Tonight On The Video Channel

   The breakfast which is being delivered to '6 Private,' will be cold by the time it gets there. What's more it's the second time that No.6 has had his breakfast delivered to him on a tray by a maid, perhaps this was a regular privilege. During 'The Chimes of Big Ben' it's No.8 who boils No.6 two eggs and pours out his orange juice!
    No.6 is put on trial, his crime the possession of a radio. From where No.6 was able to obtain a radio is not investigated, it is simply enough to be in possession of of the radio that sees him sentenced to death!
    This episode is female orientated, No.2, the night time Observer-No.240, and the Supervisor-No.22. We see the Village Postman "Sign your number here Number Six," delivering an invitation to the Ball. Curiously the Postman is wearing a British Royal Mail peaked cap, which possibly denotes the mans' previous employment. After all the General wears a British Military cap, as does Number 66 the ex-Admiral in 'Arrival.'

    A gardener positions a window box beneath No.6's window. He tells the Gardener that he's new here {in the Village} which is a curious thing to say, seeing as No.6 must have been in the Village for several months by the time of this episode. Unless of course, one considers the Prisoner's unceremonious return to the Village in the previous episode 'Many Happy Returns,' as being a new arrival for the Prisoner!
    The death sentence against No.6 may have been pronounced in the name of the people, and it is the people who are to carry out the sentence in the name of justice, but it still looks like mob-rule to me. The good citizens of the Village screaming for No.6's blood. I've sometimes wondered what they would have done to No.6, had they been able to lay their hands upon him. Possibly they would have torn him to pieces!

    The main theme of this episode is death, and originally the doctor-No.40 was supposed to have been seen burying one of his experimental mistakes! No.34 died, but we don't know how or why. It's quite possible that the body found on the shore line by No.6 is the body of No.34, although this is not confirmed in the episode. There was that termination order against Roland Walter Dutton, yet he looked to be suffering a "living death!" And at the Ball in the evening, everyone was to have died in a frenzied dance, everyone save No.6!
    In the general order of things, this episode rates in my top seven episodes.

Be seeing you