Thought For The Day

    ‘The Prisoner’ covers a multitude of topics, perhaps one no more important than the question of personal identity. No.6 for example, before he was brought to the Village he had no personal identity. He could be anyone from John Drake to Peter Smith! So in this case the Village Administration actually gave the Prisoner his personal identity, and a name Number Six, if Number Six can be called a name.

   Poor old Number Six, he didn’t like that at all, he rejected his number. Refusing to wear or respond to his number, except doing so when it suited him.

    Then there was that time when this other chap, a doppelganger for the Prisoner appeared in the Village, claiming to be Number Six. Number Six might very well have rejected the identity of Number Six before, but by golly when threatened by having that identity taken away from him, he fought tooth and nail to prove that he is the real Number Six, and the other one, Number Twelve is the economy pack! Thus eventually retaining his identity!

    And then came ‘Fall Out,’ when the number Six was stripped from him. In having survived the ultimate test the Prisoner is no longer to be known as Number Six, or indeed by any number at all, seeing as he has vindicated the right of the Individual to be individual. That’s all well and good, but we still don’t know who the Prisoner is at the end, any more than we do at the beginning! If anything, the Prisoner is plain and simply The Man With No Name!

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