Okay, it's a well known fact that Patrick McGoohan was once a heavy smoker, I think that's fair to say. But throughout the Prisoner we never see No.6 smoking, as McGoohan's previous character Danger Man John Drake, was also a heavy smoker. In fact the only time we do actually see No.6 smoking, is when he is lying on a bunk in his cell in the Jailhouse during Living In Harmony, a cigarette he has rolled himself.
There is of course a previous reference to No.6 being a smoker, that was during the episode of The Schizoid Man. No.6 has a particular brand of cigar which he smokes. But we do not actually see No.6 smoke in this episode, as he chokes on his cigar which has been doctored by a length of plastic inside the cigar.
No.24-Allison in The Schizoid Man is a smoker, No.6 lights her cigarette for her. But that was in the privacy of her cottage. And Curtis must have been a smoker, as the cigarette lighter, used by No.6, was in Curtis's blazer pocket!
As for other citizens, no-one is seen smoking in public, which is strange, because at the time most people smoked in the 1960's, and was something very socially accepted. But to see no-one smoking in the village helps make the place even more surreal! I cannot believe for one moment that only non-smokers were brought to the village. Nor that upon their arrival in the village, smokers instantly gave up! So perhaps like No.24-Allison, smokers are confined to doing their smoking in the privacy of their own cottage.
Smoking in the privacy of their own cottage - now there's something to conjure with. I was a smoker, from the age of 18 until I decided to give up smoking in February 1993, and I gave up just like that. No patches, or nicotine inhalers required, or a therapist!
Today smoking is no longer socially acceptable, and amongst the worst people to complain about people who smoke, are those who have quit the habit.
I do not condone smoking, no longer being able to tolerate cigarette smoke myself. But I respect smoker’s rights to light up a cheroot occasionally. However there is a smoking ban in all public buildings and spaces, and smokers are forced to light up outside. I wonder, I wonder just how long it will be before smokers can only light up in the comfort of their own home? This to make a society of the future, a smoking free society - as the village!
I'll be outside lighting up if you want me - oh blast I've given up! But you know, having given up, the craving for a smoke sometimes still impinges upon me. Even after 17 years. Be seeing you.
Used to smoke myself but have quitted 22 years ago (when pregnant of my first child) - used to dream I was smoking for years (more than 15 years after was still dreaming of!), anxiously waking up thinking "oh no, I didn't start again, did I?"
ReplyDeleteHere in Switzerland, smokers are not allowed to smoke in public places but they have their own smoking rooms in some places. Since people have to smoke outside, you sometimes can find nice blankets outside the cafés to keep you warm in winter!
Hello 731 HOP,
ReplyDeleteI trust you are enjoying the weekend. The sun is shining here for once.
I used to to enjoy a cigarette and a good cigar. Morag never liked me smoking. But then one day I simply said I've had enough of them. I was smoking pretty heavily, and perhaps I had smoked myself sick of them! I just said no, and that was that, that was almost twenty years ago Not that I've not felt like having a smoke during that time.
I know smoking is harmful for you, but I honestly think it has not always been so. In modern times cigarette manufacturers put more than just tobacco in their cigarettes, it's all the added poisonous chemicals to the cigarette, it's those that do the damage, not the tobacco itself. But that is only my own personal opinion.
Patrick McGoohan was a terrible chain smoker, you can see his nicotine stained fingers in 'the Prisoner' series.
Here in England the plan is to sell cigarettes from under the counter, as in THEPRIS6NER09 series, so that children cannot see them. Packets of cigarettes wrapped in plain packaging, or with vivid pictures of the damage smoking can do.
A society in which people do not smoke, except in the cmfort of their own homes, is that what Patrick McGoohan was predicting with 'the Prisoner,' as you rarely see anyone lighting up, save in 'The Schizoid Man' and 'Living In Harmony.
Very best wishes
David
BCNU
PS I will take a look at your silent film page, a favourite film of mine is 'Metropolis,' another would be 'The Phantom of The Opera.'