Deadlier Than The Male by Miss Penny Farthing

   "After considerable thought and debate it appears to us that Number 6's abduction and subsequent arrival in The Village were almost certainly at the instigation of Janet, who coerced her doting father to utilise the resources of his governmental department to further her plan".

    Those words are the most ridiculous I have ever read on the subject of the Prisoner. I can see why this middle aged woman, Janet Portland, became attracted to her fiancé, his good looks, his determined manner, and characteristic personality. As well as possibly being her last chance of marriage don't forget. And if the above statement is correct, why then would she ask her fiancé’s friend where her fiancé is. And further, bursting in on her father demanding to know where her fiancé is, if she knew all the time.

   Further in an article written on Janet Portland in the mid 1990's, and in that article Janet is described as being "A child of the sixties," was she heck as like! Janet Portland is a child of the 50's!  

    She was possibly one of the last of the 1950's debutante's, out of finishing school. she had had thousands spent on her by her father in order to try and find a husband for her, her father wanting to get his daughter off his hands, and the Prisoner was perhaps both Janet's and her father's last chance!

   She is the type of woman who likes endless rounds of parties, and socialising. She does not work, her only ambition is marriage. For social occasions she always has a dress made for her, hence living off her father, as she would have no money of her own. Her hair style never alters - she has never embraced the sixties - having never burnt her bra - hardly liberated, her dress code stems from the 1950's. She is the homely kind of woman, but not the domestic type. And certainly not the kind of woman to take risks. She would have changed her fiancé, his car would have to go, along with the kind of work he did, persuading her father perhaps to eventually give her fiancé a desk job.

   I can see why Janet loves the Prisoner, why her father dropped those secateurs when the Prisoner asked him for his daughters hand in marriage, and why he supported both the Prisoner and his daughter, she would at last be off his hands, a burden relieved. But why did the Prisoner want to marry Janet Portland, she certainly isn't his type at all. Perhaps it was to be Sir Charles Portland's son-in-law, and look to further his career.

   Janet is something of a forlorn woman, forsaken, and unhappy because she does not know where her fiancé is. She doesn't even know if she can trust her father when he tells her that he doesn't know where he is!

   Then one day a stranger comes to her birthday party, he gives her a message by kissing her, and instantly Janet knows that she is in the arms of her fiancé. But having lost him once, and now struggling to come to terms with what has happened to him, Janet Portland is perhaps the most unfortunate of women, when she loses him for a second time. And perhaps this time...... forever!

   It seems that Janet, although having not given up completely on her fiancé, it appears she no longer wears her engagement ring!

Miss Penny Farthing