Thought For The Day

   Why the termination order against Number 42, that of Roland Walter Dutton? He was unimportant, even expendable, but he was a prisoner, an inmate, a citizen of The Village. What’s more he had given up all the information he had, there was no need for the doctor-Number 40 to go as far as he had with Dutton. But that termination order, it must have been issued by Number 1, and if not, perhaps it came over that teleprinter! Why the need to have Dutton out of the way?
    When they were in the mortuary together, Number 6 didn’t hand that termination order to Number 2 he dropped the envelope on a shelf below the two large drawers. He didn’t even tell her about it, perhaps thinking that the least said soonest mended. If Number 2 doesn’t know about the termination order she couldn’t have it carried out. But no matter what, one would have expected Number 2 to ask him about the envelope he had in his hand, and want to see what it was. As it is the termination order appears to be of little importance after Number 6 has read it, and the television viewer has seen it on the screen. As for Roland Walter Dutton, the order came too late anyway. Seeing as he was already in a state of living death!

Be seeing you

A Proclamation!

    “A proclamation. All citizens take notice that Carnival is decreed for tonight. Turn back the clock. There will be music, dancing, happiness all at the Carnival….by order!”

    After the above proclamation has been read out by the Town Crier, watch the crowd scene next time you watch ‘Dance of The Dead.’ Amid the citizens wearing fancy dress costume there are citizens in plain ordinary Village attire, that’s in close-up, perhaps they are not in “the party mood!” However in long shot the citizens in Village attire are no longer there {except for the member of the Brass band} perhaps they suddenly decided to return to their homes in order to put on fancy dress costumes!

Be seeing you

No.48 – Uncoordinated Youth!

   It would seem that Number 48 had seen the errors of his ways, he had seen the light, and wanted no more to do with The Village, because he was with them, but then he went and gone. Perhaps he was a Top Hat official of administration, the Top Hat 48 wears is suggestive of that.
   But perhaps, as a friend of mine suggested,  maybe after seeing the light he just refused to change. Himself and his clothes.. Also, we do not know for how long he had been held in custody. And that’s reasonable enough, and we don’t know how long Number 48 had been in The Village. I did once think that Number 48 was the former Number 8. I know Number 8 possibly died at the end of ‘Living In Harmony,’ and he probably did, but they could have resuscitated him in the same way they resuscitated Number 2. After which Number 2 had seen the light, that he wouldn’t be hypnotized by Number 1 any longer, that if he were to die he would die with his own mind. That might be the same reason for Number 48!

Be seeing you

The Pri50ner

    It had never occurred to me before, but the summary of ‘Once Upon A Time’ at the outset of ‘Fall Out seems extraordinarily long at 3 minutes and 30 seconds. Indeed I am in agreement with music and film editor Eric Mival, in that it was an unusually long summary of ‘Once Upon A Time.’ Generally such a summary is a few seconds only, about 30 seconds. However seeing ‘Once Upon A Time’ was originally first screened on Scottish television {part of ITV’s television regional network at that time} on January 1^st, and ‘Fall Out,’ for some television viewers here in Britain, wouldn’t be finally screened by Granada on March 1^st one month later, perhaps they thought that was too long a gap, and viewers of ‘the Prisoner’ might have forgotten ‘Once Upon A time’ by that time and thereby needed to be reminded. But film editors Noreen Ackland and Eric Boyd-Perkins wouldn’t have known at the time that it would be a month before Granada, part ITV’s regional network, would screen ‘Fall Out.’ So was Patrick McGoohan and David Tomblin simply playing for time by the addition of that three and a half minute summary, in order to eek out the final episode? 

Be seeing you

Exhibition of Arts And Crafts

                              “Extraordinary!”

BCNU

Caught On Camera!

    No doubt someone might be able to identify the rifle hidden in Potter’s cricket bag, the dismantled rifle hidden in the bag, I think is a Belgium rifle – the 7.62 NATO calibre FN-FAL semi-automatic, with the addition of a telescopic sight, although I could be wrong. Don’t tell me Potter was licensed to kill, a 00 number?! That seems highly unlikely! Who was he going to shoot with it anyway, the Girl? Even if he was, by the time he’d managed to assemble the rifle the Girl would be miles away! No, more likely the rifle was the Colonel’s, after all the cricket bag belongs to Colonel Hawke-English, and Potter was just looking after it. After all Potter wasn’t there to play cricket, he was supposed to be watching the Colonel’s back. But instead he used the pair of binoculars to keep an eye on the crowd, and a very attractive girl with very shapely legs. Mind you had he kept a much closer eye on her then Potter would have been able to save the Colonel’s life, and possibly apprehend the Girl into the bargain. But let us not forget its Potter I’m writing about here, and because he took his eye off the ball, the Colonel was blown to smithereens at the crease {that stopped play} one run short of his century. And Potter, he was put out in the cold working as a shoeshine boy in the street, and contact man for ZM73.
    Footnote: The same actor, Christopher  Benjamin also played Potter in the ‘Danger Man episode ‘Koroshi,’ and as it happened he met Drake in a record shop. I like to think that fictionally the two characters are the same, although Christopher Benjamin always said that was not the case, the two characters being totally different. But then what about Potter in ‘Do Not Forsake Me Oh My Darling,’ that’s not Potter from ‘The Girl Who Was Death’ played by Christopher Benjamin, nor is it the same character, but played by a different actor Frederick Abbott. It’s the name you see, Potter, unless it’s a very common name, or code name used by underlings within British intelligence!

Be seeing you

The Therapy Zone

   If the Prisoner is anything, he Is nothing but.........adaptable! Number 6 eventually adapts to life in The Village, well at least he stops attempting to escape that’s something, having realised that there is no escape! Look at the way he prevented a purge of The Village, stopped Number 2 from possessing citizen’s minds. And the way he quickly adapts to the situation he finds himself in ‘Do Not Forsake Me Oh My Darling,’ it must be due to his training I expect! Had it been anyone else they would have gone running off into the sunset, screaming their head off once they’d seen themselves in that mirror, and panic had set in! And in ‘Living In Harmony,’ the Prisoner suddenly finds himself handing in both his badge and gun to a Marshall in the American 1800's! In any given situation the Prisoner finds himself in, he simply accepts it and just gets on with it. As he did when he woke up one morning to find that he is someone else ‘The Schizoid Man.’ I'm not so sure that the everyday common man or woman would take things quite as easy as the Prisoner, or resolve any situation as easily as Number 6 does. But then we’re not dealing with real life here, but a set of fictitious circumstances, and as we know anything is possible in fiction. One rule being, the hero must survive either intact or otherwise, but he must survive.

Be seeing you

What's That No.6 Up To?

   “Up periscope!” Don’t tell me that Number 6 is onboard a submarine now! I cannot help wonder what it is he sees when he looks into that periscope? More than that, why is there a periscope in the projection room in the first place? And when Number 6 impersonates the Projectionist, how does he know that he’s supposed to be seated looking through the periscope? Perhaps he’s simply using it to help disguise himself, but Number 2 soon saw through that, thanks to Number 6’s injured arm!
   As for the Projectionist he sat looking through the periscope throughout the transmission of the Professor’s lecture, why? What is the purpose of the periscope during this educational experiment? What’s he looking at? What can he see? 

Be seeing you

An Overweening Sense Of Self-Importance!

   The Village, what about The Village? Well one theory is that The Village is there simply for the benefit of Number 6, and everyone in it is there for his convenience. And for me this theory appears to work, well its as good as any other. If what takes place is all created in the Prisoner's mind, the whole structure of The Village as well as all the citizens, then for sure he is Number 1! What’s more he is free to do with The Village, to bring people there, and thereby free to do with its people as he sees fit. But surely as Number 2 said in ‘Dance of The Dead,’ if he insists on living a dream he may be taken for mad. Number 6 tells her that he likes his dream, then he is mad! Certainly Number 1 seems to be completely off his head when Number 6 finally gets to see him. However going back a step, in Once Upon A Time Number 6 shouts at Number 2 "In my mind, in my mind you're smart!" That's perhaps because if one follows this "all in the mind" theory, Number 6 created Number 2 in his own mind, and made him smart! And if it's all in Number 6's mind, he should always be one step ahead. More than that he’s made himself far too important, even seen to have a future with The Village, its no wonder no real harm befalls him. And it's no wonder that Number 6 plays a fine game seeing as he makes up all the rules!

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60 Second Interview With The Supervisor-No.26

    No.113 “Have you got a moment?”
    “If I had a moment do you think I’d waste it talking to the likes of you?”
    “You don’t know me!”
    “I know you. You’re Number One-one-three a newspaper reporter, and he’s your photographic colleague Number One-one-three b.”

    “We contribute to The Tally Ho.”
    “Yes I know. What do you want?”
    “You are the Supervisor.”
    “I’m one of the Supervisors yes.”
    “You work in the Control Room.”
    No.113b “Smile” {Click goes the camera}
    “The Control room is my sanctum, you’re the boss there.”
    “If you like.”
    “Certainly you are in a far better position that Number Two.”
    “How do you work that out?”
    “Well you lost your position only once.”
    “How do you know about that?”
    “Word gets about, this is a small village you know.”
    “It was merely a slight administrative error.”
    “Really, sounded more like you having been given the sack.”
    “That was due to a temporary breakdown in control. Soon after which I was reinstated to my rightful position.”
    “Smile” {click goes the camera}
    “Precisely my point.”
    “I don’t see it.”
    “Well how long does any Number Two last in the job, three days, a week, a month, six weeks? But you, and Supervisors like you are part of the woodwork.”
    “Nice of you to say so.”
    “Rumour has it you once spoke to Number One.”
    “Well it was only for a second or two.”
    “What is he like?”
    “Well it’s difficult to say really, but it was his voice........”
    “His voice, what about his voice?”
    “He sounded like Number Six!”

Reporter No.113
Photographer No.113b

Exhibition of Arts And Crafts

                 “The Prisoner In Abstract!”

BcNu

A Favourite Scene

   In ‘Hammer Into Anvil, when Number 2 is questioning the behaviour of Number 6, after playing a recording of a telephone conversation between Number 249 and Number 6.
   Number 2 “Perhaps you’d explain.”
   Number 249 “I can’t, I’m as much in the dark as you are.”
   “Are you? You don’t know who it was who telephoned you?”
   “No.”
   “It was Number Six.”
   Number 2 goes on to demonstrate at great length that it was the voice of Number 6, using an oscilloscope. Voices are apparently like fingerprints, no two are the same. Even if the voice is disguised the pattern doesn’t change. Number 2 goes on to show the psychiatrist the voice pattern of his telephone caller. And then the voice pattern of the single word “you” taken from a routine interview with Number 6. This is put on the wall screen, and the tape of the doctor’s caller is run again. If the word “you” is identical to the other on the screen the patterns will lock.
   So it was Number 6 who telephoned Number 249 head of Psychiatrics, who still pleads his innocence who hasn’t the faintest idea. And at this time he isn’t preparing a report on Number 2’s mental health, well not at the moment he isn’t. I’m not so sure about afterwards! And Number 6 didn’t see the doctor later, so why did he ring him? The doctor has already told Number 2 he doesn’t know.
   Number 249 being a psychiatrist, so would he say that Number 6 was mad? Well not according to their records. So Number 6 must have had a reason for telephoning him, didn’t he, what was it?
   “Why don’t you ask him?”
   “Would you like to sit in this chair?”
   “I was merely suggesting…….”

   “Don’t tell me what to do!”
   I love those two lines, Number 2 goes right off the rails when the doctor makes his suggestion that he should ask Number 6, then he calms down and tells the doctor he can go.
   This isn’t the last time Number 2 will go off the rails, he does it in the Control Room when he replaces Number 26 as Supervisor, and even more so when he accuses Number 14 of being a traitor. I like to think that after his mental breakdown, and Number 6 having forced Number 2 to report his own breakdown in control to Number 1, that he then falls into the hands of the psychiatrist, and ends up on the hospitals psychiatric ward weaving wicker baskets!

Be seeing you

Bureau of Visual Records

    I wonder if that wall safe had been incorporated into the replica of the study in Number 6’s cottage? I bet it wasn’t, not if no-one knew it was there. And yet they might have done if a detailed examination of the room had been made in readiness for the replica room to be made. Measurements would have had to be taken, a close study of everything in the room. Surely they wouldn’t have missed the safe. And seeing as the safe was there, set in the wall behind the television set, ZM73 should have put the receipt for that roll of film in the safe instead of leaving it for safe keeping with Janet Portland. It might have been a lot safer there than it was in Miss Portland’s supposed safe keeping! Well how else would Mister Carmichael get his hands on those transparencies without the receipt?
    On another subject, I wonder what that model of the aircraft is? I’m attempting to identify it, but thus far with no success! It’s a pity one cannot read what’s on the silver plaque!

Be seeing you

Thought For The Day

    “Fancy living In Harmony stranger?” That’s a reference to the episode ‘Living In Harmony,’ but it’s what the committee, and the citizens wanted Number 6 to do in ‘A change of Mind.’ The citizens of The Village are sheep, and Number 6 a goat. When a goat comes amid sheep things generally happen, meaning there’s always trouble. Number 6 was brought before the committee for seemingly to attack two citizens in the woods, but that was a set up. All Number 6 was doing was to mind his own business. And yet having his own private gymnasium in the woods, preferring that to the gym in the Recreation Hall, could itself be seen as anti-social.
   Number 6 doesn’t want to live in harmony, he’s posted as being unmutual, and so the citizens will have anything to do with him. Because they are socially conscious citizen’s and are provoked by the loathsome presence of an unmutual! The citizens are misguided and manipulated sheep! As soon as they are fooled into thinking that Number 6 has undergone the operation known as Instant Social Conversion they welcome him back into the fold.
    Living in harmony that’s not for Number 6, he’s unconventional, an eccentric, and should probably be living in that cave just outside The Village, once called The Therapy Zone. He could have become the “Wiseman,” citizens looking for help would go to him, and he would offer words of advice. And in exchange they would bring him food to sustain himself. I can see him now, with long matted hair and long beard, wearing his dirty, tatty threadbare piped blazer. Would Number 2 have allowed Number 6 to live the life of a hermit? Perhaps, had Number 6 told them what they wanted to know. But Number 6 is wiser than that, if he had told them what they wanted to know, he might not have been of any further importance, and thereby no longer the centre of attention!

Be seeing you

What’s That No.6 Up To?

    Helicopter pilot “What’s going on down there?”
    No.6 “Nothing, everything is under control. Look can’t you plug that leak?”
    Mechanic “I’m doing my best, You have a go if you think you can do any better!”
    2^nd mechanic “The engine’s sprung an oil leak, pressure’s dropping!”
    No.6 “I thought you said the boat was ready.”
    Mechanic “It is, this is the other boat!”
    It looks like Number 6’s attempt to break the water speed record is set to fail! But at least the support helicopter is on hand to pick up Number 6 and his boat crew, so no need to deploy any of those white buoyancy buoys!

Be seeing you

Escape!

    Number 9 didn’t want to escape with Number 6, because she never intended to escape, not without Cobb. So she gave the Electro Pass to Number 6 to use, knowing full well that it would get him into the helicopter but after that........ Number 6 was suspicious of Number 9, he wanted to know who had given her the Electro Pass, he suggested that it was her boss Number 2. He said he saw her leave the Green Dome. He did nothing of the kind, he saw he go in, he never saw her leave. Number 9 told Number 6 that she got the Electro Pass from the helicopter pilot, suggesting that she did more than know him, the one and only suggestion of sex taking place in The Village! But did she? I used to take her story as being the truth, that she had intended to escape The Village with Cobb, that she used her womanly wiles to get the Electro Pass from the helicopter pilot. This was because I felt sure Number 9 hated the job she was doing, if she betrayed Number 6, then she betrayed Cobb in the end, and how many more before that? You can see that she detests, even hates the work she does, its written all over her face as the new Number 2 gives her, her next assignment, that of Number 6.
   I wonder why Cobb suggested to Number 2 not to be too hard on the girl, meaning Number 9, what had she done wrong? Number 2 told Cobb not to worry as she would be well taken care of, why? After all Number 9 had done everything expected of her in connection with Number 6, her part simply to get close to Number 6 and give him the Electro Pass which she did. Perhaps her mistake was to plan an escape with Cobb, maybe that part of her story had been true. But Cobb had been turned, and was free to leave The Village, after all he mustn’t keep his new masters waiting. And Number 9, what of her, certainly we do not see her again, so perhaps Number 2 did see to it that she was well taken care of...... what’s more the Number 9 is not reissued!

Be seeing you

Exhibition of Arts And Crafts

                          “Electrifying!”

BcNu

Caught On Camera!

    “When the weather if fine you know it’s a sign, for messing about on the river,” well in the Free Sea in this case!

    Just a minute! That chap wearing the beige hat and striped jersey, wasn’t he attacked by the Guardian? He soon recovered after such a nasty experience, seeing as this frame of surveillance film was a few moments later, after the young man had been attacked!
   He and his chum are in the deep end messing about with a dinghy, just as the Admiral and Number 1 {his first officer} are messing about with two plastic boat at the shallow end of the Free Sea.
   Of course the truth of the matter is there was some terrible film editing carried out on ‘the Prisoner,’ and this is one of them. There the young man is messing about with a boat moments before he suddenly started running and turning about, prior to being attacked by the Guardian, but edited here into the film before that attack happened, yet after it had taken place! And in the next long shot the man in the boat can be seen, but not the young man in the beige hat and striped jersey. A case of now you see him, now you don’t, and perhaps no-one will notice!

Be seeing you

A Familiar Scene!

    I’m back!
    I can see that. For good this time, or are you going to disappear again as soon as you leave this office?
    Not if I can help it!
    So how was it D Six?
    It was no picnic I can tell you that much!  Upon my arrival in The Village I was offered breakfast twice.
    Sounds nice and friendly.
    Number Two was a charming man, the Village picturesque. I tested their security by attempting to escape twice in two days. I attempted a third escape with the help of an Estonian woman Nadia Rakovsky….
    Cementing Anglo Soviet relations eh D Six?
    Not quite like that, no. By the way both the Colonel and Fotheringay are traitors. They are in the pay of MI19.
    Yes we know, they have been replaced by the Colonel and Thorpe, but you’ll remember them.
    Vividly!
    I then had the opportunity to run for public office, and was elected the new Number Two. During the election I attempted another escape, and failed.
   Who is this Number Two you keep talking about?

    He or she is Chairman of The Village.
   Go on.

   Then one morning I woke up to find I was completely alone in The Village!
    Don’t tell me, everyone had escaped but you!
    I don’t know.
    So you made good your escape, managing to return to London, but then disappeared again. What then?
    I attempted an escape with the help of other prisoners.
    What happened?
    I was betrayed!
    It seems you spent a good deal of your time trying to escape!
    I was betrayed more often than not, and it all started with you!
    Don’t be like that Drake. How did you leave The Village?
    On the back of a lorry, The Village deserted! Just a minute…..you shouldn’t even be here! Where’s Danvers?
    Who?
    Jonathan Peregrine Danvers.
    Oh him!
    When I came back here once before………………

    You must have stumbled into the wrong office.
    Danvers’ office is the box room just along the corridor!

    As pompous as ever aren’t we! This room is hardly the height of luxury.
    I do the best I can with the resources at my disposal.

    I’ve had enough of this……I resign!
    But you have already resigned, and I’ve the signed letter to prove it. My mistake was not getting you to tell me the reason why in the first place. That’s why you were put in The Village in the second place!

   {D Six turns and storms out of the office}
   Come back D Six, where do you think you’re going?
   Just done it!
   {The man sat behind the desk picks up the receiver of the pink telephone}
   XO four here, D Six loves The Village so much…..put him back in it!

Be seeing you

The Therapy Zone

   ‘The Schizoid Man,’ forget the fact that Number 6 and Alison share a mental link, that Number 6 cannot shoot right-handed, or fence for that matter. It doesn’t matter that both men appear to share the same fingerprints or that Number 6 doesn’t have a mole on his left wrist. It hasn’t even got anything to do with the fact that both men wear different piped blazers. What this episode boils down to is two photographs! Because if it wasn’t for that Polaroid photograph Alison took of Number 6, he wouldn’t have discovered the fact of his bruised fingernail, and how much the bruise had moved up the nail from the time Alison knocked over that soda siphon! That together with the photograph of Susan, Curtis kept in his wallet. Yes Number 2 did have nagging doubts about Curtis towards the end, but if it wasn’t for that photograph Number 6 wouldn’t have had any idea about Susan. Of course even without that photograph Number 2 might still have brought up the subject of Susan seeing he had doubts about Curtis, as he might not have known about the photograph anyway. But at least with the photograph Number 6 knew of Susan, even if there was no-way he could have known she had died a year ago.

Be seeing you

The Guardians!

    The atmosphere here is very different to what it was elsewhere. Such is the line Number 6 fed the pair of guardians who approached him on the evening in ‘The Schizoid Man.’ The phrase sounds very much like it deserved an apt reply, a sort of recognition phrase spies and secret agents might use.
    So what were a pair of guardians doing out and about The Village at that time of night? We know what Number 6 was doing, he was on his way to 6 Private in order to confront his look-a-like. It might be that the two guardians were there on hand to prevent Number 6 from reaching his cottage. And when they asked Number 6 for the password, and Number 6 gave them Gemini, it was the right because it was the only password he knew, but to the guardians it was the wrong password because to them Schizoid Man was the right password. And of course having received the wrong password it was their duty to restrain Number 6, but them and whose army? A fight ensues and once again Number 6 proves that good old fashioned brute force can be very effective, and that Number 2 needs to choose better men for the job. But as well as using brute force, Number 6 soon discovers another way, a more subtle way of dealing with another kind of Guardian when he sees it guarding ‘6 private’ like a guard dog, he throws a stick for it to chase. But in this instance exchange a stick for a Mini-Moke, and it would appear that there is a limit to any intelligence the Guardian might have. Perhaps that is why it attacked Number 6, it didn’t matter which Number 6, it only needed to take its revenge on one who had made a fool out of it!

Be seeing you

How's The Professor?

    “I've given him some sedation” the doctor is heard to reply. Well either the doctor is a blithering idiot....or he's simply following orders, probably the latter. Because that's not the Professor lying in that bed. It might look like the Professor, but it isn't, and what's more the doctor knows it, but still he and his nurse go through the motions of looking after the Professor's well being.
    Why does Madam Professor look so shocked, unless its simply for those who are watching. That’s you and I! Number 6 is about to bring down that walking stick onto the Professor's head. But surely Madam Professor must know that that's not her husband lying in the bed! So why was it that Madam Professor screamed out the way she did? Was it for the thought of harm coming to her husband the Professor? Or was it that her “masterpiece” was about to be ruined? Was ruined, in fact.
     Then there was the puzzled look on Madam Professor's face, as though she didn't understand what was happening, as Number 6 passed a piece of her husband’s face to her. Her husband gone to pieces, and Number 6 making a mess of her masterpiece. And it was a masterpiece, No.2 had said as much to her. The Professor's head made out of wax, and Madam Professor surely must have been the creator of it. So why feign her reaction as though she had no idea of what was going on? This is one of those situations in the Prisoner when the viewer isn't sure what's going on. But in this case, I'm not sure that certain characters do either! 

Be seeing you

Bureau of Visual Records

    Number 12 encounters Number 30 something, its difficult to make out her number, after leaving his cottage. They have never met before although the young woman implies that they have.
   I wonder if the elderly gentleman in the wheelchair might be her father? But on second glance, is the man in the wheelchair wearing a scarf normally worn by Number 2? The scarf is certainly suggestive of that. Also he’s wearing a pink blazer with black piping, the only other citizens to do that are Number’s 13, 113b, 113c, and Number 100. What’s more the face behind that tinted visor has the look of Number 2 of ‘A Change of Mind,’ only it’s not him of that I’m sure.  And the way that yachting cap is perched on his head like that, well if the tinted visor doesn’t make him look stupid, then the cap is the icing on the cake, and does!
    So perhaps her father in the wheelchair is a former Number 2, and the young woman his daughter whose duty is now to look after him. Why is he allowed then to wear the scarf? Perhaps being a former Number 2 they have, for whatever reason, allowed him to retain his rank, like the General in ‘The Chimes of Big Ben,’ but without the authoritative power which goes with the number!
    Why anyone, and I include Number 51 the watchmaker in this, would bring their daughter to The Village is beyond me, unless young women like Number 30 something and 50 were born in The Village, their mothers having died. And in turn that would suggest they either came to The Village as a family, or had lived there for so long they became a family! This is of course pure speculation. The young woman might not be related to the man in the wheelchair at all, but a visitor to the Old People’s Home, or a care worker who takes senior citizens out and about The Village occasionally. But he could still be a former Number 2!

Be seeing you

A Familiar Scene?

     Ah there you are Drake. I’ve a little job for you.

    What is it this time?
    I want you to infiltrate The Village!
    The what?
    The Village.
    What like Colony Three?
    Yes something like that.
    Where is this Village?
    We don’t know, MI19 guard it very carefully.
    Its gong to be a bit difficult for me to infiltrate it then, isn’t it?
    Not really, all you have to do is resign!
    From what?
    Your job.
    You can hand in your resignation now if you like, I’ve written the letter, all you have to do is sign it.
    Then what?
    Go home and wait, relax, think of going on holiday somewhere, you could do with a fortnights leave.
    Just go home and wait?

    Yes, someone will be along soon to undertake the task in hand.
    Can I talk to the Colonel?
    No there simply isn’t time.
    I’m supposed to be going to my fiancée’s birthday party.
    Then Miss Portland is going to be disappointed.
    Does Sir Charles know about this?
    What tell the head of MI19 what MI9 is doing, use your intelligence Drake. Now go home.

Be seeing you

Citizen 51

    Number 51 is a watchmaker and it’s quite possible that that is precisely why he was brought to The Village. For that reason and that reason alone. Possibly he went to The Village of his own free will. However by the time he found out what it was like, there was no leaving The Village, he had effectively become a prisoner, without having had committed a crime. Judging by his accent it’s possible that he was either Austrian, or of Swiss nationality, and may have at one time been employed by a watch making company in Switzerland. He might well have carried out the work on that wristwatch in ‘Arrival,’ the Electro Pass!

   Number 50 {Monique} is his daughter, but she does not have the same accent as her father, so its quite on the cards that Number 51’s daughter was born in The Village. That in turn would suggest that the Watchmaker arrived in The Village with his wife. But there is no sign of 51’s wife, only his daughter, so perhaps Number 51 is a widower and relied upon his daughter to look after him.

Be seeing you

Caught On Camera!

   Observe if you will the mouth to a tunnel, circled in red in the picture, and seen in the enlarged section, which has been bored into the cliff. Is this a link leading into the countryside? A possible way of escape, like the tunnel in ‘Fall Out?’ Or is it more likely a boathouse built into the cliff, where the motor cruiser M.S. Polotska is moored when not in use? If it is, I can see one huge disadvantage to that, when the tide is out, and at certain times of the year that could have lasted for days on end, so the crew of the motor cruiser would find it impossible to put to sea!

Be seeing you

The First Cut

    ‘Arrival’ was originally to have been ninety minutes in length, which means 40 minutes of film, and original unwanted scenes, ended up on the cutting room floor. Well, not all of it apparently. Take the episode of ‘Its Your Funeral’ for example. Number 2-the heir presumptive and Number 100 are awaiting a visit from No.6, who is about to warn Number 2-the heir presumptive of an assassination plot against him.
    Number 6 leaves the Watchmaker’s shop, and makes his way along a cobbled path, through an archway, crossing the chess lawn he goes up the steps and across the central piazza. In this scene Number 6 can clearly be seen wearing the charcoal grey suit he wore in ‘Arrival.’ And so clearly this scene was cut from the opening sequence of ‘Arrival,’ because it is clearly obvious that in ‘Its Your Funeral’ Number 6, wearing his arrival suit is on his way to the cafe, not the Green Dome!
   And also in the episode ‘Do Not Forsake Me Oh My Darling,’ Patrick McGoohan is in this episode more than you first might imagine. The Prisoner can be seen driving his Lotus 7 through London on his way to his home in Buckingham Place - more cut film footage from ‘Arrival's’ opening sequence, kept and later used as stock footage in ‘Do Not Forsake Me Oh My Darling,’ which gives the impression that you’re watching the opening sequence again, twice for the same episode!
    ‘Fall Out’ also contains stock film footage from ‘Arrival's’ opening sequence. After the Prisoner drives away from No.1 Buckingham Place, the Lotus 7 is seen turning onto Mill Bank from Westminster Bridge, passed the Houses of Parliament, and so it is quite clear that the Prisoner is driving towards the turn off to Abingdon Street car park, as he does in the opening sequence of ‘Arrival.’
   Had all the extra stock film footage had been used, it would have made the opening sequence extremely long……too long! 

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A Favourite Scene - When No.6 Isn't So Full of Himself!

    In ‘A Change of Mind’ when Number 6 returns to him gymnastic apparatus, even though he has avoided two further doses of the sedative Mytol, he’s still not feeling quite himself. He pulls the climbing rope, looks up at the high bar, and for a moment thinks about jumping up but doesn’t. Then he turns his attention to the punch bag. Clenching his fist he makes to punch the bag…..but he can’t. Number 6 has had all the aggression taken out of him, he’s not so full of himself, not so much punch in him this time. Number 10 and Number 16 are back to pick another fight with Number 6. The first time he vanquished the pair, now they have returned to seek their revenge on a more placid Number 6. But even then they are not up to the mark, vanquished for a second time, and left lying unconscious on the forest floor, Number 6 is now like his old aggressive self once more.
   Still in the woods, Number 6 comes across Number 86 who is picking flowers. 86 has to report to Number 2, she wants to make him happy. She also claims to be higher than Number 2, that’s probably the Mytol talking! Anyway she has to report, but first Number 6 has something to show 86…………his wristwatch! I used to think that the watch Number 6 uses to hypnotize Number 86 with was the Electro Pass given to him by Number 9 in ‘Arrival.’ But that was a Hamilton automatic, Number 6’s wristwatch in this case is a Tissot. Hypnotism, is there nothing Number 6 cannot turn his hand to? Mind you the sedated state of Number 86’s mind did make the task that more easier for him!

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Living In Harmony!

    As a general rule, they do say that a murderer always returns to the scene of his crime. But I don’t know the ruling on a murderer returning to the scene before the crime has actually been committed! So it may be wondered that they would say in this particular instance, yes an act of murder was committed in the Silver Dollar Saloon, the perpetrator was the Kid a psychotic gunslinger, the victim Cathy a saloon who was strangled to death. But the murder never physically took place, it wasn’t real, although to Cathy it might have seemed perfectly real at the time. Because some time later, Number 22 {Cathy} returned to the scene where she had been strangled to death by the Kid {Number 8} in the Silver Dollar Saloon. But Number 8 {the Kid} was already there waiting for her, such was his obsession with Cathy that he carried out the murder for real, and strangled Number 22 to death with his bare hands.

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Bureau of Visual Records

    It seems to me that this Undertaker is in the right place, but at the wrong time, because this image is taken from ‘Do Not Forsake Me Oh My Darling’ and not the opening sequence to ‘the Prisoner.’
   The Colonel has just parked his Lotus 7 outside number 1 Buckingham Place, and has gone inside. However that is not the man the Undertakers followed from the car park and through the streets of London. Not the man we see driving the Lotus, or the man they expected. Hence the Undertaker referring to his instructions, possibly to a description of the man they were supposed to abduct, or making sure he has the right address!
   Doesn’t the Undertaker realize that we’ve been here before, that they have already abducted the man living at 1 Buckingham Place? This isn’t the opening sequence to ‘the Prisoner,’ not even the opening of ‘Do Not Forsake Me Oh My Darling,’ seeing that at this moment we are 22 minutes 11 seconds into the episode. And yet we have seemed to witnessed the opening sequence all over again within the episode itself. The reason for that is because much of the scene from the car park to this moment, a full 2 minutes and 9 seconds, contains too much film stock footage from the opening sequence to the series with Patrick McGoohan behind the wheel of the Lotus 7! Unless of course they are about to abduct the Colonel, in which case going by appearances they have the wrong man!

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The Therapy Zone

    It’s been a long time since I last portrayed Number 6. That was during a performance at the 100 Club on Oxford Street London back in 2000, with Ed Ball and The Times for the set of the song ‘I Helped Patrick McGoohan Escape.’ I forget just how it came to mind, perhaps  in conversation, or it might have been in discussion about re-enactments at the Prisoner Conventions. I was reminiscing about the re-enactment of the Appreciation Day ceremony. I said I’m too old now to play Number 6 again being in my early 60’s. I was told that I wasn’t too old for the role. And of course thinking about it rationally, bringing a touch of realism to ‘the Prisoner,’ I’m not. Because if Number 6 were still alive today he would be in his eighties, and that would make me twenty years younger. When I portrayed Number 6 in a re-enactment at a Prisoner Convention in 1994 I was 38 years of age, precisely the right age, the same age Number 6 was when he was abducted to The Village. So really I’m not too old to play the Prisoner again, not that the chance is ever likely to arise, I’m certainly not expecting it to. But of course it would be a different Number 6, still defiant, but too old for escape. After all, if he failed to escape The Village during the past 50 years, he’s not likely to be able to escape it now. What’s more it’s highly likely that he would have had to give up his cottage, to reside in the Old People’s Home, I bet that wouldn’t have gone down well with our old friend Number 6!

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Exhibition of Arts And Crafts

                         “Portrait of No.2”

 BcNu

Bureau of Visual Records

   From the moment the Prisoner/Colonel left the underground car park, he was followed by two Undertakers in a black hearse. And by the time he arrives and parks his Lotus 7 outside his house, the Undertakers are there waiting for him. And that makes us think we’ve been here before!
    So why are the Undertakers there? Sir Charles Portland told the Colonel/Prisoner that he was intrigued enough only to have him followed wherever he goes. So where’s Potter at this point? Perhaps he had not yet been assigned to follow the Colonel/Prisoner. As for the Undertakers, they seem to be in the right place but at the wrong time, unless of course they are about to abduct ZM73 that is. If they do I think they’ll find they have the wrong man!

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Thought For The Day

    The Village newspaper, or broadsheet, is The Tally Ho. I suppose it’s called that because its reporter is always on the hunt for a good story. Or once they have the scent of a good story they soon chase it down! Number 6 doesn’t run with the hounds, that must make him the hare, or fox. He was once interviewed by Number 113 when he decided to stand for election as the new Number 2. But the article accompanying the headline “No.6 Speaks his mind,” wasn’t attributed to Number 113, well of course he didn’t write it, someone else wrote that. But the article wasn’t attributed to any number, only our own reporter. But Number 113 is the reporter for The Tally Ho. So who is this “our own reporter?” Obviously it’s someone who sits in The Tally Ho office and is told what to write. The Tally Ho is not an independent broadsheet, but is controlled by The Village administration. However in later issues of The Tally Ho, the headlines and articles are not attributed to anyone, not even to “our own reporter!” “No.6 Speaks his mind?” Yes that would be right, as though The Tally Ho would be allowed to print the truth! And yet when it’s comes to Number 2 calling for an increase in vigilance, might there not be more than an ounce of truth in that article? And I’m not meaning Number 2’s paranoia, unless of course the story was itself printed deliberately so that it would play on Number 2’s paranoia!

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Caught On Camera!

                          “Just a minute sir, you’ve forgotten your letter!”

BCNU

Second Film Shoot In Buckingham Place

  I wonder if there was as much fuss made when they filmed Nigel Stock in the role of ‘the Prisoner’ in Buckingham Place, as there was when they filmed Patrick McGoohan in the same role?
   When filming took place for the opening sequence to ‘the Prisoner,’ production photographs show people standing about, looking out of doors and windows watching what was taking place from the opposite side of the street. It might be reasonable to suppose that at least some of the same people may well have seen what was going on, having witnessed the original film shoot, but instead of Patrick McGoohan they saw and recognized actor Nigel Stock. They must have wondered what was taking place, possibly asking where is Patrick McGoohan?
   Plenty of production photographs exist of Patrick McGoohan when he was being filmed for the opening sequence to ‘the Prisoner.’ But I have never seen any taken of Nigel Stock in the same role when he was being filmed in Buckingham Place.

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