The Therapy Zone

Merry Quips

   No.6 is tied with securely with mountaineering rope, "This rope will hold an Elephant" the Girl tells him. "I must remember that next time I go climbing with one" he quips.

A B & C

   Well was there something in the water?

    No.6's personal maid brought him his nightcap of hot chocolate, which No.6 poured down the sink. Then picking up a glass, he duly filled it with water from the cold tap. Having taken a sip of water, No.6 turned to retire for the night, however on his way to bed No.6 collapses on the floor.

   I cannot see No.6 feigning unconsciousness, having presumably drunk the drugged hot chocolate, as the doctor-No.14 would surely have noticed that No.6 wasn't in fact unconscious.

   So whatever drug it was in the tap-water, it was highly potent, as No.6 only took a sip of the water!

Colin Gordon - The General

   I suppose Colin Gordon really has no right to be playing the ruthless, yet frightened Number 2 in a series like the Prisoner where the character of No.2 changes with each episode.

   "I've never been so flattered" was Colin Gordon's comment "Especially as this is the first time I've played a part quite like this."

   Although screened after ‘A B and C,’ ‘The General’ in which Colin Gordon plays Number 2, was in fact filmed before ‘A B and C,’ so that he makes his return appearance five weeks before his debut!

   The story-line of ‘The General’ was altered so as to allow for this, although the provision was not needed as the episodes were screened in the reverse order to their filming. Number 2 in ‘The General’ was originally to have met his death at the end of the episode, a victim of "the Generals" short circuiting, and explosive self-destruction. But Colin Gordon's performance as Number 2 was admired so much, that he was reprieved, simply to pave the way for his appearance in the later episode of ‘A B and C.’

Number 2

   Number 2 is portrayed as being very English even when played by Australian actors Guy Doleman and Leo McKern. However they did get it right with Living In Harmony with American born actor David Bauer as the Judge/No.2.

    If there is one thing which stands out in the Prisoner it's very Englishness. It is thought that the Prisoner-No.6 is English. But he isn't. Not having been played by Irish-American born Patrick McGoohan. The Village maybe an International community, yet in this cosmopolitan village it is it's very Englishness which make you think that the installation known as the village is actually run by the British. But if that it the case, why should the village be thought to be behind the Iron Curtain in the episode ‘The Chimes of Big Ben?’ Well simply going by the information given by Nadia, which if true, makes both the Colonel and Fotheringay as having gone over to the other side. But of course the village is nowhere near the Iron Curtain, let alone behind it. Those 25 days the Prisoner spent at sea, on a north-easterly course, during the episode ‘Many Happy Returns’ goes to prove that much.

    As Prisoner production manager Bernard Williams once said "Perhaps it would have been better if we'd used other, non-English actors as Number Two." Well that would certainly have added to the cosmopolitan atmosphere of the Village

Be seeing you