It’s Diabolical!

    No extreme measures to be used yet, is what the new Number 2 said in his report. I wonder what those extreme measures might be? Only I should have thought the techniques used against the Prisoner, known as Number 6, since the day of his arrival were extreme enough. Such as not only getting into his dreams, but manipulating them. Or taking away his identity so that they could give him a new one, a new number, a change in appearance in order that one day he would wake up as someone else who bears a remarkable resemblance to Number 6. Or perhaps the worst thing, to transfer his mind into another man’s body! What could be more extreme than that?
    Number 2 told the Prisoner that he agreed that they had taken quite a liberty in having brought him to the Village. But seeing as he was there....well it wasn’t in Number 2’s remit to let a prisoner leave The Village simply because he thought they had taken quite a liberty. And besides how do we know he’s speaking the truth in what he says? After all one of his predecessors once gave the toast “To hell with The Village,” and he was speaking with forked tongue! Mind you I think it might be possible to believe one of Number 2’s predecessors when he explained to Madam Professor about Number 6. That he wants what most of them want ultimately...... to escape! He seemed to be sincere in his somewhat unguarded words.

Be seeing you

Village Life!

   On the morning Number 6 woke up to find The Village deserted, there is an empty milk bottle on the doorstep of his cottage, Number 6 having placed it there the evening before. This indicates that there is a milk delivery made each day. And yet that same empty milk bottle is still on the doorstep the day Number 6 returns to The Village. Obviously no milk deliveries had been made recently. Because even with Number 6 away, the milkman should still have collected the empty milk bottle, perhaps even leaving his daily pinta, after all Number 6 had not left a note cancelling the milk. But perhaps there have been no milk deliveries, seeing as the milkman was away from The Village on special assignment!

   Here is The Village milkman working undercover, whilst delivering milk to the Kitting Out Room of an aerodrome. But I bet he doesn’t drive a milk float like this one in The Village.

   Rather than a milk float like the one above, more likely its one of those canopied garden tractors towing a trailer behind it, perhaps bearing the slogan on the sign ‘Village Milk Is Better Milk.’

Be seeing you

Bomb Disposal!

    In ‘Dance of The Dead’ Number 2 said she would warn the doctor-Number 40 when Number 6 puts a bomb in his lovely hospital. Now where would Number 6 get the material to make a bomb? If he didn’t have the chemicals required in his cottage, he could probably buy them from the General Store, where he bought the Cuckoo clock that time. He fooled Number 2, by playing on his paranoia, into thinking that Number 6 had planted a bomb inside a Cuckoo clock at the door of the Green Dome. Number 2 had bomb disposal called out to deal with the suspicious device. Two chaps in an un-marked Mini-Moke came speeding through The Village with its siren blaring out, not that it was much of a siren, because it wasn’t. Two men in plain Village attire, but with tin hats, I think they were American, of the type American oil men wear. Oh yes, and they had a green litter bin with them. This is bomb disposal done on the cheap, the two men had no protection whatsoever. Carefully they lifted the Cuckoo clock into the litter bin, and made it safe and secure with rolled up padding, to keep it from being jolted. They carried the litter bin down the steps to the waiting Mini-Moke with bystanders watching at very close quarters. The two bomb disposal men they drove the device away, very slowly to a safe place where another bomb disposal man in white coat and tin hat carefully and very expertly dismantled the Cuckoo clock only to find that’s just what it was!
    So far there has only been talk of a bomb, and the threat of a bomb which turned out to be a false alarm. But then came Appreciation Day, and the real and present danger of the assassination/execution of Number 2 who was about to retire. There he stood on the balcony of the Gloriette, with the bomb hung about his head and shoulders hidden in the Great Seal of Office. This assassination/execution had been weeks in the planning, Plan Division Q, the grooming of the watchmaker, the making of the replica of the Great Seal of Office, the bomb and its detonator. It’s just as well the bomb wasn’t actually detonated, and it might have been, by accident in the struggle between Number 6 and Number 100. Mind you if it had been it wouldn’t just have been Number 2 who had died in the explosion, and think of the mess, blood, gore, and sinew all over the place and the people standing in that confined space of the balcony!
   This only goes to prove that it would be possible to make a bomb in The Village. After all the plastic explosive, supplied by Number 100, inside the replica of the Great seal had to have come from somewhere!

Be seeing you

Caught On Camera!

 Number 6 has a number of framed items on the walls of his cottage. One of them is a framed menu from a Sevilla restaurant in London. It’s a strange thing to have framed on the wall. What about the unusual figurine under the television, a figure playing probably a piccolo, whilst riding a bear. Find another one like that! So far I’ve not been able to.

Be seeing you

60 Second Interview With 86

    No.113 “Now what’s a nice girl like you doing in The Village?”
    Number 86 “I don’t think that’s anything to do with you!”
    “Don’t be like that, our readers want to know about people like you.”
    “Why people like me?”
    “You’re not like the others, you’re interesting, you’re sexy. Play your cards right and we could have you on page three, something tasteful!”
    No.113b “Smile.” {click goes the camera}
    “Page three, what’s that?”
    “Well we contribute to The Tally Ho you know. I am Number One one-three, and this is my photographic colleague Number One one-three b.”
    “Smile” {click goes the camera}
    “Are you the one who wrote about Number 6 being under further investigation.”
    “Yes.”
    “And about Number Ninety-three’s confession?”
    “Well....”
    “Oh yes, and about the Committee hearings.”
    “I cannot deny.........”
    “Not to mention Number Six being declared unmutual.”
    “Well these events have to be reported.”
    “There’s no mention of a reporter, just the headline, no mention of the writer.”
    “Well I..........”
    “And the photograph, it’s not even one of Number Six in Village clothes!”
    “I admit it, we obtained that photograph from the Department of visual Records.”
    “But he’s a photographer.”
    “Yes well it’s the editor, he always insists on non Village pictures for the paper.”
    “Why?”
    “I don’t know.”
    “And The Tally Ho doesn’t have a page three does it?”
    “No!”
    “What is it you want?”
    “We were going to ask you about the operations you carry out, we’re not sure if they are ethical, but we’ve had a change of mind!”
    “Oh don’t waste my time, and get out!”
    Number 113 and 113b go to leave.
    “I still say we could get her on page three. That Number Eight didn’t mind posing for the camera. She was a bit of alright she was an Estonian.”
    “One of these days they’ll twig you don’t have any film in that camera of yours.”
    “Yeah, but by then it will be too late!”
    “I’ll tell Number Two of your activities.”
    “Snitch!”
    “You can call me what you like mate. At least I don’t pretend I’m something I’m not!”
   “What do you mean by that?”
   “Newspaper reporter! Not one word you’ve ever written has ended up in the newspaper.”
    “You’re right. There’s not a great deal of point to what we do is there?”
    “What should we do?”
    “We could resign!”
    “What and be unemployed?”
    “It Doesn’t sound good when you put it that way.”
    “Oh look, isn’t that the Number Two being chased along the street by a lot of people?”
    “Come on, there’s a story there, got your camera?”
    “Always to hand, I’ll get a picture of Number Two being chased up the steps!”
    “I can see the headline now, Number 2 leads race to the Green Dome!”
    “I thought we didn’t have elections here?”
    “I’ll write the story, you just take the pictures!”

Reporter Number 113
Photographer Number 113b

Exhibition of Arts And Crafts

                          “No Escape!

BCNU

Quote For The Day

    “Five, that’s me!”
                         {Number 6 – Once Upon A Time}

    Of course he’s five, that came about when Number 2 and the Supervisor were checking the profundity, with the Supervisor counting slowly from one to five and then holding in five five five five five, loudly on five, then more softly five five five until it was over and Number 6 became 5. But is that his number as in “Five that’s me,”, or the age of five to which his mind had been regressed, remembering that at the age of five would be when he first went to school. Or it could be both, depending on how you look at it. I suppose it wasn’t 1 that the Supervisor had been told to hold on one one one one one that would mean Number 6 saying “one that’s me!” Which might have been apt the way things turned out, but completely useless to Number 2, and yet he had been left holding the baby so to speak!

Be seeing you

Arrival!

   I was under the impression that ‘True Entertainment’ was to begin a repeat screening of ‘the Prisoner’ tonight at 11pm. However according to ‘True Entertainment’s programme listing, ‘Arrival’ has now been put back one hour to midnight, which is more in keeping with the usual time ‘the Prisoner’ is screened here in Britain!! What’s more ‘Arrival’ tonight seems to be a one-off screening, as the rest of the series does not follow on. But I feel sure that at some point ‘True Entertainment’ will repeat ‘the Prisoner.’

Be seeing you

Bureau of Visual Records

    They brought Doctor Seltzman to The Village because they needed the reversal process. Well I’m personally not convinced about that part of the storyline myself but we’ll go with the script. In order to carry out this reversal process Seltzamn sits between the two subjects having wired himself up to the machine. Now if this is essential to this mind transference process, who was it who sat there between the Colonel and Number 6, operating the Seltzman machine during the first mind transference? It’s a pity we do not actually see the Seltzman machine in operation during the mind transference of Number 6 and the Colonel, and not just Number 6 wired into the machine on the wall screen!

Be seeing you

The Pri50ner

    Here’s something, and I bet myself a cup of coffee that no-one has thought of this before. Basically the phrase “Be seeing you” is a parting greeting, and “have a good trip” is used when there is a departure of some kind. So it occurred to me, in terms of The Village, that when in ‘Arrival’ the ex-Admiral having suggested to Number 6 that he try the boat, says “Have a good trip,” and that’s a parting greeting, and may well be his words for “Be seeing you.”

BSEENU

99

    There are those who come in here and deny we can supply every conceivable civilized amenity within our boundaries. You can enjoy yourselves and you will, you can partake of the most hazardous sports and you will……..In some place, at some time all of you held positions of a secret nature, and had knowledge that was invaluable to an enemy. Like me you are here to have that knowledge protected or extracted. Unlike me many of you have accepted the situation of your imprisonment and will die here like rotten cabbages.
    The man woke up with a start, he sat up on the wooden bed, there was darkness all about him.
    Not been dreaming again have we Ninety-nine? The doctors have told you before they are not your memories, so why do you remain attached to them? You are not Number Six, you are Ninety-nine, and you are here for deep therapy.
   The man swung his legs over the bed and stared into the blackness which was absolute. The voice he heard came at him booming out of the blackness and the blackness was absolute!
    Good morning all, it’s another beautiful day. Your attention please, here are two announcements. Ice cream is now on sale for your enjoyment, the flavour of the day is strawberry. Here is a warning! There is a possibility of light intermittent showers later in the day. Thank you for your attention.
    Are you trying to cloud your mind with remembrances Ninety-nine, where do you think you are......in The Village? You couldn’t be in a worse place than you are now! Here there are no niceties, no pleasantries. No invitations to have breakfast. Here there is just you, me, blackness, and pain.
    The man stood up and took three paces forward, his hands outstretched into the blackness. He stopped, Feeling all about him, there was nothing. He took another few paces, then he stumbled and fell. He lay there in the dirt, he could feel the floor under him, but under his face there was no floor, only a deep dark chasm. He crawled back to his bed, and sat upon it.
    I’d be careful if I were you, that’s the pit, I should hate to see you fall into it. Perhaps you would like some light.
    As the voice spoke a dim light filled the room, just enough for the man to see about him. He was in a large round domed chamber. The only thing in it was he and his wooden bed. There wasn’t a door, not that he could make out a door, and in the centre of the floor was a hole. He stood up and walked to the hole, he stared down into the blackness of the pit. He thought that he could make out something in the pit, but he wasn’t sure. He didn’t hear the voice again even when he called out. He turned and was about to go back to his bed, when he saw a plate with a piece of bread and cheese in it. There was also a jug and a cup on the floor. He approached them cautiously, picking up the piece of bread he bit into it, it was stale, the cheese mouldy. He poured water into the cup and soaked the piece of bread with the water, taking a bite he added cheese and ate.
    How many days had it been now? 4 weeks, 5 weeks, yes possibly five, he had been fed once a day, for 5 weeks. But he never once saw who it was who left the food or by what door his keeper entered the chamber.
    Are you ready to confess now? Confess and we concede. We will let you go.
   A proclamation, carnival is decreed for tonight, there will be music, dancing, happiness all at the carnival.....by order.
    You’re doing it again Ninety-nine, trying to block me out. All I want is your complete confession, now that’s not much to ask is it? Tell us what we want to know.
    The man spent his time walking around the wall of the chamber. He examined the wall inch by inch looking and feeling for a door. There wasn’t one, no way in or out, save for the pit and that was no way out at all save for the desperate. The days turned into weeks, the weeks turned into months. His piped blazer, shirt, trousers and deck shoes dirty and worn hung loosely on his thin frame. His matted hair fell about his shoulders, and his beard ran down his chest. Had they forgotten him? No, there was the bread, cheese and water. But the voice he heard no more.
   Daily he would walk the chamber wall, feeling all around it for the door, there must be a door, but there was no door! And then, surely his bed had been further from the wall, no surely no, the wall seemed to be moving, closing in around him. No, it was an hallucination, no more than that. And yet when he walked the wall yesterday it took him less time to complete the circuit, and even less time today. In fact the pit was now discernibly nearer to the wall than it had been before. But how could that be? If it continued there would be but one outcome..................
    Are you not yet ready to talk Ninety-nine?
    “Good evening citizens, your local council wishes to announce another exciting competition the subject this time seascapes!”
    So be it!
    The man placed his back to the wall, pressing right up against it. He could hardly hold the wall back, and yet it wasn’t the wall that was receding inwards, it was the floor moving outwards, the result being an ever expanding hole leading into a bottomless abyss! The bed he had been lying on so short a time ago fell into the abyss, followed by the jug, cup, and plate. By now there was little of the floor left, five feet, no four feet and receding. The large pit opened before him, there was now less than three feet of floor beneath him, not even that.
    I’ll talk, I’ll tell you everything the man screamed, his voice echoing and re-echoing around the domed chamber. I’ll confess if that’s what you want.
    But it was too late, no-one cared, or it no longer mattered......two feet the man’s back pressed firmly against the wall, fingers clawing desperately trying to find a hold. One and a half feet, there was now but a foot of floor to stand upon, and that was soon gone. The man fell screaming into the black abyss, beyond all hope, passing into oblivion.

Be seeing you

It’s Inexplicable!

    It would appear that No.6 suddenly came to his senses back in his cottage, when No.58 was repeatedly saying “Lye ezeet azoona” to him. His smirk was wiped off his face and replaced with a frown. No.58’s sudden enthusiasm “Lye ezeet azoona” “Lye ezeet azoona” “Lye ezeet azoona” “Lye ezeet azoona” seems to have a profound effect on No.6. He stumbles off his stool and backwards into the free standing lamp, and pulls off his 6 rosette from the lapel of his blazer. And makes a run for it out of his cottage, stealing the Mini-Moke parked outside and drives off. But the road becomes blocked, not only by The Tally Ho vender, but those of his supporters. Abandoning the Moke No.6 makes a run for it again, and as No.58 and his supporters pursue him, his way is finally blocked by the Butler, he ends jumping aboard a jet boat and tangling with the two motor mechanics.
   How is it, that No.2 is piloting the helicopter? Perhaps he anticipated No.6’s “spur of the moment” attempt to escape! However it might be a case of coincidence, because the helicopter is actually flying towards The Village as No.6 is about to try and escape, and not simply hovering there waiting to give chase to an escaping prisoner! On the one hand it would appear that this current No.2 likes to have the “hands on” approach. Besides, piloting a helicopter and chasing an escaping Prisoner is far more exciting than driving an office desk! But that doesn’t answer the question of what is No.2 doing piloting the helicopter in the first place?

Be seeing you

Village Life!

    “You must understand Number Six we are never off guard. We have twenty-four seven surveillance here.”
    “You’re telling me. You can hardly miss it!”
    “Yes, I see what you mean.”

Be seeing you

The Therapy Zone

    “The Village, where is this Village?” the Colonel asked. Well it’s not where Number 6 thought it was! Is the Colonel sure he hasn’t got a Village? Well of course he has, he’s in it, and the plan didn’t work! It made a change the Colonel asking Number 6 the questions, but the result was the same as if Number 2 had been asking them. Perhaps the Colonel should have read ZM73’s letter of resignation before he left England for The Village, he might have found it enlightening! I wonder what happened to that letter? ZM73 handed it in alright, to that bureaucrat sat behind that desk of his. But what did he do with it? Perhaps he handed it to the next person in the chain of command, PR12 perhaps, who probably gave it to the Colonel. So one would have expected the Colonel to read the letter, I should have thought it would have contained the reason why ZM73 had resigned from his job. But then again there is always the possibility that the letter was not seen or read by the Colonel at all, but had been filed away in one of those grey filing cabinets seen during the opening sequences to ‘the Prisoner.’ Who would have access to it then? Who can say, perhaps the letter was never seen by anyone again, just left to remain there in one of those grey drawers of a filing cabinet marked “letters of resignation,” or some such thing. But it was a long time ago now, 50 years, or as good as, and any importance to such a letter would be long past, and probably open to a “freedom of information” request. If a man can’t chuck up a job things have come to a pretty pass. But then I suppose it all has to do with the man and the kind of work he used to do. Some jobs one can simply walk away from and there’s no comeback. While others, jobs which are of a secret, a top secret, and confidential nature are not so easy to walk away from, not without repercussions of one kind or another.

Be seeing you

The Prisoner Promotes Responsible Drinking!

    Last night I sat watching ‘The Girl Who Was Death.’ Mister X having arrived at his local public house sat at the bar enjoying a pint of beer. But then a message begins to appear “you” as the beer recedes “have” etched on the bottom of the glass “just been poisoned.” Doris asked him if cared for another, but one of those was quite enough. And then suddenly leaving the bar, Mister X was on his way to the gents toilet….just a minute they cut out the part of the scene when he drinks a cocktail of drinks, Whisky, Vodka, Gin, Brandy, Tia Maria, Tequila, Schnapps, Sherry, and Drambuie in order to make himself sick! Me, I was left with the impression of Mister X in the toilet with two fingers rammed down his throat trying to make himself sick! It occurred to me that the decision was made by someone at ‘True Entertainment’ to cut that part of the scene because of the problem of binge drinking amongst young people !?

Be seeing you

Fall Out

     ‘True Entertainment’ screens the final episode of ‘the Prisoner’ tonight, ‘Fall Out,’ and by the end the series will have come full circle. And that’s what ‘the Prisoner’ is, a vicious circle from which there is no escape for the Prisoner.’ Perhaps it’s an anguish pattern as Number 14 suggested in ‘A B And C,’ which begins after he makes the decision to resign his job.
   Number 6 takes the throne, he witnesses two forms of revolt for which Numbers 48 and 2 are put on trial. Number 6 who mustn’t be called Number 6 or indeed any number at all, has vindicated the right of the individual to be individual. He has waged a private and pure war, and that is applauded. He’s given the key to his house, presumably Mrs. Butterworth has moved out! A passport valid for anywhere, one million in travellers cheques, and a purse of petty cash. Now he is given the opportunity to lead them or go, and Number 6 can’t make up his mind! But he is given the opportunity to meet Number 1, who turns out to be himself, his other self. He’s been his own worst enemy all the time, well according to Patrick McGoohan he has. But ‘Fall Out’ isn’t like any of the previous episodes, but it does explain why no real harm was done to Number 6. Number 1 was looking after him. Making sure the tissue wasn’t damaged, that extreme measures, or the usual techniques were not used, so they didn’t end up with a man of fragments. And that’s all the thanks he gets, chased around the control room in the rocket, sealed in the nose cone, and launched into Earth’s upper stratosphere! But despite that, Number 6 and Number 1 do escape The Village at precisely the same moment, one aboard a rocket launched from its silo, the other in a cage set on the trailer of a lorry as it crashes through the gates at the end of a tunnel!

   ‘True Entertainment’ commences a repeat screening of ‘the Prisoner’ on Sunday night at 11pm, so it will all begin again then. Will Number 6 never be free of it? After 50 years I shouldn’t think so!

Be seeing you

TGWWD & OUAT

   Three episodes remain in ‘True Entertainment’s screening of ‘the Prisoner,’ so soon we’ll be back where ‘the Prisoner’ started. But at least tonight there is a little respite for Number 6 as he deals with The Girl Who Was Sonia Death, well at least its Sonia according to the closing credits. And if you ever wondered what Number 6 did in his former employment, ‘The Girl Who Was Death’ gives a little insight into that. It might not look a whole lot of fun for Number 6, but at least the episode provides the television viewer with some light relief from what has gone before and for what is yet to come. Because in ‘Once Upon A time’ it’s got to either one of them, Number 2 was a good man, but if they get Number 6 he will be better.
   Number 6 regressed to his childhood Number 2 takes Number 6 through his life in the hope that when he arrives at the point when the Prisoner resigns he’ll be more amicable towards giving the reason behind his resignation. ‘Once Upon A Time’ is a superb piece of stage acting, the one on one situation, but with the Butler on hand to help out as each part of Number 6’s life is played out. But its not the first time we have witnessed a one to one situation, ‘Hammer Into Anvil’ could be described as that. After all the main protagonists are Number 6 and Number 2, with Number 14 called upon to help out on occasion.
   Originally ‘Once Upon A Time’ or to give the episode its working title of Degree Absolute,’ was not meant to have been a prequel to ‘Fall Out,’ but a stand alone episode. Had it remained so, there would have been no resuscitation of Number 2 as there is in ‘Fall Out,’ instead he would have remained dead at the end of the episode!

Be seeing you

Living In Harmony

    Last night as I sat watching ‘True Entertainments’ screening of I ‘Living In Harmony’ I wondered if the episode would be edited because of its gratuitous violence, and it was. When Johnson is taken out of the Jailhouse and lynched by the angry mob, the noose was cut out!

BCNU

What’s That No.6 Up To?

    That’s just like Number 6, he’s always upsetting someone! There was that Number 8, she was in love with Number 6, but did he give her any encouragement? No! The only time he was nice to her, or anything like close to being nice, was when she came round to his cottage that night to make him his nightcap of hot chocolate. He asked her how she got in, well by the door obviously. He was later to find out that his door to his cottage is always open to them! That’s when Monique came calling. And now Number 6 has gone and upset Number 42, apparently his face and that smirk was enough to send 42 into floods of tears! It’s no wonder she turned against him, and joined the feminist movement led by that fearsome woman Number 56. She’s a man hater if ever there was one in The Village, and she likes to dish out punishment, she’s a dab hand with an umbrella! But then Number 6 doesn’t trust women, well who can blame him, after all women have been used as tools against him since his arrival in The Village. First there was his housemaid Number 66, then Number 9 who was but a pawn in the game between Number 2 and 6. Then came Nadia Rakovski, she was good, Number 6 didn’t see through her at all not until the end. And there have been others like that Alison-Number 24, all he was doing was helping her with her mind reading. Number 6 had shown her generosity and kindness in helping her, but she turned out to be no better than any of them.  So really it’s hardly surprising that Number 6 should make sure Number 42’s tears were real, otherwise she might have turned into another of those damsels in distress whom he was supposed to help!

Be seeing you

Exhibition of Arts And Crafts

             “We Do Like To Be Beside The Seaside!”

BcNu

Citizen No.6

    Be seeing you. You’ll be seeing us alright, you won’t be able to help it! They stitched you up a treat, not only is there no-one in The Village you can trust, but you cannot even trust your ex-colleagues. And yet why should they bother about you? After all you turned your back on them by resigning from the service, and yet you expect to have your cake and eat it, butter spread on both sides of the sandwich. Off you went back to those who you thought would be able to help you, well you know better now don’t you. And where did it get you that’s what I ask. Well it didn’t get you anywhere, except back in The Village. In fact you were hardly away at all. All you did was sail along the coast for about 30 miles, and then you were brought back to The Village sealed in a crate.
    You were bamboozled by a pretty woman, a damsel in distress. Just because you thought she knew where The Village was you allowed yourself to get close to her. And in your eagerness to believe Nadia, which was probably her real name as spies do use their own first name for obvious reasons, you didn’t once consider how it was possible for Nadia to make contact with that man in the cave, so that he knew to expect her, when she was incarcerated in The Village! Never mind, you’ll know better next time, firstly not to place your trust in women, and secondly not to try running back to your ex-colleagues!

Be seeing you

Do Not Forsake Me Oh My Darling & Living In Harmony

    ‘Do Not Forsake Me Oh My Darling’ is perhaps the worst episode in the entire series of ‘the Prisoner,’ although I’m aware of one person who considers this episode to be his favourite! In my opinion there are more holes in this episode than there is in a wedge of Swiss cheese! In ‘Dance of The Dead’ there was a body in the mortuary which was to have been amended slightly, along with the wallet in his pocket, so to the outside world Number 6 would be dead. So why didn’t Janet Portland know that, and when ZM73 approached Sir Charles Portland, why didn’t he mention something about ZM73 having died in an accident at sea? I can only imagine they didn’t know, because  that amended body wasn’t recovered from the sea!

    Okay, in ‘Do Not Forsake Me Oh My Darling’ it's possible to transfer the mind of two people, spies for example. What if an exchange of spies took place and if the one which was returned had the mind of their choosing, they would able to break the security of any nation. That spy then gathers information, is returned to the Village, the information in his head extracted, then all unhappy memories of the Village are wiped from his mind, and put back into circulation to acquire more information. Well that's all fine and dandy, but what happens to the other chap whose mind is not his own, what's he supposed to been doing all this time? And don't forget, if this mind transference can be done to one pair of subjects, the operation can be repeated on several subjects, leaving half of them with wrongly housed minds!
   I wonder how Sir Charles Portland knew about the photographic transparencies, which the Prisoner had left at the  'World Camera' shop a year earlier? He must have known enough to be able to send "Mr Carmichael", who was presumably one of Sir Charles Portland's men, perhaps Potter, to collect the photographic transparencies. So presumably "Mr Carmichael" was in possession of the receipt, in order to collect the transparencies. Which would suggest that Janet Portland handed over the receipt to her father Sir Charles, either that or he found it amongst her possessions!
   The receipt could easily have been retained and given back to Janet, and the photographic transparencies returned to the shop by "Mr Carmichael." And then making up the story about the clerical error by a young assistant, in having mistaken the last numbers of 0 1 for 1 0 for when the Prisoner comes calling for the photographic transparencies himself, but spotting that they had already been signed for, by "Mr Carmichael!"
    I have written a number of pieces on the subject of this episode. For those who have not read them, here are three links as examples.

http://david-stimpson.blogspot.co.uk/2015/01/do-not-forsake-me-oh-my-darling.html

http://david-stimpson.blogspot.co.uk/2015/03/do-not-forsake-me-oh-my-darling.html

http://david-stimpson.blogspot.co.uk/2016/11/a-mish-mash-of-affairs.html

    ‘Living In Harmony,’ well Number 6 doesn’t care to live in harmony, he proved that much in ‘A Change of Mind!’ But Harmony is a good town, just do as the Judge says, and he’ll take care of you. This is my second least favourite episode, which is surprising really, when considering how much I enjoy watching American Westerns, especially those starring Randolph Scott. What’s more time and time again I’ve watched films about a frightened townspeople of an American frontier town turn to one man, either a town Sheriff, a stranger, or hired gun to “clean up their town” for them. Four films come to mind, ‘High Noon' 1952 starring Gary Cooper, ‘High Plains Drifter’ starring Clint Eastwood, and ‘Invitation To A Gunslinger’ 1964 starring Yul Brynner, and 'Man From Del Rio' 1956 starring Anthony Quinn.
   Harmony might be a good town, but the people have no guts to rid their town of a bad Judge and his gunslingers themselves. So get some guns on Sheriff!

    Number 8’s technique was good, it was as if Number 6 was living an early form of virtual reality game. The trouble was so were Numbers 2, 8, and 22, and in some shape or form they all allowed themselves to get involved, to do what they would really have done. And each suffered from a distinct lack of self-control. So the attempt to break Number 6 in his mind, fill him with hallucinatory drugs, put him in a dangerous environment, give him love, take it away, isolate him, make him kill, then face him with death. But it didn’t work, and for that Number 2 will have to carry the can. He’ll take the blame, and eventually pay for the failure, but in what way? Will he simply be forced to remain The Village? That doesn’t sound so bad, unless of course he will be forced to remain in The Village as a prisoner! Maybe he fears the worst, that he will have for forfeit his life for the failure, to be put up against a wall and shot perhaps. Of course there’s always forced suicide, or confrontation with the Guardian. Who can say what fate befalls a failed Number 2. Perhaps at the end of the day all Number 2’s are afraid of his or her masters, afraid of failure. There have certainly been more than one or two of them about, from time to time!   It is said that the Prisoner is all in the mind, that it's a dream created by the Prisoner in his mind. Well if that's the case, then the episode of ‘Living In Harmony’ is doubly so, don't you think? Either that or ‘Living In Harmony’ is the first Virtual Reality game!
   It has also been suggested in the past, that the Village is a place created by the mind in which people with, mental problems, are put. Certainly the Prisoner-Number 6 is described as having a persecution complex, suggesting that he's putting himself through the seventeen episode ordeal of the Prisoner! I'm not sure what fans of the series will make of this, I'm sure they have ideas and theories of their own. But it is a fascinating thought, that some fans of the original series, who see the Prisoner in this way, cannot see the reinterpretation of the series in the same light.
   Of course we are all familiar with the term "role playing" games, and ‘Living In Harmony’ might very well be the first, as Number 6 plays out the game in his mind, before finally coming face to face with his opponents, who all turn out to be nothing more than cardboard cut outs! It is also interesting to note, how part of The Village can be placed out of bounds, and with a little set dressing can be turned into an American frontier Town of the mid to late 1800's.
    So, the Prisoner, The Village, and ‘Living In Harmony’ are simply all in the mind, a dream. It wasn't as Number 8 said, that Number 6 could separate fact from reality so quickly, no, no. It's simpler than that I feel. As the Sheriff, after the gunfight with the Kid, Number 6 is again faced with death, as the Judge shoots Number 6 with a Derringer. But the thing is, you cannot die in a dream, and so just before the point of death, Number 6 wakes up.

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It’s Your Funeral & A Change Of Mind

    Tonight 'True Entertainment' continue their screening of 'the Prisoner' with 'It's Your Funeral,' and 'A Change of Mind.' These two episodes appear to be opposite to each other. In one Number 6 comes to the aid of the community by preventing an assassination/execution of a Number 2 who is about to retire. In the other, Number 6 appears to have cut himself off from the rest of the community, by allowing the “lone wolf” side of his character to show through. But this is false, all Number 6 has done has built himself some exercise apparatus, a high bar and a punch bag. Is there no end to this man ingenuity and skill? All Number 6 is guilty of is at times preferring his own company and his own private gymnasium. Rather than use The Village gymnasium, which incidentally he built before the advent of ‘It’s Your Funeral’ and demonstrated during the daily prognosis report on Number 6. That same report suggests that Number 6 not only buys a copy of the daily broadsheet everyday, but also a bar of soap! In ‘A Change of Mind’ it’s the community which has allowed itself to turn on and isolate Number 6. There’s gratitude for you, considering the events of the previous episode. But then the citizens didn’t know what had taken place anyway! But at least he hadn’t been betrayed by a woman, that makes a pleasant change for him!
    At times both ‘It’s Your Funeral’ and ‘A Change of Mind’ make The Village look almost deserted. Even when the citizens are gathering for the Appreciation Day ceremony there doesn’t appear that many people about, not like on Election Day in ‘Free For All.’ The thing about these two episodes is they are what is termed as “fillers,” remembering that Patrick McGoohan originally envisaged only 7 episodes, and that Lew Grade wanted at least 26 episodes, but settling on 17. Yes these two episodes along with 4 others, ‘Hammer Into Anvil,’ Do Not forsake Me Oh My Darling,’ ‘Living In Harmony,’ and ‘The Girl Who Was Death’ are mere “fillers,” and are not so full of themselves as certain earlier episodes because they lack the funding which the four episodes filmed at Portmeirion enjoyed.
    ‘It’s Your Funeral’ has a Number 2 who appears to be confused, or at least that’s the way Darren Nesbitt played the role. And an over complicated plan that must involve Number 6, and in that there lies the flaw in the plan. Because no plan involving Number 6 has ever succeeded! While ‘A Change of Mind’ has the creepiest Number 2 played by John Sharp, who sees to it that Unmutuals undergo the process of Social Conversion, in other words a leucotomy! That is an operation which a former doctor suggested in ‘Checkmate,’ to subdue Number 6’s aggressive tendencies. But Number 86 dare not do that because they mustn’t damage the tissue, they wouldn’t want to lose Number 6………would they?!

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Quote For The Day

    “You’re following me!”

    “I had to see you. When do you plan to escape?”
    “How do you know I was going to?”
    “Well everyone tries to escape when their spirit’s broken. Tell me your plan and I’ll help.”
    “Help who?”
    “Well I like you, if it’s a good plan I’ll escape with you I’ve often helped with other people’s plans.”
    “Why are you still here?”
    “Well none of them ever succeeded.”
    “That’s a coincidence!”
    “I’d be invaluable experience, at least I could tell you what not to try.”
    “How do I know I can trust you?”
    “That’s the risk you’ll have to take.”
    “Not me!”

                                  {Number 6 and Number 8 – Checkmate}

    It’s no wonder Number 6 didn’t trust Number 8, he must have remembered previous experiences with women, especially one woman of that same number! It makes one wonder just how many other potential escapees Number 8 helped with their plans, and how many of them she betrayed, even unwittingly!
    Number 6 went about The Village selecting reliable men, men you understand and not women. After all in the previous episode Number 6 said never trust a woman, not even the four legged variety, and obviously by the time of ‘Checkmate’ he was still of the opinion.
    As for Number 8, she is a woman in love, the only trouble is that that love has been manufactured! Such is Number 8’s belief that she would save Number 6 from his own folly. The funny thing is she doesn’t betray Number 6, in fact we do not see Number 8 again after she is seen down on the beach via the wall screen in the Control Room. No, this time Number 6 is betrayed by a man, Number 53 who put to Number 6 his own test, when he was paddling the raft just off shore, and came to the conclusion that he was one of them! That’s why he paddled back to the shore, and hurried back to the Green Dome in order to persuade the others, and release Number 2. But he wasn’t really betrayed by Number 53. Number 6 was betrayed by his own folly, he was too clever for his own good. He took command of the venture to escape The Village, his reliable men went by his authority, but then someone had to be in charge, and who else was there? If it had been a democratic escape attempt, with each man having a say, nothing would have got done. One man had to be the boss, telling others what to do, after all, isn’t that what Number 1 does?

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Caught On Camera!

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

    Number 6 seems very pleased with himself about his first appearance on Village television, and indeed with his latest speech, of which I’m guessing, we the television viewer hear only the closing part. But when did he make that speech? How was it filmed? The Tally Ho reporter No.113 had a strange looking cine camera when Number 6 emerges from the Labour Exchange, but Number 6’s speech wasn’t filmed then. And yet judging by the Triumphal Arch in the background Number 6 was filmed giving his speech outside the Labour Exchange.

But whenever have the interests of the community ever been his own? “The security of the citizens will be my primary objective,” that doesn’t sound like Number 6 at all, more like Number 2! This smacks of “fake news” we’ve heard so much about! And the recording of Number 6’s speech part of the episode we as the television viewer were not privy to!

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Dance of the Dead

    By way of this episode ‘Dance of The Dead,’ does it give us any real insight into those who are behind The Village? Because I don’t think it does. Remember that at this time we don’t know who Number 1 is, in fact at this point Number 1 could be anyone. ‘The Prisoner’ has all been about Number 6 being his own worst enemy, that it’s been Number 6’s struggle against his other self that to me is nothing more than a contrivance for ‘Fall Out,’ and a get out clause for Patrick McGoohan! He had no idea who Number 1 was going to be, not until he wrote the script for ‘Fall Out’ and making himself Number 1.
    There had to be a Number 1, as Number 2 was both seen and heard talking to Number 1, and at least three Number 2’s called Number 1 Sir, so at least we knew Number 1 was a man. So setting ‘Fall Out to one side, in fact we can forget it altogether, well at least I can. Was Number 1 really the power behind The Village, or was he simply a figurehead, did he in fact have his own “maters” to whom he was held responsible? The fact that this Number 2 used a teleprinter to make her reports, and presumably by which she received her instructions and not by telephone, is suggestive of her masters being somewhere other than in The Village! And yet that makes the matter of who are those masters behind The Village even more mysterious. I have always assumed it to be some department within British Intelligence, but there is absolutely no evidence for that, it’s only my own personal assumption. We are no wiser at the end of ‘Dance of The Dead’ as to who is ultimately responsible for The Village, than we were at the beginning!

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Tea Break Teaser

    When Number 6 wakes up in his cottage on the morning of ‘Many Happy Returns,’ he does so to find both the water and electricity have

been cut off. That being the case, where do the lights come from to create the shadows in the cottage? Answers on the back of The Tally Ho please!

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Citizen No.2

  This Number 2 is the odd one out, and for more reasons than one. Firstly Mrs. Butterworth is the only Number 2 to have been known by her name. It might be a false name, but nevertheless it’s a name. Secondly she is the only Number 2 to be seen wearing her own clothes. Thirdly she is the only Number 2 to wear the negative badge, meaning a white Penny Farthing on a black background, rather than a positive one being a black Penny Farthing on a white background. Both types of badges do have one thing in common, they both have a red number. However, this Number 2 is the only citizen in The Village to wear a badge with a white number which makes it utterly unique. And that begs the question, why the white number, instead of red? A question which remains unresolved to this day!

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The Miraculous Doings Of The Village Cat!

   There the cat sits, on the same table watching Number 6 walk across the beach towards The Village, exactly where it sat as it watched Number 6 cast off and set sail aboard his raft some 27 days earlier. Number 6, having returned to The Village walks up the cobbled path back to his cottage, and as he does so there is no sign of the cat. Presumably it’s still on the table on the lawn of the Old People’s Home. Number 6 enters his cottage, the door closes behind him the water is turned back on, the electricity is turned back on, and there’s still no sign of the cat. And yet there is the cat on the carpet in the lounge before the door opens and Number 2 walks in bearing a cake. So how did the cat get in the cottage? Being a cat owner of two cats myself, I realize how fleet of paw my two cats are. I know that there are times when Pushkin can be outside the one minute, and then be inside the house the next without my realizing it, Mr. B likes to announce himself when he comes in. But The Village cat must be truly fleet of paw, and very clever to get into the cottage through a closed door {there being no cat flap and before the electricity is turned back on} because until this moment there has been no sign of the cat in the cottage. And yet there she is. Funny how its taken me fifty years to realize that. I don’t know why, but I’ve always imagined the cat to go into the cottage at Number 2’s feet. One might think the cat nips into the cottage behind Number 6, or before he closes the door behind him. Yet there is no evidence for that in the scene!

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Many Happy Returns!

    Today is the Prisoner’s birthday. Well many happy returns Number 6! It’s almost as though that having escaped The Village, he couldn’t wait to get back to The Village! Having divested himself of the parachute, Number 6 makes his way slowly back to his cottage. Remember the tree trunks and empty oil drums he left scattered on the quayside the day he cast off on his voyage of discovery? Well they’ve now been cleared away, and should have told Number 6 that The Village was never deserted!
    Arriving at his home, the water shoots from the shower head, the electricity is turned back on, and the coffee percolator is bubbling away. The door to the cottage opens, and Mrs. Butterworth, who turns out to be Number 2, walks in having carried out her promise which she made back in London, to bake him a cake. But the cake has nothing whatsoever to do with his birthday, seeing as the cake has but 6 candles. It’s more to celebrate Number 6’s many happy returns to The Village. The Prisoner walks over to a window and looks out, for reassurance?

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

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March 19th

     Precise to both day and date, on Sunday March 19^th 1967, Number 6 is unceremoniously returned to The Village back where he started, in ‘Many Happy Returns,’ almost one month since his escape. But suddenly life begins to return to The Village. The electricity and water are turned on, and Mrs. Butterworth appears in the cottage and presents Number 6 with a cake she promised to bake. He looks out of the window and sees the sudden activity down in the Piazza. The Brass Band playing as they are driven round in Mini-Mokes, the citizens parading around the pool and fountain with the Butler looking on from an Outlook. And because this self same scene takes place in the following episode ‘Dance of The Dead,’ albeit 8 minutes into the episode, I’ve tended to assume, rightly or wrongly and ignoring those first 8 minutes, that Number 6 has arrived back in The Village on the morning of ‘Dance of The Dead.’ However that assumption of mine couldn’t work had ‘Dance of The Dead’ been screened in its original intended place of second in the series. Besides the scene in question was filmed for ‘Dance of The Dead’ and not ‘Many Happy Returns’ where it’s used as stock film footage!
    Another episode which would have fitted in nicely after ‘Many Happy Returns’ is ‘The General. There’s Number 6 sitting quietly at a table at the café drinking a cup of coffee. A helicopter is flying overhead. Suddenly there’s a public information announcement from the General’s department and concerning the students who are taking the three year history course. The café is to close, and Number 6 doesn’t appear to know about the Professor as he’s not one of his students. Nor does he seem to know about the General! Why? Perhaps because he’s recently returned from a long sea voyage! The educational experiment of Speedlearn having commenced during the time Number 6 was away from The Village! Its all circumstantial evidence, guess work, and most likely misinterpretation! But nevertheless Number 6 returned home 50 years ago today!
   All that time and effort spent escaping The Village. Putting himself in a life threatening situation. To find out that someone else is living in want he thought to be his home, the lease of the house still having 6 months to run. What’s more the car he built with his own hands is no longer his! Having to allay his suspicions about his whereabouts in establishing that he really was where he thought himself to be. Then having to prove himself, and his report to ex-colleagues, only to be unceremoniously returned to The Village! Number 6 let his guard down you see, he was under the impression that he was amongst friends, and even if he was………. what marvels me is the way Number 6 takes it all in his stride. All that time and effort made, and he ends up where he began. It seems as though they will let you go as far as you like, just as long as you end up back in The Village in the end!

    But did the events of ‘Many Happy Returns really happen, might they not simply have been all a dream? There are a number of devotees of ‘the Prisoner’ who will tell you it was. Number 6 waking up to find The Village deserted, his building a sea-going raft, spending 25 days at sea, sleeping only 4 out of each 24 hours. Fighting off gun runners, jumping ship and swimming for it, being washed up at Beachy Head on the south coast of England, arriving back in London to his home in Buckingham Place, and being made to feel at home by Mrs Butterworth, who then kindly lends him his own car! He then makes two calls, one in town, the other in the country, and is assisted by his ex-colleagues in proving his report, and is then unceremoniously returned back where he started….in The Village! Some enthusiasts for ‘the Prisoner’ are under the impression that it was all a dream.
   Unlike ‘Living In Harmony’ for example, when Number 6 finds himself in an American frontier town in the 1880’s, the situation is induced, fabricated by use of hallucinogenic drugs, and is spoken to, and communicates by way of microphones. The whole thing is simulated, role played, a form of early virtual reality. In the case of ‘Many Happy Returns’ there is no visible signs of fabrication as it was during ‘The Chimes of Big Ben.’ No indication that any hallucinogenic drug has been administered as the water supply had been turned off. I think we have to take it that the events of ‘Many Happy Returns,’ however remarkable they are, have to be real to life for Number 6. And not something dreamt up in his subconscious!

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Ex-Colleagues!

    Even after 50 years, I’m still not at all sure about the Colonel, whether or not, he like his predecessor in ‘The Chimes of Big Ben,’ is working for The Village. The same of course can be said of Thorpe, although I could see Thorpe in The Village as Number 2, whereas I couldn’t imagine Fotheringay in that role. But I am surprised about Number 6, how as soon as he could, he went running back to his ex-colleagues, had he forgotten about how he had been betrayed by them once before? And how did Number 6 know he would meet up with a different Colonel and Thorpe, and not the Colonel and Fotherinagy?

  As for the British Navy Commander, he may well be just who he appears to be. However the RAF Group Captain may well be a different kettle of fish, as like with the Colonel, I’ve never been able to make my mind up about him. As Number 6 and the Colonel leave the kitting out room the RAF Group Captain shouts to them “I won’t be a minute” and the doors to the Kitting out room are closed. The Colonel bids his ex-colleague good luck and they walk towards the Meteor jet aircraft which has been fuelled and prepared for the long flight. Meanwhile the milkman having parked his milk float outside the Kitting Out Room is sorting out his crates of milk bottles as he watches the Colonel and Number 6 walk away. He then picks up a crate of milk bottles and walks towards the double doors of Kitting out Room. We don’t see it of course, but the milkman enters the Kitting Out Room, and what takes place after that is complete supposition. But why did the Colonel hang back, “I won’t be a minute” he said. Was that deliberate because he was waiting for the milkman? Perhaps the Group Captain then helped the milkman into a flying suite, because the milkman had only a few moments before he had to join Number 6, having taken the place of the Group Captain as pilot of the Meteor jet aircraft. That would presuppose that the Group Captain was in league with The Village. Then again, it might be quite on the cards that the appearance of the milkman at the aerodrome was something ordinary and everyday, as he delivers the milk, and this Agent has taken his place which would naturally get him into the Kitting Out Room. The Group Captain might have been taken by surprise for a moment by the arrival of the milkman, then overcome by nerve gas, the milkman having produced a gas gun as he entered the Kitting Out Room. After which the milkman quickly got into his flying suit and helmet, and with the tinted visor down, hurried to the aircraft having taken the Group Captain’s place.
   After Number 6 had been returned to The Village, I can imagine that the Meteor jet would have to disappear, after all the pilot could hardly return to RAF Gibraltar without the navigator. And it would have been worse had the Group Captain been the pilot. Imagine had he returned to RAF Gibraltar without Number 6, the questions he would have faced. So both pilot and aircraft had to disappear, that’s why the Group Captain had to be replaced as pilot. As for the Group Captain, he may well have simply have gone back to the RAF. If he was on the level, surely he would have raised the alarm, and as a result the Commander of RAF Gibraltar would have been informed. But either way, there would still be a missing aircraft and crew to deal with when it failed to return to RAF Gibraltar……..

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