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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