The Old School Tie!

    

    Sir Charles and Sir Michael—Both Late of the Foreign Office!   We are all familiar with Sir Charles Portland in the picture on the left, as seen in the episode ‘Do Not Forsake Me Oh My Darling.’ And it is for Sir Charles that the Prisoner worked. We know that, because when The Colonel was talking to Janet in her fiancées house, he suggested that she must be aware of what kind of work her fiancée did. To which Janet replied ‘Obviously, working for my farther.’
   So seeing as Sir Charles Portland worked for the Foreign Office, so to did the Prisoner once upon a time. Sir Charles must also be in the position to send such men, like his daughters fiancée on missions. Because he told Janet, when she pressed the point, that he had not sent the Prisoner on a mission! So having established Sir Charles in this matter, allow me to introduce you to Sir Michael Harvey, also of the Foreign Office, pictured lower left. It is Sir Michael who sends both Callan and Meres on a mission to West Germany, to bring out a British agent from East Germany, who is to be made up to the next ‘Hunter.’ This in the 1969 series 2, episode ‘Heir Apparent,’ of the television series ‘Callan.’ Now there are a couple of coincidences here. First both characters are played by actor John Wentworth. The second is that both characters hold high positions in the Foreign Office. Also, both characters have a Knighthood, hence their title ‘Sir.’ More than that, both characters are wearing the same old Etonian tie. Which means both Sir Charles and Sir Michael went to Eton, they being two OE’s {Old Etonians}. I’m not so sure that these two characters are really so very much different. Because although the names are not the same, it is the same actor playing the same style of role, but in two very different series, ‘the Prisoner’ and ‘Callan.’ It is quite feasible, that that John Wentworth could have played both characters in ‘the Prisoner’ and ‘Callan,’ and the result would have been just the same! As for the Eton tie worn by both Sir Charles and Sir Michael, it is quite on the cards that actor John Wentworth was himself an Old Etonian.

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