Caught On Camera

Just a minute.......Isn't that No.1 standing on the right of the picture?

BCNU

THEPRIS6NER

There has been some comparing of the two series of the Pris6ner. This cannot be helped, and was sure to have happened, and no doubt there will be more comparisons made. Look at the above picture. That's the Sheriff on Boot Hill, just after burying the body of Cathy, who was strangled to death by the Kid in the episode ‘Living In Harmony.’ But of course there's no actual body in the coffin the Sheriff buried, because all the action seen in Living In Harmony was taking place inside No.6's head, and what the viewer sees is nothing more than 'role playing.’
In the next picture we see the Prisoner somewhere out there in the desert and mountains. There's a dead tree, and there the Prisoner has buried an old man who he thinks has just died of heart failure.

That old man was 93, who having died, has gone back to that 'other place,' back to his previous life. So it is possible that there's no body in the grave the Prisoner dug. To give colour to this, one sees Six open the grave of 4-15 in the final episode ‘Checkmate,’ 4-15 whom he was to have married in the episode ‘Darling.’ But having opened that grave Six finds that 4-15's body is not there - the coffin is filled with oranges! You will recall how Cobb supposedly jumped out of the hospital window in ‘Arrival,’ and how a funeral was held for him. Well there was no body in Cobb's coffin, just as there would be no body in 93's coffin. You see you need a body! So it just goes to show that death is an escape in both series, only reinterpreted in the 2009 production.                                                                                                                                             

I'll be seeing you

 

What's That No.6 Up To?

   We are grateful to No.6 for volunteering to test drive the new off road village transport, the Mini-Moke. Also No.6 has volunteered to test the new safety device, an air bag, which inflates when the vehicle collides with something, or impacts with something causing an accident.
    Here we see No.6 driving the Mini-Moke along the beach at high speed.

Suddenly the Mini-Moke is jolted by a hump on the beach, No.6 is thrown out of the vehicle. Once the impact is felt, the air-bag is activated and deployed.

    Once deployed, the airbag then protects the driver against the impact with a foreign object in an accident situation.

    It has been suggested to the team of designers, that perhaps it would be better if the air-bag was not an external device, as pictured here. But an internal device fitted to the interior of the Mini-Moke, perhaps to be fitted in the steeling wheel for example.

Be seeing you.

The Prisoner File

    What's all this about an offer of ultimate power being offered to No.6 during ‘Fall Out?’ Could they really be serious? Could they really have trusted No.6 to lead The Village? Surely 'they' made a mistake? I mean to say, look what happened when No.6 was elected as the new No.2 in ‘Free For All.’ No.6 hadn't been in office five minutes before he was attempting to organise a mass breakout! He had control. He was immobilising all electronic controls, and told the villagers that they were "Free, free to go." Of course No.6 was never actually in control, of either The Village, or himself. However it did demonstrate what No.6 would do if given half a chance.
    ‘Fall Out’ has a number of inconsistencies and logicalities, just like the previous sixteen episodes which help make up the series. So what do they do? They bring back yet another former No.2 who has had direct dealings with No.6, who knew just what No.6 would be capable of. Then promote him to President, which I thought was all rather theatrical, and after praising No.6 as a man who having revolted, fought, resisted, held fast, maintained, destroyed resistance. Overcame coercion. The right of the individual to be individual or person. They applauded his private war, and finally they conceded that despite material efforts, No.6 had survived intact and secure. And after all that, all remained was the recognition of a man, a man of steel who is magnificently equipped to lead them. Well of course the President was correct, but really, the President couldn't have been serious about the offer of ultimate power? Certainly No.6 was given the opportunity to address the Delegates of the Assembly. Given the chance to make his speech, the Delegates shout No.6 down at every time he tries to commence his speech. “They” have no wish to allow No.6 to make his speech. More than that, “they” have no desire to hear what it is he has to say. Both No.48 and the “late” No.2 were allowed to plead their cases, then why not No.6? It would seem that the Delegates of the Assembly were not prepared to sit and listen to the ravings of an egomaniac!
    So why should “they” elect such a man as No.6 to lead them? They knew what No.6 was like. They knew what No.6 would try and do if he was given half a chance, and given that half a chance, he tried to take it in ‘Free For All!’
    ‘Fall Out’ was the final manipulation of No.6 by the Administration behind The Village. They faced No.6 with himself , a final throw of the dice in order to try and break him. They failed! So who is No.1? The alter ego of No.6? Or was he Curtis of ‘The Schizoid Man?’ Whoever No.1 is, he turned out to be unstable. A laughing maniac, who as soon as he was discovered, made for the nearest exit from the control room in the rocket by climbing a steel ladder into the nose cone of the rocket. Have you notice how villains who are being pursued, have this uncontrollable urge to climb upwards in order to avoid capture. Then of course the biggest mistake of all was made. Once No.6 had confronted No.1, having sealed him up in the nose cone of the rocket, they left No.6 to his own devices in the Control Room inside the rocket, where he set the countdown in motion. Surely security should have been sent to the Control Room once the President thought that something was wrong. Then No.6 could have been overpowered, and what follows in the episode would have been avoided. The launching of the rocket with No.1 still aboard. The fire-fight and death of all the security guards, and the ultimate escape of the butler, No.48, No.2, and No.6. And I suppose that of No.1/Curtis, if that was indeed he.
    It is believed by many fans that The village was destroyed by the launching of the rocket, seeing the rocket as a missile with a nuclear payload, hence the title ‘Fall Out.’ But in that lies the difficulty. The title of the episode is ‘Fall Out.’ If it had anything to do with a nuclear element, then it would be one word ‘Fallout.’ I don't think The Village was destroyed, there is no evidence of The Village’s destruction, only its evacuation. There is no evidence to suggest that the rocket is a nuclear missile. Don't forget that there were three clear Perspex 'Orbit Tubes,' for sustaining human life during a long space flight, within the rocket.
    No, the title ‘Fall Out,’ two words, suggests nothing more then there having been a falling out. A falling out between The Village and No.6, amongst former friends, and the ultimate falling out between the television viewers at the time, and Patrick McGoohan!

Be seeing you

A Voyage of Discovery

     The Prisoner spent 25 days at sea on an open raft. He mostly had fair winds, and travelled on a north-easterly course averaging some three and a half knots. There was no allowance for tides, seeing as the Prisoner had no charts and no way of assessing them. He slept 4 hours out of each 24. So, the Prisoner in his 25 days at sea had proceeded at an average of three and a half knots, for 20 hours out of each 24 on a north-easterly course which would put him..... four hours sleep, twenty hours under fair sail maximum travel on a true course 1,750 miles. Minimum would be, 400 to allow for differential, calling it 500 to allow for drift and tide. Due to the fact that the Prisoner set sail not knowing where he was sailing to, because he didn't know where he was sailing from, I think he was extremely lucky!
    I read of the fearless explorer and science writer Anthony Smith, who died recently, who since his teenage years he had been haunted by a wartime story of survival. It happened that in 1940 two merchant seamen, their ship having been torpedoed off the coast of Africa, drifted for seventy days across the Atlantic in an open boat. The two men were driven half-mad by thirst and hunger, and finally reached land when washed ashore on Eleuthera in the Bahamas.
   Anthony Smith, in 1990, tracked down the lifeboat and arranged for it to be presented to the Imperial War Museum. In 2011, when Smith was already into his eighties, he set about finally fulfilling his ambition of re-creating the voyage. He fashioned from plastic gas pipes, a raft measuring some forty feet by eighteen feet, and surmounted by a small cabin, and used a telegraph pole for a mast. The name he gave to the raft was 'Antiki,' this in homage to both his age and Thor Heyerdahl's similar vessel the 'Kon-Tiki.'
   Anthony Smith recruited a crew of three, and set sail from the Canaries in January 2011. Having drifted for 2,700 miles across the ocean at an average speed of 2 knots, the raft two months later, landed in the Leeward Islands, but 700 miles from its intended destination of Eleuthera. A year later Anthony Smith set off on the final stretch with four new companions. After three weeks at sea, the raft was blown ashore at night by a ferocious gale, to find that they had actually landed on the very same beach as had the two seamen 72 years earlier.
   What has Anthony Smith and his intrepid adventure to do with the Prisoner and his voyage of discovery? Nothing directly. And yet indirectly, Smith had a crew of three men to man his raft, the Prisoner was alone aboard an open raft with no cabin. Smith's raft drifted for 2,700 miles, and made land some 700 miles off course. The same could easily have happened to the Prisoner's raft, which could have been blown hundreds of miles off course far out into the into the Atlantic. On the other hand, he could have made land in France and not on the south coast of England! The Naval Commander suggested that the average speed of the Prisoner's raft was three and a half knots, if it had only been two knots, like Smiths, then the Prisoner would have been 500 miles short of being washed up at Beachy Head.
   Now I do realise it's not always a good idea to mix fiction with fact, and that the Prisoner's sea voyage has to be taken at face value because its what happened in the episode 'Many Happy Returns.' Nevertheless, I was struck by Anthony Smith's seafaring adventure, and because of it I turned my mind to The Prisoner all at sea aboard his open raft. Because at the very least Smith's story does demonstrate how easily it could have gone so badly wrong for the Prisoner, had the gun-runners not turned up when they did. By which time they were in the English Channel, and when the Prisoner jumped overboard he had 9.2 miles to swim at most, in order to be washed up on the beach at Beachy Head. The Beachy Head lighthouse proves this point, because its light has a maximum range of 8 nautical miles, which equates to 9.2 miles. To swim that distance in itself is quite an achievement, seeing as how tired, hungry, and exhausted the Prisoner would have been!

Be seeing you

All Our Prisoner Convention Yesterdays

   Another dip into the memories of bygone Prisoner conventions. The above was taken during a scene from 'Dance of the Dead, which was one of numerous re-enactments during the Touring Theatre which always took place in the early evening on the Sunday.
    Missed the chess match?

   Don't worry, we'll be back on the chessboard again tomorrow!

     The outset of the Election Parade.

  "We want Six, Six is the one. We want Six, Six is the one!"  Oops! Wrong series, sorry!
And finally, touche!

   It was good agricultural stuff, that everyone enjoyed watching. When I look at these old photographs, and see so many people taking photographs and actually filming the re-enactments, it makes me realise that there must have been hundreds and hundreds of photographs, and hours of film taken. Perhaps some of those photographs and films are still in existence today, put away forgotten in a drawer or a box in the attic.

Be seeing you

What is The Village Guardian?

   Perhaps a 'thing' from another world! Or a creature made from genetically engineered membrane? Perhaps, but smart money is on 'it' being a meteorological weather balloon! Although I do favour the genetically engineered membrane, which possibly started life in a Petri dish in some laboratory somewhere.

BCNU

Caught On Camera

There's the raft that No.6 built in the episode ‘Many Happy Returns,’ but that's not No.6 {Patrick McGoohan}, It's No.6 Frank Maher, McGoohan's stunt double!

BCNU

Assassination Relace With Execution!

    They're Not Going To Shoot You. They're Going To Blow You Up! And part of that plan to assassinate/execute the retiring No.2, was to get No.6 involved. It was a question of credibility, without which the plan might backfire......well it did, didn't it?

    But No.6 is a cautious man, even if caution in a man like No.6 seems so wrong. But why pick No.6 in the first place? I would have thought that any plan which involves No.6 would be tantamount to failure. No.1, along with the blond interim No.2, the heir presumptive, must have been of the opinion that No.6's word, and reputation, counts for something in The Village. However we all know what No.6 is like. He doesn't settle down, and definitely doesn't get involved, unless it suits him. So why this sudden care about what happens to the innocent citizens of The Village? He's never cared about them before!
   But it can also be said, that No.6 is never one to pass up on an opportunity, whatever that opportunity might be. So he turns his attention to the imminent assassination/execution of the retiring No.2. This must be prevented for the sake of No.51's father, for all the citizens' sake. But what of No.2, who has just returned to The Village from a spell of leave - I mean what No.2 has ever left The Village to go on holiday before? But the point is, that when No.6 goes to pay No.2 a call to inform him of an assassination plot against him.
    "Number Six isn't it? I've been expecting you" No.2 informs his visitor.
    "I want to see Number Two" No.6 informs the man sat in the chair.
    "I am Number Two. You've come to tell me that there's a plot against my life, haven't you."
    And of course the conversation between the two men continues. But the fact of the matter is, that for a man like No.2, who has enjoyed such a long term of office in the village, has been such an active and energetic No.2, so much so that he's allowed to take a spell of leave, No.6 doesn't recognise who No.2 is! No.6 is confused {and he's not the only one} because he's reported one assassination plot to No.2, but not to this one. To No.2, No.6 is a man who has "cried Wolf" too many times - he's a Jammer!
    But to have No.6 involved in such an assassination/execution plot, must have been something of a calculated risk. For No.6 does not assign his loyalties to anyone, other than that for his own self-preservation. What does No.6 care for the little watchmaker he's never met him before! As for the mass reprisals against the innocent citizens of The Village for the false assassination of No.2, how did No.6 know what The Village's administration would do? The trouble is, No.6 can never refuse a damsel in distress, and the interim No.2, the heir presumptive knows, and plays on that chink in No.6's armour.
    Escape is not the game in ‘It's Your Funeral, more in the way of self-preservation, of both No.6 and that of the citizens, to be saved from a Village purge of its malcontents! Yes No.6 does get the detonator of the bomb in the Great Seal of Office which hangs about the head and shoulders of No.2, and then about the shoulders of the new No.2. Eventually No.6 hands the retiring No.2 the detonator, as it's his passport out of The Village, no-one would challenge it. So why didn't No.6 use the detonator as his passport out of The Village? Because who was there No.6 could trust to stop the new No.2 from removing the Great Seal of Office from his shoulders, as No.6 does, while the retiring No.2 departs in the helicopter.
   So mark this, and mark it well. If you have any plan, any plan of any kind, and you want that plan to succeed. Don't, under any circumstances, involve No.6 in any way!

Be seeing you

Village Life!

   We all know the rules to Kosho, the first to dunk his opponent into the tank of water is the winner. Number 6 in one of his electoral speeches in 'Free For All,' told the good citizens of The Village that they can partake in the most hazardous sports, and they will. Well I shouldn't think you can get much more hazardous than Kosho. All that bouncing up and down from one trampoline to another, and over a tank of water. Then you jump up to the top of the wall, which is sloped, and scamper this way and that in trying to avoid your opponent. Its no wonder that athletes wear crash helmets. Just think of the danger when one is hurled into that tank of water. If one caught one's head on the side of that tank...you'd easily be dead!
   It was hoped that Kosho would be accepted for the Commonwealth Games, but then The Village isn't in the Commonwealth!
    And there's always been one thing I've never understood.

   Number 6 got the better of his opponent Number 14, he had him dangling over the tank of water. I was waiting for Number 6 to dunk 14 into the tank of water, but then two other Kosho athletes appeared. Number 6 saw them, then released his hold on Number 14. I have never understood why Number 6 didn't simply let 14 fall into the tank of water!

Be seeing you

Bureau of Visual Records

   Above is the scene that the Prisoner sees when he looks out of his cottage window upon his return to The Village in 'Many Happy Returns.' It always seems to me that the Prisoner arrives back in The Village on the morning of 'Dance of the Dead, seeing as how that's the Carnival parade taking place down in the square. But unfortunately there is a piece that doesn't fit that idea, Mrs. Butterworth as Number 2, which is a pity, because there's Number 2-Peter Pan to take into account. Also what needs taking into account, is the fact that this isn't the scene the Prisoner would have seen when he looked out of his cottage window, it should have been a different angle altogether.

  Such as this angle, seen from the window of the cottage '6 Private' on the day of the prisoner's arrival in The Village. Such is the extent of the manipulation in The Village, that even when one looks out of the window one cannot be sure of the view!

Be seeing you

Exhibition Of Arts And Crafts

From My Watercolour Period
                             "Number 6 Voices His Complaints!"

BcNu

Quote For The Day

    "Who is Number One?"
    "You are Number 6."
                 {The Prisoner and Number 2 - The opening sequence of 'the Prisoner'}
    The above seems clear enough doesn't it? The Prisoner is asking Number 2 who Number One is. Number 2 tells the Prisoner that he is Number 6. And yet if one places the emphasis on the word "you," when Number 6 asks the question again and Number 2 says you are Number Six, effectively telling the Prisoner that he's Number 1. I wonder who the first person was to place that emphasis on the word "you," thus changing the context of the short sentence? Is it merely the interpretation of the enthusiast for 'the Prisoner' who once placed the emphasis on that one single word "you?" I'm not so sure it was the scriptwriter, Patrick McGoohan, or the director, seeing as when the opening sequence was filmed, in all probability, no-one knew who Number 1 was. And if that was the case, then Number 2 is simply telling the Prisoner that he's Number 6. And yet if Number 2 does put the emphasis on the word "you" telling the Prisoner he's Number 1, why doesn't Number 2 take instruction from Number 6, if he knows he's Number 1?
    I remember Number 2 during 'The Chimes of Big Ben' in the hospital asking Number 6 is that an order, when Number 6 demands that Number 6 let Number 8 go. And in 'Free For All,' Number 2 suggests that if Number 6 wins the election then Number 1 may no longer be a mystery to him, if he sees what Number 2 means. Perhaps meaning that Number 6 will recognise the voice on the telephone of Number 1, as being that of his own on! However that seems highly unlikely, seeing as at the time no-one knew who Number 1 was, least of all us, who were watching!

Be seeing you

All Our Convention Yesterdays

    Outwardly the re-enactment of Engadine's celebrated party was excellent. Inside the re-enactment it was complete chaos. At one point I was missing a champagne glass, and had to improvise. And 'A' had not bothered to learn his lines {you've been practicing he said} so that I was giving the correct lines to ones completely made up. And then there was the mirror.......oh dear! My wife was dressed appropriately as 'B', and the fight scene worked wonderfully well, without the Prisoner splitting his trousers! This re-enactment was not one produced by my wife and I, we were simply taking part. Although I did have all the script to learn, and my wife and I did put a great deal of work into the re-enactmant, and if we'd known about the mirror, there would have been a far more elaborate one attached to the Gloriette wall.

   Cobb's funeral re-enactment

   Even Gus the Orangutan attended a Prisoner Convention, that was in 1998, having taken part in the Election parade, and in the filming of 'Village Day' at Portmeirion that year. Pictured here in Village attire of striped jersey, straw boater, and deck shoes. Perhaps he thinks he's Number 1!

Be seeing you

Caught On Camera!

    “Go on then Eric, show me in the script where it says going once, going twice, fair warning, sold to the gentleman in the top hat!”

BCNU

Thought for The Day

    Town Council? Was the Prisoner a member? He could have been, it's democratically elected once a year. Democratically? That's what they say.  Such is the drift of part of the conversation between the Prisoner and his ex-colleagues of the Colonel and Thorpe.
    The Prisoner could have been a member of the Town Council couldn't he? He certainly had the qualifications, as being an ex-Number 2 {if not elected, then appointed by the out-going Number 2, after it was he who pinned the 2 rosette on the lapel of the new Number 2’s blazer}. Because seeing as how each Council member is a sub-divided Number 2, 2a, 2b 2c, 2d, 2e, 2f, 2g, 2h, 2i, 2j, 2k, 2l, so it is suggestive that the Town Council is made up by failed former Number 2’s.
   It would appear that Number 6 had a narrow escape, had it not been for the fact that they were protecting the brain tissue, Number 6 may very well have found himself standing amongst those brainwashed imbeciles, as he once described them, on the Town Council.

Be seeing you

Everyone Having A Good Time Outside!

   Well everyone outside is supposed to be having a good time, although at this distance it's difficult to tell! But taking a much closer look at the faces of all those at the Carnival, you see their expressionless faces. The joy, the cheering is all manufactured, as the citizens remain silent.

   Just look upon some of the faces, are they cheering? Do they look happy? No, in fact the cheering we hear is piped through the Village public address system! It is all put on, all for show, like almost everything in The Village, is it another manipulation of the people. I doubt even the Brass band is playing, only the thump, thump, thump of the big bass drum beating out a rhythm.



   The citizens, they parade around the central Piazza, and down the steps to the lawn, waving their coloured flags. Originally the script called for the flags of all nations. But in the end they settled for plain coloured flags. I mean to say, what would citizens of The Village be waving National flags for?

    No, the Carnival is simply another manufactured activity, the best that can be said is that the citizens are given the opportunity to dress up. Certainly Number 6’s personal maid Number 56 enjoys wearing a new dress. This seems to be a meaningless activity, because the people are simply going through the motions! They don’t look to be entering into the spirit of the so called occasion. Certainly not Number 6. But then he's the only one in the Village who is still himself!

     Look at them. It reminds me of some scene in a Venetian Carnival of the 18th or 19th century, save for the lack of smiling, happy faces. It would seem that it is not just the members of the Town Council who are the brainwashed imbeciles!

Be seeing you, just not at the Carnival!

Village Observation

    When Number 6 wakes up in what appears to be a deserted Village in ‘Many Happy Returns,’ after he has made a rudimentary search, and tried to raise the alarm by ringing the bell in the Bell Tower, naturally his next thought is to escape The Village. He comes across a taxi parked in the street, what’s more the key has been left in the ignition. The Prisoner drives the taxi out of The Village and along a well used track into the open countryside. However the track appears to come to an end. The Prisoner stops the taxi, alights to find his way barred by the mountains, which are quite impassable. In fact The Village is surrounded on three sides by the mountain range. However, when the Prisoner finds The Village, and flies over it in the Gloster Meteor jet at the end of episode, where is the range of mountains?

BCNU

File No.6

   This is a copy of the map drawn by No.6, which he includes in the amended wallet of the dead man, along with a picture of himself and a letter or missive which begins "To whoever may find this.........."
     In 'Dance of the Dead,' No.6 amends the dead man's wallet, ties the body to a lifebelt, and sets it adrift in the sea, so that it should be picked up by a passing boat or ship. In the previous episode of 'Many Happy Returns,' No.6 sets out as navigator in a Gloster Meteor jet, to discover the location of The Village, and has a very precise search area, covering many thousands of miles. But nevertheless, No.6 does navigate the jet aircraft and does find The Village. So it must be that now, at the end of 'Many Happy Returns,' that No.6 knows the precise location, co-ordinates, of The Village. So why is it that only the four points of the compass are marked on the map? Where is the longitude and latitude? And the name of the Sea, it's not on the map, simply the Sea! So unless the name of the Sea, and the longitude and latitude of the Village is noted down in the accompanying letter, then this map is utterly useless!
    When you take into account that the episode 'Dance of the Dead,' was originally to have been much earlier in the actual screening order of 'the Prisoner' series, placed as the second episode, you will recall that Number 6 say's he's new here, meaning The Village. And to Roland Walter Dutton, he says he's been in The Village quite recently. Then the events of 'Many Happy Returns' will not have taken place. Therefore, when No.6 drew this map, he didn't know the longitude and latitude co-ordinates of The Village, let alone what Sea it is. And therefore, in that case, this map is not just utterly useless - it's completely and utterly useless!

I'll be seeing you

Exhibition Of Arts And Crafts

From My Black Period
                                        "ESCAPE!"

BcNu

Shouldn't You Be Doing This In The Hospital?

   Well of course he should! Had the doctor Number 40 carried out that experiment using Dutton as a communications medium in attempting to gain information from Number 6, then perhaps then Number 2 wouldn't have had the opportunity to intervene. This was just as well, otherwise should the doctor not curb his enthusiasm, then Number 6 might very well have ended up like  Roland Walter Dutton. The doctor is too keen you see. He was allowed to go beyond the limit with Dutton, he was expendable. Whereas with Number 6, he has Number 2 to protect him against people like the doctor-Number 40, protection which is not afforded to Number 43.

Be seeing you

Quote For The Day

   “Nowhere is there more beauty than here. Tonight when the moon rises the whole world will turn to silver. Do you understand, it is important that you understand. I have a message for you, you must listen. The appointment cannot be fulfilled. Other things must be done tonight. If our torment is to end, if liberty is to be restored, we must grasp the nettle even though it makes our hands bleed. Only through pain can tomorrow be assured.”
                                                          {An announcer on the radio – Dance of the Dead}

    The voice of that radio announcer appears to me to be that of Number 2 {Eric Portman}. The only question is, from where is that announcement being transmitted? “Nowhere is there more beauty than here,” is suggestive of The Village. And yet “The appointment cannot be fulfilled,” suggests that someone was supposed to come to The Village, hence Number 6 down on the beach looking for a sign from his world, just in case! . “If our torment is to end, if liberty is to be restored, we must grasp the nettle even though it makes our hands bleed. Only through pain can tomorrow be assured” is rebellious talk, perhaps Number 2 was once earnest in his toast to Number 6 “To hell with The Village!” Then again, perhaps that radio message wasn’t meant for anyone in The Village, transmitted perhaps from a country behind the Iron curtain. But for me, it’s the voice, being that of a former Number 2 {Eric Portman} is suggestive.

Be seeing you

More Village

   This is Un-Two, a man with no number, yet he reminds 147 of Two. He could be a two double, that would be a great job. 147 asks him if he could do a Two impersonation, by saying something in the Two vein. Un-Two tries to prove that he is Two. 1891 agrees that Un-two does look a bit like Two, but he doesn't have those death cold eyes that Two has!
    This scene from Schizoid with the dishevelled Un-Two in 147's house eating cherry cake, put me in mind of the Prisoner as a raggedy man who sits in Mrs. Butterworth's house eating sandwiches and cake during 'Many Happy Returns.' Just a minute, they changed the picture on the wall!

   For the actual production of Schizoid, they changed the picture of the desert for one of Pink Flamingos!
   The Village logo or emblem. It was a nice touch to have the logo on the base of Two's tea cup. When Two lifted it up to drink his tea, you see the logo on the base of the cup. I was reminded of the scene in 'A Change of Mind' when Number 6 tips away the drugged tea into a flower vase, you see the Portmeirion pottery mark on the base of the tea cup.

 I was wondering that if two times Six and Six are one and the same, how come Six has the cut on his cheek? Obviously it's to help the viewer identify between the two, but all the same Six would have had to cut himself. and it must have come as quite a shock for Six to discover that he helped create The Village, that he is responsible for sending all those people to The Village, even if it was inadvertently.

    In the church when Six discovers Two just sitting there, Two wants Six to kill him, No.6 couldn't do it, and neither it seems could his predecessor! Because this scene is obviously acknowledging the scene from 'Once Upon A Time' when Number 2 wanted Number 6 to kill him. And I liked the way Two looked up at the Penny Farthing hanging from the ceiling in the Go Inside Bar, and gave a slight chuckle. Two paying homage to the past, to what once was? I think so.

   Two, or was it un-Two, got a slice of his favourite cherry cake again. He enjoyed a cigarette with the Shopkeeper, and told 147, the taxi driver that he had no number, that he was a numberless traveller. This I think, was Two demonstrating the eccentric side to his character, and he knew what he was going to do, as the message regarding anyone going about impersonating Two, should be reported immediately as they are a danger to The Village. And that's what the Shopkeeper did, both when Six came to see him about the receipt, and after he had shared a cigarette with Two. On the telephone immediately to report to Two at the Clinic. This is another homage paid to the original series, as when the Shopkeeper in Hammer Into Anvil, reports the activities of No.6 to No.2. And since when was Two driven about in a Bentley convertible? One of his Guardians was going to drive Two in the car, but Two said "I'll walk today," Two riding in the Bentley convertible, something we obviously haven't been privy to! And there are no knives sold in The Village, such tools must still be against the law!

     Homage continues to the original series in a couple of scenes, the church scene between Two and Six, and the times when the shopkeeper gets on the telephone to report the activity of Six, and later Two. But when the shopkeeper telephones the Clinic to report the man who is impersonating Two, whose voice does the shopkeeper hear? After all Two has just left his store..........probably a pre-recorded voice message made by Two before he left the clinic. The same way we see Two out and about The Village when Two is making his announcement about those who go about impersonating Two, that they are a danger to The Village!

    So, if Six and Two times Six can be one, they can defeat Two.........and that could have been the case in the original series when I think about it. The two Six's become one, and gain ultimate power over The Village......I wonder how many Twos there have been since 1968, more then I've had hot dinners I shouldn't wonder!

   You know............even though Two has deathly cold eyes, there are times when I look and see.......pain in Two's face. Pain? Yes, the pain he feels at having to keep his wife in an hallucinating, sedated state of mind, and all for the well being of the Village, and the community at large. Two must at times, suffer for that, even though he rarely shows his pain. No-one gets close to Two, unless Two wants them to!

   When it became the case that Six had a double, I predisposed that his name would be Curtis, I was wrong.............And when it was said that Two had an alter ego, I thought there would be Two Two's, Two and an un-Two as Two called himself. And that's the point, there never was an un-Two, both Two's were one and the same, "One of number Two's little games," it was once said. But then when we had two shopkeepers, I thought it was being taken too far. But no, they went one step further than one step too far.....the shopkeeper was existing in two places at the same time. In the Store in The Village, and as the "access man" in the basement of the Summakor building! Twins, doubles, I'll just have a large one!

It is, as it is, as it should be

Be seeing you

Caught On Camera!

   Number 6 dons the white coat and the spectacles of Number 116, {strange how Number 6 can see through those spectacles, but then he would, seeing as they're McGoohan's own spectacles} to help disguise himself as he makes his way along a corridor in the Town Hall during the episode ‘Dance of the Dead,’ trying each door as he goes along. But then Number 20 emerges from a side room, and meets with Number 116 and she assumes him to be who he looks like, a doctor. Number 20 has an envelope for Number 2, it contains a termination order, and Number 2 must get it straight away. Now you would think, wouldn't you, that Number 20 would be emerging from some Communications Room, a Cipher Room perhaps. But no, if you look into the room beyond the door, it is plain to see that Number 20 emerges from nothing more than a simple electrical 'switch gear' room!     

    But just a minute. No.2 receives her instructions via a teletype in that elaborately decorated room, back along the corridor. So who issued the termination order on Roland Walter Dutton to Number 20? I can only think that Number20 received the termination order because Number 2 was at the Ball! 

Be seeing you.                                              

Thought For The Day

    In a recent comment regarding the Therapy Zone, suggesting that perhaps Number 2 should have actually got Number 6 drunk on 100% proof drink, then he would have talked his head off. I was reminded by an anonymous, that 100% proof alcohol is poison. Anonymous also asked me where I got my information, and remarked on "my imagination?!"
   Well I never replied to that comment, but it did get me thinking, and my thoughts turned to 'Once Upon A Time.' Number 2 asks Number 6 to join him. They enter the cage. Number 2 gets two wine glasses from a cupboard. He opens a bottle of whisky.

Number 6 says "Neat!" "One hundred percent proof" Number 2 replies having put the cork back in the bottle. So that's where I got my information from about the proofage of the drink. Although the whisky being drunk is 100% percent proof, it is drinkable, and will not kill you, only if you drink sufficient to poison the blood, which is alcoholic poisoning. There are in fact many alcoholic drinks which are 150% proof and are still drinkable. So it wasn't the drink after all that put paid to Number 2, and was not the cause of his death. But of course there is a piece which does not fit this puzzle, the fact that Number 6 also drank from that bottle, but it didn't kill him! And yet even if 100% proof whisky is poison, it wouldn't kill Number 2 so quickly. So it wasn't the drink after all! Perhaps Number 2's glass was laced with poison. But who could have done that? Perhaps the butler did it. And yet if it was, how would the butler know which glass Number 2 would drink from? Another piece of the jigsaw that doesn't fit!

Be seeing you

Prismatic Reflection

    I have been watching my seven favourite episodes of ‘the Prisoner. Why seven, why not four, six, or eight? Because 7 was the original number Patrick McGoohan had in mind for a mini-series, also I was inspired to do so having watched THEPRIS6NER-09 with its six episodes. So which seven did I choose, and why?
   ‘Arrival’ obviously, because that’s where it all begins on a long deserted airstrip, with a clash of thunder and a Lotus Seven looming out of the distance. A man for reasons of his own, resigns his job. We don’t know who he is or why he resigned, what’s more it doesn’t seem very likely that we ever will! So as far as you and I are concerned, the Prisoner could be anyone, and the reason he resigned could be simply that he had become sick of the kind of work he was doing!
    ‘The Chimes of Big Ben,’ because of the intricate plot that almost worked, and would have worked had Post 5, or his Supervisor, been more on the ball time-wise! But I suppose it not to be known that Number 6 would ask Nadia’s contact for his wristwatch. Besides, had his watch been waterproof, there would have been no need. But at what time was Number 6’s wristwatch set in the first place?
    Sorry, there’s no room for ‘A B and C’ in this seven, despite my liking of Colin Gordon as Number 2.
    ‘Free For All,’ for the cleverness of Number 2 and his administration, because they are clever, damned clever! They knew that Number 6 couldn’t resist running the first chance he got, so why not take his mind off that for a while, and offer him the possibility of attaining a position of power in The Village. After all, had not Number 2 in Arrival suggested that the Prisoner might be given a position of authority? But of course Number 2 knew exactly what Number 6 would do just as soon as he settled himself down in his new sanctum of the Green Dome. What’s more it was all done without damaging the brain tissue!
   We skipped passed both ‘The Schizoid Man,’ which the wife said she could well do without seeing, and I don‘t get to see Colin Gordon for a second time in ‘The General.’
    And so we arrive at ‘Many Happy Returns,’ in which the Prisoner wakes up in what is apparently a deserted village! Where is everyone? Why did they desert The Village and leave Number 6 to his own devices? This is no time for questions, only for action! The Prisoner makes good his own escape, only to find himself back where he started…..in The Village! The trouble with Number 6 is, he’s never satisfied. In having escaped The Village he couldn’t wait to get back there. In fact he couldn’t seem to get back there quick enough!
   And so it arrived, an invitation to the ‘Dance of the Dead.’ A female orientated episode, in which Number 6 encounters The Village cat once more, the cat belonging to Number 2. But just a minute, animals are not allowed, it’s a rule according to the maid Number 56, rules to which Number 6 is not subject. And it would seem neither is Number 2. At the end of the previous episode ‘Many Happy Returns’ scriptwriter Anthony Skene had Number 6 having died in an accident at sea. The original idea being that in the final scene Mrs. Butterworth-Number 2 was to have given Number 6 a copy of The Tally Ho the headline of which read ‘Plane Lost Over Sea. No Hope of Survivors.’ But that part of the final scene was cut. Anthony Skene re-worked the idea for this episode, so that when the amended dead body, along with the wallet in his pocket is picked up at sea, it’s Number 6 who has died in an accident at sea. And to the rest of the world he’ll be dead. But this part of the plot in the episode seems to have been forgotten by the time of ‘Do Not Forsake Me Oh My Darling!’ Death is at the heart of this episode. The final scene at the Ball in the evening could have been much more grim, had the original frenzied dance scene, in which everyone except Number 6 dies, not been cut from the end. Thereby Number 6 possibly becoming death itself!
    Next up is ‘Checkmate,’ Number 6 once said he was going to discover who the prisoners and who the warders. Number 14, an ex-Count and chess champion explains to Number 6 just how to do that. It’s the same as it is in life, you judge by attitudes, you soon find out who’s for or against you. But it didn’t do Number 6 any good, but unlike some, such as the shopkeeper and the white Queen-Number 8, he’ll be back on the chessboard tomorrow.
   And finally ‘Hammer Into Anvil.’ Poor old Number 2, he sees enemies of The Village everywhere. What’s more everyone is conspiring against him, and there is no-one he can trust! The trouble is, all of this is inside Number 2’s head. He is paranoid, afraid of failure, of his masters, and Number 6 plays on this weakness, as he sets about avenging the death of Number 73. He even leaves a bunch of daffodils on 73’s grave! Well who else in The Village would do that?
   So what makes these 7 episodes more special for me than any of the remaining ten? I selected these seven episodes because they all have something in common, action, adventure, intrigue, and as a matter of fact three of them are in my top five favourite episodes. But the plain and simple reason is, they all contain the greatest amount of film footage of Portmeirion. Oh not as the Italianate Village is today, but how it used to be, how I like to think back and remember The Village as it was. Not that I had been to Portmeirion in the 1960’s because I hadn’t. My first visit to the Italianate village wasn’t until 1988, but Portmeirion was more like The Village back then, than it is today. But that is purely a personal choice. So you see ‘the Prisoner’ is more to me than simply a piece of exceptional television escapist drama. A complicated action adventure series which plays with the mind the more one thinks about it. For me it’s a time portal, a way of seeing Portmeirion in bygone days of the 1960‘s, that is my reason for selecting the seven episodes I have. And I suppose in a way, for devotees of Portmeirion, ‘the Prisoner’ provides serious archive film footage of Portmeirion.

Be seeing you

Teabreak Teaser

    Under the circumstances we see during ‘The Schizoid Man,’ shouldn’t that Polaroid picture of Number 6, have discredited Number 12-Curtis?

BCNU

Symbolism

    The way No.6 mets No.1.
    Symbolic, in which way? Possibly in the way that unless one realises that you are the sole influence over your own actions, you will remain a Prisoner! Well that's what they say, or at least what someone once said at sometime or other. And only when Number 6 realises that he is Number 1, not only being responsible for the infrastructure and materialistic structure of The Village, but also that of his own incarceration, and masochistic treatment therein. However once Number 6 realises this he rejects what he has become, and is he able to break free and finally escape his prison of The Village, and at the very same moment as Number 1. And yet the Prisoner is just as much a prisoner at the end as he was at the beginning, and despite the falling out. The Prisoner may well have had knowledge of a secret nature, but now he knows more than ever, about The Village, and that’s far too much information for his own good, and surely he cannot be allowed to roam free at large. Meaning there’s only one place to put such a man…..back in The Village!

Be seeing you

Exhibition Of Arts And Crafts

From My Watercolour Period

                            “ESCAPING The Fall Out!”

BcNu

Caught On Camera!

   In ‘Checkmate’ a daring escape attempt is being organised. No.6 has just cast the Rook-No.58 adrift on a pair of rubber lilos. Now he's dashing off to meet his other reliable men at the Stone Boat - but just a minute, he's running not towards the Village, but away from it!!   

BCNU

Thought For The Day

  In the question of the identity of Number 6, it would appear that he would not put his trust in science, as he saw that it could be perverted. Number 6 would rather be convinced by a human being than a machine, and I can see what he means. On the left is Number 6's thumb print, so how can the thumb print on the left, being that of Curtis, be identical? Perhaps Curtis was wearing a thin, clear latex thumb print of Number 6, in the same way as James Bond did when he was impersonating a guy called Franks in ‘Diamonds Are Forever!’ Or maybe it is a simple case of perverting science, that what we see on the screen isn't what's on the end of Curtis' thumb!
  And when it comes to human instincts, Number 6 got it wrong with Alison, as he did with most women in The Village. Number 2 saw the mental link between Number 24 and Number 6, and having got to 24, used that mental link against Number 6. I have often thought that Number 24 betrayed Number 6 so easily, that she could not have offered much resistance. However, one can only guess what Number 2 promised to have done to Number 24 had she not co-operated in betraying Number 6.  

 Be seeing you.