The Therapy Zone

    Derren Nesbitt - No.2 ‘Its Your Funeral’ "It is so illogical to have all these Number two's coming from somewhere and going nowhere, and so the audience had to try and make logical a totally illogical situation, and make it err logical for them. And that's some of the mystique."

   Bernard Williams - Production Manager on the Prisoner "It had to be different Number two's otherwise the show would have got boring. That was the worry of the finance guys, and the networks in the States was, it's very unusual to see a show where a guy fails at the end of each show. Because every show normally he wins, beats up all the baddies and everyone lives happily ever after. In the Prisoner series he never gets out. So that's a "downer." So if you have the same Number two all the way through, they're both "downers." You can't have two "downers," you can't have a guy who fails to brainwash him, and break him down. And neither can you have Patrick Getting out, so that would have been a killer."

   George Baker the new No.2 ‘Arrival’ "Pat didn't want anybody to know why they changed, just another Number two appeared. And I think that part of it was the fear thing, putting everybody on edge."

    Bernard Williams - Production Manager "All the Number two's are very English. Maybe looking back we should have had some foreigners there, because it makes you think it's the British government all the time."

   ‘The Schizoid Man this is how it turned out to be, with Patrick McGoohan's stunt double Frank Maher in a cream blazer with black piping, as seen here in this production shot.

   Yet this next production shot shows how the script originally called for ‘The Schizoid Man.’

    Personally I think the original way, of both No.6's to be wearing dark blazers with off white piping, would have been far better suited to the episode. More confusing of course, which would also have been more in keeping with the series as a whole. Yet at the time of filming the original way of having the pair of 6's dressed identically, was thought to have been far too confusing for the viewer of the day. Myself, I think "they," meaning members of the production team, took too much on themselves to know what is in the mind of the television viewer, who as it was knew exactly who the Prisoner-No.6 is, and therefore no room for speculation. Had it been as the script originally called for, the television viewer would not have known until the very end of the episode who the real No.6 was, and which one was trying to escape!

    Schizoid: The Word 'Schizoid' is said to have originated in 1925, meaning a tendency or resembling a condition of schizophrenia.... mental condition, first diagnosed in 1912.

   Well that doesn't read much like the schizoid man in ‘the Prisoner,’ does it? Because 'Schizoid' is a mental condition, and although that's what is suggested in the episode, No.6 is actually physically confronted by his doppelganger!

    'The Schizoid Ma'n was an early episode. After September 1966 location shoot at Portmeirion {for the first four episodes plus stock footage} the crew began filming at Elstree. 'The Schizoid Man' was in production, according to the Daily Cinema, weeks commencing 21st of December 1966, and 4th of January 1967, and Portmeirion only appears in stock footage.

   

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