gymnasium he puts his clothes and personal belongings in the locker marked 6. Okay, the Prisoner is at times, is contradictory, and perhaps there are few times when Number 6 actually accepts, and responds to his number. But somehow it seemed a lot at the time! BCNU
Village Observation
Here he is, No.6 pictured with No.9 in the Stone Boat hatching an escape plan between themselves during Arrival. No.9 gives No.6 an Electro Pass which syncronises with the alarm system, and lets No.6 passed the Village Guardian to the helicopter on the lawn.
Now you will be pleased to observe the broken piping on the lapel of No.6's blazer.
Now you will observe No.6, having left No.9 and the Stone Boat, as he makes his way to the helicopter. No.6 appears to have changed his piped blazer, between here and the Stone Boat, as the piping of his lapels is no longer broken, but joined!
No.6 is still making his way to the helicopter on the lawn, having just walked passed the swimming pool, or Lido, and the piping of his blazer is still joined at the lapel.
And here, as No.6 has used the Electro Pass to get past the Guardian, and about to board the helicopter, the piping of the lapel of his blazer is still joined.
Yet in those few seconds, as No.6 climbs into the cabin of the helicopter, he has had a change of blazer for the second time! Observe the now broken piping of No.6's blazer on the lapel. I know No.6 would have had at least two piped balzer, one on and one at the dry cleaners, but this is damned ridiculous!
I'll be seeing you
Questions Are A Burden Answers A Prison For Oneself!
No.2 of Arrival was something of a gentleman, and had the task of debriefing the Prisoner, as well as giving him an aerial tour of the Village. Then it was a demonstration of the Village Guardian, and onto the Labour Exchange, where the Prisoner was asked to fill in a questionaire about himself, to which the Prisoner took extreme offence! But this No.2 didn't appear to last long, because he is soon replaced by a new No.2. Yet this new No.2, who is more threatening than his predecessor, not so much the gentleman, and tells No.6 that if he doesn't give him what he wants, he'll take it! Mind you, this new No.2 didn't appear to last too long either. No sooner was he there, overseeing a demontration that escape from the Village is not possible, than he's gone - replaced by a new No.2! So why was the first No.2 replaced? Perhaps it was simply that he had come to the end of his term of office. But then why was the new No.2's term so short? Or is it that his term of office took place between the end of Arrival and The Chimes of Big Ben, and is something which we, the viewer are not privy to!
BCNU
BCNU
Wednesday, 29 June 2011
A Recognised Prisoner!
Yesterday I happened to be making my way on foot through town to the local library, wearing as I do from time to time, my piped blazer and deck shoes. A young woman saw me, approached me, and flashing the logo on her black jacket said to me 'You look like someone who could use Amnesty International. After all you are a Prisoner!' That was a clever approach! Seeing me wearing a piped blazer, the young woman must have known of the Prisoner, perhaps a fan. So I said 'But I've escaped the Village. Be seeing you' and gave the village salute, which to my surprise the young woman returned. It certainly put a smile on my face. Be seeing you.
MS Polotska
On the left is MS Polotska, which features in Checkmate, and previously in Many Happy Returns as the gun-runners boat. But the cruisers real name is Breda, and before that DAB II. She has something of a history about her, as Breda was one of the many 'little ships' which took part in the evacuation of Dunkirk in 1940. The top cabin had been added to the cruiser previous to the Prisoner, but later the owners had the cabin removed, which proved to make the cruiser top heavy! The Breda does still exist today, last moored at Teddington Lock. BCNU
Tuesday, 28 June 2011
You Miss It When It's Gone!
However by the time of The Chimes of Big Ben, when No.6 was still irritated by the unstoppable piped music into his cottage, he had found a far more subtle way of dealing with the irritation......by simply placing the loudspeaker in the refridgerator! Thus rendering peace and harmony to his cottage once again.
However, by the time of Many Happy Returns, No.6 wakes up to find no water, no electricity, and no programme of early morning music. You see, like everyone else, No.6 might dislike something, be irritated by something, possibly get used to it that in time, yet fail to notice it. Yet when it's gone you miss it! I wonder if No.6 will miss the Village when it's gone? I wonder if Patrick McGoohan missed the Prisoner when it was over? To use a form of No.2's words in The General, 'All Patrick McGoohan's own work. He gave birth to it and loves it with a passionate love.....probably hates it even more.' BCNU
Thought For The Day
The way No.1 dodges about in the Control Room of the rocket in Fall Out. Patrick McGoohan couldn't have No.6 getting his hands on No.1, because if he had, what would happen then? Possibly that would have been too revealing for McGoohan. After all what would he have had No.1 say to No.6? McGoohan would have to write something for No.1 to say, and that would not have been easy, because McGoohan didn't have anything to say for himself, well nothing he wanted anyone to hear. Possibly the meeting between No.1 and No.6, if they had laid hands on each other, might have ended with a repeat of the scene between No.6 and Curtis in The Schizoid Man when they had a fight in No.6's cottage, and that would have been something of a real anti-climax. In the end, No.1, who was screaming like a Banshee, fate was sealed in the nose cone of the rocket, and we the television viewer, back in the 1968 were left to figure it all out ourselves, not being able to watch the series again for almost ten years!
BCNU
BCNU
Caught On Camera
Is this the moment when Patrick McGoohan twisted his ankle whilst running along the beach at Portmeirion for the opening sequence of the Prisoner? Patrick was warned how soft the sand was, and how difficult it is to run on soft sand by his stunt double Frank Maher. But Patrick still demanded that he do the running on the beach for the opening sequence of the Prisoner. Needless to say, Patrick McGoohan turned, and twistd his ankle, and so it was left to sunt double for McGoohan, Frank Maher to finish the filming.
BCNU
Monday, 27 June 2011
No.1 Hides Behind His Anonimity!
Just who is No.1? He's not Patrick McGoohan that's for sure, because Pat stands there holding a crystal ball! But in the Village you would think that someone would know the identity of No.1, perhaps there was, perhaps they were not allowed to say. Not even the 'late' No.2 had met No.1 face to face. But No.1 could hardly remain isolated from everyone in that rocket of his. No.1 would have to eat, drink, wash, shave, use the toilet, okay those last three would have been done in privacy. But at some point No.1 would have to remove that black and white mask. 'D' of A B & C stated that 'It is often the case with really important people, that anonimity is the best disguise.' And if that is the case with No.1, it can also be said of the delegates of the Assembly. But having said that we do know the identity of two such delegates, the Supervisor-No.28 and the former No.93, he with the full beard. But do the delegates themselves know who each of them are? Faceless men. Petty bureaucrats who represent the many different facets of society. Is it really No.1 who pulls the strings of the Village, and if so, who or what pulls the strings of No.1? The delegates of the Assembly perhaps? Be seeing you.
What's The Password?
It's Symbolic..........
.................The Way 6 Meets 1.
Symbolc, in which way? Possibly in the way that unless one realises that you are the sole influence over your actions, you will remain a Prisoner! Well that's what they say, or someone once said. And only when No.6 realises that he is No.1, is he able to break free and escape his prison of the Village. In fact No.1 and No.6 escaped the Village at the very same moment. No.6 on the back of a lorry crashing through the gates at the end of a tunnel, while No.1 blasts off aboard a rocket.
Well that's all fine and dandy. But how does one explain away the fact that the Prisoner is just as much a Prisoner at the end of the series, as he was at the beginning?...........Because the Prisoner is a vicious circle, from which there is no escape! Be seeing you.
Symbolc, in which way? Possibly in the way that unless one realises that you are the sole influence over your actions, you will remain a Prisoner! Well that's what they say, or someone once said. And only when No.6 realises that he is No.1, is he able to break free and escape his prison of the Village. In fact No.1 and No.6 escaped the Village at the very same moment. No.6 on the back of a lorry crashing through the gates at the end of a tunnel, while No.1 blasts off aboard a rocket.
Well that's all fine and dandy. But how does one explain away the fact that the Prisoner is just as much a Prisoner at the end of the series, as he was at the beginning?...........Because the Prisoner is a vicious circle, from which there is no escape! Be seeing you.
Hold It!
Upon waking up on the morning of Many Happy Returns, to discover a deserted Village, and having constructed himself a Kon-Tiki style of sea-going raft, No.6 then sets about taking photographic evidence of the Village. To do this he selects a camera from those on display in the General Store.
The camera is of unconventional style, a half-frame Canon 35mm Dial camera, with a clockwork automatice film advance. It was made in Japan from November 1963. The Dial 35mm was also sold by Bell & Howell. Be seeing you
Sunday, 26 June 2011
A Ghost From The Past..................
.....................Parks Outside 1 Buckingham Place!
Yes, that is me behind the wheel of KAR 120C, that was back in 1998. Yet it is not the Caterham 7 which concerns us here, nor are we directly bothered about 1 Buckingham Place. It's next door, 3 Buckinghan Place which draws my attention, because I have discovvered whom it was who actually lived next door to the Prisoner, certainly at the time of the filming of the opening sequence.
The Prisoner lived in a large house, with a lounge, dinning room, and several bedrooms amongst the rooms of the house. Now why is it that a bachelor needed to live in such a large house? How could the Prisoner, who is basically a Civil Servant, earning somewhere in the region of £50 a week, possibly afford the lease of a house in the city of Westminster?
If you have been in Buckingham Place, Westminster, and have studied the houses in photographs of the street, you will have observed that No.3 Buckingham Place is a much smaller house than it's next door neighbour, and I can tell you that the occupant of 3 Buckingham Place was connected to a very high ranking, and powerful family, two members of which, came to visit in the mid 1960's. Really, when I think of the status of the occupant of 3 Buckingham Place, next door would have been far better suited property. And that fact makes me really wonder about the Prisoner.
Oh who was it who lived at 3 Buckingham Place at the time of the Prisoner? Well that would be telling, as it would also be letting the cat out of the bag, to borrow one of No.2's sayings. But it is noted in a manuscript about the Prisoner, which I am trying to see published. Be seeing you.
The Prisoner lived in a large house, with a lounge, dinning room, and several bedrooms amongst the rooms of the house. Now why is it that a bachelor needed to live in such a large house? How could the Prisoner, who is basically a Civil Servant, earning somewhere in the region of £50 a week, possibly afford the lease of a house in the city of Westminster?
Oh who was it who lived at 3 Buckingham Place at the time of the Prisoner? Well that would be telling, as it would also be letting the cat out of the bag, to borrow one of No.2's sayings. But it is noted in a manuscript about the Prisoner, which I am trying to see published. Be seeing you.
Arts And Crafts
The Prisoner is not always black and white. And where there is light there is darkness, and the Prisoner can be very dark indeed!
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BCNU
Postcard From The Village
The central Piazza in Portmeirion looks strange without it's pool and fountain. But of course this postcard comes from a time when there were tennis courts in Portmeirion. Had not the central Piazza with a pool and fountain repalced the tennis courts, Village taxi drivers, and citizens of the Village, would have had nothing to parade around! You will also observe that there is no Bristol Colonnade {Bandstand}. Nor is there the Gloriette from which speeches are made in the Prisoner. If Clough Williams-Ellis had not had the Gloriette constructed, No.2 and No.6 would have had to find another place from which to make their speeches during the election of Free For All, Appreciation day ceremony, and when No.6 was about to tell, to tell as the clock was about to strike four in A Change of Mind. Also the two cottages of Telfords Tower and Unicorn are yet to be constructed. If my desire was to return to Portmeirion again, it would be to go back then, and not now. I have not visited, or stayed at Portmeirion since 2003, because I feel there has been a change brought about Portmeirion, as well as becoming far too commercialised in recent times. BCNU.
Thought For The Day
At the end of Living In Harmony, No.22 told No.6 that she wished that it had been real. So bearing in mind that Cathy aided the Man with No Name to break out of the Jailhouse and leave the Town of Harmony, had No.22, who had obviously fallen for No.6 lived, would she in time have aided No.6 in escaping the Village? One to consider I think. Be seeing you
Saturday, 25 June 2011
A Police Box - In The Village?
You're Referring To Jamming!
Jamming, what's that, domestic science? No of course not, Jamming is playing Jazz on a musical instrument such as a saxophone, isn't that it? Well not as far as some citizens of the Village are concerned it isn't. We first learn about Jamming from an excentric artist No.118. Observers turn a blind surviellance eye when Control picks up the activity of a Jammer, whether it's a non-existant escape plan, or any kind of mischief created to confuse the Observers. The plots they talk about are always make-believe, but of course Control cannot know that until they've checked them out. So now they don't bother anymore, and anything picked up from a known Jammer, they simply let ride.
So with that thinking, is that what could have happened with the conspiracy to assassinate the retiring No.2? Is No.50 the Watchmaker a known Jammer? If it were not for an interim No.2, an heir presumptive, being in charge of the plan to execute an out-going No.2, but to all intents and purposes had the plan actually been devised by the Watchmaker himself, and not been indoctorinated by No.100, then the Observers would not have believed in the plot and the Watchmaker could have easily actually assassinated the retiring No.2, and so there would have been no need to involve No.6 in the plot at all! BCNU
So with that thinking, is that what could have happened with the conspiracy to assassinate the retiring No.2? Is No.50 the Watchmaker a known Jammer? If it were not for an interim No.2, an heir presumptive, being in charge of the plan to execute an out-going No.2, but to all intents and purposes had the plan actually been devised by the Watchmaker himself, and not been indoctorinated by No.100, then the Observers would not have believed in the plot and the Watchmaker could have easily actually assassinated the retiring No.2, and so there would have been no need to involve No.6 in the plot at all! BCNU
Increase Vigilance Call From No.2
In Hammer Into Anvil, No.2 is presented as being paranoid, seeing none existant enemies of the community, and conspiracies in the Village. Indeed he expresses his concerns in a newspaper article in The Tally Ho, which ends with a warning to the citizens "Be vigilant or the consequences will be severe. No other warning will be given."
In the end, No.2 turned out to be a poor man, a weak link in the chain of command just waiting to be broken. Yet in some ways, No.2 can be likened to Uncle Joe {Joeseph Stalin} leader of the former Union of Socialist Soviet Republics. Stalin, like No.2, saw enemies of the State, and conspiracies against him everywhere. And so he carried out many purges, ordering the excecutions/murders of hundreds, thousands of people, or sending many thousands of Soviet citizens to camps {Gulags} in Siberia. No.2 of Hammer Into Anvil may not have carried out a purge of the Village, the threat of any purge of the Village, to carry out mass reprisals against the malcontents in the Village, would not happen until the next episode It's Your Funeral, for the supposed assassination of a retiring No.2. I wonder if No.6 was to have been among the many in that purge? After all, No.2 did tell No.6 that he was top of the list of malcontents! But I should think No.6 would be safe, after all No.6 is seen to ahve a future with 'them.' I'll be seeing you
In the end, No.2 turned out to be a poor man, a weak link in the chain of command just waiting to be broken. Yet in some ways, No.2 can be likened to Uncle Joe {Joeseph Stalin} leader of the former Union of Socialist Soviet Republics. Stalin, like No.2, saw enemies of the State, and conspiracies against him everywhere. And so he carried out many purges, ordering the excecutions/murders of hundreds, thousands of people, or sending many thousands of Soviet citizens to camps {Gulags} in Siberia. No.2 of Hammer Into Anvil may not have carried out a purge of the Village, the threat of any purge of the Village, to carry out mass reprisals against the malcontents in the Village, would not happen until the next episode It's Your Funeral, for the supposed assassination of a retiring No.2. I wonder if No.6 was to have been among the many in that purge? After all, No.2 did tell No.6 that he was top of the list of malcontents! But I should think No.6 would be safe, after all No.6 is seen to ahve a future with 'them.' I'll be seeing you
Caught On Camera
Old Paddy boy looks as though he forgotten something - just realised something, or something!
What's going on up there, in that noddle of his? Because judging by the look on his face, something's just dawned on him, going round in his head.
What's more here is No.6 with No.2 down on the beach during one evening of Dance of the Dead, when No.2 calls No.6 Mister Tuxedo. Why does No.2 call him that, when he's wearing his own lounge suit {which had been specially delived for the occasion of the Ball} and not a tuxedo {dinner jacket}? Perhaps the original script called for No.6 to be wearing a tuxedo, but in the actual scene No.6 wore his own suit! Be seeing you
AMENDMENT:
Friday, 24 June 2011
The Meeting Of Alter Egos
The meeting of No.1 and No.6, so called alter-egos of the same man, is not the first, as literature is littered with such meetings. Some would say that No.1 and No.6 are akin to Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, No.6 being Jekyll, and No.1 Hyde, his evil other self who No.6 is trying to supress and control. But the one great difference is, that Jekyll never came face to face with Hyde, how could he when they are the same man? And that's what's wrong with the alter-ego theory about No.1 and No.6, it's just not physically possible for the alter-egos of one man to come face to face with each other! It is simply, in my opinion, done for effect, just like parts of the 12 hour visual journey taken by No.6 and Nadia which the television viewer it treated to. Travelling by road, sea, and air, a journey to London which never actually took place!
BCNU
BCNU
Dance Of The Dead
The episode Dance of the Dead enjoys an elfin looking No.2, and it is her voice we hear during the dialogue in the opening sequence. But the figure sitting in No.2's black spherical Eero Aarnio chair, is that of a man! Unfortunately, so far, I have not been able to identify the figure, in beige slacks and plain dark blazer. This is possibly because originally No.2 of Dance of the Dead was to have been a man - actor Trevor Howard. Be seeing you.
Thought For The Day
No.86, pictured on the left with No.6, claims to be higher than No.2. Is that the case do you think, or is it simply the Mytol talking?
BCNU
Alistair Sadgitt
Thursday, 23 June 2011
Another Number
The filming for Another Number took place March 2001 in Portmeirion. I started off by being a face in the crowd of villagers. But later appeared as No.2 {the only time I had appeared as No.2} and had dialogue, the words 'Don't worry Number Six. You'll be cured.' Later, in the editing of the video, my lines were dubbed over by Australian actor David Nettheim who played the role of a doctoir in the Prisoner episode The Schizoid Man.
To watch Carmel Morris' music video inspired by the Prisoner click on the link below.
http://youtu.be/V0oJqxTh6qM
Village Pin-Up
Virginia Maskell who played the role of No.9, a used woman in the Prisoner episode Arrival.
Caught On Camera
Yesterday Norma West was caught on camera with director Don Chaffey and a Penny Farthing bicycle. Today, Norma is whizzing about on a Raleigh RWS 16 bicycle, complete with canopy. Norma makes the contraption almost 60's trendy doesn't she? Be seeing you
Arts And Crafts
I simply called this 'Negativity' again from my negative period. I like it very much, especially the effect negativity has had on the canopy of the Mini-Moke taxi.
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BCNU
Wednesday, 22 June 2011
WHY?
As it happens the General is capable of answering any question from advanced mathamatics to molecular structure. From philosophy to crop-spraying, given the basic facts first. And so the question has been asked why doesn't No.2 ask the general why No.6 resigned? But of course to do so, the General would have to be programmed with all the basic facts first......that's why the computer self destructed when No.6 asked it the question WHY? The General could not answer the question, because it was not pre-programmed with all the basic facts first! Of course computers do not blow up simply because they cannot answer a particular question, the General blew a fuse for dramatic effect.
The General may have been a super computer, but any computer is only as good as its programming. It is like the World Wide Web that is the Internet today. If you search the Internet for a certain subject, that subject is only there because someone has put it there first, and you are then dependent on that information on any subject to be correct. It woul be the same if No.2 had typed the question Why did No.6 resign? There is not the information in the General in the first place to answer the question. What I mean is, you can't take out, what you don't put in!
Be seeing you.
The General may have been a super computer, but any computer is only as good as its programming. It is like the World Wide Web that is the Internet today. If you search the Internet for a certain subject, that subject is only there because someone has put it there first, and you are then dependent on that information on any subject to be correct. It woul be the same if No.2 had typed the question Why did No.6 resign? There is not the information in the General in the first place to answer the question. What I mean is, you can't take out, what you don't put in!
Be seeing you.
The Tally Ho
The Village enjoys it's own little newspaper The Tally Ho. Individuals like No.6 are likened to a fox on the run, forever trying to flee the pack of hounds that will not leave him alone. And perhaps that might put some sort of explanation on the name of the Village newspaper The Tally Ho - the call of the hunt! BCNU
Pictorial Portmeirion
The Amis Reunis, complete with ships wheel, and dignhy hanging from her dabits, and what's more she used to have a ships bell, to give her a sense of reality. Her dabits have been empty for many a year now, and the ships wheel removed long ago, possibly for safety reasons. BCNU
Caught On Camera
