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Wednesday 31 July 2013

Teabreak Teaser

    We know how many No.2's were used in the Village, but how many Supervisors?

BCNU 

Thought For The Day

   Nadai Rakovsky {if that is indeed her name} might have been an Olympic bronze medalist at the age of 17 {No.2 himself seems surprised about that} after trying to escape the Village by simming away. "I could not swim so far," as she tells No.6. Why? That is because there is a world of difference from swimming in a cosy Olympic swimming pool, and "wild swimming" in open water. There are tides, currents, the water could be ice cold. Besides Nadia is now a middle aged woman, and would not have maintained all that training that got her that Olympic Bronze medal.

Be seeing you 

Caught On Camera!

  As anyone who has been to Portmeirion will know, Pat McGoohan is on his knees at this point!

BCNU

Tell Me Now...... Who Am I?


    Curtis-No.12 has taken on the persona of No.6, and has been parading himself as the same all the while the real No.6 has been taken out of his familiar environment and placed in another cottage, this whilst undergoing a bout of conditioning. "That's it No.12, you're right handed, right handed." "I don't smoke white cigarettes, I smoke black cigarettes.... Flapjacks, flapjacks are my favourite dish...."
   After No.6's conditioning, he awakens in a different environment, with a new look, of black hair, and moustache. Together with a fresh identity, that of No.12. This knocks our man for 6, sorry, because he is no longer the person he once thought himself to be, and what's more he's left handed! So it's no wonder that No.12 is already on the back foot when meets with No.2 in his office.
   And then things get much worse for No.12 when he meets his counterpart - No.6, in the cottage which somehow seems familiar to him - his cottage of 6 private.
   But if No.2 thinks he's going to trick No.12 with his personal possessions, then he can think again. No.12 has a very keen sense of identity, and much of the rubbish in 6 private isn't his, and that statuette should be gilt, not bronze!
    You will no doubt have heard of the saying "If thy eye offend thee, pluck it out", then No.12 uses the offending left hand, and a short-circuiting table lamp to reverse the electric shock conditioning he previously went through to make him left handed. And it is now that No.12, I mean 6 is feeling much like his old confident self, and goes round to No.6's place to have it out with No.12, whose name he discovers to be Curtis. And it is after Rover has attacked Curtis, that No.6 begins to take on yet another identity, that of Curtis. "No.6 is dead" he tells No.2 over the telephone "Rover got him." And then exchanges blazers, his own for the cream blazer with black piping and Number 6 badge. This is the very first time No.6 actually wears his numbered badge on a voluntary basis, which is in keeping with his new identity as No.6, no, I mean Curtis.
   The only trouble is, with his new identity No.6 has to play it blind, as he has very little information on the subjects life. Well obviously this Curtis was brought to the village to impersonate him, and that he has a wife named Susan. This he discovered by a photograph he found tucked away in Curtis' wallet. And the conversation he has with No.2 in the back of the taxi No.6 has to "play off the cuff" so speak. For example No.6 doesn't know how a report to the General should be carried out, and hasn't had much time to think about a proposition No.2 put to Curtis when he arrived in the Village, so he has no views on the matter. In fact No.6 is getting quite strung up, and this No.2 remarks upon it. Really No.6 began to get "strung up" because he's saying too much about things he knows absolutely nothing about. If only No.6 had kept quiet and said as little as possible! But with No.2's suspicions aroused, he first goes to have a word with the helicopter pilot, and catches No.6 out by something he could not possibly know, that "Susan died a year ago No.6!"
   Since his arrival in the village, the Prisoner has fought tooth and nail to keep his own identity, he rejects the new identity "they" give him, that of No.6. But then when "they" take even that identity away from No.6, and give him another new identity, that of No.12, No.6 is at first confused, which he would be. But then as the episode of The Schizoid Man progresses, No.6 does his best to fight back, in order to regain that identity which he has fought so much against since his arrival in the village.... "I am No.6, he is the economy pack" No.6 tells Alison-No.24.
   So who is Curtis? Where was he seconded from?

Tell me again.... who am I?

The Therapy Zone


How Does It Work?
    The beam is hidden away in the flagpole, and the only time we see "the beam" activated is during the episode of Hammer Into Anvil, when No.6 sends a message by Pigeon.
   The Pigeon is tracked by radar, which is clever enough and the radar sensitive enough, to be able to track a Pigeon in the first place. The beam is set to minimum strength, and so the Pigeon is brought down by the beam, which must have a deadly accuracy to be able to bring down a single bird in the way it does. But exactly how does it work, perhaps it is a sonic beam!
   Perhaps just as remarkable, is the fact that a search team actually found the Pigeon that had been brought down by the beam.
   The Pigeon brought to No.2, who is seen here removing the piece of paper attached to the birds leg, which contains No.6's coded message.
   I know that the control room personnel had a radar fix on the Pigeon in flight. But surely as the beam brought down the bird it could have fallen anywhere in a wide area. Not impossible I suppose, to find the Pigeon, the above photograph is proof enough of that, but it would have taken time. And in taking such time, I can picture No.2 impatiently pacing the floor of his office, or the cipher room, awaiting  news of the Pigeon!

   Do Not Forsake Me............ the Village font the Prisoner with the open Greek “e” along with it’s canopied Penny Farthing logo.  

Do not forget us. Remember us, keep us in mind! But I have to admit that I have been lured to a large degree to the “re-branding” of THEPRIS6NER with the new art neouvou style design.
 
I took to the re-branding almost immediately, because it looks fresh and new. And yet ‘the Prisoner’ has been re-branded before in the 1998 by VVL which was a subsidiary of Polygram, this for the 30th anniversary of the series.



For me this re-branding didn’t work, I think the art designed was trying to be too clever. The “e” was replaced by a “6,” it might have worked better if the “6” had replaced the “o” as in THEPRIS6NER.

    Apart from wanting to know why the Prisoner resigned, is the ultimate motive of the village's administration to bring both the good and evil sides of the Prisoner together, possibly for the good of the village? If it is, it looks like No.6 was having none of it, and that's probably why he resigned. He didn't accept, he rejected!

Watch Out – Danger Man!
Not So Jolly Roger!
   The other night I was watching the ‘Danger Man’ episode ‘Not So Jolly Roger,’ a pirate radio station in the Thames estuary the crew of which transmit secret information to a submarine.
  Well that's all fine and dandy I thought, as I have for years, but exactly how do the crew of the Jolly Roger obtain the secret information they transmit to the submarine?

I’m obliged

Tuesday 30 July 2013

Thought For The Day

    During 'Fall Out,' the former Prisoner known as No.6, is given a number of items one being the key to his house. However the former No.6 had no use for such a key, as the front door of his hoiuse had been given an "upgrade." In effect, the front door now operates in the same way as the door to his cottage, it opens automatically employing an electronic sensor.
   Besides the Prisoner didn't enter his house, the butler did, while his master went off to hand in his letter of resignation. And yet by the time the Prisoner does return home to collect his two suitcases, wallet and travel documents, he does need his key to let himself into his house. So what happened to the upgrage of the door?

Be seeing you 

Pictorial PRIS6NER


    'The Prisoner' has a Lighthoiuse in the episodes 'Many Happy Returns,' and 'The Girl Who Who Was Death.' Swakopmund as the Village has it's very own Lighthouse.

Be seeing you

Exhibition of Arts and Crfats

   Portrait of The Prisoner-No.6

BcNu

60 Second Interview With Number 14

   
   No.113 “Rumour has it, that you are an ex-Count."
    No.14: What's it got to do with you what I am?”
    No.113b “Smile” {click goes the camera}
    “Nothing, nothing at all.”
    “Well why don't you go away and bother somebody else!"
    “There's no need to get shirty about it, I'm only trying to do my job.”
    “Well go and try to do it elsewhere.”
    “You play a fine game.”
    “What of it?”
    “Nothing, nothing.”
    “Then why mention it?”
    “Your ancestors.”
    “What about my ancestors?”
    “They used to play chess.”
    “So do a lot of other people.”
    “Yes but not using their retainers, and having their heads chopped off when they were wiped off the board, they don't!”
     “What are you suggesting young man?”
     “That here you are living out the good old days playing chess with citizens of the Village.”
    “No-one's lost their head yet, have they?”
    “No.”
    “Well they might if you don't stop bothering me with your insinuations.”
    “Can I quote you on that Number 14?”
    “Get out of my sight!”
   {At that point myself and my photographic colleague beat a hasty retreat.”

Reporter No.113
Photographer No.113b

The Therapy Zone

Like A Caged Tiger!
    Sounds like the Prisoner/McGoohan to me! We see in a few episodes of ‘the Prisoner’ how No.6 paces the floor of his cottage, even when eating a sandwich and drinking a coffee or tea, like some caged Tiger. You will recall No.2 asking the Colonel in the episode of ‘Do Not Forsake Me Oh My Darling’ "What sort of opinion to you form from this fellow?" the Colonel replied "Anyone who spends his time doing that {pacing up and down in his cottage}must be rather stupid!"
    Well in an interview with Script editor and writer of ‘Living In Harmony,’ Ian Rakoff said that he went to MGM for an interview with McGoohan, and when he got into McGoohan's office, he was pacing up and down like a caged Tiger!
    So it appears to me, that No.6 pacing up and down like a caged Tiger in his cottage, is a throw back to how it is in his production office. The both being one and the same!

Simon Bates
    Carried out an interview with Patrick McGoohan, I wonder how he managed to arrange that, back in 1990 when McGoohan came to England and the NEC in Birmingham to collect the keys to his new Caterham Super Seven.
    Simon Bates had this to say about Patrick McGoohan; "he was strange. He told me at the start that he hadn't given anyone an interview for 20 years and he wouldn't be giving another for the next 20 years.
    "Then he ordered everybody else out of his hotel room, locked the doors and sat as far away as he could.
    "After ten minutes, he decided he had had enough and it was over."
  
Goodnight Children Everywhere
   The Prisoner was never intended as a children’s television series, but if that is true, why the heavy use of nursery rhymes, and snatches of nursery rhyme tunes, you can hear them throughout the series.
   No.6 himself was regressed back to his childhood in the episode Once Upon A Time, and before that No.6 was telling three children, in fact children anywhere who just happened to be listening, and that could have included the viewers for all I know, the fairy tale about The Girl Who Was Death, a very dark tale for children. But children’s fairy tales are like that, all you have to do is read Toby Twirl And The Wishing Well, that's as dark as any fairy tale!
   Over the years the Prisoner has attracted the attention of children of all ages of their generation. And then there's second childishness, as quoted by No.6 - William Shakespeare "Is second childishness and mere oblivion."
    We all like a good story don't we, and at any age there still remains some of the child within us. So goodnight children..... everywhere.

Monday 29 July 2013

Watch Out There's A 6 Impersonator About!

   6 attends the regular Brass Band Concert! This image was taken from routine surveillance footage back in 1990. It was a beautiful summers day, a Sunday, because the local Brass band came to play their Sunday concert at Portmeirion.
   I think I went around Portmeirion for much of the day with my friend Luis, well in actual fact he wasn't my friend at the time, but a fellow fan of 'the Prisoner' who I met there that year in the Village. He wanted to take photographs of me, and even to video me going about the Village as No.6. I was happy to oblige. I recall how busy Portmeirion was on that day, and other days like it.
  On the other hand though....................The Village was deserted!
   This image was taken via one of Portmeirion's web-cams a couple of days ago at about 11:30 in the morning. It's a perfect summers day, the sun is shining, but there's no-one about! In the past when I've stayed at Portmeirion, by then the Village would be busy with day visitors. Just a minute! What's that in the bottom left-hand corner of the picture? Looks like Portmeirion have added a new vehicle to their Village transport, a golf cart!
  I should imagine that this new addition to the Village transport is to ferry guests to their serviced hotel rooms around the Village!

Be seeing you

Caught On Camera

    Well I don't recall this little scene from ‘The Chimes of Big Ben,’ perhaps this is from what some people are pleased to call the “alternative” version of the episode! It's No.6 alright, dressed in that blue anorak, with white striped lines. He's wearing that chrome wrist watch given to him by that supposed Russian way back in that cave on the coast of Poland. But I don’t recall No.6 smoking, a Senior Service cigarette during ‘The Chimes of Big Ben!’
   But the question was, "What's that No.6 up to?" Judging by that length of 35mm film he's got in his hands, I would suggest he's trying to find out how it was done, that journey from Poland to London. It was a twelve hour journey, and the time of that tallied with the time of No.6's wrist watch might have tallied, but where's the lorry carrying the crate they were in? The cargo ship at Gdansk {formerly Danzig} docks? The aircraft to Copenhagen and again to London? I’m damned if I can see it! How did they do it?
   Well No.6, somehow I don't think it was done by mirrors. But I have a feeling the Village, during that 12 hour journey, was always much closer than you might think!
   Then on the other hand looking at it from Pat McGoohan’s perspective “Damn and blast it! Not only have they forgotten to put the crate in the back of that lorry! {where’s that Doris Martin} and the lorry isn’t the same in either shot, they used shots of two different lorry's!”

Be seeing you

Village Life!

    For years people had attempted to understand what 'the Prisoner' is all about, and the general consensus is 'the Prisoner' is what it is, but that people cannot agree on want it is! So what is it? We have had one of our scientist looking at the problem from a scientific angle.
   "What's he discovered?"
    McG minus jd plus tp-No6 equals McG!

BCNU

He’s Having A laugh!

    Okay,’ the Prisoner’ isn't exactly full of belly laughs, but then you wouldn't expect it to be. However there is humour, and humour is the very essence of a democratic society, as No.2 once put it.
   No.6's sense of humour has remained strong and unimpaired.
   No.6 said of No.2 at the suggestion that he run for public office, No.2's position in fact "You have a delicate sense of humour" he tells No.2.
   The episode ‘The Girl Who Was Death’ is teeming with humour, although I fear Mr. X doesn't find it at all funny! However it has to be said that there is a vein of humour which runs throughout the Prisoner series. No.2 of ‘The Chimes of Big Ben’ can find the humorous side of most things "I'll make you a handle for this door" No.6 tells him "Ha, ha, ha, ha" laughs No.2. Even during ‘Fall Out’ No.2 maintains his sense of humour "A strange thing happened to me on my way here! Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha" he laughs, and his laughter becomes infectious, even to members of the Assembly. And even when sealed up in that Perspex Orbit Tube No.2 still sees the funny side of his situation "Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha!"
   ‘Hammer Into Anvil’ is another example, when No.2 is confronted by the bomb disposal operative and a small cuckoo, cuckoo, cuckoo! And "we even have our own little newspaper" No.2 informs the Prisoner on the morning of his arrival "You must send me a copy" quips No.6. And whilst doing as the caveman did, No.6 quips to No.2 "I may even invent fire!"
   No doubt you have favourite humorous moments within the Prisoner of your own which you could list.
"Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha........ be seeing you."

The Therapy Zone


The Prisoner - Nerve Gassed?
    A friend's son came up with something which has never occurred to me in all my 46 years and more of Prisoner appreciation. During the opening sequence, as the Prisoner is busy gathering up his passport, visa papers, photographs, and two suitcases, an undertaker pumps nerve gas into the study, the Prisoner, standing at the window looks up confused. My friend's son noted that the show would have been a very different show, had the Prisoner not jerked his head up looking confused, but instead had opened the window.
What is it they say "Out of the mouths of babes and suckling....." And this above only goes to confirm that which I have thought to be the case for many a year, that the Prisoner is better viewed through the eyes of a child rather than those of an adult. There is something about the logical mind of a child, their reasoning to behold. As Oscar Wilde once said "I wish I had thought of that!"

Brainwashed?
    It has been stated, in the past, that No.6 was brainwashed on more than one occasion. During the election period of Free For All when he is given the truth test, he was brainwashed temporarily. How can you brainwash someone temporarily? And at the beginning of Dance of the Dead, it was claimed that No.6 had been brainwashed so as to answer Dutton’s questions put to him. Well if you asked me, it was Dutton who was brainwashed, because if No.6 had been brainwashed, all the doctor would have to do, would be to put his questions directly to No.6 himself, "Why Did you resign?" and being brainwashed No.6 would not be able to resist, but to tell the doctor the reason why he resigned! And all this without the third element - Roland Walter Dutton.
   No.6 was at times drugged and conditioned, but never brainwashed. the villages administration would never allow that to happen. Besides if No.6 had been brainwashed, to change his ideas or beliefs by physical or mental conditioning, that brainwashing would then have to be reversed, to bring him back to his former rebellious, disharmonious, and reactionary state of mind.
   Because if there is one constant with the Prisoner, he wants to escape, and you don't get that if the subject is continually being brainwashed. Now No.8 the white Queen, she's a typical example of someone who is brainwashed into thinking he is in love with No.6, and he with her!

Number 6’s Rebellious Nature?
    It has been written, in the past, that the chess champion-No.14 of Checkmate, recognises No.6's rebellious nature by his refusal to move on the chessboard.
   Well not really. No.6 had asked No.8-the white Queen after she said "Maybe I could help." "How?" shouted No.6 "How?" "HOW?" He didn't intentionally not move, No.6 was simply preoccupied with the white Queen!

Be seeing you

Sunday 28 July 2013

A Favourite Scene In THEPRIS6NER



http://youtu.be/ssifxy5LFBA

   In particular, when Two is eating that cherry cake, the way he digs out a cherry with a fork later in this video. You could say this scene is akin to dissecting a cat with a fork, as was described in one review of THEPRIIS6NER.
   The Solar Cafe was a building constructed by the production team. The management at Swakopmund wanted to purchase the cafe, but the producer told them that the cafe was to be blown up in a scene during the final shoot. And a gas explosion in Manhattan is reported over the radio, which it seems the Prisoner is the only one to hear. Is this pre-cogniscance? Because in the episode 'Darling' Lucy dies in a gas explosion in Manhattan, when Michael's apartment is blown apart in that explosion! It's the same with the guy in the baseball cap playing cards. The Prisoner first sees him at the hospital lying on a stretcher mouthing the words "Help me!" Later the Prisoner sees that same man lying dead on a stretcher having been killed in the explosion of the solar cafe!  As for 554, she had to suffer a Village death because Six was getting too close to her! And 147 played by Lenny James, I like him. He's just doing his best for his family.

Breathe in.... breathe out...Village life goes on.

Caught On Camera!

   "Be seeing you" the milkman said just before he ejected the navigator- the Prisoner, out of the Gloster Meteor Jet aircraft. Nothing wrong with that is there? Well as a matter of fact the pilot cannot eject the navigator without himself being ejected from the aircraft. This I recently learned from a friend of a friend who had actually done some work on a Glsoter Meteor jet aircraft in the 1950's, he had been an RAF technician. He used to re-set the ejector seats and parachutes, and having been asked if No.6 could have been ejected out of the aircraft without the milkman/pilot, he gave a definate no.
   This then would explain the original ending to 'Many happy Returns,' in that No.2/Mrs Butterworth presented No.6 with a copy of The Tally Ho upon his return to the Village. The headline of which ran "Plane Lost Over Sea. No Hope of survivors.' This would be right, because as well as No.6, the Milkman/pilot should have also found himself in the Village having been ejected from the aircraft, which would have carried on flying out over the sea before crashing. Had a search then been made for the missing aircraft, wreakage having been found but no bodies, then to the rest of the world No.6 would be dead. But what is wrong, is the fact that the lost aircraft over the sea was to have been reported in The Tally Ho. Who outside the Village reads The Tally Ho?

Be seeing you

Exhibition of Arts and Crafts

         Portrait of Mister X

BcNu

The Therapy Zone

An Observation - Symbolic Meaning Or A Prison For Oneself!
   Have you ever observed the steel lines or bars running both up and down, and round the circular wall of the interior of the Green Dome?
   These final two images certainly give the impression that Number 2 is nicely tucked up in his own personal steel cage. Well the series isn't called the Prisoner for nothing you know!

Patrick McGoohan
   I wonder how Patrick McGoohan feels about this reinterpretation of the Prisoner? Of course we shall in all probability never know, and of course Ptraick has nothing to do with the Prisoner. I mean he doesn't own it, or have any rights to the series, and his attitude towards his creation has not always shown a sympathetic case. I mean he has never found it easy to talk about, or to discuss the series with anyone, save for a select few over the decades following the Prisoner series. But surely, even after all these years, Patrick McGoohan must feel something , to show some interest, if only privately, about the reinterpretation of  his creation, the Prisoner.


The Schizoid Man
    No.2 was shocked to say the least, when he heard that No.6 was dead, that Rover got him and suffocated him to death. So why did Rover attack No.12-Curtis in the first place? Was it something to do with the password, which was the correct password, in the way he said it, with more than a trace of nervousness in his voice, and thrice in the saying "Schizoid Man.... schizoid Man... schizoid Man!" And then Curtis began to run, which would have instantly had an effect of Rover's behaviour, it's natural instinct to give chase to it's prey. And for Curtis to run the way he did, Rover would have instantly decided that that was reason enough.
   Well what other reason could there possibly be? I suppose that it's most unlikely, but Rover could have known before No.2, that Curtis had betrayed the plan to No.6. But then that would lead to the question of how?


The New No.2
   The new No.2 is someone all fans of the Prisoner are very familiar with, so Ian McKellen as the new No.2 will pose no problem for fans. As for a new No.6 - Jim Caviezel, well that shouldn't be a problem either if you think about it. After all there have been so many new No.2's, and numerous No.8's in the village, Nadia Gray during The Chimes of Big Ben, and Rosalie Crutchley in Checkmate, and Alexis Kanner in Living In Harmony to name but three. Not to mention No.14, who only last week was an old woman in a wheelchair, but now a doctor in A B & C, and later No.14 is an assistant to No.2 during the episode of Hammer Into Anvil. And don't forget No.113, a one time contributor to The Tally Ho during the election period of Free For All, but by the time of Hammer Into Anvil was an old woman who died a month ago!
   So you see by these few examples one can see how citizens in the village come and go. They die, or are promoted or demoted. and so we see that numbers are just about the only constant in the village, which all goes to demonstrate that the No.6 we know - Patrick McGoohan - may not have been the first, second, or even third No.6 in the village. But he was most certainly the new No.6 of his time.

I'll be seeing you No.6, whoever you are at the time!

Saturday 27 July 2013

Caught On Camera!

    This is the clock in the Clinic in THEPRIS6NER, there's nothing really unusual about it, except that there is no 6, but I expect that's becasue of the placement of the second hand. Oh yes, and the number 7, it looks like an upside down and mirrored 2! Well that's how it struck me last night.

Be seeing you

THEPRIS6NER

   There being nothing on any of the television channels that we wanted to watch, my wife said why don't we be radical and watch 'the Prisoner?' I said why don't we be really rebellious and watch THEPRIS6NER instead? So we did. It would seem that this series has become a first choice series for me to watch. We watched 'Arrival' as a one-off episode, but I have a feeling that for the next Friday eveings we may very well be watching the whole mini-series again, and that will be seven times we have watched the series. Well why not? I really enjoy the series, I get excited at the thought of watching it. What's more I'm not alone in appreciating this series, and now other die-hard fans of the original series are begining to find appreciation for this series.
   I made no fresh observations about 'Arrival last night, I simply sat back and enjoyed the episode.

Breathe in....breathe out....Village life goes on.

Thought For The Day

  The Rook-No.53 had created an electronic defence system. He thought that all nations should have it, as it would have ensured peace. Treasonable thoughts perhaps, but at that point No.53 had committed no crime, the crime occured when a petty bureaucrat let his bag get swiped! So why was the Rook-No.53 brought to the Village? It might be that the plans for the electronic defence system, that was in that bag, was swiped by an agent working for the Village, that  "The Beam" used in 'Hammer Into Anvil' is that electronic defence syetem!
   It's like the watchmaker-No.50 "I've met no-one here who has commited a crime." In the case of the Rook, he may very well be right!

Be seeing you

Cartoon Capers

   The following link was sent to me by Christine B, it's an action cartoon called "The Digger," more that that I cannot say, as there is no description for the cartoon. But I'm sure enthusiasts of 'the Prisoner' will enjoy it.

http://youtu.be/CP225EmRq7A

ChristineB informed me that the video was found on the French Prisoner site web : Le rÔdeur. It has been posted on July 26th by Patrick Ducher, I think.
This little video was made by a net surfer. It's a tribute to a children British programme : Vision on.
Vision on was mainly made for deaf children but was broadcast all over
the world. I remember watching it when I was a child.
The Digger was one of the cartoons presented during Vision on.


Be seeing you

Prismatic Reflection

    There is a game sometimes played, it’s called “truth and consequences.” There is a truth that the Prisoner resigned, he resigned for peace of mind, but whose peace of mind, his? There is the truth that the man known as the Prisoner held a job of a top secret, confidential nature. The truth is he lived in a large house, too large a house for one man. The truth of the matter is the Prisoner could not have expected to hand in his letter of resignation and then simply walk away, he must have known that there would be consequences. The consequences being that he was abducted to the Village, his identity taken away from him, and was given the number six.
   Prior to his abduction, the man known as the Prisoner, was “pushed” into resigning from his highly secret, confidential job. He was “filed, his “index“ card “stamped,” and dropped into a grey filing cabinet marked RESIGNED, and at the same time the Prisoner’s card was “stamped!” On the morning of his arrival in the Village, he was “debriefed” by No.2, and later “briefed” about the Village during an aerial tour. Here we discover another of the butler’s skills, at being able to pilot a helicopter! And later numbered by the Supervisor-No.26, as the prisoner attempted to escape the Village in a Village taxi, and fast approaching the Outer Zone! The truth of the matter is, No.6 has to face the consequences of his actions.
    Cobb’s death had to be faked because of his encounter with the Prisoner on that hospital ward. And if No.6 had not tried to escape, he would not have had the suffocating encounter with the Village Guardian, he had been warned about that, you will recall the earlier demonstration in the central Piazza.
    Nadia Rakovsky. Here were more consequences, because No.6 never allowed himself to consider what the truth is. Nadia didn’t tell him the truth about the location of the Village. No.6 didn’t think to ask how Nadia had been able to make contact with the man waiting in the cave, while Nadia had been a prisoner in the Village! No.6’s desire for escape clouded his judgement, and suffered the consequences, by finding out that not only had be been betrayed, by Nadia but by the Prisoner’s own people, the Colonel and Fotheringay.
However this game of “truth and consequences” can be played the other way. The Prisoner was determined to escape the Village, to find out the truth. He did manage to escape, and suffered a debriefing about the Village from the Colonel and the sceptical Thorpe. They all have their problems. The Prisoner isn’t sure which side runs the Village, and the Colonel and Thorpe aren’t sure which side the Prisoner is batting for now! But they all want to get to the truth, and all three agree to work together to find that truth. And the consequences? The prisoner now knows the location of the Village, although little good it will do him. As once back in the Village, he will be afforded one more chance of escape, and the consequences of failure will be severe.
   The doctor-No.40, in his search for information, as he experimented on the mind of Roland Walter Dutton. But the truth was, Dutton had already told them all he knew, and he was telling the truth. The trouble was the doctor couldn’t see the truth, and for that Roland Walter Dutton suffered the consequences of a living death, as a brainwashed imbecile!
    The truth of the matter is, can No.6 be trusted? The white Queen offers to help No.6 with his escape plan, if it’s a good one. But he does not trust her, what’s more the Rook-No.53 had his doubts about No.6, but the Rook got it wrong, because No.6 is really a prisoner. The consequences being, that No.6 is the only one out of the group of escapees to be returned to the chessboard. We don’t see No.14 the chess champion again, or the white Queen, nor the Rook for that matter. As for the Shopkeeper-No.19, he’s replaced by a weasel type of character, No.112.
   Truth and consequence, not so much a game anymore, because for every truth there is a consequence that must be paid.

I’ll be seeing you

The Therapy Zopne

Village Observation; Number 2 speaks with someone on the telephone, that someone is me, the Butler. Well who do you think told number 2 that number 6 had arrived at the green dome to see my master number 2?
Butler “Number 6 is here to see you.”
Number 2 Is he, show him in.”
Then of course I do show Number 6 into Number 2’s office as instructed. So just because you don’t hear me speak, doesn’t mean I can’t! {As is the thinking of the majority of fans of the Prisoner.} However the proof of the pudding is in the eating, to borrow one of No.2’s sayings, because a good Butler see and hears everything, but says nothing. Such a role model would be Jeeves, Bertie Wooster’s gentleman’s gentleman. 

 In this way, I saw and heard everything, but said nothing, and that is why people arrived at the thought that I cannot speak, simply because they had not heard me speak. Magasfontein Lugg on the other hand,  being the personal Valet and Butler to one Albert Campion,  is a far different for of gentleman’s gentleman. He has experienced the more shadier side of life, skills such as lock-picking to cat burglary are well within his grasp. He is also opinionated, has views on most things and is not afraid to voice those opinions to his mater. Yet at the same time, Lugg can be depended upon in a tight spot, and when it does really count, can remain silent.
 Yet for all his faults and graces, Lugg is the very opposite to that of myself and Jeeves, not that I attain to the heights of Jeeves, the very essence of what a personal valet, gentleman’s gentleman, and Butler should be.
    Village Observation: The stock market of the late 1800’s saw sellers and buyers on the stock market floor dressed in black suits, frock coats, and top hats, this in very much the style of the “Top Hat” village administrative officials. Today those working on the stock market floor are more akin to dress as in the style of the village, in blazers of numerous description, including “piped blazers.”

    A 3 year university degree course in 3 minutes, improbable and highly unlikely! Because for a one hundred percent entry and one hundred percent pass the citizens didn’t learn much did they!
Here is something of what ‘The General’ together with ‘Spedlearn’ didn’t tell you.
    ‘The treaty of Adrianople’ {1829} {also called ‘Treaty of Edirne} a pact which was settled between Russia and the Otterman Empire at the conclusion of the Russian-Otterman war of 1828-1829 at Adrianople in Turkey, now known as Edirne.
The Ottermn Empire gave Russia access to the mouths of the Danube and additional territory on the Black Sea, opened the Dardanelles to all commercial vehicles, commerce is liberated for cereals, live stocks and wood, granted autonomy to Serbia, promised autonomy for Greece, and allowed Russia to occupy Moldavia and Walachia until the Otterman Empire had paid a large indemnity.
    Adrianople – now Edirne is a city in Thrace, the westernmost part of Turkey, close to the boarders with Greece and Bulgaria. It has a population of 119,298 {2000 census}.
The city was known in English as Adrianople until after the First World War.
The city was founded by eponymously by the Roman Emperor Hadrian on the site of a previous Thracian settlement known as Uskadama, Uskudama or Uskodama.
Conquered by the Otterman Empire in 1362, the city served as the Otterman capital from 1365 until 1453. Edirne is the capital of Edirne province and its estimated population in 2002 was 128,400.
    ‘What happened in 1830’ February 3rd 1830 Greece gained full Independence from the Otterman Empire as the final result of the Greek war of independence.
Negotiations for the boarders between the two states continued until 1832 under the supervision of Russia, France and Britain.
The Geek war of Independence {also known as the Greek Revolution} 1821-1827.
    ‘Who was Bismarck’s ally against the Danish prince Christian of Glucksburg?
    Fredrick of Augustenburg. He and the German Bundestag had never accepted the treaty of London, in 1852. Bismarck wanted war, but he wanted it waged by Prussia, and not by the whole German Bunt. He realized that a successful war against the Danes in 1864 would serve the same purpose as Cavour of Italy’s entrance into the Crimean war, namely that it would indicate future leadership and would, at the same time, raise Prussia’s prestige.
    ‘Bismarck’s War with the Danes’ – In the 1850’s Europe was a very different continent to what you see today, save for a united Germany which being the case today, and was the same then before East and West Germany, though Germany in the 1850’s was Called Prussia together with a large group of allied Federated Germanic principalities, and some Austrian controlled provinces, all of which stretched from Russia’s western border, and including most of Poland, to the French border, and even included two small districts of France.
    Three decades later to the south was to be Frans Josephs Austrian-Hungarian Empire, enveloping Czechoslovakia, Austria, Hungry, Yugoslavia, Parts of Italy, Rumania.
The Otterman Empire – now Turkey – met its boarders in the South East, in what is now Northern Greece.
    Bismarck was a diplomat first and a politician later. He had the ear of the Prussian King Frederick William III and discussed with him the combining of the fragmented Germanic States under Prussian leadership, and gained early experience when he became Prussia’s envoy at the Confederation Parliament in Frankfurt.
    In 1858 King Frederick William IV succeeded his ailing brother as King. Bismarck did not have the same favor of the new King who sent him off to Russia as Ambassador to France. Finally on September 22nd 1862 he was called back to Berlin to become at one time, Prime Minister and foreign minister.
    The principalities squabbled over small issues causing friction between the major partners with whom they aligned; Prussia and Austria.
   One area of unrest was Schleswig and Holstein – actually two regions on the border with Denmark and Germany. For sometime both had ruled Denmark but the inhabitants were predominately German.
The treaty of London May 8th 1852 had sort to quiet the problem by keeping the Danish rule over Schleswig and Holstein and settling the problem of the Danish succession to the throne since the present King, Frederick VII had no male heir.
The six countries Russia, Great Britain, Austria, Sweden, France and Prussia which signed the treaty of London undertook to recognize Prince Christian of Glucksburg, a descendent through a female line of the family. When King Frederick VII died suddenly in November 1863 Prince Christian was proclaimed King Christian IX.
The Germans in Shcleswig and Holstein were up in arms. They claimed that Frederick of Augustenburg was the rightful direct descendent, all on the male side, from the Danish King Christian III, a century before.
A period of intense diplomacy and much shifting of position did not resolve the problem. Bismarck was a master strategist, planning well beyond the initial advantages, did not support the German claimant Augustenburg. His secret reason being that the two extra votes caused by brining Schleswig and Holstein into the Confederation Parliament could swing the power over to Austria.
In January 1864 Prussian and Austrian troops together with forces of Hanoverian and Saxon {Confederation} troops advanced into both Schleswig and Holstein and continued until the whole of Denmark was overrun.
Danish Troops, hardly surprisingly, offered little resistance against such might and Christian IX settled with the annexation of Schleswig and Holstein from the conquering nations.
    The political maneuvering by Bismarck now revolved around how to get Austria to agree to ‘absorption’ of both Schleswig and Holstein by Prussia.
Two years later, 1866, Bismarck took Prussia to war with Austria {over other troubles}, excluding it from Germany altogether, thus clinching the Schleswig and Holstein problem.
In 1870 Bismarck’s Prussia successfully went to war with France, resulting in further unity.
    Bismarck was a national hero, and the world’s most powerful man was created a Prince, then appointed Imperial Chancellor.
    ‘The Treaty of London May 8th 1852’ – signed by Britain, Russia, Austria, Sweden, Prussia and France had sought to quiet the problem of unrest in the areas of the Danish Duchies of both Schleswig and Holstein in regard to the succession to the Danish Crown, and thus guaranteeing the integrity of Denmark.
    The Duchy of Holstein, through owing allegiance to Denmark, became included in the Germanic Confederation by virtue of Article LIII of the Vienna Congress Treaty of 1815, which declared that ‘the Sovereign Princes and Free Towns of Germany, under which domination for the present purpose are comprehended their majesties the Emperor of Austria, the Kings of Prussia, of Denmark and of The Netherlands, that is to say….. The King of Denmark for the Duchy of Holstein….., establish among themselves a perpetual Confederation which shall be called the ‘Germanic Confederation’.
The Duchy of Schleswig, long under the sway of the Kings of Denmark, was claimed by Denmark in virtue of guarantees given by Great Britain and France in 1720 and of the treaties concluded by Russia in 1767 – 1773.

Be seeing you