The Village Was Deserted {Well Practically Deserted}!

    In the four episodes ‘Arrival,’ ‘Free for All,’ ‘Dance of The Dead,’ and ‘Checkmate’ The Village looks to be well populated and busy, as citizens go about their daily business. Probably because they were filmed on location at Portmeiron. Whereas with a couple of later episodes ‘Hammer Into Anvil,’ ‘It’s Your Funeral,’ and at times even ‘A Change of Mind’ there are scenes in which The Village looks to be under populated, even though citizens are passing by. Even when Number 6 is posting the birthday greeting to himself, and especially when Numbers 2 and 14 set out from the Green Dome on foot. And in ‘It’s Your Funeral’ when people are gathering for the Appreciation Day ceremony, yes people carrying placards of their respective Number 2’s, but the atmosphere isn’t what it was during the election of ‘Free For All.’ Because filming for the Appreciation Day ceremony took place on a dull day in March 1967. Yes there is film footage of people parading around the Piazza, with Mini-Mokes and the Brass band plays. But that is film footage taken from ‘Dance of The Dead,’ and filmed on a sunny day in September 1966. And it’s the difference between the two that gives me feeling that The Village is under populated. And again in ‘A Change of Mind’ after Number 6 has left the Town Hall having been in front of the Committee, there are few people about. Perhaps the good citizens are all in their cottages at the time, or it’s late in the morning or afternoon! Because in both ‘It’s Your Funeral’ and ‘A Change of mind,’ it’s only the close-up shots that give The Village any population!

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