The Prisoner Under The Spotlight

    Having resigned his job, by handing it his letter of resignation to a balding, bespectacled man, sat behind a desk, the Prisoner drives back to his home through the streets of London, shadowed by two Undertakers in a black hearse. Arriving home, that being No. 1 Buckingham Place, Westminster, London, the Prisoner then collects two ready packed suitcases, and in one he places two colour photographs of a tropical beach. He also collects from his desk, his passport and an airline ticket to Europe. Well there's nothing much wrong with that, save for the two photographs, which in themselves are something of an enigma. Obviously they are of some importance, hold some significance for the Prisoner, otherwise why pack them? But I have to admit that I've never seen their relevance to this situation, the Prisoner finds himself in. But he is obviously taking those colour photographs with him, wherever that may be. Paris perhaps, certainly not Ireland, as it's far too cold that time of year. If it was Paris, that would relate to what he was dreaming in ‘A B & C,’ the scene where the Prisoner was discussing with Madame Engadine, about what he was going to do in his new life. In any case, if not Paris France, then the Prisoner was heading off to some destination in Europe, because he had an European airline ticket.

    But this is quite incidental, because the Prisoner left it all too late. They came for the Prisoner before he was expecting them! Hence the Prisoner's haste to get away, to escape, before they came for him. Because I'm sure he was expecting them, otherwise why not simply stay at home, put his feet up, and consider his future? It's almost as though the prisoner was running away, not simply going on holiday.

    The Prisoner might very well have been expecting them, but not quite so soon, and probably not in the guise of two Undertakers. Not that the Prisoner actually saw the two Undertakers, as they parked their hearse outside his house. The Undertakers gained entry to the Prisoner's house by the aid of a key, and pumped nerve gas into the study through the keyhole via a gas gun, of the type seen in both episodes of ‘The Schizoid Man’ and ‘Do Not Forsake Me Oh My Darling.’ Then a coffin was carried into the house, the lid removed and the unconscious body of the Prisoner placed inside and the lid replaced. And the coffin then carried outside to the waiting hearse. Picture the scene as the two Undertakers carried the coffin out of 1 Buckingham Place, across the pavement, and the coffin placed in the back of the hearse, with the unconscious body of the Prisoner inside, being abducted from his home. It is an everyday occurrence, the Undertakers collecting a body from someone's home. So innocent would the scene be, that any passer by out of respect would not stare. A gentleman passing by at the time, would indeed have stood still on the pavement and removed his hat in respect of the dead, as gentleman would do. But in this case, and how many cases like it, did the coffin actually contain the unconscious body of a man being abducted from his home, by two agents, their origin quite unknown!

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