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