A Favourite Scene In The Prisoner

    When the human chess match is preparing to start, the chess pieces taking their squares on the board. I enjoy the incidental music, and the Butler, seen here wearing his cape inside out, with an administrative official carrying a chessboard, as well as shading the Butler from the sun by carrying the open umbrella. While the Butler carries the box of chess pieces. This makes the Butler look far more important than his job as manservant to Number 2 would suggest. What is it about the Butler, in this instance, that warrants such a privilege, the need for him to be escorted by an administrative official? It has been suggested, in the past, that it’s the Butler who controls the moves in the human chess match. That he makes the moves first, and the players then follow the moves the Butler dictates. Yet this cannot be right, as the Butler follows the moves being made by the two chess players. The Butler is a student of chess, and likes to follow the moves on his own chessboard. But that doesn’t explain the administration official. Mind you, the Butler is there at the beginning of ‘Checkmate,’ and he’s there at the end, placing the white Queen’s pawn back on the chessboard. Is there something symbolically significant in that, or is it pure coincidence? If anyone would have put that pawn back on the chessboard, it would have been Number 2. Unless the Butler is Number 1, and in that case, perhaps it’s the Butler controlling the moves on the metaphorical chessboard that is The Village!

Be seeing you

Citizen No.58

   Whatever happened to Number 58? That delightful woman who speaks in some incomprehensible tongue. I know we could not understand one syllable she uttered, but there was something appealing about her, you couldn’t help but like her. Yes she irritated Number 6 because she couldn’t speak English, but had she been anyone else Number 6 would have been prejudiced against them. And after all, all Number 58 wanted to do was help Number 6. And it made her feel important, instead of being a mere maid. She was Number 6’s driver, to be by his side at all times, well most of the time. Mind you it must have been very difficult for Number 58 being in The Village and unable to speak English. But at least Number 2 was able to speak her language, so perhaps that wasn’t so bad for her. She was at Number 6’s side when he took over the inner sanctum of the Green Dome, having fun with him as they found out what all the buttons on the control panel of Number 2’s desk do. As well as answering the telephone! But then there came a sudden and dramatic change in Number 58, she was no longer the convivial housemaid, cheerful and friendly, but a cold hearted, unfeeling woman. Who promised Number 6 that what had taken place in ‘Free For All’ was but the beginning! Was really playing the role of Number 56 nothing more than that, an act? Was there no part of Number 58 inside this hard faced Number 2? If there was it was gone. Which is a pity, as I rather like the character of Number 58, she was quite pleasing in a way.

Be seeing you

Prismatic Reflection

    It would appear that either The Village administration, or the powers that be which lie somewhere over there in the outside world beyond The Village, can call upon a good number of personnel from within British Intelligence. The Colonel and Fotheirngay came from the department from which the Prisoner-No.6 resigned. Whether or not the Colonel and Thorpe can be included I’ve never been able to make up my mind. I’m even less sure about Curtis, who was seconded to The Village in order to impersonate No.6, as so little is known about him, except that he and No.2 had worked together before, but outside The Village.
   The Colonel pictured left is the third Colonel we see, he had been sent to the Village by the highest authority. He should have felt very proud, he said he was gratified, but had been sent to The Village without being told why. Perhaps had he been told he would have refused to go, but perhaps would have been taken anyway! The highest authority, who might that be then? No.1, or those “masters” we hear about from Cobb, and of which No.2 in ‘Hammer Into Anvil’ was so afraid? The Colonel asked No.2 if he would be kind enough to explain what it is he was supposed to do…….perhaps had he known….I’ve often wondered why the Colonel was sent on this current mission and not a field agent. But I suppose had it not been the Colonel, there wouldn’t have been any need for Sir Charles Portland. After all its always been the Colonel No.6 has gone running back to, only this time he is the Colonel, in a manner of speaking, hence the need for Sir Charles Portland for No.6 to go running back to!
   No matter how gratified the Colonel might be, he does seem a little uncomfortable, perhaps being in The Village brings back unhappy memories for him. After all he wouldn’t be the first to have been brought to The Village as a prisoner, then having been turned as Cobb had been, released, later to be brought back to The Village as with No.2 during ‘The Chimes of Big Ben,’ and again for ‘Once Upon A Time.’

    No.2 explained about Professor Selzman being a neurologist who became interested in mind transference. The Colonel said he’d actually seen it done when he was in India, but not in the way No.2 means! Transferring the mind of one man into another, that the Colonel could become No.2 and No.2 could become the Colonel, well not quite, but close enough.
   The Colonel was interested enough when No.2 took him along to the amnesia room where all unpleasant memories of The Village are wiped from a subject’s mind, ready for the person to be sent out into the outside world again, and gave him a dummy demonstration of the Seltzman machine. I have sometimes thought how it might have been for the Colonel. No.6 was taken kicking from his cottage by four security guards, then sedated as he was placed in the Red Cross trailer and taken to the hospital where he would have remained sedated. I would have thought it would have been easier had they taken No.6 from his cottage during the night, when he would have been already sedated after drinking his drugged nightcap. Something they had done before on no fewer than four occasions. As for the Colonel, was he taken kicking and screaming to the Seltzman machine when he realized what was about to happen to him, and because of that have to be sedated first?
    There’s a question mark over this Seltzman machine. How did it fall into the hands of The Village’s administration? After all there cannot be many of these machines about, you certainly couldn’t buy them by the pound! Was it Seltzman’s original machine, which he for whatever reason had to abandon? Or was it constructed from plans stolen, or photographed? If so why not then bring Professor Seltzman to The Village together with his original plans and the Seltzman machine? Perhaps they almost caught up with Selzman, he got away but had to leave his machine behind, wherever that was. But then comes the question of subjects, people Professor Selzman could use in his mind transference experiments. After all how would he prove his machine without actual experimentation? He might need several subjects in order to perfect his machine. So it might well be that Seltzman worked on his machine, carrying out his experiments where there would be an abundance of subjects. Some institution perhaps, or a Nazi Concentration Camp during the war where he was forced to work. He might have evaded the liberators of such a camp by putting his mind in another person’s body, another of the prisoners there. Such is the possibility for speculation.
   But what of this Colonel, he was just as much a traitor, or turncoat as his predecessors. Except he died on an operating table, his mind wrongly housed in Professor Seltzman’s body, and would no doubt be buried in The Village crematory in an unmarked grave seeing as he had no number. I’ve always felt sorry for this particular Colonel, having been seconded to The Village, but without knowing why, and perhaps after all he did face what there was to face with courage and dignity. His last words being “Tell Number One I did my duty,” and that is all anyone can do in The Village!                 

Be seeing you

Bureau of Visual Records

   Number 6, having apparently come to his senses, steals a Jet boat, and in having fought off the two motor mechanics attempts to escape, while being pursued by Number 2 in the helicopter. The person throwing himself overboard into the water boat is not Patrick McGoohan, but a local man to Porthmadog, who played the role of Number 6 at the wheel of the boat and eventually ended up in the water, because Patrick McGoohan couldn’t go into the water at that time as he had an ear infection.

   I like the character of Number 58, she is quite charming. As for her character of Number 2, I’d hate to think what she’d like to do to Number 6. I bet she could think of many ways and means to bring hurt and pain to him!

    I don’t think Number 6 was goaded into standing for election. I like to think it was a mixture of gentle persuasion and Number 6’s predictability. They knew that Number 6 wouldn’t be able to resist standing for office, because the vote for No.6 placard, and other placards had already been fabricated. Its interesting how Number 6 told the electorate that he intended to discover who the prisoners and who the warders, but it isn’t until ‘Checkmate’ that he discovers who some of them are!

Be seeing you

Exhibition of Arts And Crafts

                                “ESCAPE!

BcNu

The Tally Ho

Escape — It’s A Risky Business
                              by our own reporter

    You can either go off the cuff and attempt to run away, drive away in a Mini-Moke, or place your trust in someone who hands you an Electro Pass and attempt to escape by helicopter. But really if you are to attempt an escape its always best to know where you are escaping from, so that you can calculate where it is you are escaping to! Lucky for No. 6 then that his ally, Nadia, had seen a file,  even if it was only for a few seconds, but enough to know the location of The Village. What’s more Nadia has a contact man from the Village of Braniewo. No.6 was in such a hurry to escape The Village, that he didn’t once consider how Nadia was able to make contact with the man at the cave when she was in The Village! It might have been that Karel was there at the cave just on the off-chance should Nadia manage to escape The Village But then how did he know she was there in the first place? It was supposed that No.6 and Nadia would eventually arrive in an office he knows very well in London. A 12 hour journey by sea Gdansk/Danzig then by air to Copenhagen , and by air again to London. Except that journey never actually took place. There was a short journey by sea, then back to The Village aboard the M. S. Polotska, not that No.6 was aware of that, sealed in that crate! The fact of the matter is No.6 had been betrayed on two occasions when he had tried to escape, by women!          No.6 is not one to stop trying, he again takes to the sea aboard a jet boat. Having boarded the boat and fought off the two motor mechanics, he heads for the open sea chased by No.2 piloting the helicopter. The result of this escape attempt is exactly the same as it was on land. Throwing himself out of a moving vehicle, and a confrontation with the Guardian! And if it hasn’t been risky enough for No.6 by this point, things get more risky when he attempts an escape  by impersonating Curtis! He tried to say as little as possible during that ride to the helicopter, because he had no idea what No.2 was talking about when he mentioned that proposition he had put to Curtis when he arrived in The Village. No.6 was on edge, he than made the mistake about the General, and then, well how was No.6 to have known Susan had died a year ago? Betrayed again if indirectly, by a woman!     No.6 then once more takes to the sea aboard an open raft. 25 days at sea, and finally he makes a “home run,” only to find someone, Mrs. Butterworth, living in his home in London! With the aid of the Colonel and Thorpe, his story of the road block, the gypsy encampment, and Mrs. Butterworth are checked out and found to be true. Then its just a matter of locating The Village, which means a search area of some 1,750 square miles! Its been a long journey, but once again No.6 ends up back where he started. It seems his cottage is the only place he can ever go!     Two thefts were reported by a painter working on the refit of the Stone Boat. That of a lifebelt and a length of rope! It was thought that No.6 had taken them, as he was seen loitering on the quayside at the time. However the body of No.34, tied to a lifebelt, was retrieved from the sea by the crew of M. S. Polotska. Despite the life preserver No.34 had seemingly died from cold and exposure! Another spate of thefts took place in the Village, the first of which were two Taxis, but this was let ride. Then a surveillance camera was removed from its mounting, a telephone from a kiosk, a screwdriver and electrical components from an electrics tuck. And an aerial was broken off one of the taxis! No.6 was accused by No.53 that he takes too many risks, well escape is worth a risk or two isn’t it? But it seems it was the Rook who took most of the risks in this case, especially when it is he who had to put to the open sea on such a flimsy raft in order to bring a rescue boat inshore. It can be no surprise that no women were involved in this attempted escape, and no wonder. However one element does appear to have been overlooked by No.6 as he planned another attempted escape by sea……………………..the time of the tides!

Be seeing you

Night of The General

   As Number 6 returns to his cottage, outside it’s rather like Mardi Gras, everyone is celebrating the fruits of Speedlearn, he switches on the main lights. Then when he switches on the overhead lamp all the lights fuse! Suddenly the telephone begins to bleep. Picking up the receiver Number 6 is instructed to remain where he is, and not to leave. Electrics and administration are on their way. For such an emergency as this, Number 6 will find candles in the upper kitchen cabinet. A few moments later electrics turns up on one of the garden tractors, so it couldn’t have been much of an emergency, otherwise Number 151 would have walked! Number 6 then shows the electrician where the fault is just as Number 12 of administration arrives on the scene. He wants to know what’s going on, apparently there’s be a deliberate short circuit across the contacts of a light bulb….sabotage, that’s punishable! The electrician informs Number 12 that they’ll need a 2 stroke d replacement {I’ve always thought they needed a new light bulb} but perhaps he means a new fuse in the fuse box, seeing as all the lights have blown! The electrician is then instructed by Number 12 to contact Electrics control and have them switch in temporary reserve, temporary reserve from what, batteries?
   Number 12 is the first conspirator Number 6 has had, and one inside the machine, even if he is a small cog! He’s had the Professor’s lecture heard on the tape recorder micro reduced, and placed in a ballpoint pen, which he gives to Number 6. So Number 12 had been able to gain access to the Professor’s tape recorder, after Number 6 had given it to Number 2. He also gave Number 6 two security pass discs.   

   Number 12 blames Number 6 for the act of sabotage, the punishment could be a fine, it could be imprisonment {what’s that a prison within a prison, or solitary confinement} Number 6 says he’ll take the fine. So the next day Number 6 has to go to Number 12’s office in Administration, where Number 12 gives him the uniform of a Top Hat’s official, that of black suit, tie, white shirt, top hat, overcoat, dark glasses, and a document case. How Number 6 actually got those items from the Town Hall to his cottage is anyone’s guess. Even if all the items had been parcelled up, that parcel would have attracted the attention of the Observers I should have thought. And yet it was Number 12 who carried out the act of sabotage, why was this not observed by an Observer?

Be seeing you

No.56

    Number 56 started out as the shopkeeper in ‘Arrival,’ although there’s some discrepancy about that, as one minute the shopkeeper is Number 19, then a few seconds later he’s Number 56! Or it could be the other way around! Citizens have been known to have their number changed between episodes, but never in the middle of a scene. It’s a pity his number cannot be seen in ‘Checkmate,’ but it’s impossible to make out the number on his badge. Anyway we’ll give the shopkeeper the benefit of the doubt and call him 56. Number 56 crops up again, when Number 6 wears the number 56 badge in ‘The General’ when he’s in disguise as a member of the Board of Education! It is after that the Number 56 is assigned to Number 6’s personal maid in ‘Dance of The Dead,’ and that’s before the episode of ‘Checkmate,’ so perhaps to keep a reasonable logic, the shopkeeper is Number 19. Because we can’t have two 56’s, well we can, just as long as they are in separate episodes. Mind you there is the time in ‘Arrival’ when there are three 66’s. So it wouldn’t really matter if there were two Number 56’s in the same episode, the shopkeeper and the Supervisor. But then that brings into question what then happened to the maid after ‘Dance of The Dead?’ And with the passing of the maid, came two further disappearances of Number 56, the shopkeeper and the Supervisor of ‘Checkmate.’ Because by the time of ‘Hammer Into Anvil’ there’s a new shopkeeper in the General Store, Number 112. And by the time of ‘A Change of Mind,’ Number 56 is a rather stout, forthright, and severe woman who gives a very good impression of being the leader of the Ladies Sub-appeal Committee. And that’s the last we see of the Number 56.

Be seeing you

Try It!

   It was day two of ‘Free For All,’ and the housemaid Number 58 has brought Number 6 his breakfast again, and pours out a cup of tea for him. At first glance when Number 6 says “try it” it appears Number 6 wants her to try drinking the tea first. However he’s not referring to any drink, he wants her to try saying “Be seeing you” in English, of course 58 {who later we learn speaks perfect English} feigns not to understand.

   And when Number 6 acts as though he was coming out of a trance or a drugged state when Number 58 keeps repeating “Ly ezeet azoon, ly ezeet azoona, ly ezeet azoona, ly ezeet azoona ly ezeet azoona,” he is indeed. It’s quite on the cards that the drug he has been given is wearing off at that point. At first Number 6 smiles politely, then his smile turns into, not a scowl, but certainly he’s down in the mouth, as Number 58 becomes more and more excited. He stands up, knocks against the overhead lamp, its as though Number 6 has come to his senses, and tears off his 6 rosette as though his fear is that they are gradually turning him into one of them by his acceptance of standing for election. He then bolts for the door of the cottage and runs outside, steals the taxi and drives away.
    Number 6 has his mind conditioned first in the manager’s office in the Labour Exchange, but the Manager is reminded by Number 2 to go to the first stage only, after all they mustn’t damage the tissue! And again when the effect of that has worn off, when Number 6 runs away from Number 58 and tries to escape by Jet boat, the pulsator in the overhead light above the bed is employed to condition 6’s mind further, in time for his second election speech delivered from the forecastle of the Stoneboat. And finally as to top up that mind conditioning, Number 6 is taken to a cave. Number 2 calls it the Therapy Zone, where a chemist has formulated a drug which worked quicker than usual, but to exact proportions to carry Number 6 through to the end of the election, as they mustn’t damage the brain tissue! Coincidentally the mixture of mind conditioning, combined with the use of a drug are three instances as those in ‘A B and C.’

   Finally, how it is Number 6 is able to say “Be seeing you” in Number 58’s language, is inexplicable as I’ve never quite been able to figure that one out, nor have I ever known anyone able to give a convincing explanation.

Be seeing you

Citizen No.2

   You are more a Statesman than anything else, and you have the administrative ability to manipulate such a community as The Village. No don’t be modest that doesn’t become you. It’s rather clever the way you persuaded Number 6 to stand for public election, more than that you knew just what he would do if elected as the new Number 2. To organise a mass breakout, not that Number 6 cared what happened to all the others, it was just enough that during such a mass breakout he would be able to slip away undetected. And you were confident that as Number 6’s voice boomed out over The Village via the public address system, telling the citizens that they were free, free to go, that no-one would listen to him. And they didn’t. Number 6’s words fell on deaf ears!
    You are also unconventional. Your jacket, it’s not normal attire for a male Number 2, a dark double breasted blazer is more in keeping with the regular uniform. Your jacket is of a lighter colour, and unusual in the sleeves having cuffs!
   And what were you thinking when Number 6 attempted to escape, you yourself piloted the helicopter. More than that, you were waiting for Number 6 to attempt an escape, as though you were expecting it. Because you were already airborne in the helicopter, hovering, waiting! And then of course you gave chase, why was that, where was the regular pilot of the helicopter? And why did you fly yourself out of The Village at the end? Again, where was the regular helicopter pilot? Well no-one’s been able to come up with an answer to that, not after almost fifty years, so I don’t expect anyone to come up with an answer now, it’s much too late. All we can do is image, but imaginings are just that, they are not answers. ‘The Prisoner’ has never easily given up its answers, insisting that we find those out for ourselves. Number 6 once said “I’ve never liked secrets,’ yet ‘the Prisoner’ still refuses to give up some of its secrets, even today!

Be seeing you

How Did He Do That?

    Just a few moments ago Number 2, you were in the Control Room speaking to Number 6 on the telephone, asking if he would like a chat. Number 6 told you that mountain can come to Mohammed. And there you were standing on the door step of ‘6 Private!’ How did you do that? The Control Room is located beneath
the Town Hall, and that’s more than a few moments walking distance to Number 6’s cottage. You could have been on the telephone from almost anywhere, in fact thinking how you as Number 2 are able to manipulate situations, including the fact that you have a somewhat devious and clever mind. You might well have been speaking on the telephone to Number 6 just around the corner, and filmed for the televisual link in a part mock up of the Control room, or at the very least standing there with a painted back-drop of the Control Room wall behind you!

Be seeing you

Bureau of Visual Records

    What’s the Guardian doing there? Number 6 isn’t about to make a run for it, that comes later. Perhaps it’s there to make sure Number 6 goes into the Town Hall, why shouldn’t he? After all he has an appointment with Number 2 to witness the dissolution of the out-going council. But why should the Town Council be dissolved? After all when a British Government changes, the Civil Service remains the same, members of the Civil Service work for whichever Government is in power at the time. I should have thought that was the same even in The Village, Number 2 might change, but the members of the Town Council remain the same. Besides do we actually witness the dissolution of the Council? True the final resolution of this council is a vote of thanks to Number 6, it is carried unanimously, and there is no further business at this time. Number 6 is allowed to question the members of the Council, not that they even attempt to answer his questions, it’s no wonder Number 6 described them as a bunch of tailors dummies! And yet perhaps they are what they are supposed to appear to be. The election was a manipulation of Number 6, aided by his own predictability. So no election, perhaps no Town Council, and yet Number 6 must have believed in the democratic process, as he explained to the Colonel in ‘Many Happy Returns’ that he could have been a member of the Town Council, it being elected once a year. But is that the same Town Council as witnessed in ‘Free For All? If it is I cannot somehow see Number 6 being a willing candidate to become one of those brainwashed imbeciles as he called them. It also strikes that by the time of ‘Many Happy Returns’ Number 6 has changed his mind about the Town Council, he seems “matter of fact” about it, almost casual as he explains it to the Colonel, as though it’s no longer something dark. But perhaps that’s because Number 6 thinks he’s well out of the way of The Village, and can now afford to be blasé  about it. If that’s the case, his predictability is once again to be his downfall, as he is about to be placed in the hands of his tormentors once again!

Be seeing you

Cult of The Personality

     If the Exhibition of Arts And Crafts during ‘The Chimes of Big Ben’ is anything to judge by, it would seem The Village suffers from the “cult of the personality” when an individual uses mass media, propaganda, or other such methods to create an idolized hero, and sometimes a worshipful image, at times through flattery and praise. Is that why the majority of art work is of Number 2’s image, because they see Number 2 as a worshipful image? Such appears to be his popularity, as he seems to be well liked, even loved by the people, and that does seem to please Number 2 at the Exhibition of Arts and Crafts. Now which of the busts of Number 2 belongs to Madam Professor?

                               “Highly original” Number 6 said sarcastically.

   In the main, contributors to the exhibition used Number 2 as a model for their art work, such is his populartiy as a Chief Administrator of The Village. From drawings, sketches, and watercolours to the General’s King of his hand carved chess set. Eventually even Number 6’s piece of abtract art incorporates the image of Number 2!

   That sail, its rather Viking looking don’t you think that?

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A Favourite Scene In The Prisoner

    Down on the beach in ‘Checkmate’ when Number 2 approaches the Rook.
    “Hello. How are you today?”

    “Much better, thanks.”
    “Good, all symptoms of the frustration complex disappeared?”

    “Completely.”

    “Splendid. Watch you don’t over do it, and keep taking those pills.”
    “I will.”
    “And remember if you get another attack of egotism don’t wait, go back to the hospital immediately.”
    “I don’t like to bother people.”
    “No bother….enjoy yourself.”
    “Thank you.”

   I don’t know what it is, it’s the way Number 2 says “Hello.” It’s almost as if, oh I don’t know, I just find it humorous. It’s like when Number 2 says “Keep taking those pills,” you might say I’ve got a pain in my arm when I lift it. The doctor might say well don’t do it then, or simply “Keep taking the pills!” Anyway, what’s Number 2 doing on the beach? We’ve never seen Number 2 down on the beach before! I know he’s a top administrator, but surely he’s not got enough spare time to be able to enjoy a stroll along the beach. But then he gives me the impression of lurking about on the beach. Well he never knows who he might bump into. And that chap behind him, the man with the canopied bicycle, he’s having problems riding it on the sand. He half rides, half pushes it. As for Number 2, well he’s hardly dressed for the beach, and I know it’s a sunny day, but wearing those sunglasses makes him look rather sinister, menacing even! But it’s nice that the good citizens of The Village are allowed to relax and enjoy themselves on the beach, sunbathing, playing beach ball, or simply padding in the water. And the striped bathing tents, they smack of the late 19^th into the early 20^th century. A past time, after when bathing tents were all the rage at British seaside holiday resorts.

Be seeing you

It’s As Though The Village Was Deserted Again!

    On the morning of ‘Dance of The Dead’ Number 6 wakes up in much the same way he does on the morning of ‘Many Happy Returns’ when he found The Village deserted. In both scenes in the two episodes Number 6 opens a door and looks out on the Piazza to see that no-one was out and about. There is another similarity between these two scenes, the fact that a few moments after Number 6 closes the door of his cottage, The Village comes instantly to life! In ‘Dance of The Dead’ the Prisoner’s breakfast is being brought to him, and the post is delivered, as citizens who were not there a few moments ago, now parade about the Piazza dressed in fancy dress. While in ‘Many Happy Returns’ the electricity and water are turned on, and as the Prisoner looks out of a window of his cottage, citizens who were not there a few moments ago now parade around the Piazza! Two separate episodes, yet linked by the same feeling of an empty Village brought to life in much the same way, yet at very different times of the year!

Be seeing you

Quote For The Day

   “Congratulations on yet another day.”
                              {A Village announcement – Free For All’}

   This made me think that any citizen waking up and hearing that announcement means they have made it through another night. They come for you in the night you see, well your resistance is lower then, having been sedated by your nightcap! They did that to Number 6 in ‘A B and C,’ they came for him three times during that episode, and one night he collapsed, and if it had not been for the doctor-Number 14, Number 6 might not have survived that night! On another occasion when Number 6 was taken from his cottage in the middle of the night, he woke up the next day in a strange apartment, but as someone else!

Be seeing you

Local Election!

    “The community can rest assured that their interests are very much my own, and that anything I can do to maintain the security of the citizens will be my primary objective. Be seeing you.”

   That doesn’t sound like the Number 6 we know, he’s beginning to sound more like Number 2 already! But at least he’s prepared to look after the citizens, he doesn’t seem to want anything to happen to them, certainly not for them to escape by the sounds of it. Bearing in mind a particular event in ‘Fall Out,’ it could almost be Number 1 addressing the electorate!

Be seeing you

The Pri50ner Fifty First-Rate Scenes!

    If I were to choose 50 great moments in ‘the Prisoner, I would commence with the moment Number 6 opened his refrigerator during ‘The Chimes of Big Ben.’ He was going to put the black loudspeaker inside because he was annoyed that he couldn’t turn the music off. But the moment 6 opened that fridge, we caught a glimpse of how well he ate. There was a whole roasted chicken, and two bottles of wine, not to mention the cheese, and the role of salami or whatever sausage it was. I’ve often wondered whether that food was for show, that being Number 6’s food. Or might it have been for the film crew, seeing as there were two bottles of wine!
    I’d perhaps then jump back to ‘Arrival,’ when the Prisoner tries to make a telephone call. I wonder who he was trying to call, might it not have been a call to London, to the person of the Colonel? I cannot think to who else he might make a telephone call to. It would be no good trying to call his home number, there’s no-one there seeing as he used to live alone at No.1 Buckingham Place. However, as he didn’t have a number, the telephone exchange operator wouldn’t let him make a call. Anyway I expect making telephone calls would be rather like the taxi service, local calls only!
      In ‘A B and C’ when Number 2 discovers that he’s ‘C!’
      ‘The Chimes of Big Ben’ when Number 6 discovers that the chimes are manufactured, and that he’s not in London at all, but has been in The Village all the time! When in ‘Arrival’ the Prisoner tells Number 2 that “I will not be pushed, filed, stamp, indexed, briefed, debriefed, or numbered, my life is my own,” Number 6 gets all the best lines! And back to ‘The Chimes of Big Ben’ when new arrival Nadia Rakovsky asks Number 6 if she can get a car. He explains to her that there are no self-drive cars, only taxis, and that they’ll take you anywhere you like, just as long as you end up back where you started, that’s why their called local. At least Nadia didn’t have to learn that first hand like Number 6. It’s nice to see him giving his experience of The Village to a new arrival!
   The first appearance of Rover.
  When the Prisoner is confronted by Rover during his first attempted escape. He thought good old fashioned brute force would win the day. But he had not counted on the Guardian acting just like a meteorological weather balloon, by offering no resistance!
    Number 6’s second escape attempt in ‘Arrival’, when you see The Village from the air.
    In ‘The Chimes of Big Ben’ when Number 6 is explaining his abstract sculpture to the awards committee. You have to admit Number 6 thinks quick on his feet to give the explanation he gave!
    In ‘Free For All’ when we realise that they already know what Number 6 will do should be elected as the new Number 2.
   The aptitude test in the manager’s office of the Labour Exchange.
   When the Prisoner goes to buy a map of the area in the General Store.
    Number 6 leaves the Colonel’s office to find he is still in The Village, and comes face to face with his betrayers on the steps of the Recreation Hall.
    As Number 6 returns to his cottage and suddenly there is a public announcement about a great new competition, the subject this time......seascapes! That’s rubbing salt into Number 6’s wound!
    The meeting between the two Number 6’s in ‘The Schizoid Man.’ And later when Number 6 attempts to escape The Village in the guise of Curtis.
    At the beginning of ‘The General when Number 6 asks the waiter for another coffee. But the cafe is about to close, and Number 6 doesn’t seem to have any idea who either the General, or the Professor are!
    The moment when Number 6 brings down the walking stick onto what appears to be the Professor’s head.
    At the art seminar, when Madam Professor is explaining about what her art students are doing. Number 6 presents her with his drawing, of her in a General’s uniform, which is hardly flattering!
    The time when Number 6 having returned to London, and finds himself alone in the study of what was once his home. Unsure of his surroundings he then looks for reassurances.
    In Many Happy Returns’ when Number 6 is trying to convince both the Colonel and Thorpe of his story about there being a Village.
    When Number 6 is faced by Mrs. Butterworth, who reveals herself as Number 2 at the end of ‘Many Happy Returns.’
    In ‘Dance of the Dead,’ Number 6 is in his bathroom having a shave, there’s a camera hidden behind the mirror, demonstrating that there is no privacy anywhere in The Village! And when Number 6’s breakfast is being brought to him, by a maid riding on a trailer being towed by a garden tractor, the breakfast will be stone cold by the time it arrives!
    When the Prisoner encounters Cobb in the hospital.
    Number 6’s meeting with another ex-colleague Roland Walter Dutton.
    The time when a window box is forced on Number 6. But suppose he doesn’t like flowers? But everyone has flowers for Carnival!
        The time when Number 2 and Number 240 discover Number 6 listening to a transistor radio on the Outlook.
    When Number 2 is listening to a radio message in ‘Dance of The Dead,’ the voice coming from the radio sounds like that of Eric Portman, Number 2 of ‘Free For All.’
       When in ‘Dance of the Dead’ the teleprinter whirrs back into life.
   Number 2 jumps the gun in ‘Once Upon A Time’ by asking Number 6 why he resigned, when he had only just graduated from school.

    In ‘Checkmate’ Number 6 wants a word with a gardener, then asks a painter if he painted a wall he was painting! Then later when Number 8 is wheeled into the observation room Number 2 asks the doctor “What’s this?”
   Just as Number 6 is casting off his raft in ‘Many Happy Returns’ he hears the sound of something breaking. At that moment hope is taken away from him.
   When Number 6 sees it’s only the cat, hope is suddenly returned to him!
   ‘Hammer Into Anvil’ sees Number 6 go into the General Store to buy a little notebook, and listen to three copies of the Davier recording of L’arlesienne.
   Having escaped The Village in ‘Many Happy Returns,’ and from the grip of the gun runners, Number 6 finds himself washed up in the shore at Beachy Head. His next encounter with anyone, is a group of gypsies. A young woman gives Number 6 a cup of tea or broth. It is the first genuine act of kindness shown to him since his abduction to The Village!
    ‘Hammer Into Anvil’ sees Number 2 suffering a breakdown in control, and has to report himself as thus!
    When the inner wall of the cave revolves to reveal a single steel door to a cave in ‘Free For All.’ Then the two motor mechanics taking out their revenge on Number 6 in the cave.
   In the Council Chamber when Number 6 is permitted to question the members of the local Town Council during the election.
    Number 6 has two calls to make, one in town, the other in the country, and Mrs. Butterworth is kind enough to lend him his own car, so as to make it easier for him to get about. Seeing Number 6 behind the wheel of his car again, enjoying the freedom of the open road.
   ‘Dance of The Dead’ sees Number 6 donning a white coat and spectacles as he makes a reconnaissance of the Town Hall. In a very elaborately decorated room there is a screen, and noise is coming from the other side of the screen. Number 6 steps forward and whips away the screen to reveal, not Number 1, but a teleprinter!
    When Number 6 learns from Number 14 in ‘Checkmate’ how to distinguish between the warders and the prisoners.
   Number 6, having apparently escaped The Village in ‘Checkmate,’ standing in the wheelhouse of a motor cruiser, comes face to face with Number 2 on a television screen. Apparently there had been a slight misunderstanding!
    At the end of ‘It’s Your Funeral’ when the new Number 2 looks up to the sky to see the helicopter turn back towards The Village.
    Number 6 tearing up the questionnaire and using it for confetti when faced with the committee in ‘A Change of Mind.’  
    In ‘Arrival’ when Number 6 storms into Number 2’s office demanding to see him. But he is faced with a new Number 2 who has taken his place.
    Number 6 trying to escape in the helicopter, in a demonstration that escape is not possible.
   Cobb being able to leave The Village, not wanting to keep his new masters waiting!
    The taxi ride in ‘Arrival,’ for The Prisoner to end up where he started, seeing as it’s only the local taxi service.
    The taxi arriving just at the moment the Prisoner is about to press the number 1 button on the panel of the electronic Free Information board.

   Of course the above is in no particular order, it’s more of a ramshackle order if truth be told, written as I thought of them more or less, having given no thought to any chronological order whatsoever. I’m sure you the reader will be able to draw up your own 50 first-rate scenes, or greatest moments in ‘the Prisoner.’

Be seeing you

Bureau of Visual Records

   It’s difficult to see this Village Fire Station in ‘The Prisoner.’ You can just make out the top of the doors to this annex of the Town Hall in ‘Arrival,’ when Number 2 and the Prisoner are being driven up the hill into The Village, just before the taxi comes to a stop outside the Town Hall. 
   The Village must have a fire engine {after all there is a Village hearse Mini-Moke with its black and white striped canopy, even if isn’t visible at Cobb’s funeral, and not forgetting the Bomb Disposal team} and this is where it’s kept. That in turns makes me wonder what The Village fire engine might look like. Something like this perhaps……………

………………. but imagining the above fire engine in Village livery, perhaps towing behind it a water bowser for the hoses to be connected to.

Be seeing you

Village Life!

   What was it Number 6 said “That’s the trouble, I can’t find anything at all!” That was during one of Madam Professor’s art seminars when she asked him if she could help him, thinking he was finding things a bit strange. Why Number 6 couldn’t find anything at all wasn’t for the lack of trying, after all a few moments later he was snooping about in Madam Professor’s house. And that’s the thing about Number 6, when he’s not trying to escape, he’s poking his nose into business which does not concern him. Mind you he had his nose rubbed in it when that announcement was made about a great new painting competition, the subject that time being seascapes. That was after Number 6 had realized his escape plan had failed!
    It makes me wonder, if Number 6 had not involved himself with the General, would the educational experiment of Speedlearn not have gone on to be a successful experiment. But as it is, when that experiment came to an abrupt halt, did any of the students realize? If so what might their reaction have been, if any?

Be seeing you

It’s Dreamy!

    Dreams. Are all the events and acting meant to be real, or are they the dreams of a paranoid ex secret agent? The dream theory adopted is that all the action of the series takes place in the mind of the Prisoner, but then he would have to be insane, wouldn’t he? Or perhaps it’s a self persecution complex or maybe an anguish pattern as suggested by the doctor number 14 in ‘A B and C.’

   If ‘the Prisoner’ is all in the mind of Number 6, then he could use this to subconsciously work out his conflict. In this interpretation each Number 2 would be a facet of his own personality. And all the other symbols, the penny farthing bicycle, the Butler, Rover and such like would be metaphors of his own unconscious mind, symbols which he couldn’t express in his waking life. There is evidence for supporting this dream theory, for during the opening sequence to each episode, save for ‘Living In Harmony’ and ‘Fall Out’ the Prisoner passes out in the confines of his own home only to wake up in the confines of The Village! If this is the case then the location of The Village is easily found, it lies somewhere in the mind of the Prisoner, which would explain the sequences becoming more and more bizarre, but would at the same time defeat the main theme of one man versus society and does unnecessarily complicate things. I mean are we to believe that in ‘A B and C’ Number 6 was dreaming about his dreams?

    However if you take things quite literally, then the Prisoner has been rendered unconscious by the use of nerve gas, hasn’t he? He then wakes up again in what at first appears to be his own home, but within the confines of The Village. So if the Prisoner is awake, then what we see is the Prisoner’s imagination, what is taking place in his subconscious. For someone to carry all ‘the Prisoner’ around in his head all the time, well he’d have to be mad!

Be seeing you

Are You English?

   The language spoken by Number 58 was made up by Rachel Herbert herself. It seems like complete gibberish, yet has a basis on the sound of "Yugoslavian" as the country was then. Her brother at that time had a girlfriend who came from Yugoslavia, who helped her make the language up as spoken by Number 58.

   It might be reasonable for Number 2 to know the language spoken by Number 58, and so to speak it himself, as they appear to come from the same homeland. However it’s inexplicable how Number 6 is able to speak a phrase of the language! As for Number 2 and Number 6 speaking to Number 58 in English, perhaps its not so unreasonable for her to pick up a smattering of English, after all The Village might well be International, but the prime language spoken is English. What’s more all the Village signage is in English, not French, Polish or Czech. So really for anyone brought to The Village who cannot speak just a little English, and cannot read English, there’s very little hope for them to understand The Village or its community at all!
   But of course its all a game, and Number 58 played her part, as she is a complete deception, as when Number 2 she speaks perfect English, and without a hint of an accent!

    Its would appear Number 6 isn’t very happy with Number 58, he appears he wanted to get rid of her because she didn’t speak English, because he was having a job getting her to understand him. However it could also be that it had more to do with the fact that he was annoyed by her, that she wouldn’t go away. Well precisely, and that’s why Number 2 chose her for Number 6, because of 6’s prejudices in regard to the regular drivers. Number 2 thought she was delightfully charming. As there shouldn’t be any scenes in which Number 58 understood what either of them told her {as I say in a community that has English as it dominant language} its hardly surprising that she picked up a little English. Even though she was new in The Village!

Be seeing you

The Maid of Kent

   This is the Maid of Kent, one of the British Rail ferries which crossed the English Channel between Dover and Boulogne. She is seen in ‘the Prisoner’ episode ‘Do Not Forsake Me Oh My Darling’ when ZM73, but in the guise of the Colonel, takes the ferry over to France.

Built in 1955 by William Denny & Bros

Gross tonnage 3,920 tons
Accommodation for 1000 passengers

Space on the car deck for 190 cars
    She served as a ferry until 1981, until she was laid up at Newhaven, then scrapped and broken up in 1982 at San Esteban de Pravia, Spain.

Here is a link to film footage shot at Dover featuring the Maid of Kent in 1960.

 https://youtu.be/gUltbk8HWZY

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New Masters!

   Almost the last thing Cobb said to Number 2 was that he mustn’t keep his new masters waiting, what new master might they be?

   It is written that the inspiration behind the writing of ‘Free For All,’ Patrick McGoohan’s first script of ‘the Prisoner’ series, would seem to have been the General Election held in Great Britain on the 31^st of March 1966 which resulted in a win for Harold Wilson and the Labour Party. There might have been a change in Government, but not a change in the Civil Service who served the Government in office at that the time. Meaning that members of the Civil Service had to put their own political opinions to one side, and be one hundred percent loyal to whichever Government was in power at the time, whether it was the Conservative or Labour Party.

   I think we can assume that Cobb is a Civil Servant for the British Government, and it could have been that when he had been brought to The Village it was the Conservatives who were the government of the day {that would have been before the 1964 General Election in October of that year and puts Cobb in The Village for 17 months} and there he is, about to leave The Village but with a Labour government of the day. His new masters whom he must serve equally and as loyally as he had the Conservatives.
   So how did Cobb know there had been a change in government if he had been a prisoner in The Village for 17 months? We assume The Village is a British government installation, and would receive news and possibly orders and instructions from their masters outside of The Village, as does happen from time to time during the series. Even if there is no direct telephone link, they could receive news and official documents in a diplomatic bag brought to The Village, transferred from boat and flown in by helicopter. That in turn would make the people in administration in The Village British civil servants, and they would, from time to time, need to know who the government of the day was, and who the Prime Minister. As a change in either could have an effect on The Village, in regard to funding, the running of, nay, its very existence!
   Finally we can bring this question of “new masters” closer to home in The Village. Whenever there is a new Number 2 to take up office, his or her administration pays equal and unquestioning loyalty to the Number 2 of the day, as much as they did Number 2’s predecessor, and as they will to 2’s successor.

Be seeing you

Living In Harmony!

   Interesting said Number 8, that Number 6 could separate fact from fantasy so quickly. Number 2 told Number 8 that Number 6 was different, he knew it wouldn’t work. Fill him with hallucinatory drugs, put him in a dangerous environment, talk to him through microphones. It’s always worked Number 8 protested, and it would have worked if Number 2 hadn’t…..but it didn’t work did it? Give him love, take it away, isolate him, make him kill {where have I heard that before} then face him with death he’ll crack. Break him, even in his mind and the rest will be easy, but he didn’t crack, and it wasn’t easy! It would have worked, if Number 2 had kept his head and not created the crisis too soon, was Number 8’s response.
   So in short the experiment hasn’t worked, but according to Number 8 is has always worked, and that would suggest that Number 8 and Number 2, not this particular Number 2, have carried out this experiment before with other prisoners, although perhaps not this same given scenario. Perhaps one set in seventeenth century France involving the King’s Musketeers might be one idea. How many times this experiment has been carried out on other prisoners is clearly impossible to say, but seeing as this technique always worked, would suggest that Number 8 had enjoyed a 100% success rate. Perhaps that is why he finds it difficult to accept this failure! And yet having said that, to have a previous 100% success rate using this technique used in ‘Living In Harmony,’ must surely bring into question the type of calibre of prisoner Number 8 was previously dealing with, mustn’t it?

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Exhibition of Arts And Crafts

                      “The face At The Window!”

BcNu