Monday, 6 March 2017

The Tally Ho

The Prisoner    by our own reporter

  Its been 50 years since The Prisoner to become known as No.6 faced his arrival in The Village {that’s him pictured on the right} his abduction having taken place in September 1966. He looks good for his age, doesn’t look a day much over 38 years. Some would say the Prisoner looks better today that he has for ages.
   Why he was put in The Village is anyone's guess. There are those who believe that it was because he had resigned his job, and refused to give a reason. But then when one resigns a job one has to do so by letter, but is not obliged to give a reason. That must have been infuriating for No.2, seeing as all he seemed to want was to bring No.6’s file up to date. There’s no parole from The Village, which is basically a picturesque, Italianate prison. However he did manage to escape once, but no sooner had he returned to London, than it seemed he couldn’t wait to return to The Village! I suppose its as No.2 once said, “He’ll eventually go to his room, it’s the only place he can ever go.”  And yet the Prisoner has been released over the years on video tape and in
DVD box-sets. He’s been digitally re-mastered, turned into Blu-ray, and high- definitionied so much so that the Prisoner no longer looks his age, and seemingly as though it was filmed only last year! There just one problem with that, he wasn’t!
   But back to the Prisoners abduction, I’m of the opinion that his resignation wasn't the reason for his abduction to The Village, that and his resignation was a pure coincidence. After all he had been under the closest possible surveillance even before he resigned. By whom? Well it could have been by his own people, perhaps he had become suspect of something, no longer to be found trust worthy. More likely the surveillance cameras were placed in his house by those who organized his abduction to The Village! I think there’s a question of time here. And I don’t think it was  that bureaucrat to whom ZM73 handed his letter of resignation, because he couldn’t possibly have had time to organize the two agents {in the guise of undertakers} to be waiting at the entrance to the car park in order to follow ZM73 back through London to his home. Thinking about it, the two undertakers could have driven  into the car park themselves, and abducted him from there. But then again perhaps the nerve agent used by one of the undertakers, sprayed out from a gas gun, only works best in confined spaces!
   There was the question over the Prisoner’s sympathies. No.2 might know where they lay, but people change, so do loyalties. And yet No.6 seems to maintain his loyalty, but to which side? The department which he once worked for, or that of The Village? On the other hand, if those responsible for The Village, are ZM73’s former colleagues, then he maintains his loyalty to both!   As to the question of the Prisoner-No.6’s identity, some would have it that he’s ‘Danger Man’ John Drake, others see him as representing Everyman. And yet in my book he’s Patrick McGoohan! But either way readers will no doubt keep our friend No.6 under the closet possible surveillance in 2017-18.  

Be seeing you

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