Observations and Information

Observations and Information

Well I have to say that its good to be back in the safe confines of my office, so very different from the wide open spaces of the lake district and I see the post card I sent from the lake district has been pinned up on the office notice board.

   So not having been replaced by the Blue Dispenser, lets get down to it and dispense the accumulated information and observations which reminds me; No.2 of A B & C when standing in the street dressed in a black hat and cloak, he puts me in mind of a certain logo for Sandeman Port, the way his hat's cocked a bit to one side.                                      

 It is not an exact likeness, and No.2 is wearing a mask, but does he not put you in mind of said logo?

    During ‘Hammer Into Anvil’ No.6 in the general store listens to six copies of the same record Bizet's L'alesienne, the Davier recording. Of course there is nothing to the records but the music itself, however I was wondering how No.6 was able to listen to the music in the first place? Fine his head is in a Perspex listening booth, but the supposedly wall speaker is nothing more than a square of sound proofing material! Another effect which is quite good is when in the Town Hall during the ball of ‘Dance of the Dead’ when No.6 is taking a quiet investigative stroll through the corridors of power. He is approached by a doctor, who thinks No.6 himself is a doctor due to the white coat he is wearing, emerges from a side room and hands him an urgent note for No.2, the termination order for Roland Walter Dutton. This room in reality is nothing more than an electric switch gear room! And those spectacles which No.6 finds in the breast pocket and wears, he can actually see through, must surely be simple plain glass, otherwise No.6's eyesight would be distorted, if only slightly.

    Here is something perhaps the readers can help me with. No matter how much is written and thought about the Prisoner there is always something which will remain a puzzlement. Such as people are brought to the village because they know too much, but why the people who know too little? Walter Dutton is possibly an example of this, he didn't know too much at all, but the doctor-No.40 in his stubbornness to get all the information inside Dutton's head didn't believe him, and then it was too late, for Roland Walter Dutton anyway.

    The street seen towards the end of ‘A B & C’ is of the same street seen in the deserted village of Witchwood in ‘The Girl Who Was Death.’

  We have non-alcoholic gin, whisky and vodka, they look the same and taste the same. But what about bottles of wine? Well there are two such bottles which can be seen inside, and at the back of No.6's refrigerator in which he places the loudspeaker, so that he no longer has to listen to the enforced piped music. What's more the labels, if there are labels, cannot be made out. It is possible that these are simply being chilled for later consumption by McGoohan and other members of the cast and film crew, and therefore have nothing to do with the Prisoner at all, and that could be said of the roasted chicken and Salami roll!

    On the wall of the Colonel's, the Admiral's and Gorton's, Danger Man, office hangs a picture of a penny farthing. The car driven by Engadine during AB & C is an Alfa Romeo Spider. 40 years on after the first British screening of the Prisoner, Alfa Romeo have issued a new Alfa Romeo Spider. During the fight scene with the two thugs during "B" of ‘A B & C’ the Prisoner splits his trousers! And the view of the Austrian town of Kandersfeld, which incidentally does not exists, I know as I've already checked the map of Austria, in ‘Do Not Forsake Me Oh My Darling,’ is the sane scene pictured in the ‘Danger Man’ episode ‘Say It With Flowers.’ ‘In Living In Harmony’ "the boys" are teaching the sheriff that it's not safe to go about the town of Harmony without a gun. During this fight scene a young boy can be seen standing in full view of the camera watching the action, he's even wearing a gun and holster. Not a character, but possibly the son of stuntman Frank Maher. Although there are a couple of other shots with children in them, so I cannot be 100% accurate on this particular piece of information.

    Strange how the Prisoner cannot turn off the loudspeaker. Well it has no on/off switch, like piped music you hear in supermarkets. And when finally the Prisoner does trample and crush the loudspeaker to pieces under foot the bloody music is still playing, would someone please turn that damned music off. I can hardly hear myself to type this! Which begs the question, does the music emanate from the loudspeaker in the first place? Well of course it must, because as No.6 places his speaker in the refrigerator, silence reigns supreme!

   The village enjoys a curfew time, this is set at eight o'clock, and if you listen carefully you can, no not hear ‘The Chimes of Big Ben,’ but those of the curfew bell itself. Tolling as it does to send both Nadia-No.8 and No.6 into their cottages for the night. Citizens are locked inside their cottages at night. This serves two purposes, one control over the citizens during night time, and so that supplies can be brought in and unseen by boat. "I've never seen a night" says No.6 "I only sleep!" And so does everyone else, well everyone else save for the night time supervisor and administrative staff.

    The man whose body was originally washed up on the beach, the same body lying in a drawer in the mortuary, the wallet in whose pocket has been amended slightly, and who himself will be amended slightly so that it is No.6 who has died in an accident at sea, was never washed up anywhere, or found by anyone at sea. Otherwise Janet Portland, the Prisoner's fiancé of ‘Do Not Forsake Me Oh My Darling’ would surely have been told and therefore think him dead.

I’ll be seeing you