The Prisoner Under The Spotlight.

     Arts And Crafts Exhibition. We all know about "Arts & Crafts" which were very popular at one time, and which has been making something of a comeback. Well here in the village we enjoy our own Arts & Crafts Exhibitions. However it would seem that the majority of citizens have all chosen No.2 as their subject, either in pencil, pen & ink, paint, or clay.

   It all seems rather crawly to me, that so many citizens would choose No.2 as their subject. However that was not always the case, as the general carved himself a new chess set, only somewhat disappointingly the General did make No.2 one of the kings!

   A true individual was No.6, and his sculpture, although no-one really understood what it was! Described as "Our very own Epstein" by No.2, the awards committee couldn't make anything of No.6's sculpture. In fact No.6 had to go as far as to explain his work, which had given the title of "Escape," to the Awards Committee. Of course he was making it up as he went through a quite elaborate explanation. Church door my foot! Although the more abstract piece, with holes in it, representing freedom or a barrier, depending on how you look at it, was rather clever.

    At the Awards ceremony it is a surprise to see that it was actually No.2's Butler who was handing out the awards. And that made him look more important than No.2!

    It was an even bigger surprise when No.6 having won a special merit award of 2,000 free work units, the "prize of prizes", then went and bought No.38's tapestry to hang in his own home. I thought that was a little rash of him at the time. But I suppose No.6 had his reasons, and No.38 left the Arts & Crafts Exhibition, a happier, and richer lady.

    A friend of mine once wrote that in ‘Fall Out’ Patrick McGoohan might have been more original. But really, I don't think that there was anywhere else McGoohan could have taken the Prisoner. My friend also wrote at one time that he thought that Fall Out is the logical ending to the surreal series. I wish he'd make up his mind!

    Patrick McGoohan is on record as saying he doesn't like private jokes in the Prisoner, and wouldn't have them. So what about that address on the envelope in Do Not Forsake Me Oh My Darling - Saltzman, 20 Portmeirion Road, Filey Clyde, Scotland.

   The handwriting of that address and that written in a diary by the Colonel, both belongs to Patrick McGoohan. So is it Seltzman, or Saltzman? Because having studied that envelope more closely, It can be seen that McGoohan has written Saltzman!

   But it is not only the word Saltzman which is the curiosity about the envelope, what about that stamp and frank mark? There's something not quite right there!

   Checkmate sees the searchlight crew in the tower attacked by No.6 and his conspirators. One of the crew is punched from the tower and lands with a splash of water. yet there isn't any such water anywhere around the tower. Mind you the average viewer who had not been to Portmeirion would not know that!

    The lighthouse at Beachy Head was actually manned at the time of the Prisoner. Today its an automatic lighthouse, and much nearer to the coast due to cliff erosion.

    Apart from trying to extract the reason behind No.6's resignation, each episode of ‘the prisoner’ has some kind of a sub plot. Such as education, the question of identity, freedom and servility are such examples which automatically come to mind.

Be seeing you