The Therapy Zone

Its A Question Interpretation

    It was once written by a man who thinks himself to be quite an expert on the subject of the Prisoner, no it wasn't me, "That the words of the Londonderry Air, aka Oh Danny Boy, contain lyrics about an Irish son departing for America, having been unable to secure work to obtain any appreciation in his particular place of residence. The words The Summer's gone and all the Roses dying...tis you, tis you must bide and I must go, come out of the screen to haunt the viewer. McGoohan must know his party was over, the sixties were ending and the money had run out."

   Well I suppose the money had indeed run out for McGoohan as far as the Prisoner was concerned, and after the public's response to Fall Out, McGoohan may very well have felt unappreciated.

     I have in front of me a copy of the lyrics of Oh Danny Boy, and as far as I can see there is no suggestion that Danny Boy was going to America. It could so easily have been Canada, New Zealand or Australia. The song has been interpreted by some listeners as a message from a parent to a son going off to war or leaving as part of the Irish Diaspora.

    And so if the so termed "expert" of such an interpretation of the use of the song Oh Danny Boy was suggesting that Patrick Mc,Goohan, an Irish American, was thinking of returning home to America, as he eventually did of course, But at the time of ‘The Girl Who Was Death,’ the episode in which the lyrics of Oh Danny Boy featured, there was nothing to suggest that McGoohan's intention was to go to America. Because he had other projects in the pipe-line, four films he was going to produce with ITC.

The Chimes of Big Ben

    In this episode, after Nadia and No.6 have managed to escape the confines of The Village, we as the viewer are privvy to a fraction of the 12 hour journey taken to reach an office that No.6 will know very well in London. First the journey started by road, then by sea, and finally by air, and again obviously by road, but we are not witness to that part of the journey, to finally arrive in that very office previously mentioned by No.6.

    Well that's all fine and dandy for the television viewer. But what I find fascinating to think about, is what actually takes place, the removal of the crate out of that cave, and by any number of Village people. To be put aboard a boat and taken back to The Village, to be transported to a place where the crate can remain for the next 12 hours with No.6 and Nadia inside, No.6 who is quite oblivious to what is actually taking place. the crate mounted on a "rocker," so that any movement at all during what would have been an actual journey can be simulated, with sound effects, by road, a sea voyage with ship's engines sound effects, and journey by aircraft. I find to imagine that is far more interesting that what we actually see on the screen. But of course had we seen what actually takes place, and not the journey, well the 'punchline' at the end would have been lost.

An Overweening Sense Of Self-Importance

    It's hardly surprising is it - seeing as the whole Village is there for No.6 alone, and everyone in it is there for the convenience of No.6.

   It seems to me that this works well, if what takes place is all in the Prisoner's mind. The Village, and everyone in it will have been created by the mind of the Prisoner. He is No.1, and The Village, and the citizens therein, to do with as he pleases. In Once Upon A Time No.6 shouts at No.2 "In my mind, in my mind you're smart!" That's perhaps because if one follows this "all in the mind" theory, No.6 created No.2 in his own mind, and made him smart! And if it's all in No.6's mind, he should always be one step ahead. It's no wonder that No.6 plays a fine game.

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