Village Life!

    It would seem that some people in The Village have it pretty easy, lounging about in deckchairs and the like. While some punished for something they have done wrong, are being made to hop everywhere on one leg for hours, sometimes days on end! Whilst those aboard the Stone Boat appear to be busy preparing her in readiness for the Ex-Admiral to take her out to sea, and those other two, well they’re simply playing beach ball. Bit dangerous playing it there I should have thought!  However there might be a cunning plan behind the two climbing the rigging, a seemingly inane activity. They could be practicing an escape routine under the very point of Number 2’s umbrella shooting stick, an escape by sea. Not aboard the Stone boat, but some other vessel perhaps hidden along the coastline. Then again it might be just be two men having a race to see which of them can get to the top of the rigging first!

Be seeing you

What’s No.6?

    Oh very funny Sir Charles, for someone who might well have been superfluous to this episode of ‘Do Not Forsake Me Oh My Darling,’ had it not been for the fact that the Colonel had been seconded to The Village!
    Twice before when ZM73 had escaped the confines of The Village he went running straight to the Colonel. Admittedly the first time was a put up job, but nevertheless had ZM73 reached London that time he would have gone running straight to the Colonel’s office, just as he did the second time. But this third time, seeing as the Colonel was otherwise engaged, someone else had to be contrived for ZM73 to go running to. I wonder if you did recognize the Colonel’s face, Sir Charles, when he came calling claiming to be ZM73? If you didn’t you played your part well. It’s highly likely that ZM73 recognized the face of the Colonel staring back at him in the mirror, that’s why he punched it with his fist. Besides which, at the end ZM73 refers to the Colonel by his title when I don’t think the Colonel was ever mentioned in Number 6’s presence!
   So Sir Charles, did you really know your future son-in-law had been abducted to The Village? Were you lying to your daughter when she put it to you that you had known all this time, and let her go through that hell. You sent him on a mission, and he couldn’t get in touch with her. Did you honestly know that ZM73 cannot get in touch with Janet? If you didn’t send him on a mission, and you said that you had told Janet more than you should, you shouldn’t have been telling her that. So when you said you had no idea where he was, were you telling Janet the truth? You don’t even know anyone who does know where he is, or so you claim! It’s awful, we’re like Janet, we don’t know if you’re telling the truth or not! Did you know that ZM73 had in fact handed in his resignation? If you did you certainly hadn’t told your daughter, as she was under the impression he was still working for you. What was it she said when the Colonel/Prisoner said “Miss Portland you must be aware of the kind of work he did,” “Obviously, working for my father.” So Janet was unaware of her fiancé having handed in his resignation!

    Did the Colonel know that ZM73 had handed in his resignation?   
    Did Sir Charles actually know where ZM73 was, that he had been abducted to The Village? If he didn’t, someone was keeping Sir Charles in the dark. But that’s the trouble, because even after 50 years there is an uncertainty about Sir Charles Portland which persists to this day.
    So what’s number six? As well as being a transparency slide, it’s an in-joke of a kind, contrived to make the television viewers ears prick up and the mind automatically think Sir Charles knows about Number 6. He could have easily said what is number 25, or 7, or number 11. But he said number six, which I’m sure is deliberate, to cause an effect. To say what’s number six?” It’s suggestive to the subconscious mind.
   A keen rosairian, I wonder what the name of the rose is in his button hole? It looks plastic to my eye!

Be seeing you 

Exhibition of Arts And Crafts

                   “You ain’t seen me, right!”

BcNu

Quote For The Day

    “I don’t know! Where’s Number Six?”
                             {The Supervisor – It’s Your Funeral}
   There is an understanding that Observers do see and hear everything, even if they do not believe it!  See and hear everything? When there was that time Number 240 couldn’t find Number 6, and she is supposed to be one of their best observers, that doesn’t say much for the rest. See and hear everything, what when there are only 7 observers in the Control Room at any one time! I suppose they should have known where anyone was at any given time of day. And if they didn’t it is the Supervisors task of making sure they do. But even Supervisors are not infallible. After all the Supervisor Number 54 in ‘It’s Your Funeral’ had a job of keeping track of Number 6!
   As far as we know only two Supervisors were given assistants, Number 26 in ‘Hammer Into Anvil,’ and Number 54 in ‘Checkmate. Although there could be another occasion, Number 22 was seen in the Control Room during ‘It’s your Funeral,’ he could have been appointed as assistant to Number 26. After all, he wasn’t exactly inundated with work! And yet there is another instance, during ‘The Chimes of Big Ben,’ Number 2’s assistant was seen in the Control Room, after which he was never seen again with Number 2!

Be seeing you

A Favourite Scene In Checkmate

    After his conversation with Number 14, Number 6 walks off followed by a woman, the white Queen-Number 14.

    “You’re following me!”
    “I had to see you, when do you plan to escape?”
    “How did you know I was going to?”
    “Well everybody plans 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.”
    “Well it’s been invaluable experience, at least I can tell you what not to try.”
    “How do I know I can trust you?”
    “That’s a risk you’ll have to take!”
    “Not me!”
    Number 6 is suspicious of Number 8 right from the beginning, but why she should think Number 6’s spirits broken I’m not so sure about. His spirit doesn’t look broken to me.
   Did Number 8 approach Number 6 independently, or was she already under the influence of the doctor-Number 23 and set on Number 6 like a dog is unknown, but yes is probably the answer.  
   Poor Number 8, one can only guess at how many times she has been used against other prisoners and their plans, but this is the last time.
  

Be seeing you  

Inception!

    At one point during B of ‘A B and C,’ the doctor-Number 14 puts the following words in B’ mouth. But the danger was would Number 6 hear her voice or that of B? If he had heard Number 14’s the shock would have woken him, he’d have seen everything, and they would have failed. But as luck had it Number 6 heard B’s voice. Later, when Number 6 confronts C on a street which is supposed to be in Paris it soon becomes obvious that C’s voice had been dubbed. Not only had Number 6 been putting words into C’s mouth, because it’s his dream, but he disguised the voice. Had it not been, we the television viewer would have realized that C was in fact Number 2 before Number 6 would have had the opportunity of revealing his identity!

Be seeing you

The Village Was Deserted!

    The Village flag, with its canopied Penny Farthing design, fluttered in the breeze as the leaves on the trees. A discarded carried bag from the General Store was blown along a cobbled path, other than that nothing in The Village was disturbed. There were overturned tables and colourful canopies at the Old People’s Home as though people left in a hurry, and yet at table at the Cafe tea things were still set out for afternoon tea!
    No-one stirred, The Village was deserted!
    No-one was serving or being served at the Cafe, the General Store was locked up. No-one to be seen at the Old People’s Home, even the Stone Boat was vacant of anyone even remotely trying to sail her. What’s more the Ex-Admiral’s chess pieces lay scattered on the lawn.
    The Village was deserted!
    There was no-one playing beach ball, or paddling in the water, no-one sunbathing, or promenading along the quayside, or swimming in the open air lido, but then no-one went swimming in the open air lido! There was no helicopter standing idle on the triangular lawn by the sea wall. No-one looking out over the estuary from the outlook atop of the cliffs.
    The Village was deserted!
    The taxi rank was vacant of any taxis, nor were there any parked in the roads. There was no-one at the top of the Bell Tower pulling on a rope to ring a bell in order to attract someone, anyone’s attention. There was no-one’s attention to attract.
    The Village was deserted!
    The Green Dome was open, the door to which stood ajar, but if it were a jar then it couldn’t be a door could it? Either way there was still no-one there, Number 2 wasn’t sat in the black spherical chair, all he, or she, had left behind in her or his place, was an umbrella shooting stick. But the old school or college scarf had been taken.
    The Village was deserted!
    There wasn’t even that white membranic Guardian roving about keeping The Village safe, no point trying to keep the citizens safe the Village was deserted! Which begs the question..............why did they leave me, The Village cat behind? So here I sit waiting for the day when there’s a happy return of someone........anyone!
   The Village was.........almost deserted!

Be seeing you

The Therapy Zone

    What was Number 24, Alison to use her name, planning when she was taking all those photographs of Number 6, to enter the photographic completion at The Village Festival using a portrait photograph of him? She had already taken five pictures of Number 6, but felt she needed to take one more, seeing how she needed lots of practice if she was to stand a chance in the photographic section of The Village Festival. Somehow I don’t think Number 24 would have won the photographic event with a picture of Number 6, after all she was hardy using the right kind of camera to begin with, a Polaroid! I should have thought her chances of winning would be extremely limited, after all the size of a Polaroid picture isn’t that large, the Judges would barely see it pinned to a wall or display board. If Alison was genuinely interested in winning the photographic competition she should have used a 35mm camera, the once developed the photograph could be enlarged or blown up in order to create a bigger impact on the judges. But perhaps in this case it’s not the camera, or size of the photograph, but the subject which matters. After all in many ways Number 6 is a larger than life character!

Be seeing you

Exhibition of Arts And Crafts

                  “You ain’t seen me, right!”

BCNU

Page 6

    I guess one might ask oneself how many times have you watched ‘the prisoner’ in the past 50 years? For myself up until 1977 I’d have watched the series about three and a half times. Then again in 1984, however from November 1986 to 88 when the whole series had been released by Channel 5 video, as often as I liked, but caught a terrestrial television channel’s transmissions when I could. In November 1986 I only had the first four episodes because ‘the Prisoner’ was issued periodically two videos at a time, with ‘Fall Out’ on its own. And I watched those first four episodes over, and over, and over, time and time again until the next two videos were released. What’s more those Channel 5 videos play as well today as they did back in 1986. Then of course came the advent of DVD, ‘the Prisoner’ re-mastered, put in high definition, and Blu-ray, and digital television. The digital channel BRAVO screened the series a few times, but I didn’t have digital television at that time. ITV4 was next to screen ‘the Prisoner’ a few times, by that time all of Great Britain had had to go digital and I caught the tail ending of ‘Fall Out’ during its final screening.
   So how many times have I watched ‘the Prisoner?’ About once a year since 1988 to about 2001, then only for special occasions, on video that is, and not counting the numerous single episodes watched frequently. Then there were the more recent screenings on ‘True Entertainment’ earlier this year. And last month I watched ‘The Chimes of Big Ben,’ why? Because the chimes of Big Ben have now fallen silent, so that renovations can be made to the tower.

Be seeing you

Village Life!

    “If you are second to One, does that mean as Supervisor I’m second to Two?”
    “No, as your number is one hundred and six, it means you are one hundred and four places below me!”
    “But I’m standing next to you, what’s more I’m even dressed like you!”
    “No you’re not!”
    “I think you’ll find we are wearing the same uniform.”
    “Only similar I think you’ll find. You are wearing an olive green polo-neck jersey, whereas I am wearing a grey one which makes me more important than you!”
    “It’s a subtle difference I admit, but we are both wearing double-breasted blazers, mind you I wouldn’t like to be in your shoes!”
    “Why do you say that?”
    “Because if this with Number Six goes wrong you’ll be gone, but I’ll still be here!”
    “I wouldn’t put money on that if I were you!”

Be seeing you

Living In Harmony!

     Living In Harmony there’s irony in that somewhere. Because it means living in an American frontier town in the 1800’s, or living in Harmony or a previous episode ‘A Change of Mind.’
    On the one hand Harmony seems a peaceful enough town, the townspeople seem happy and contented enough, and just as long as they do as the Judge says that’s how things will remain. And yet, in ‘A Change of Mind Number 2 would like to see people living in harmony together, and making no room for any goats which might stray in and upset the status quo! A place where the least transgression is punished by first being accused of being disharmonious, then having to face the Committee, thereafter being posted as unmutual. Then any privileges one might have are taken away. No more taxis, meaning one has to walk everywhere {where is the hardship in that?} no more credit {they’ll stave you until you learn to toe the line} and finally the threat of the operation known as Instant Social Conversion. It is my humble opinion that it would be far better to be living in harmony, the American frontier town that is. At least regulars get the first drink on the house in the local Saloon, and no real harm comes to you there. I wouldn’t mind being one of the Judges “boys,” a gunslinger by the name of................ Dave “Dead Shot” Stimpson the meanest hombre this side of the Pecos!

Be seeing you

Exhibition of Arts And Crafts

               “The bones are yours dad!”

BcNu

Village Life!

    “Business please.”
    “Two Undertakers for the Convention!”
    “What’s that?”
    “The Undertakers Convention.”
    “Yes I heard that, but what is it?”
    “What do you mean what is it?”
    “Well I don’t know I’ve never heard of it.”
    “Well it’s a gathering of men who are undertakers.”
    “What do you undertake?”
    “Well we’re not really Undertakers.”
    “Well in that case I can’t let you through!”
    “What?!”
    “I can’t just let anyone through you know, it’s more then my jobs worth!”
    “But we’re Undertakers.”
    “You said you weren’t really Undertakers. Look I think you had better describe yourselves.” 
    “Well we’re wearing black top hats, black overcoats, black suits, black shoes, black glasses, black ties, and white shirts.”
    “Oh, you’re the men in black!”
    “Yes that’s right.”
    “Well pass men in black!”

Be seeing you

A Favourite Scene In Dance of The Dead

    “You’re late!”
    “There’s a lot to do.”
    “Are you going in?”
    “To make my report.”
    “Does it concern me and Number Six?”
    “No. We’ll overlook that and put it down to enthusiasm.”
    “Oh thank you. Oh could you get me a directive about Dutton, he’s being rather difficult.”

    So Number 2 is going into that room to make her report. At this time we have no idea what or who is in that room, later we, like Number 6, discover that there’s an active teletype by which Number 2 sends reports and receives her instructions, such as a directive about Dutton. And yet Number 2 didn’t receive that termination order against Dutton, a doctor had that to pass onto Number 2!
   But why use a teletype to send reports and gain her instructions? After all isn’t Number 1 in charge of The Village, and wasn’t Number 2 speaking to Number 1 on the telephone early in the episode? Number 1 asked about the Ball, to which Number 2 replied “Tomorrow night…. we’re preparing for it now.” Number 1 expressed the opinion that he wished he could be there, to which Number 2 replied “Yes I wish you could come too,” while her expression says she’s said it but really doesn’t believe what she said. Or she’s not so sure about that being a good idea. She has reservations about Number 1 turning up at the Ball and the possible consequences if he did.

   So why not use that red telephone to give Number 1 her report, and to receive her instructions? The teletype suggests long range communication, perhaps Number 2 has to make her report to those “masters” we hear so much about, most likely back in London. Which would suggest that Number 6 was wrong about Number 1 being the boss!
   Names are not supposed to be used in The Village, however as we know they are. And for official purposes everyone has a number, so why does the doctor-Number 40 use Dutton’s name instead of his number 42? You would think the doctor would know better. But then if he had referred to Dutton as Number 42 we, the television viewer, might not have known to whom he was referring!

Be seeing you 

Thought For The Day

    When during ‘The Chimes of Big Ben,’ when Number 6 arrived in what he took to be an office he knows very well in London, he used the reassuring chimes of Big Ben to confirm his location. Because when you hear Big Ben’s chimes you imagine yourself to be in London. The chimes can be heard five miles away, but how loud would they have been in the Colonel’s office? And yet as we witness the chimes in this case were deceptive. I realize that Number 6 relied on the chimes as evidence of place, but I cannot help but wonder why Number 6 didn’t raise up the Venetian blinds and look out of one of the windows? If he had what might have met his eyes? A view of The Village perhaps. Or a simple blank wall, or maybe a view of Whitehall from the office window?

Be seeing you

Caught On Camera!

   After the two motor mechanics had given Number 6 a good working over, not damaging the tissue, just bruising it a little, why did they feel the need to remove his jacket?
   Surely the scene should have looked like this with jacket intact.

  Obviously the scene had been rehearsed which these two production photographs indicate, the one with Number 6 wearing his jacket, the other without.

   So why go for a take without Number 6 wearing his jacket? And that in turn brings me back to my original question. After the two motor mechanics had given Number 6 a good working over, not damaging the tissue, just bruising it a little, why did they feel the need to remove his jacket? Mind you they are most obliging in The Village, having bruised the tissue they have Number 6 taken home on a stretcher and put to bed!

Be seeing you

ESCAPE!

   Number 6 attempts to escape The Village by helicopter. One should not question Number 6’s capabilities, just use ones imagination and enjoy the ride with him. However one should never underestimate the technology employed by Number 2 either. Take that helicopter for example, it must surely be fitted with “drone” technology, something today the armed forces take for granted.
   So Number 6 is attempting to escape The Village by helicopter. Unfortunately he has not flown so far away when he begins to lose control. Control of the helicopter has been taken over by an operator in the Control Room and it is he who with the aid of the view on the wall screen is able to pilot the helicopter safely back to The Village. Number 6 is of course still on board but powerless to do anything. All he can do is enjoy the ride.
  Perhaps Number 6 has been nothing more than a pawn in Number 2’s game. Allow him to escape in the helicopter, and whilst demonstrating that escape is not possible, the new drone technology is put to a final test!

Be seeing you

A Symbolic Scene in Checkmate

    After the game of chess, Number 14 congratulates Number 6 on playing a good game. They walk then talk, and eventually they end up standing outside the bay window of a shop next the café. “Its like the game, you have to distinguish between the blacks and the whites.” But that doesn’t answer the question of the Peg Wooden doll, which is placed in a chair by a hand. Yes it’s a shop assistant simply dressing the window display, but just for a moment as Number 6 looks at the doll this with the sudden piece of incidental music, it appears to be symbolic of something. But I cannot think what. But it might be Patrick McGoohan playing mind games with us, and isn’t symbolic of anything at all, except perhaps to remind one of our childhood!

Be seeing you  

Thought For The Day

    What’s so special about Number 6? Okay he’s not your average prisoner, otherwise he wouldn’t be in line for so much special treatment! No extreme measures to be used, they don’t want him damaged, not a man of fragments. Mustn’t damage the brain tissue. Number 2 isn’t allowed to use the normal techniques, too valuable say their masters. What masters, not Number 1 then? Number 6 has a future with The Village, I don’t think Number 6 sees it quite that way! So other ways must be used, that’s because Number 6 is far too valuable to them. Nevertheless one Number 2 didn’t mind putting Number 6’s life at risk, that time he and a doctor got into his subconscious. And then again in ‘Hammer Into Anvil,’ Number 2 claimed he was going to hammer Number 6, but then he who fights by the sword will die by the sword. Either that of be driven to a nervous breakdown! Oh yes and put the Man With No Name in a dangerous environment, isolate him. Give him love, take it away, make him kill, and he will break if only in his mind! And mentioning the mind, if putting one man’s mind into another man’s body isn’t an extreme measure then I don’t know what is! Number 6 must be pretty special to have survived completely unscathed, both mentally and physically, after so many ordeals which would have broken a lesser man. Its no wonder they saw him as having a future with The Village!

Be seeing you

Teabreak Teaser!

    During ‘The Chimes of Big Ben’ Number 6 discovered that he had been betrayed by both the Colonel and Fotherinagy. And yet when the opportunity to escape The Village in ‘Many Happy Returns’ is presented to him, his instinct is to go running back to the Colonel a second time. But how did Number 6 know that when he made that call in the country he would not encounter the Colonel and Fotheringay from ‘Chimes,’ but a different Colonel together with Thorpe? There was no way he could have possibly known. Unless he asked the bureaucrat, to whom he once handed in his letter of resignation, about the Colonel, when Number 6 returned to that office when he made that call in town. But in any case, why go running back to the people who have betrayed him? Obviously that’s where the answers he seeks lie, within the department he once worked for. But of course they are under no obligation to help their former colleague, what with the official secrets act and all that, it may be assumed that The Village comes under that. After all there have to be some secrets from an ex-secret agent!

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Village Life!

    “See that chap there?”
    “What about him?”
    “He’s not wearing the regular attire for The Village.”
    “Neither are we if it comes to that.”
    “Yes, but we don’t have to. We’re Top Hat officials of administration.”
    “Not Undertakers then?”
    “What do you mean?”
    “Well we have been mistaken for Undertakers before.”
    “Really, when was this?”
    “I was with Number Eighty-one, we were on special assignment in London and were about to abduct a high ranking Civil Servant when this woman came up to us and asked for our card!”
    “Really, what did you do?”
    “Well we put the coffin we were carrying on the pavement, and I wrote down a false address and gave it to the woman. Her husband had recently died, and she was looking for an Undertaker.”
    “Extraordinary!”
    “Have you noticed anything about that chap?”
    “No.”
    “He stands out dressed like that.”
    “Nothing remarkable about that, so do we. But by tomorrow he’ll be dressed just like everybody else, and become a mere face in the crowd!”
   “That’s a bit deep for a Thursday.”
   “Is it Thursday?”
   “Yes.”  
    “I thought it was Wednesday.”
    “What difference does it make?”
    “If its Friday it makes us late for a meeting with the Works Committee meeting.”
    “Really, what’s on the agenda?”
    “Cleansing of cesspits, and the treatment of sewage. And all of a sudden its not such a picturesque village!”
    “It’s about time The Village was on a main sewer.”
    “I know that. I’ve been telling the Committee until I’m blue in the face, but will the Chairman listen?”
    “It was just the same when I went to a meeting of the agricultural Committee. Do you know I’ve never known anyone get so stirred up about potatoes before.”
    “What was the problem?”
    “Farmer Twenty three-seven’s Bedford Gems had got blight!”
    “And his chickens had stopped laying!”
    “Who told you that?”
    “Farmer Twenty three-seven’s wife, One one-nine.”
    “It’s nothing but problems these days. I know let’s go and have a cup of tea.”
   “We’ll miss the meeting works Committee meeting about the drains.”
   “Well let the works Committee create its own stench!”
   “I thought that was the cesspit!”
   “We might have a teacake as well.”
   “Toasted?”
   “Of course, and it’s your turn to pay remember.........”

Be seeing you

Page 6

    The Prisoner 50 years of age, who would have thought it? I must say Number 6 looks good for having lived so much of his life in The Village, he doesn’t look a day over 38. But what nationality would you say Number 6 was, in his former life that is, British? He seems British enough, he lived in London, apparently having worked for a British Intelligence. Mind you that’s nothing to go by. Take that fellow John Drake, ‘Danger Man’ as he was. He started out as an American, and at times he had the most appalling American accent, that was when he worked for Security NATO. In time he moved from Security NATO, to M9 within British Intelligence. I suppose it was to have been MI9, but for some reason the Intelligence part was dropped. Oh not by British Intelligence, but by ATV, but if we go down that road there’s a great danger of mixing fiction with fact, and we wouldn’t want that would we......would we? No, I didn’t think we did! Anyway Drake having started out with Security NATO an American, and yet after joining British Intelligence he became British! So I suppose Number 6 could have be of British nationality, but since he’s lived in The Village for the past 50 years he’s become more International, like the food was once French, it’s now International, well that’s how Number 2 once described it! What was it? Oh yes, a piece of Quiche Lorraine with a poached egg on the top of it! Mind you that was in the days when Number 6 used to have his breakfast brought to him. Later he still had eggs for breakfast, but without the Quiche!

Be seeing you

A Favourite Scene In Arrival

    “Careful sir, they’re new plants.”
    “Sorry…….goodbye.”
    That’s a trug the gardener’s carrying if you didn’t happen to know. But how did he get there so quickly? After all a few moments ago he was an electrician installing a new loudspeaker in 6 Private! It was once suggested the electrician got there so quickly because he used one of the underground tunnels. Ridiculous! Of course he could be an electrician who is only a gardener in his spare time. On the other hand this is the first demonstration of twins in The Village, the first but by no means the last!

   It’s impossible to see, but I wonder if actor Oliver McGreevy wore the same numbered badge for both the electrician and the gardener? He probably did, but its impossible to tell.

Be seeing you

Fall Out - A Violent And Bloody Revolution!

   The Former Number 6 had vindicated the right of the individual to be individual. Overcome coercion, held fast, maintained, fought, destroyed and resisted. He had shown them the way, convinced them of their mistakes, they needed him. Therefore the former Number 6 had been selected, and all about him is his. Perhaps they were about to stage a coup, using the former Six to usurp Number 1, to replace him with his double, the former Six. I am reminded of both ‘The Prisoner of Zenda’ by Anthony Hope and ‘The Man In The Iron Mask’ by Alexandre Dumas. As it turned out there was a violent revolution {even if one has to imagine the blood} directed against both Number 1 and his Village, but there was no coup, that had failed, the President and members of the Assembly all fleeing in terror!

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The Schizoid Man

    February 10^th, Number 6 must have thought that was a very long day! When he went to bed after helping Alison with her mind reading it was on the evening of the 10^th. And when he woke up it was on the morning of Wednesday February 10th, otherwise he would have altered the date of the day-date calendar by his bed to the 11th. Also, as far as we can tell, he is the only person to have two day/date calendars. In fact this episode of ‘The Schizoid Man’ is quite unique amongst the 17 episodes, as it’s the only one to have a date. ‘A B and C’ does also show the same date Feb10^th, but in that instance it’s the Tally Ho headline which is important, and not the date.

Be seeing you

Caught on Camera!

  What’s the chap in the background up to? No not the one carrying his blazer, mind you it is unusual for an ordinary citizen to have such a plain dark blazer. I mean the chap who appears to be holding a cup of tea, and squatting to make it look like he’s sitting down, yes him. What’s he supposed to be doing? He looks as though he should be sitting on a shooting stick or something!

Be seeing you

Quote For The Day

    “Supposing I don’t want any flowers?”
    “Everyone has flowers for Carnival, be seeing you.”
                               {Number 6 and a gardener – Dance of The Dead}

    That’s one thing in common ‘6 Private’ has with Number 6’s London home, flower boxes, well at least for the one episode. So whether people want flowers or not they’ll have them because it’s Carnival and like it! There is no choice in The Village, citizens have to go along with it whether they like it or not. That’s the one drawback when you abolish democracy. But not all the cottages have window boxes foisted upon them, in fact I think Number 6’s cottage is the only one to have a window box! So perhaps Number 6 was picked out specially. And the gardener who fixed up the window box, he wasn’t one of the regular gardeners, gardeners don’t wear straw boaters, and he wasn’t wearing a pair of overalls! Number 6 had already been annoyed by the maid, and the postman when he asked Number 6 to sign his number in receipt of a special delivery, so why not annoy him further by foisting a window box on him when he doesn’t want flowers! To try and get his own back, Number 6 tries to annoy the Observers by placing a cushion over the screen of the television! I wonder how he knew that he could be observed through the television set in the first place?

Be seeing you

Citizen No.8

    What I want to know is, why aren’t you wearing a piped jacket like all the other of Number 2’s assistants? I suppose you think you’re different to everyone else, is that it? Anyway where did you get it? Only two people have worn anoraks, you and Number 6, although technically he wasn’t in The Village at the time!
    “Neither are we!”
    “What did you say?”
    “You, me, Number twenty-Two over there. We’re not in The Village.”
    “If we’re not in The Village, I’d like you to tell me where we are.”
    “We’re in the Green Dome.”
    “And where do you think the Green Dome is if it’s not in The Village?”
    “Well obviously the Green Dome is in The Village. Only technically it’s not really green, it more turquoise colour.”
    “What’s that got to do with it?”
    “Nothing I suppose!”
    “That’s right, nothing.”
    “We’re in the Green Dome on set at MGM film studios.”
    “Now you’re mixing fact and fantasy.”
    “At least I can tell the difference. We’re both prisoners, held captive in a long strip of 35milimeter film!”
    “You don’t know what you’re talking about kid. I can walk out of that door any time I like and go home.”
    “Go on then, try it. Go out of that door and go home.”
    “You think I’m scared, too afraid to try it.”
    “Well go on then!”
    “Alright I will.”
    “But don’t blame me if you walk out into The Village!”
    “You said we weren’t in The Village.”
    “So we’re not.”
    “Then how................”
    “We have to leave here and go out into The Village, otherwise how do we get to Harmony?”
    “I don’t know?”
   “Say where’s Twenty-two going, what’s upset her?”
   “Perhaps she didn’t like witnessing you strangling her to death!”
    “Cathy..........................!”

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It’s Way Out - Man!

    During the opening sequence of Arrival we enjoy the extended journey made by the Prisoner, from his London home, to that office where he hands in his letter of resignation to a man sat behind a desk.

    After the Prisoner has driven into an underground car park, in Abingdon Street by the way, we see the Prisoner go through a pair of doors with the words "WAY OUT" on them. Now these two words have been interpreted in three ways, A B & C.

A, It is Number 6 being unconventional as always and entering by an exit.

B, It could signify his way out ie. resignation.

C, It may be a comment on how the rest of the series was going to turn out. Viewers cannot say they were not warned!

   Oh very good, save for the fact that A, the Prisoner was not known as No.6 until after his arrival in the village, nor was the Prisoner at that time unconventional. Because all the Prisoner was doing was leaving, not entering a building, the underground car park via the way out! B, I suppose using the words "WAY OUT" could be a sort of in-joke about the Prisoner's resignation, but somehow I don't think this has anything to do with it - it's just a sign on a door, or doors in this case. And finally C, well Patrick McGoohan had no idea how the series was going to pan out. So "C" can only be an interpretation with hindsight - after the event!

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A Right Free For All!

   In ‘Free For All’ Number Six is flatly defeated at the end of the episode. They might not have been able to "damage the tissue," but they gave it a damned good bruising! Number 6 gained nothing for his pains. He is made vulnerable to the authorities because he entertains the idea of gaining power {being elevated to the new Number Two}. Much of this episode then can be seen as the study of a candidate's motivations. Although his motivations are suspect once he has been conditioned, he does enter the race with a clear mind. Some observers have noted that Number Six's ego trips him up - that his desire for power is some type of character flaw subject to exploitation. But there's probably something more political going on here - Number Six's flaw is more likely the belief {however tentative} that the possibility exists for change within the system. The system portrayed here, is inflexible - totalitarian. There is no room for change.

    It should be noted that there is no clear evidence that Number Six actually decided to stand for office, he simply couldn't resist the

challenge when given the opportunity to stand. Number Six had no sights set on the position of Number Two, he simply wanted to take advantage of an opportunity provided, to make his thoughts known to the citizens of The Village, to shake them up, to organise a mass breakout!
    On the day of the Prisoner's arrival in The Village, Number 2 intimated that the Prisoner may even be given a position of authority, but I suspect that that would be only on the grounds of the Prisoner's co-operation!

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Exhibition of Arts And Crafts

                    “ You ain’t seen me, right!”

BUNU

What Are Facts Behind Town Hall?

    We, as the television viewer, must be more versed in the facts behind the Town Hall than any citizen in The Village. The facts as seen in ‘Free For All, ‘The General,’ ‘Dance of The Dead,’ and ‘A Change of Mind,’ not forgetting the workings of the Control Room. I think it’s not so much a question of “What are facts behind Town Hall,’ but more to the point, why draw the citizens attention to them in the first place?

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Quote For The Day

    “They’ve heard, they are aware, and they don’t need anyone’s help!”
               {Number 6 – It’s Your Funeral}
    But apparently they do, they need Number 6’s help. That’s why they selected him, to give the plan credibility, without which the plan might backfire, which of course it did!
    “I won’t go for it” Number 6 shouted at the ceiling “Whatever it is, so you may as well stop trying,” and he showed Number 50 the door. But Number 50 fell in a dead faint, on time and according to schedule. And if there’s one chink in Number 6’s armour it’s that he cannot resist a damsel in distress. Even though it’s been a case of many times bitten forever shy, there he is sitting over the unconscious Number 50 lying on the floor, a glass of water in his hand waiting for her to wake up. Number 6 has fallen for it again, despite having been betrayed several times by women. But for once there is no question of betrayal, as they are on the same side but need to stop the assassination of Number 2 for two different reasons. On the one hand, to stop mass reprisals {a never to be forgotten deterrent} carried out on innocent people if indeed anyone in The Village is innocent. And on the other it’s a very personal reason, simply for Monique to save her father from making a grave mistake which will cost him his life.
    As we witness in the episode Plan Division Q was a complete and utter failure {much to the new Number 2’s annoyance} not because Number 6 failed to give credibility to the plan, but because of his involvement in the first place. No doubt the watchmaker-Number 51 and his daughter went back to living their ordinary and mundane lives, while Number 2 could look forward to his own retirement one day, sooner than he might have imagined. As for the proposed reprisals, they appear to have been instantly forgotten with the failure of the execution of Number 2. But there is another way of looking at ‘It’s Your Funeral,’ it might have all been staged for Number 6’s benefit. To see if he could counter such an assassination plot, once he had been manipulated into taking the action he took. So much for “I won’t go for it, whatever it is.....” sometimes I think he can’t help himself, eh Number 6?

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Bureau of Visual Records

    For years and years of watching ‘The General’ when Number 2 puts on those dark glasses, I was left wondering when it was he removed his spectacles? Because I felt I had missed something there. But of course he didn’t, and it wasn’t until I was able to go though the action frame by frame that I realized he hadn’t taken off his spectacles at all, he’d put the dark glasses on over them! When Number 2 and the Top Hats of his administration should need to wear such safety glasses I don’t know. Are they something to do with Speedlearn, so their eyes are not affected by the sublimator device which projects the Professor’s lectures onto the cortex of the brain through the eyes? If so why not simply look away from the screen?
   
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Village Life!

   “Oh just as you requested sir………oh no sir, nothing can go wrong now, unless it rains……….oh the weather forecast is fine and dry…….yes sir, well the people are getting very excited about it, people have been pushing dummies about in wheelbarrows and pushchairs all week asking a penny for the Guy………..yes well they people do like to throw themselves into something like this, everyone has been out and about collecting wood for the bonfire……………well we’ve never had a firework display before, it will be very spectacular………….the guy sir, Number 6 is the Guy!”

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Citizen No.18

    You’re rather like Number 2 in a way, don’t you think? Perhaps you have never considered it before. You both work for administration, you are both chairmen, Number 2 of the town Council, and you of the Committee. More than that, while sitting on the Council Number 2 is the only person to have a voice, while the other twelve members stand at rostrums like tailors dummies! But your fellow Committee members aren’t much better, they sit there unemotional, not saying a word while you put the case to Number 6 about his complaints. But then you didn’t did you, it was the voice on the tape recorder that did that, after all you switched it on! The only real difference between you and Number 2 is, you wear a black top hat of administration, and Number 2 doesn’t! Also the members of your Committee, and those on the town Council could all change places and no-one would be able to tell the difference!

  Do you know the funny thing? When the voice played on the tape recorder says “We deplore your spirit of disharmony,” Number 6 actually replies to the voice “That’s a common complaint around here isn’t it!”

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Exhibition of Arts And Crafts

                “You ain’t seen me, right!”

BcNu

Village Life!

    “Good morning Number Twelve.”
    “Good morning Fiona. How is your father today.”
    “He’s in two minds!”
    “Oh I’m sorry to hear that.”
    “He either thinks he’s a former Number Two who was hounded out of office for being an Unmutual.”
    “Really?!”
    “On the other hand he’s taken to wearing a pink blazer, and believes he was suffocated by the Guardian after a fight with you, and keeps insisting I call him number One Hundred, when his number is Thirty four!”
    “Can’t the doctors do anything for him?”
    “Not really. Now he’s taken to wearing that tinted visor.”
    “Why is that?”
    “So that people don’t recognize him for who he is, and frog march to the hospital!”
    “Why should they do that?”
    “Why for being unmutual!”

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A Favourite Scene In Do Not Forsake Me Oh My Darling!

    The scene of the open swimming pool or Village lido, brrr I bet that water’s cold! No doubt that’s why none of the young women are actually in the water. Mind you they are always there, always in the swimming pool. They were there when Number 6 passed by that way after leaving Number 9 in the Stone Boat on his way to the helicopter. And then again in ‘Fall Out’ when the order to evacuate The Village had been given and helicopters were taking off from all parts, there they were messing about in a boat and playing with a beach ball. They didn’t take a blind bit of notice! And here they are again as the helicopter was arriving bringing the Colonel to The Village in ‘Do Not Forsake Me Oh My Darling.’ Didn’t these three young women have anything better to do with their time, like work of some kind? I suppose on one occasion they might have been on their lunch hour, but it can’t always be lunchtime in The Village.......can it?

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Thought For The Day

    Number 54 said a woman is always impatient to wear a new dress, and for the Ball in the evening she had been given something special to wear, the costume of Queen Elizabeth 1^stof England. She was also made one of the three judges in the trial against the Prisoner, two out of the three judges to have had personal contact with the prisoner but not the third, he was the town crier so perhaps he’s there to be an independent and unbiased judge! But even then he’s quick enough to pass the death sentence against the prisoner. Its Number 54 who seems to be unbiased, in the way she said the prisoner has his rights. If it was not for her intervention, its probable that the prisoner wouldn’t have been able to call his character witness, much good it did him!

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Me’ Thinks The Lady Doth Protest Too Much!

   But of course Number 50 is quite right when she makes her protest to Number 6, “I’m not one of them.” Because of course she isn’t, and it’s not long before he realizes that Monique is being used as a pawn in one of Number 2’s games.
    “I won’t go for it whatever it is, so you might as well stop trying!”
   Its strange, of all the women Number 6 becomes closely involved with, he never once refers to Monique by name, not like Nadia, or Alison. Yes there was also Number 8 in ‘Checkmate,’ but Number 6 never allowed himself to become that close to her nor did she have a name. I don’t think he liked women to cry, he told her to stop crying that time in the taxi, although her tears did have an effect upon him later in the episode, they even mellowed him slightly, even though his hand was twitching! It’s a question of trust you see, before Monique came along Number 6 had been betrayed by a series of women, commencing on the day of his arrival in The Village. The only woman to show Number 6 any act of true kindness was the young gypsy woman, although I don’t suppose that counts because it’s not in The Village!
    But it is strange that seeing that Number 6 and Monique have been thrown together for the cause, that he doesn’t use her name. Mind you he doesn’t use her number either. But then to Number 6 Monique doesn’t actually contribute much towards preventing the so called assassination plot, she’s really not that important. Her only real importance is to bring Number 6 into the affair, after that she becomes little more than his side-kick.

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Busy Potter?

   Potter was John Drake's contact man in the ‘Danger Man’ episode of ‘Koroshi,’ and it might be wondered whether or not he was enacting the same role as Potter in ‘The Girl Who Was Death,’ as a shoeshine boy and Drake’s contact man when he told him to go to the Magnum Record shop. But before this, Potter was working in The Village, first as Number 20 the manager of the Labour Exchange, and then as assistant to Number 6 during ‘The Chimes of Big Ben.’ It has been my own opinion that all four Potters are the same character. Recently a friend of mine informed me that this has now become the opinion of Christopher Benjamin himself, who formerly believed that Potter in ‘the Prisoner’ was not the same Potter character in ‘Danger Man.’ However after watching the clip from ‘Danger Man – Koroshi,’ and the three clips from ‘the Prisoner’ he said “Now I’m beginning to wonder if it was that Potter in Danger Man who was in the Prisoner.” “I’m beginning to think they should have been Potter, the Potter from Danger Man, but why didn’t someone tell me that I was still Potter?”

    And yet there is another Potter played by Frederic Abbott in ‘Do Not Forsake Me Oh My Darling,’ obviously this Potter is not the same character as previously played by Christopher Benjamin, but it is curious that they used the same name. However both Potters do have something in common, they are nondescript, there being nothing remarkable about them.

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Caught On Camera!

    “You’ve had a lucky escape!”
    “You don’t know how lucky........just a minute, what episode is this?”
    “Episode?”
    “Yes, what episode is this?”
    “Checkmate I think.”
    “You think?”
    “Yes I’m sure, yes Checkmate, why?”
    “Just for one awful moment I thought I was back on board the gun runner’s boat!”

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Village Life!

   What did you just say? Its people like you who started the war! Come back here and say that again! Oh go and get........and while you’re about it get a hat that fits!

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