Ringing The Changes
The diminutive Butler who we know so well, was originally to have been a tall athletic, good looking gentleman, who was to have had a speaking part.
A more romantic scene was written by Vincent Tilsley for ‘The Chimes of Big Ben,’ this was reduced to Number 6 simply stroking Nadia's hair.
The 'alternative' Chimes of Big Ben contains a scene in which Numbe 6 uses a home-made wooded instrument, based on the Greek 'Triquetrum,' to determine the position of the village according to the stars. In the standard episode we can see Number 6 placing a pencil in the breast pocket of his blazer, for which there seems to be no logical reason, as Number 6 is not seen to be writing anything down. Where as in the 'alternative' version, he makes a notation on a graph chart, then all becomes clear.
The role of Number 2 during the episode of ‘Dance of the Dead’ was as we know originally intended for a man, actor Trevor Howard, who was to have had the costume, not of Peter Pan, But either Jack the Ripper or Old father Time.
The Napoleon character of Profesor Schinipps was supposed to have been Hitler, but was deemed to have been wholly inappropriate. World War II only been over 20 years or so.
The Irish Marshal in ‘The Girl Who Was Death’ was to have been called O'Toole after Kenneth Griffith's great Friend Peter O'Toole, but Patrick McGoohan claimed he didn't like in-jokes, so he had the name changed to O'Rourke.
The name Seltzman of the episode ‘Do Not Forsake Me Oh My Darling,’ was originally intended to have been Saltzman. This name was changed so that the name did not contain two letters the same, this to fit in with the slide scene. Otherwise there would be 2 slides under the letter 'A'.
The original scripted residence of No.2 was to have been that of the pink and white Georgian house {Unicorn cottage} but was changed later to the Green Dome, due to problems with camera angles caused by the bushes and trees around the Georgian house.
The role of the Kid in ‘Living In Harmony’ was originally to have been a speaking one.
Be seeing you
No comments:
Post a Comment