Tuesday 7 January 2014

The Therapy Zone

   Dennis Chinnery played the role of Gunther, one of the two gunrunners in the episode of Many Happy Returns. This is what he had to say regarding some "personal pain" during filming of a particular scene.
    "There was one sequence where Pat had to set fire to something. I had to come into the galley, as Gunther, and he caught me around the neck, and the idea was to strangle me and pull me along the corridor and put me in one of the cabins, which he did. On the first take the strength round my neck was so great that I thought "I'm going to pass out!". He's got so much energy and so much strength and he's thrown himself into the part so much, and he's got so much to do that I thought "I'm going! I'm going". Anyway I was Ok, but I thought I'm going to have to mention this to him, and I was very nervous and very worried about saying it to someone I didn't really know - I admired, but didn't really know to that degree, but I must because I knew he was going for a second take, and I thought it's going to happen again. Anyway I did pluck up enough courage and mentioned this to him, and he was so nice, and he said "I'm sorry about that. It's very unprofessional of me to do that. I should pull back on stunts like that. We shall go for the second take right now. And don't worry I'm sorry." And we went for the second take and it was fine. Perfect. So I've never forgotten how marvellous and professional he was."

    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."

Harmony
   I find it quite remarkable that efforts have gone so far as to construct an American frontier town of the 1800's so close to the village - why? Well of course the architecture might not mirror that of the Italianate village, but certainly this frontier town was not especially built as a separate entity to the village, but is actually part of the village!
   You can see parts of the town of Harmony in the episodes of ‘The Chimes of Big Ben,’ ‘A B and C,’ and ‘The Schizoid Man.’ Two out of the three you can actually see citizens of the village walking, and aVillage taxi passing through. So any thoughts that the American frontier town was especially built for a special reason can be dismissed, but seen as an extension to the village. Not exactly attached to the village as an extension would be, but close enough I should have thought.

Be seeing you

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