TheTherapy Zone

   Mister X, because he puts me in mind of a former Character of McGoohan's, John Drake, although I'm not so sure about the Lotus Elan he drives in this episode The Girl Who Was Death. John Drake almost always drove a Mini Cooper 'S.' But perhaps that would have been too much of a give away for the Prisoner.

    The one thing about THEPRIS6NER is, that at the end of the series, you cannot go back and watch the series again and wonder if Six is going to escape The Village because you know what it's all about. Nor does the series begin again at the end, there's no vicious circle as with the original, only the possibility of doing it the right way, the possibility of making a better Village!

   Originally Patrick McGoohan turned down the Lotus Elan, seeing it as the wrong car for the Prisoner, and chose instead the Lotus Seven. So I wonder why it is then, that Mister X, McGoohan seen here behind the wheel and taking the road to Witchwood, in the episode The Girl Who Was Death is driving a Lotus Elan?

   Surely Mister X, as the Prisoner, should have been driving his Lotus Seven, seen here driving over Westminster Bridge during the opening sequence.

  After all, the Prisoner in the episode ‘Do Not Forsake Me Oh My Darling,’ drove his Lotus Seven on the mission to find Doctor Seltzman, which he drove his car all the way to Austria. So it seems strange to me that Mister X was not behind the wheel of his beloved Lotus Seven during the driving scenes of ‘The Girl Who Was Death.’

   By the by, Witchwood should have been spelt Wychwood.

   There are three Lotus Seven cars used in ‘the Prisoner,’ These appear in different episodes and scenes. But both variations of the car appear in certain scenes of ‘Do Not Forsake Me Oh My Darling’ driving scenes. To tell them apart, look for the one with the number plate upon which letters and numerals are fixed, as the other has them stuck directly onto the front grille. Another way of telling the two cars apart is by watching who is behind the wheel, as stock footage of the opening sequence is used in ‘Do Not Forsake Me Oh My Darling,’ where the figure of Patrick McGoohan can be clearly seen behind the wheel of the car.

    In Fall Out, when the wall screen in the cavern shows the Lotus Seven being cleaned outside the Prisoner's house in Buckingham Place, a mechanic in overalls is cleaning the car, that is Graham Nearn from Lotus cars, the company which supplied the Lotus Seven.

   McGoohan went to Lotus Cars asking if they could supply a car for the series. Lotus wanted McGoohan to use a Lotus Elan, the car being used by Diana Rigg in The Avengers. And it was for this reason that McGoohan rejected the Lotus Elan, as well as seeing the Lotus Elan as being the wrong car for the Prisoner, and so chose the Lotus Seven.

   And finally Potter drives a Lotus Cortina in ;Do Not Forsake Me Oh My Darling,’ which was a collaboration between Lotus and Ford 1963-1970.

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