Bureau of Visual Records

    If you have ever asked yourself the question of where does the Butler live? Then here might well be the answer, in the small annex at the back of the Green Dome. Here the Butler could live quite comfortably, as his needs would probably be minimal. Also from the annex the Butler could prepare pots of tea and coffee, the occasional breakfasts for both Number 2 and any visitor he might have, and so be close at hand to serve his master at any time of the day or night.

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Exhibition of Arts And Crafts

                    “Portrait of The Prisoner”

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The Prisoner Compared to Itself!

    ‘Once Upon a Time’ is a brilliant two-hander episode between Number 2 and Number 6 locked together in both a physical and mental battle within the Embryo Room, with the Butler assisting. Another episode that could be considered to be two-handed would be ‘Hammer Into Anvil.’ Because although the episode takes place in The Village, and not within the confines of one room, it is still basically a duel between Number 2 and Number 6 the hammer and the anvil, with Number 14 assisting where he can….. when he is allowed to!

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8 Private

    8 private is a small apartment, one could say bijou, Of course Nadia Rakovsky is a plant in The Village, so that when she wakes up and says “Thank God I’m home” we have to take it on face value that the apartment in which she wakes up, is in fact a replica of her own home. Something which Number 2 does confirm to Number 6 as they watch Nadia on the wall screen. But then we again only have Number 2’s word for that. In reality the apartment and its fixtures, fittings, furniture, and décor could have nothing to do with Nadia at all! However for arguments sake, we shall assume Nadia Rakovsy, if that be her name, has just woken up in her own home.

  To my eye the apartment looks to be “countrified,” of rural origin, as suggested by the furniture made of chunky solid wood, the bed, the dresser, even the window shutters. The stove in the background suggests the country. There is only a small simple folding table in the background accompanied by three equally simple chairs. The two oil lamps suggest that there is no electricity laid on in the apartment. But there is a telephone line, and a continental-style telephone.

   Pictures hanging on the walls are limited to two needlework “samplers” hung above the bed. Nadia’s home is functional, there are few ornaments. There is a ceramic chicken, which could be for holding freshly laid eggs, a statuette of a chap on a horse, a small horse, an elephant, and two matching candlesticks. On the table next to the telephone, a box, a pin tray with two matching ceramic pots. And either a mirror or picture frame, it’s difficult to tell which, as it faces away from the camera. Curiously there looks to be no personal possessions belonging to Nadia in the apartment.

   There is one small anomaly connected to 8 Private however. Outside we see the regular sign post for the apartment, but it is accompanied by the number 8 in a white circle on the wall. Is this something to do with Portmeirion, or something put on the wall by the production crew, and if so why?

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Caught On Camera!

   The set of the Council Chamber is nicely done, adapted from the set of Number 2’s office. The colour of the wall has been changed, orange for purple, with the addition of the stairs. It’s just a pity that the effect is ruined because of the failure to disguise that pair of doors a bit better. It makes it look like a bodged up job!

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Wheels Within The Wheel!

    In the way that ‘the Prisoner’ series is cyclical, commencing and ending with a clash of thunder, a long deserted runway. A green and yellow nosed Lotus 7 looming large out of the distance towards the camera, together with the determined look on the face behind the wheel. So ‘Many Happy Returns’ is a cyclical episode within the series, in that having escaped, Number 6 ends up where he began, back in The Village. As with ‘A B and C,’ another cyclical episode, which both begins and ends with the bleeping of a large curved, over-sized red telephone. It could be said that ‘The Chimes of Big Ben’ is also cyclical, not in a visionary way, but in the way that Number 2 is no more forward with Number 6 than he was at the outset……..back to the beginning!

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Storm In A Teacup!

    The other day I was contacted by email by a fan of ‘the Prisoner’ who had been watching the series on blu-ray for the first time. The comment was made when the Prisoner slams his fist down hard on the bureaucrat's desk upsetting the cup in its saucer. They said that there are two saucers, the bottom saucer one is cracked apart by the force of the fist slammed down on the desk. This led to the question, why are there two saucers? I explained that there are not two saucers, only one, the other is a tea plate which would have held biscuits to go with the cup of tea. And pointed this correspondent to a recent article I wrote on this subject on my blog.

   It would appear that even watching ‘the Prisoner’ via the clarity of Blu-ray, does not help the viewer to a better understanding of ‘the Prisoner’ series.

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Exhibition of Arts And Crafts

                       “The Maelstrom!”

  

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Cue Thunder!

   The sound of thunder at the very outset of the majority of ‘the Prisoner’ episodes indicates that there’s a storm brewing with dark clouds over a long deserted runway. The thunder being a possible representation of the probable anger of the man sitting behind the wheel of the green, yellow nosed Lotus 7 looming large out of the distance. And when the double doors of an office are pulled open, by the man soon to become the Prisoner, the thunder is repeated and continues as he storms into the office ranting at the Bureaucrat sat behind the desk as he vents his anger. Finally to slam his letter of resignation down upon the desk with force, punctuated by the bringing down his clenched fist hard upon the desk………. like a hammer.

    The car being driven along a deserted runway is suggestive, after all why a runway when a long deserted road might have been better used? Probably because the opening thunder is blended in with the sound of a jet aircraft, and with the use of the runway it is suggestive that the man has recently arrived by jet aircraft from foreign climbs. And having collected his car from the airport, was then on his way to hand in his resignation.

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The Illusion of Escape! b

   ‘The Chimes of Big Ben’ certainly contained the illusion of escape, but at that time it was the furthest the Prisoner had managed to get away from The Village, 30 miles along the coast! In ‘Many Happy Returns’ the Prisoner actually returned to London. There was no illusion in this case, only doubt and suspicion.

    And then the day came when Number 6 is returned to London for a second time, again supposedly free of The Village, and apparently on the day he was supposed to hand in his resignation, followed by his abduction, in ‘Do Not Forsake Me Oh My Darling.’ In fact for a few moments everything appears to be normal {well as normal as ‘the Prisoner’ can be} as suddenly it appears that ‘the Prisoner’ has been “re-set,” and about to begin all over again when he goes off to hand in his resignation. But even that is an illusion, because ZM73 soon discovers he not the man he thought he was!

   There is no paranoia, no suspicion of his surroundings as ZM73 takes being back in London for granted. There is only confusion, and disorientation. ZM73 did not wake up in his London home having escaped The Village, because he had not been abducted as yet by a pair of undertakers. He had not yet handed in his letter of resignation, perhaps the reason why he wasn’t abducted to The Village at that time! And yet this is another illusion. The illusion is broken when ZM73 looks into the mirror in the hallway and remembrances of The Village return to his memory. But he must “play the game” if he is to have any chance of undoing the terrible trick that has been played upon him!

   After the “Fall Out” the former Number 6 manages to escape The Village once more. London is now a reality, there is no suspicion of place, the illusion finally broken. Even ZM73 is about to climb behind the wheel of his Lotus 7, and a hearse drives slowly passed, there is no paranoia. But then why should there be, he doesn’t know that he was abducted by a pair of undertakers! ZM73 does climb behind the wheel of his Lotus 7, he drives off through the streets of London on his way to an office which is so familiar to him. A single word appears on the screen “Prisoner,” as an unsuspecting Civil servant enters the Houses of Parliament through the Peers entrance, to a clash of thunder. The sight of a long deserted runway, a car, a green yellow nosed Lotus 7 comes looming towards the camera, and finally the man behind the wheel of his car, the look of determination on his face. It is as though all that has happened, all that was seen to happen, the illusion suffered by ZM73 in ‘Do Not Forsake Me Oh My Darling,’ had been re-set back to the day of ZM73’s resignation!

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The Prisoner Comment

   Producer/director David Tomblin on ‘The Prisoner.’ “Leo McKern, he did ‘The Chimes of Big Ben’ and soon after, McGoohan wrote ‘Once Upon a Time.’ It was a very intense episode between Pat and Leo. It was an amazing two hander.... that was Patrick's baby. He wrote that and did everything on it, and Leo was amazing. It was really a battle and I have the greatest admiration for Leo McKern. He is a fine actor and he really hung in there. Patrick is a tough man and once he starts putting the pressure on in a situation like that, to live with it you have got to be quite a person - and Leo got through it fine. An amazing performance on both their parts!
   The idea of ‘Living In Harmony.’ Well, when you are in the sort of situation, your ears are always open, and if you hear somebody say something, or you have a conversation about something, it turns into another idea.

    If I remember it correctly, Patrick was playing squash with Frank Maher and Frank said in a strange moment: "Why don't we do a Western?" So I sat down and wrote an idea for it based upon - in parallel -with ‘the Prisoner.’ And then I got a guy who was ambitious to be a writer, Ian Rakoff, and we started to write and then he had to go and do something, and I sort of wrote it. I was quite excited by it because when I finished it, I had the idea of life-sized photographs and I injected that afterwards, after I finished writing it. So I was quite pleased with that.

    ‘The Girl Who Was Death,’ that was an idea that I sketched out some long time ago before for ‘Danger Man.’ There was a period where we weren't doing very much, so out of boredom I wrote this outline. Then, when we were searching for more ideas for ‘the Prisoner,’ I got it out and had a look at it, and thought; "Well, we could use it for the Prisoner." It was out of context, in a way, but I thought it could be a lot of fun. And that's what I was meaning earlier - you could put stories into ‘the Prisoner’ and make them work for the series.

BSEENU

The Village Cemetery

   It has always appeared to me to be somewhat foolish, indeed ridiculous, to have The Village cemetery located on the beach, as we see in ‘Arrival.’ But now I see it is suggestive, suggestive that the terrain of the woodland surrounding The Village on three sides is not conducive to the digging of graves. Far easier to dig graves in the sand on the beach, rather than to clear bushes and dig amongst the roots of the trees.

    It was during the evening of Thursday March 26^th when I sat watching the BBC drama ‘Banished,’ a series about a fledgling penal colony in New South Wales. http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p02jfvpn

    As I watched the drama unfold in the forth episode, I was suddenly stuck with the thought, why the cemetery of the penal colony was located on the beach. The colony being surrounded on three sides by dense forest which stretches out for thousands of miles, making the digging of graves impossible without first clearing an area of land. So it’s easier, and less time consuming for the convicts to dig their own graves in the sand of the beach. And so my thought was to transfer this reasoning to that of The Village, also surrounded on three sides by dense woodland, thus making it easier to dig graves in the sand of the beach. It is just a pity that by the time of ‘Hammer Into Anvil’ the original idea of the cemetery being on the beach appears to have been forgotten.

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Caught On Camera

    A moment frozen in a frame taken during the election parade of ‘Free For All.’ But ignore Number 6, Number 113, and Number 113b with the camera. Look over Number 6's head at the couple peering over the wall.....they were either ordinary day visitors to Portmeirion, or possibly guests staying there when filming was taking place in September 1966. But nevertheless they are in ‘the Prisoner!’

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Living In Harmony

    Lets face it, ‘Living In Harmony’ is a piece of self-indulgence on the part of those who wanted to make a western. While the Executive Producer’s away, the production crew play! It is also the third “filler” episode.
    There was a great deal of animosity between Ian Rakoff and Frank Maher {Patrick McGoohan’s stunt double} as to which of them came up with the idea of producing a western as an episode for ‘the Prisoner.’ Both claimed the original idea {now where have we heard that before?} but Maher’s ideas gelled with Ian Rakoff developing the script, with director David Tomblin handling the final treatment of the script. So ‘Living In Harmony’ was a team effort!
    Number 6 has a certain importance to the Administration of The Village, the question is, is Number6 aware of this? If he is, then it gives him a subconscious reassurance that he can take risks, go to any lengths in defending himself, the consequence being he’s too important to be harmed. So placing Number 6 in a dangerous environment where physical violence is the daily norm in order to break his mind, we see Number 6 defending himself with such ferocity that is less-sophisticated than previously seen.
   ‘Living In Harmony’ is rather like the 1977 film ‘Welcome To Blood City,’ http://www.westernmania.com/watch.php?id=41#.VRZiRI5QNIg   or rather that should be the other way around.
   ‘Living In Harmony’ is a demonstration of how desperate The Village Administration was to break Number 6, mentally if not physically, yet the tissue is well bruised! Also there was a desperation for the production team to come up with another script in order to help eke out the series. Why, when two perfectly good scripts had already been rejected?
   I have never really taken to ‘Living In Harmony,’ I don’t know why, seeing as I’m a big fan of American Westerns, especially those starring Randolph Scott. And that’s what ‘Living In Harmony’ is, a Western, something which when watching, should take me out of myself, on a purely adventurous level, a piece of escapism if you like.
   Even though Number 6 has been put in a dangerous environment, no real harm can come to him, because only the Judge, the Kid, and Cathy physically exist. Sometimes when I watch this episode I cannot help but imagine Patrick McGoohan slapping his thighs, as children do, or used to do, when running along riding imaginary horses! Or when fighting Zeke and rest of the Judge’s boys, Number 6 throwing punches and receiving punches and blows from imaginary assailants. Throwing himself on the ground and rolling about, which would be the reality of what was supposed to be taking place in Harmony.

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Teabreak Teaser

    What do these three episodes have in common ‘A Change of Mind,’ ‘Do Not Forsake Me Oh My Darling,’ or ‘Living In Harmony?’

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Village Life!

   “I usually make my own breakfast.”
    “Well I thought I would make breakfast for you this morning.”
    “Tea, toast, marmalade. Well I think I’ll have a full English breakfast. Bacon, eggs, two sausages, baked beans, fried tomatoes and fried bread.”
    “Yes and then you woke up. You’ll have two boiled eggs and like it!”
    “Did you get out of the wrong side of the bed this morning?”
    “Why do you ask that?”
    “You appear to have dressed in a hurry. Your badge is upside down!”
    “Perhaps I’m no longer Number Eight.”
    “No, well who are you?”
    “I’m…….I’m Un-Eight!”
    “If I turned my badge upside down like that, it would make me Nine.”
    “My Number was to have been Nine. But they said that the last woman you were involved with was Number 9. They said they couldn’t have that, so my number was changed to Eight.”
    “Do you know why eight was afraid of seven?”
    “No why?”
    “Because seven eight nine!
    “It might have been that nine eight seven!”
    “Nine eight seven?”
    “That would account for why there is no number seven in The Village!”
    “Don’t get clever, just put the eggs on!”
    “I’ll make them just like you.”
    “How’s that?”
    “Hard boiled!”

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Exhibition of Arts and Crafts

                                “A Seascape!”

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Thought for The Day

    There is no police station in The Village. Well one wouldn’t be needed would it? Not with all those Observers watching everyone, not to mention the Guardians who report any unusual activity at the drop of a hat! There is an ambulance service, made up of Mini-Mokes which pull Red Cross trailers. Red Cross, in The Village? They’re having a laugh! Ah, now what about a fire station, there must surely be a fire station. What happens if a fire breaks out? Who puts it out if there is no fire station? Isn’t the fire station attached to the Town Hall? A pair of turquoise doors with the words Fire Station in red letters. I wonder what kind of fire engine they have? If the ambulances are anything to go by, it’s probably a converted Mini-Moke, which carries an extending ladder, towing behind it a water bowser with attached water pump and hoses. And the fire crew are all volunteers, who are trained to deal with any emergency. Such as when the General short circuited and had to be put out! And the flames of the rocket as it blasted out of its silo, the flames set light to some of the trees, and the fire crew had to put them out during that particular emergency, when everyone else was being evacuated!
    The Village also has a lifeboat, called M.S. Polotska, which is always on stand-by in case a citizen of The Village gets into difficulties at sea, aboard a raft for example. Or one could find oneself having been carried out to sea by the tide and current while on a rubber lilo. Or perhaps a swimmer might find herself in difficulties, in which case a lifebuoy would be deployed. After all both Number 8 and Number 6 found themselves in distress at sea at one time or another, and in need of help.
   In The Village there can be all kinds of emergencies, and when there are, it’s always best to walk. When it isn’t an emergency, take a tractor!

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The Prisoner

    What does it mean? It means what it is as Number 6 was once heard to say. He was of course speaking about a piece of abstract art which he had sculptured together, three pieces in all. One of the award judges said they didn’t know what it meant, and of course Number 6 said it means what it is, and Number 2 thought that was marvellous, which of course it is. But did that piece of abstract art mean the interpretation Number 6 placed upon it. Number 6 is a very clever man, well no he isn’t really because Number 6 is but a character in a television series. It’s Patrick McGoohan who was the clever man, and it was he who was putting the words of the scriptwriter Vincent Tilsley into Number 6’s mouth.
    To my mind Number 6 was talking off the cuff so to speak, making it up about the piece of abstract art as he went along, and made it sound very plausible. ’The Prisoner’ is rather like a piece of abstract art, it can mean so many different things to so many different people who look at the series in so many different ways. Just because the Number 6 as the artist says a piece of abstract art means such and such, doesn’t make him right. And the same goes with ‘the Prisoner.’ I was once asked if I could have met and asked Patrick McGoohan one question, what would it be? I said at the time that I had no desire to meet the man, not did I have a question to ask him. Now I wonder if like the meaning of Number 6’s abstract art, was McGoohan, at the time, simply making it up as he went along? But then Patrick McGoohan didn’t create the series all on his own, he had help from scriptwriters, the Script editor George Markstein, and the director and writer David Tombiln. And there are one or two points I would argue with him against. There are also some points I would have put to him which he may not have even considered. But that’s all much too late now, so no point on dwelling on that.
    I sometimes wonder, when I write my articles on ‘the Prisoner’ that at times I go too deep with my interpretations, in getting carried away. I once wrote an article for Number Six magazine, saying that at times people over complicate ‘the Prisoner,’ and that there are times when a simple answer will do. I also wonder why it is I am dissatisfied with ‘the Prisoner?’ I must be dissatisfied, otherwise I would say enough, I’ve all the answers to my own satisfaction about ‘the Prisoner,’ there’s nothing left. It’s been 48 years, enough should be enough. And yet it isn’t, it’s impossible to leave the piece of abstract art alone. It must be defined, and each time I try, I find there’s another angle to come at it. And I’m not the only one, many of my contemporaries have found it to be so. Even Number 2 of “Chimes” had trouble with the Prisoner, he had to take it all back to the beginning, so he made in his report. “File Number Six section forty-two, subsection one, paragraph one, back to the beginning.” It reads as though ‘the Prisoner’ has been re-set, back to the beginning. Because Number 2 is no further forward with Number 6 at the end than he is at the beginning! 

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Sabotage!

    It was an act of sabotage which fused the lights in 6 Private when Number 6 switched them on, although it wasn’t Number 6 himself who carried out the act. That was Number 12 of Administration, he put wires across the contacts of a light bulb. So that when that particular light was switch on it would fuse the cottage’s whole electrics. That was deliberate destruction of official property, for which there is either a fine, or imprisonment. Number 6 took the fine. Well it was all pretence anyway, all that really mattered was to get Number 6 into Number 12’s office in Administration. It may be wondered where that is, it may also be supposed that it is somewhere within the depths of the Town Hall. What for? So that Number 6 could be given a top hat, black overcoat, black shoes, black two-piece suit. Tie, white shirt, and dark glasses, oh and a black leather document case, not forgetting the two security pass discs. It is reasonable also to suppose that Number 6 was given these items by Number 12 when Number 6 went to see him in his office. What then follows is this, if that supposition is correct, how did Number 6 manage to smuggle all those items out of the Town Hall without being seen?
    There is also another act of sabotage which takes place in The Village, apart from the sabotaging of the General. This one is far less subtle, and carried out by an act of good old fashioned brute force, which is understood to be very effective. When Number 6 rips out both the paper and wiring of the teleprinter in Number 2’s room in the Town Hall. I wonder what the fine was for that, because such an act of wanton destruction must clearly be against the rules! And yet perhaps Number 2 let him off, because in this instance good old fashioned brute force was not enough! The teleprinter must have had a back-up system, seeing as how the machine soon whirred back into life, to resume printing the text message. 

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Quote For The Day

    “You’re following me!”
    “When do you plan to escape?”
    “How do you know I’m going to?”
    “Well everyone plans to escape when their spirits broken. You tell me you’re plan, and if it’s a good one, I’ll help you with it.
    “I’ve often helped other people with their plans, only none of them ever succeeded.”
    “That’s a coincidence.”
    “At least I can tell you what not to try.”
    “How do I know I can trust you?”
    “That’s the risk you’ll have to take.”
   “Not me!”
                      {Number 6 and Number 8 - Checkmate}
    The thing with Number 8 is, she may have offered her help to Number 6, but we don’t know if this was of her own free will, or something which was done through inducement. But either way, she didn’t actually help him with his escape plan. Instead she was used as a tool against Number 6, hypnotised into believing that she was in love with Number 6, and he with her. So much so that she followed Number 6 like a lap dog! And all the time she was linked into The Village security alarm system, via a reaction transmitter.
    There is no way of knowing whether or not Number 8’s offer to help Number 6 was a genuine one or not. Not that Number 6 trusted her. Right from the start he was cautious, doubtful, untrusting. She told Number 6 that she had often helped others with their escape plans, but that none of them ever succeeded. Had she, or is that just a story? In ’Checkmate’ Number 8 is used as a tool against Number 6. Has Number 8 been used in other ways against those who she claimed to have helped with their escape plans? Again there is no way of knowing. But one thing is for sure, Number 8 lost he importance to Number 2 and especially the doctor-Number 22 when she lost her locket, after that they had no further use for her. The last time we see Number 8 is when Number 6 takes the locket from her, on the pretext of getting a better picture for it.
    Another thing is certain, Number 8 did not stop Number 6’s escape plan, that was down to The Rook when he put to Number 6 his own test. It was Number 6’s arrogance which brought about his failure to escape. And yet Number 2 was always confident that Number 6 would not escape. So much so that he permitted Number 6’s association with the Rook-Number 53, because no matter what Number 6 learns from the Rook he’ll learn that there’s no point in rebelling. More than that Number 2’s confidence came from the fact that he had M. S. Polotska in his back pocket. So even if Number 6 reached the motor cruiser, there was still no chance of his escape. Had the Rook gone aboard the vessel with Number 6, being an electronics expert, he might have been able to disengage the lock on the helm. But he didn’t, so that scenario can be dispensed with without thinking of it further. And yet in the original script, Number 8 was to have gone aboard M. S. Polotska with Number 6. So perhaps {without the benefit of having the original script} Number 8 might have been far more involved with the escape plan than she is in the actual episode.

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Bureau of Visual Records

   It’s just like being back at school for the Prisoner. As Captain of the school boxing team at Patrick McGoohan‘s old school of Ratcliffe College he would have worn a piped blazer. In fact the one-time archivist at the school joked “I think he wore his old Ratcliffe blazer in the series.” Mind you that’s not a Ratcliffe straw boater he’s wearing outside the hospital, it has a simple black band. The Prisoner does wear another boater in ‘Once Upon A Time,’ which has a more elaborate band with vertical stripes. It was once questioned if that boater was a Ratcliffe straw boater. But no-one could be sure, and even if it is, it cannot be proven.

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The Illusion of Escape!

   The Prisoner cannot truly relax for one moment, not even after that moment he jumped out the back of a Luton van into Park Lane, to discover he was actually back in London. Such is the state of his suspicious, perhaps paranoid mind, that this might just be another scenario brought about to break his mind. As possibly he remembers the closing events of ‘The Chimes of Big Ben.’ Because as he stands studying his surroundings at Marble Arch, as soon as he hears the words “Hold it” he spins round as though expecting this current scenario to be brought to an abrupt end. Possibly revealing that he has not left The Village at all, and yet the voice is but of a man simply taking the photograph of a young girl, his daughter no doubt. Or is he? It is a moment that Number 6 had experience before, back in The Village. Just at the moment he’s about to cast-off his sea-going raft, the breaking of crockery is heard. At that moment the Prisoner, as he turns around, thinks the game is up. That it has all been for nothing. It is as though they purposely have allowed Number 6 to carry out his escape plan, and just at the crucial moment, when he is about to leave The Village, they stop him. Perhaps with the aim of making him think that hope had been suddenly dashed away! But that was not the case, it gave the Prisoner fresh hope, and was free to leave The Village. However that moment when the words “Hold it” are heard by Number 6, if only for a moment, it must have created that same feeling he experienced back in The Village.

   Even though Number 6 has made his way though the streets of London, eventually to return to his home in Buckingham Place, he’s still not sure. It could still be yet another trap, another plot in which he is involved. And its not until he has been reassured that he is in fact back in his once home in London, and not in his cottage of 6 Private in The Village, that he can finally relax and let his guard down. And once back in the company of the Colonel, Thorpe, the Naval Commander, and RAF Group Captain, he appears to be back in his element. During ‘The Chimes of Big Ben’ Number 6 risked his life and that of Nadia’s to get back home because he thought it was different. In that instance Number 6 learned that his escape was an illusion. But this time it was different, he had actually escaped the confines of The Village. He had beaten his earlier suspicions and paranoia, but then just when the prize was most worth winning it is snatched from his grasp………..Be seeing you!

Exhibition of Arts and Crafts

                               “THE PRISONER!”

                                            {A reinterpretation!}

BcNu

The Missing Link!

   Number 2 was searching for the “missing link” in ‘Once Upon A Time,’ but in the end it cost him his life! It strikes that certain Number 2’s through the series were also seeking the missing link that tied the Prisoner to The Village. Perhaps that’s why they were perpetually asking him why he resigned, the Prisoner’s resignation being the missing link that ties him to The Village. And until his file is brought up to date, the reason behind his resignation revealed, then he will remain a prisoner.

    The doctor of ‘A B and C’ thought that the Prisoner was suffering an anguish pattern, seen on the wall screen over and over again handing in his letter or resignation. On the face of it, it would seem that in resigning his job, ZM73 made a prisoner of himself.

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Living In Harmony!

   “Regulars get the first one on the house.”
   “I’m not regular!”
   “Oh Doc Holliday can give you something for that.”

   “You trying to be funny?”
   “Obviously not!”

BCNU

The Village!

    Number 6 was taken to The Village either to have the knowledge inside his head protected, or extracted, depending on which way you look at it. Mostly they, the administration behind The Village do not want to damage him, they don’t want a man of fragments, he’s far too important for so called extreme measures. In fact Number 6 is seen as having a future with The Village, most likely as a prisoner rather than being given a position of authority. Then occasionally Number 2’s brief is to break Number 6, as in ‘The Schizoid Man,’ and ‘Living In Harmony.’

   Number 6 can only know the forces who have incarcerated him in The Village, he can never know the reality behind the prison he finds himself in. It may have occurred to the viewer that Number 6 is the force behind The Village. That he is a prisoner of himself, that he created The Village in his mind, and Number 1 is himself, who he is trying to beat. But did that occur to Number 6 at the time?

    In allegorical terms, the fantasy, the hallucination of The Village becomes everything to the Prisoner {and perhaps for us}. That is perhaps why Number 6, having escaped the confines of The Village in ‘Many Happy Returns,’ suddenly cannot return to The Village quick enough. It would also give one explanation as to why at the end of ‘the Prisoner’ he is still a prisoner, and on his way back to The Village almost as soon as he has made his second return to London. It might be a simple fact that The Village is more preferable to London!

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Thought For The Day

    It has been noted that the Prisoner makes no mention of his previous encounter of the Colonel and Fotheringay in The Village, during his de-briefing by both the Colonel and Thorpe in ‘Many Happy Returns. After all he knew that his former employers were involved in some way with his incarceration in The Village, remembering the events during ‘The Chimes of Big Ben.’ Neither did ZM73 make mention of both these occurrences to Sir Charles Portland in ‘Do Not Forsake Me Oh My Darling.’ But then I suppose he had more important things on his mind at the time, like proving his identity!

    Fictionally speaking is it a pity that ‘Many Happy Returns’ does not precede ‘The Chimes of Big Ben,’ because that way Number 6 would encounter the Colonel and Thorpe first. The roll of film, his photographic evidence of The Village, would have been developed, and Number 6 would have made his report of The Village during that de-briefing session. He would have been unaware that his former employers were involved with his incarceration in The Village. Then when Number 6 thought he had returned to London for a second time during ‘The Chimes of Big Ben,’ he encountered both the Colonel and Fotheringay and underwent another debriefing session, and he asked the Colonel “Don’t you know about The Village?” “Ah yes, The Village” said the Colonel. And perhaps because of the Colonel’s questioning, together with his apparent scepticism about The Village, perhaps this made Number 6 doubt the Colonel “Surely you know about it?” Fictionally speaking it could be interpreted that Number 6 is asking the Colonel if he knows about the Village, that surely he knows about The Village, because he as been de-briefed about The Village before. And because of that, there should be a file on The Village due to that de-briefing with the Colonel and Thorpe. But perhaps the Colonel hadn’t read The Village file, or maybe the file had been spirited away, filed away in one of those grey filing cabinets seen during the opening sequence of ‘the Prisoner.’

   To sum up then, had ‘Many Happy Returns’ preceded ‘The Chimes of Big Ben,’ there would have been no need for Number 6 to make mention of his meeting with the Colonel and Fortheringay in The Village, because it wouldn’t have happened by that time. And with ‘The Chimes of Big Ben’ following ‘Many Happy Returns,’ it’s reasonable to assume that Number 6 would assume that the Colonel in ‘The Chimes of Big Ben’ should have known about The Village because of Number 6’s former report made to the Colonel in ‘Many Happy Returns,’ so there should have been no need for a second de-briefing. That would have accounted for Number 6’s apparent annoyance at having to repeat himself!

   Of course ‘the Prisoner’ series is set in its screening order, or library order and there can be no disputing that. However, with each episode of the series being a self contained story, this makes it is possible for the viewer to screen 14 of the 17 episodes of ‘the Prisoner’ in any order.

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Do Not Forsake Me Oh My Darling

    Was the Prisoner engaged to be married at the outset of the series? I suppose he would have to have been, since the introduction of Janet Portland, his fiancée in ‘Do Not Forsake Me Oh My Darling.’ And yet this engagement between Miss Portland and ZM73 seems implausible, and at best is simply contrived for this episode. We see the framed photograph of Janet Portland on a table in the study of ZM73’s home in ‘Do Not Forsake Me Oh My Darling,’ and yet that same picture is missing from the opening sequence, of each episode and is not there in the study of Number 6’s home in The Village.

   Janet Portland, a contrivance? Well whenever the Prisoner returns to London, or is thought to have returned to London, he goes to see the Colonel. Only this time there is no Colonel for the Prisoner to go and see, as the Colonel is both in The Village, and the vessel for ZM73’s mind while in London and beyond. So having returned to London ZM73 had to go and see someone from the department in which he worked. So the character of Sir Charles Portland was contrived to fill the Colonel’s shoes. Also someone had to have the receipt for the roll of film ZM73 had left at the camera shop. Mind you it could be thought that that receipt for the roll of film might have been more secure in the wall safe hidden behind the television set in ZM73’s study in his home, in which he kept those American dollar bills. After all someone from Sir Charles Portland’s department in British Intelligence had obtained that receipt from Janet Portland in order to obtain those transparencies from the camera shop. And most likely it was Sir Charles himself who obtained that receipt from his daughter. So, Janet did forsake her fiancé by having handed over that receipt to her father. Supposition? Well yes, but there’s nothing positive to work with, which leaves the situation open to interpretation.

   It has been suggested in the past that the contrivance of Janet Portland is to give the series much needed glamour. Well glamorous is not the word that automatically springs to mind when thinking of Janet Portland. Look at her hair style, it's formal, it's plain, as is Janet herself. It has been written that Janet is a child of the sixties - rubbish! She's nothing more than a middle aged spinster! All you have to do is look at the men invited to her birthday party, the majority of whom are middle aged men.

   If readers recall the television series ‘Callan,’ Zena Walker appears in the episode ‘Suddenly At Home’ as Janet Lewis, and is far more attractive looking in that role, far more than she is as Janet Portland. It seems that Zena had her attractiveness deliberately “dressed down” for her role as Janet Portland.

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Exhibition of Arts And Crafts

                 “It is isn’t it, isn’t it different?”

BcNu

The Prisoner

   Some episodes had a common denominator. So it is between ‘The Schizoid Man,’ and ‘Do Not Forsake Me Oh My Darling. In ‘the Schizoid Man’ Number 6 wakes up in a strange apartment to find he is someone else, Number 12, and from that moment on he fights not only to prove his identity, but to maintain his identity. In ‘Do Not Forsake Me Oh My Darling’ the Prisoner wakes up in the study of his house in London, only to discover his appearance has been altered. And when coming face to face with Sir Charles Portland tries to prove and maintain his identity!

   Over the years ‘the Prisoner has been compared to several works of literature, to other television series, and feature films. But also ‘the Prisoner’ stands up well enough when compared to itself!

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Thought For The Day

    After the Appreciation Day ceremony, and due to the intervention of Number 6, the retiring Number 2 takes his leave of The Village once more.

    As for the interim Number 2, promoted as the new Number 2, he failed to bring ‘Plan Division Q’ to a satisfactory conclusion. So it may be taken that Number 6 would not be seeing him, as this Number 2 already needs to be replaced. But what to do, as a new Number 2 must be assigned. The Village cannot be left without a Chief Administrator, surely it’s not possible to bring a new Number 2 to The Village in so short a time. Or is it? The only apparent resolution seems to be for Control to contact the helicopter pilot by radio and order him to bring his passenger back to The Village. In short, to bring Number 2 out of retirement and reinstate him to his former position!

   The newly appointed Number 2, is angry, angry that his predecessor has got away from The Village. And left alone on the balcony of the Gloriette, he puts his spectacles on and glances up towards the sky. He’s about to take his spectacles off again, but stops, as he’s shocked and surprised to see the helicopter turn back towards the Village. Perhaps realising that with the returning helicopter, that he has already been replaced!

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6 Private

    In order to have reproduced exactly the interior of the study of No.1 Buckingham Place, in both plan, layout, furnishings, fixtures, and fittings, person or persons unknown would have had to gain access to the house. To take photographs of the room and individual items, and make measurements to get the reproduction of the room in ‘6 Private’ back in The Village exact to that of the original. Also, The Village administration would have had to have prior warning of the Prisoner’s arrival in The Village, and that means the Prisoner-Number 6 must have been expected in The Village long before he handed in his resignation. This in order to make the structural changes to the interior of the round house which would be Number 6’s home from home. Let alone the time required to decorate and complete the furnishing of the study.

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A Favourite Scene In The Prisoner

   Takes place in the mortuary within the Town Hall during ‘Dance of the Dead. Number 6 discovers that the body {who I believe to have been Number 34} has been found {in all probability by the crew of M.S. Polotska} in a drawer in the mortuary. The wallet in the dead man’s trouser pocket to be amended, and the body itself to be amended. As Number 2 puts it, it’s a case of waste not want not. Well Number 6 makes the best of his opportunities he can’t blame Number 2 for doing likewise. We can understand how the wallet will be amended, but what about the body? Well two methods could be used, either plastic surgery, or the face could be so disfigured that the dead body would be only recognisable because of the wallet in the dead man’s pocket. But then there would be no mole, and the hair colouring would be wrong, but no doubt something could be done about that. And it was of course long before DNA fingerprinting. But then as Number 2 and Number 6 leave the mortuary to go back to the Ball, they close the door on the poor old cat, leaving it trapped in the mortuary!

    What made Number 2 go looking for Number 6? Well no doubt he was missed by her at the Ball, and knowing what an inquisitive fellow Number 6 is…..he wouldn’t be able to resist poking his nose about the Town Hall. If the Ball had been held in the Recreation Hall, this opportunity could not have been afforded to Number 6. And curiously it was that the only door open to him, was the one which led him to the mortuary. All the other doors being locked against him. Number 6 adopted a disguise, borrowing the white coat of Number 116. I’ve sometimes wondered what a doctor’s white coat was doing hanging up in a hallway of the Town Hall. Perhaps he was late for the Ball, wearing his costume under his white coat, thus saving him having to change! And of course the spectacles which Number 6 found in the breast pocket of the white coat, they were McGoohan’s own, had to be. Otherwise Number 6 might not have been able to see his way about wearing them. Or else the lenses were plain glass, as they sometimes were when John Drake adopted a disguise wearing spectacles.

   Hopefully the cat was not left trapped in that room for too long!

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Caught On Camera!

   You will observe that Number 8 did not make herself a nightcap of hot chocolate, only for Number 6. In this regard she appears to be acting as Number 6’s night-time maid. Was she guilty of adding the sedative to the hot chocolate in order to make Number 6 sleep? Or was the sedative added via the tap water, as appears to be done in ‘A B and C?’ If so Number 8 is innocent, and she did mean the making of his nightcap as an act of kindness, and not one of betrayal!

BCNU

Living In Harmony

    ‘Living In Harmony’ isn’t quite like the previous episodes, as it doesn’t have the normal opening title sequence, but has been reinvented, re-interpreted for this particular episode. Instead of the Prisoner driving a Lotus 7 along a deserted runway and handing in his letter of resignation, we have a Sheriff riding a horse on the prairie, who resigns his job by handing in both his badge and his gun. What’s more this episode, like its predecessor ‘Do Not Forsake Me Oh My Darling.’ takes place entirely outside The Village, in a manner of speaking.

   I think it was when Channel 4 screened ‘the Prisoner’ in 1992, that when it came round to ‘Living In Harmony,’ for some reason, someone, went and added the regular opening sequence which messed up the beginning of the episode. It can only be supposed that some clever Dick thought the film of ‘Living In Harmony’; had arrived without the regular opening sequence and so added it to the film!

   It can be argued that this is the most violent of ‘the Prisoner’ episodes, with the fight scene in the opening sequence. The dragging of the Man With No Name all the way back behind a horse to the town of Harmony after he tried to leave. The punching out of the Kid {for no apparent reason} the fist fight with Zeke and his men, the gun fights and killings. The lynching of Cathy Johnson’s brother, and thereby ‘mob rule.’ The strangling of both Cathy and Number 22, seeing Valerie French strangled twice in fact, and finally the dramatic suicide of Number 8. And yet the violence is an essential component in the story, which is made clear in the story by Number 2’s explanation. “Put him in a dangerous environment, make him kill, then face him with death……..”

    I think originally the Kid was to have had a voice, but in the episode that voice is taken away, and is mute for whatever reason. Perhaps through having experienced some traumatic ordeal, Alexis Kanner’s Kid is left to act the role of the psychopathic killer entirely in gesture and expression. It was to turn out to be a brilliant decision to have the Kid mute, and is a superb performance on Alexis Kanner’s part. It is a  performance which, dare I say it, even outshines that of Patrick McGoohan’s!

    Valerie French, who was a 1950’s starlet made her best known television appearance in ‘the Prisoner’ as Cathy. Cathy being spelt with a ‘C’ rather than a ‘K,’ apparently because of McGoohan’s daughter Catherine.

   Valerie French is arguably the most obvious sexy character in the entire series, her first costume, a shoulder-less Western saloon girl’s costume, in which she shows a good deal more flesh than every other woman in the series put together. Too much in fact at one point, because while wearing her second costume, which was tightly fitted, pushing upwards and outwards, she was shows a good deal of cleavage. So much so that she was showing part of her nipples {which can be seen in some production shots of the episode} and as a result her costume was adjusted slightly before filming took place.

   It cannot be denied that Valerie French was a buxom woman, and at the time, aged of 39, she was still a very attractive, and good-looking woman. As her role suggests, a role which she played ‘doubly’ well. But an interesting point might be, that she somehow looks older as Number 22, than she does as Cathy.

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Teabreak Teaser

    The Beam used against the pigeon in ‘Hammer Into Anvil,’ is a electronic defence weapon. Who might have developed this weapon?

BSEENU

What Are Facts Behind Town Hall?

    Well for one thing, it’s a strange place to have The Village mortuary! Would it not have been more logical to have had the mortuary in the hospital? Ah but then that would not have been at all convenient, as that would have meant Number 6 would not have been able to discover the failure of his plan in one of the drawers in the mortuary. The fact that the dead man, whose body Number 6 used as a distress signal in order to get a message to someone, anyone in the outside world, now resides in a drawer in the mortuary. Had the mortuary been located at the hospital instead of the Town Hall, Number 6 would not have been able to make the discovery he did. The same applies if the Ball and Cabaret had been held in the Recreation Hall. The facts behind Town Hall are, that at times it is there for convenience, and I’m not writing of the gentlemen and ladies lavatories!
    There are times when we get to see some of the inner workings of the Town Hall, especially during the election period. We do not exactly see the democratic process at work, yet we are privy to the disillusionment of the outgoing Council in the Council Chamber. The same chamber does also act for the Committee Chamber which Number 6 is brought before after demonstrating acts of disharmonious-ness. Also the Control Room chamber is beneath the Town Hall, the Observer Number 240 is herself observed going into the Town Hall in time for the start of her shift. Also in the Town Hall was the General’s office, and the Educational Board Room. The television station is also run from within the Town Hall. And we get to see Number 2’s quarters, at least the extremely elaborately decorated and furnished lounge, if not the bedroom, bathroom and kitchen. Which no doubt is redecorated and refurnished for each successive Number 2.
   The entrance to the Town Hall is protected by the use of an electronic for field, something Number 6 discovered that time he tried to follow Number 240. How the Observer was allowed to pass through the electric force-field, and not Number 6 is unknown. It might be that Number 240 was wearing some kind of recognition device which by-passes the force field. An electronic force-field is employed at a security checkpoint within the Town Hall itself, and security pass discs are required. There is a secret passageway. A room which resembles a small library, except instead of rows of bookshelves, it has rows of filing cabinets, no doubt filled with files containing information on the citizens and general Town Hall business. Such are some of the facts behind Town Hall.

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Exhibition of Arts And Crafts

                                     “Tonight At Moonset!”

BcNu

Thought For The Day

    After having returned to London during ‘Fall Out,’ instead of going into his home, he got behind the wheel of his Lotus 7 and drove off. Where was he going? Where did he go? He drove over Westminster Bridge, he must have done in order to turn left at the crossroads. He passes the Houses of Parliament along Abingdon Street on his way presumably to that underground car park. And yet the former Number 6 had been driving in the wrong direction, seeing as he lived in Westminster. After he left his house, he must have crossed the river Thames at some point, for him to come back driving over Westminster Bridge as he does during the opening sequence. And then the next minute there’s a clash of thunder, and we see the Prisoner behind the wheel of his Lotus just as we see him in the opening sequence. So where has the Prisoner been? One minute he’s driving in London, presumably to that underground car park. The next he’s back out driving on along a disused runway before he arrives in London during that opening sequence. The Prisoner has to have been somewhere else between his having driven away from his home, and appearing driving left at the crossroads and passed the Houses of Parliament when the word PRISONER appears on the screen. ’The Prisoner’ is all very well, but sometimes, even the simplest of filmed action sequences just do not add up at all. Take for instance, Number 6’s return to London. After waved farewell to his old friend Number 2, who enters the Houses of Parliament through the Peers entrance, Number 6 then takes the Butler by the hand, and they end up running to catch a bus going over Westminster Bridge. This is taking them in completely the wrong direction to where they eventually end up, at number 1 Buckingham Place, in the city of Westminster. So where are they going? Does it matter? Was running for that bus done simply for effect? Perhaps like Number 48, who is thumbing a lift on both sides of the dual carriageway, it’s the journey that matters, and not the destination!

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Many Happy Returns!

    Today is the Prisoner’s birthday. It was only yesterday that he found himself back home in London. He took it very well when he found someone else, namely Mrs. Butterworth, living in his house, which still had 6 months lease to run. What’s more she was now the owner of the Lotus 7 which he built with his own hands.

   But the Prisoner looked for reassurances, well who could blame him after the events of ‘The Chimes of Big Ben.’ This by looking out of the window, and listening to the dialling tone of the telephone. Also the patch of dry rot behind the bureau which was made good about twelve months ago, and the fact that the bathroom door slides open to the left. That the sink in on the right as you go in, and the hot and cold taps on the shower had been put on the wrong way round.

   We the viewer have to take at face value, everything which takes place from the moment the Prisoner wakes up washed ashore on the beach at Beachy Head yesterday on the 18^th, to the moment he took off in the Gloster Meteor jet aircraft. It all has to take place in one day, because when the Prisoner asked Mrs. Butterworth the date, she told him its Saturday March the eighteenth, to which the Prisoner responds “Tomorrows my birthday.”

   Well many happy returns Number 6! It’s almost as though that having escaped The Village, he couldn’t wait to get back there! I like the way the Prisoner draws his knees up was he floats down to the ground on the end of that parachute. He’s either preparing himself for impact with the ground, or he’s attempting to prevent the inevitable for as long as possible!

   Having divested himself of the parachute, Number 6 makes his way slowly back to his cottage. The wood and oil drums he left scattered on the quayside having been cleaned away. Arriving at his home, the coffee percolator begins to boil, the water shoots from the shower head, and Mrs. Butterworth, who turns out to be Number 2, arrives having carried out her promised which she made back in London, to bake him a cake. But the cake has nothing whatsoever to do with his birthday, seeing as the cake has but 6 candles. It’s more to celebrate Number 6’s many happy returns to The Village. The Prisoner walks over to a window and looks out, for reassurance?

    What’s happened? Well the Prisoner has learned a lesson, that no matter where he goes, there is nothing easier than for them to bring him back to The Village. In fact that “they” had been in control all the time, pulling his strings! The Prisoner had eventually come full circle, ending up where he began. In a way, ‘Many Happy Returns’ is like The Village’s local taxi service, you can go anywhere you like, just as long as you end up back in The Village in the end! And for the Prisoner ‘Many Happy Returns’ is a new arrival. The episode is circular, like ‘the Prisoner’ series itself. We know the Prisoner escapes in ‘Fall Out,’ but we also know that eventually he’s going to end up back in The Village. In the Prisoner’s end is his beginning. And when the Prisoner looks out of that window and looks out upon The Village, there are the citizens parading around the Piazza. To the eye, it looks as though the Prisoner has returned to The Village just in time for Carnival!

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