Thought For The Day

   According to Tony Sloman, who was film librarian on 'the Prisoner,' 'It's Your Funeral' is placed before 'Hammer Into Anvil.' In some ways that makes sense, as during 'It's Your Funeral' No.6 learns about Jamming. No not domestic science, or music making, but making plans for all kinds of mischief that do not exist. This is to confuse the Observers. And it is several acts of "jamming" that No.6 undertakes in 'Hammer Into Anvil' in order to confuse an already paranoid No.2.

   However, one has to consider the sport of Kosho. The bout which takes place between No.6 and No.2's assistant No.14, at the suggestion of 6, to which 14 challenges 6, to which 6 accepts. And that's all very well, except that the bout of Kosho in 'Hammer Into Anvil' is very short lived, and even though No.6 gets the better of 14. played by Basil Hsoskins, he saves him from a dunking in the tank of water. On the other hand, there is a far longer bout of Kosho which takes place in 'It's Your Funeral,' between No.6 and No.14 played by actor Basil Hoskins. And yet Basil Hoskins doesn't appear in 'It's Your Funeral,' save during that bout of Kosho, which means that the Kosho film sequence must clearly have been filmed for 'Hammer into Anvil.' But why then use the majority of that scene for 'Funeral' and not 'Hammer?' I have wondered that perhaps Basil Hoskins was meant to appear in 'Funeral' as well as 'Hammer.' The reason behind this is of actor Mark Burns, who plays No.22 in 'It's Your Funeral.' There is a distinct similarity between Burns and Hoskins, what's more the two characters of 14 and 22 dress identically.

   Despite Tony Sloman's library order of 'the Prisoner,' which does make some sense of the series, they did "bit about" when it came to filming. As in 'Arrival,' when the young man is being suffocated by the Village Guardian, an unused shot of No.100 {Mark Eden} from 'It's Your Funeral' is cut into the film. Why? I don't know why that shot of 100 was inserted into that scene, but they spoilt that scene by doing so. To my mind it was completely unnecessary, as they could have used the man in the striped jersey for the last few seconds of the scene. And in that I suppose gives answer to my query about that bout of Kosho. That they filmed so much of the sequence, that they simply used the unused stock film footage for 'It's Your Funeral.' And yet it's not Basil Hoskins who is dunked into that tank of water at the end. A stunt possibly deemed as too dangerous for Hoskins to carry out. Which would have been the same for 'Hammer.'

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