THEPRIS6NER

   I quickly learned that there is not so much material to play with within the confines of this series, as there is with the original. However there are a few puzzlements, such as why the plastic pig masks as worn by 16's family? There must be a reason for it. Perhaps Six is Jewish, and by feeding him Barbecued pork wraps, and wearing the pig masks was to taunt him, only the scriptwriter Bill Gallagher knows, but I shall endeavour to find out.

    An old friend of mine, who writes to me in what is termed the "old fashioned" way of letter writing, something which we both enjoy doing. Anyway my friend, whom I shall refer to as "Mister X" said that now I have seen the whole series he would tell me what he thought of it. As it turns out he's completely indifferent towards it, THEPRIS6NER does not do anything for him, and does not wish to discuss it with me. And that's fair enough, however "Mister X" is quite happy to read my thoughts on the series, and I am quite happy for him to do so.

    It's a strange thing, but in all my years of performing in, and organising Prisoner re-enactments at Portmeirion, I never once felt the inclination to pay the role of Number Two. I suppose that's because I felt a strong affiliation with Number Six, that together with the fact that I looked like McGoohan when he was the Prisoner. But now, with this reinterpretation, I feel more of an affiliation towards Two. Perhaps it has something to do with my age. Well I'm no Number Six at the age of Fifty-Five now you know. More like an old Number Six who should be retired gracefully into the Old People's Home, not that Number Six would have stood for that. He's far too independent to let happen to him.

   You know it only occurred to me earlier this morning, that when the Prisoner wakes up in the desert it's simply a reinterpretation of the Prisoner waking up in what he thinks is his own home, but quickly finds that it's anything but! The disorientation is the same. Both men don't know how they came to be where they are, why, or who brought them there? The questions are the same, simply different environments to begin with.

    Harmony - to live in peace and harmony is something which THEPRIS6NER is all about. With 16, for example, living the simple life. Getting up in the morning, going to work, coming home to the wife and children. Watching the popular television show in the comfort of ones own home. Isn't that what everyone works for? But not everyone wants to live in harmony. Take Six for example. He wants to belong. He wants 16 to be his brother, and is saddened to find that he is not. Two is trying to assimilate Six into the community by giving him his brother back, and by that to give Six a family within The Village, because inwardly Six wants to belong. And things happen to Six which makes him fundamentally doubt himself. Perhaps after all Six has got it wrong........nah!

  When I went through the Inside The Prisoner sections of the three DVD's of THEPRIS6NER box set, and I found one slight anomaly in the DVD episode of Harmony.

   When I watched the episode Harmony during the ITV screening of THEPRIS6NER series, towards the end of the episode, when Six was telling, or trying to tell 16's family of his death, all the family were interested in was to watch the soap opera Wonkers, which by the way is a typical 1950's/60's American soap opera. 16's supposed family then begin to laugh and Six cannot understand what thay are laughing at, then just as Six is being taken away, there is one last shot of the family, laughing, but wearing white suits and plastic pig masks. and indeed that is the case in a clip from Harmony in the section Inside The Prisoner, so far there is no anomaly in this. 

  The anomaly turns up in the fact that in the very same scene on the DVD episode of Harmony, seen below, the same people in the last same shot, as Six is taken away by men in white suits, are clearly not wearing white suits, nor are they wearing plastic pig masks!

  I contacted a friend of mine who had seen the AMCtv screening of THEPRIS6NER in America, and he sent me the following picture to confirm that in the same scene in the AMCtv screening the people are wearing the plastic pig masks.

 So the obvious question is, why was the final scene showing 16's family wearing the plastic pig masks removed from the DVD episode of Harmony, and one inserted with the people not wearing the white suits and masks? It's a question I will be asking, and if I get a response, I'll be letting you know.

DAS - BCNU