Learning By Example

    It has been documented that one's school days reamain with you for the rest of your life. That they structure you for your life yet to come, and that can be seen in the Prisoner, childish influences abound with the series. The use of nursery ryhmes for example. Regressing the Prisoner-No.6 back to his childhood in Once Upon A Time.
   I have already posted something of the days of the young Patrick McGoohan while at Ratcliffe College, but here is something else, which I have not yet made light of. All pupils at Ratcliffe College are issued with a number. If a student was caught doing something he should not, and ended up in trouble with the Headmaster - this was regarded as being 'Unmutual.' and the pupil was referred to by his number, not by name. Also, the pupil had to stand before the entire school on a rostrum, and confess what he did. But not just that, the pupil was told what to say by one of the priests at the College. Now where have you witnessed the act of confession before 'They're right of course. Quite right. I'm inadequate, inadequate. Disharmonious. But I'm grateful, truly grateful. Believe me. Beleive me, believe me!' Yes, No.93 standing on a rostrum, being told what to confess to the entire Village, by a disembodied voice - that is No.93 in A Change of Mind.
   No.2 of The Chimes of Big Ben said of the Prisoner-No.6, 'At the age of fifteen top of his class in woodwork.' Well pupils at Ratcliffe had to be good at woodwork, because each pupil had to make their own Dining Room chair and inscribe his initials upon it. On a visit to Ratcliffe Collage a few years ago, I tried to find McGoohan's Dining Room chair, but did not succeed. Nor was I able to discover what his number was while at Ratcliffe, as the archive is quite extensive. But it would be something of a coincidence that it would have  been.......6.  Be seeing you.