The Door To Number 1

   Number 1 Buckingham Place that is, which is somehow symbolic in the way that it opens  and closes automatically with that very familiar electronic hum that we have come to associate with the door to the Prisoner’s cottage of 6 Private, or indeed the Green Dome. And in that we possibly realise exactly what the Prisoner has been all about, varying aspects of life. To demonstrate that The Village is never very far away, indeed that The Village has become our world, the Global Village. And it happened without any of us realising. And now it's all too late to do anything about it!

   Episodes such as ‘Free For All’ tackles the question of the democratic process and democracy which so many countries are said to enjoy, and others envy. ‘The Schizoid Man’ examined problems within ourselves, possibly mental illness, while ‘The General’ delves into the world of education. Other aspects dealt with within The Village, the rights of individual, the question of identity, freedom. ‘Many Happy Returns’ deals with control and manipulation, while ‘Dance of the Dead’ has death at its core. Medical experimentation runs throughout, as does the need for information, information, information! While a number of episodes deal with the need for some to escape. But the need to escape from what, and to where? If it's escape from The Village one is after, then you’re already there. It's where one escapes from, only to arrive! Like the newcomer who just got off the bus having arrived in The Village {THEPRIS6NER-09}. Where did she get on the bus? In The Village. But it is The Village, she had arrived. Because there is only The Village, and it's all around. I like the automatic doors to shops, and each time I approach such a door I cannot resist clicking my fingers as Number 6 does as he returns to his cottage during 'The Chimes of Big Ben!'

Be seeing you