A Favourite Scene

    In ‘Arrival’ Number 6 has been pushed into resigning, filed away in one of those grey filing cabinets, stamped having had his card marked well his picture ex’ed out. Indexed as having resigned, briefed about The Village by Number 2, de-briefed in Number 2’s office, and numbered…is your number Six asks the telephone operator? Yes he says. And having been given an aerial tour of The Village, Number 6 is taking a tour of his home from home. Music is playing over the black loudspeaker, but Number 6 is already beginning to feel like a caged animal, and one can have too much of a good thing even if your cell does have an aspect of a comfortable cottage! Study, bedroom, inbuilt wardrobe, bathroom, a fully equipped dinette with a cupboard stocked with tinned Village Food. But he’s beginning to get irritated, slamming drawers, banging tins of food down as the music gets louder. He paces up and down, a growing expression of anger on his face. He takes the speaker and throwing it to the floor proceeds to trample it to pieces under foot!
   “Attention electrics department please go to Number 6 where adjustment is needed” is the announcement.”
   It would appear that “good old fashioned brute force” has availed Number 6 nothing in this case. Because despite the loudspeaker having been reduced to a broken pile of bits and pieces, the music plays on!
   “How do you stop this thing?” he asks the maid who has returned for her feather duster, dustpan and brush, which she left behind on purpose.

   “We can’t, its automatic.”
   “Who controls it?”
   “I have no idea.”
   “Who runs this place?” 
   “I don’t know…………….. I really don’t know.”
   “You’ve never wondered….. you’ve never tried to find out? How long have you been here?”
   “As long as I can remember.”
   “Parents?”
   “They died when I was a child.”
   “You don’t remember them?”
   “I’ve found out its wiser not to ask questions. We have a saying here, a still tongue makes a happy life.”
   Well Number 6 isn’t going to settle for a happy life, as a goat coming amongst so many sheep things are bound to start happening!

Be seeing you

Specially Delivery!

    Number 6’s costume arrived while he was out, specially delivered for the occasion of Carnival. And yet this is contradictory, because Number 6’s suit can be seen hanging up in his wardrobe in ‘The General.’ Unless of course ‘The General’ is supposed to appear after ‘Dance of The Dead’ in the screening order, which originally it would have been. Number 6 doesn’t get a choice, because other people choose, it’s a game apparently. So it’s likely that Number 2 chose Number 6’s own suit as his costume. This because he’s still himself, well lucky him! So that being the case I’m surprised Number 6 didn’t change into his suit as soon as the maid had left, to get himself out of that Village costume! The black polo shirt didn’t come with the suit, a white shirt and black bow tie instead, which no doubt were taken from one of the two suitcases brought to The Village with him. Suitcases held in storage somewhere.

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General

    Is this the General we hear mention of towards the end of the previous episode? Is this the General to which Number 2 eludes to when he’s speaking to Number 6 as they are driven to the waiting helicopter? It’s no wonder Number 2 says “Report to the General, that’s a new one!” Might it have been the General which came up with such elaborate plans with which to deal with Number 6? If so then it is it which is to blame for all the failures! Number 2 once thought Number 6 was going to sell out. That he wanted to know what he had to sell and to whom he was going to sell it. More than that, he said that the whole of Number 6’s life had been researched and computed, and it boiled down to three people, A B and C. I do not know what made Number 2 think that Number 6 was going to sell out. It must have been that the General lacked one piece of basic information about Number 6 that made it come to such an outlandish computation!
    The General must be destroyed, that was the Professor’s message, and the General was destroyed in very dramatic fashion, and the Professor gave his life trying to save it, and Number 12 in turn. Number 2 has never learned that any plan involving Number 6 ever succeeded, I would have thought the General could have told him that much! Having been given the basic facts first, but then any computer is only as good as its programming, and programmer!

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Village Life!

    “The patient is here doctor.”
    “What’s wrong with him?”
    “I think he must have been in an accident of some kind.”
    “Is it an emergency?”
    “Must be doctor, they haven’t had time to change him into an operating gown!”
    “Can’t A and E deal with him?”
    “No, A and E is full to capacity.”
    “We’re not exactly idle ourselves. Oh he’ll have to wait, cancel the operation.”
    “Until when doctor?”
    “Well I’m expected at my club this afternoon. Tomorrow morning I’ve my private practice, then in the afternoon I’ve got a round of golf to get in. Better book him in again for a fortnight next Thursday.”
    “Can’t be done doctor, a fortnight next Thursday is a public holiday, its Appreciation Day.”
    “Well book him in for the Wednesday after.”
    “That would be Wednesday February tenth.”
    “So?”
    “Well according to the schedule the patient’s booked in for a makeover and four to six weeks of mind conditioning therapy.”
    “How’s the diary looking after that?”
    “The patient is being allowed to go on a nice little sea voyage, commencing on February twenty second.”
    “Well we’ll have to wait until he gets back won’t we!”
    “What shall we do with him now then?”
    “Take the patient home Eighty-six, make him comfortable and give him two aspirin.”

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Quote For The Day

    “Mrs. Butterworth you’ve been extremely kind in allowing me to intrude upon your privacy this way I have two important calls to make, one in country one in town, so if you’ll please excuse me I’ll say goodbye.”
    “Mister Smith you mustn’t….”
    “I’m sorry I have to.”
    “………you mustn’t go like that! Some of dear Arthur’s things you’re very welcome, I’ve kept them all you see. It was stupid but even though there isn’t a man about the place I like to feel that there is, do you understand what I mean?”   
    “Yes.”
    “I just know you are in some kind of trouble. Have you any money?”
    “No.”
    “There you are you see, how are you going to get about?”
    “Its perfectly alright, I can manage thank you very much you’ve been terribly kind.”
    “You’re being silly and independent, and proud. Now come upstairs, you’ll find everything you want in the bathroom. And I’ll lay some of Arthur’s clothes out for you.”

                {Peter Smith and Mrs. Butterworth – Many Happy Returns}

   So just when did the merry widow move into 1 Buckingham Place? She looks to have been settled in for quite a long time. And Arthur, had he really existed, or was he just made up as part of Mrs. Butterworth’s story? Certainly there was a marriage photograph on the writing bureau, sadly it’s impossible to make out the happy couple. And there is also a framed photograph of a man apparently in Navy uniform on the mantelpiece, although they could be merely planted. It was lucky for Peter Smith that Arthur was exactly the same size as him! Oh and with the bathroom being upstairs, that as well as Mrs. Butterworth laying out some of Arthur’s clothes in the bedroom should belay any further thought of ZM73 having lived in a flat! And it was extremely kind of Mrs. Butterworth to lend Peter his own car. I’m sure he felt something like his own self again, out of those raggedy Village clothes and behind the wheel of his car once more.
   Mrs. Butterworth became quite agitated when Peter was about to leave her house, telling him he mustn’t go like that this raggedy man. After all what was he to her? And these two calls, one in the country and one in town, is that where he had been coming from in those few first moments of the opening sequence, having paid a call on the Colonel at his country residence before making a second call in town where he handed in his letter of resignation?

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Schizoid Man

    The atmosphere here is very different to what it was elsewhere. That’s certainly not the password, and as far as the two guardians were concerned, neither was Gemini! A good deal of ‘the Prisoner’ contains twins, but then Curtis isn’t exactly a twin for Number 6, although he does bear a remarkable resemblance, and only needed to be amended slightly. The shaving off of the moustache, the change in hair colour, the rest Curtis would have to learn, presumably by watching Number 6 on hours and hours of surveillance footage, so that he could become Number 6. And in a way he’s better than Number 6, because he seems to feel very much at home in The Village. He’s happy, like the way he comes whistling into his cottage, he’s even taken to wearing his number, as well as a change of blazer. In early American Western films, it was the bad guy who wore a black hat, and the good guy a white hat. Wearing different coloured blazers, does that make Number 6 the baddie, and Number 6-Curtis the goodie? Symbolically its good versus evil, just how it is in ‘Fall Out,’ and in both case Number 6 manages to vanquish the evil doer!

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Generals And That Kind of Thing!

    There are three types of General in ‘the Prisoner.’ The General who’s army is doubtful even though he wears a British General’s Army cap. Then there’s the General to whom reporting to seems to be ridiculous, “Report to The General? That’s a new one!” said Number 2. The General, perhaps the head of a department within British Intelligence, such a general Carteret in the ‘Danger Man’ episode ‘The Black Book.’ Then there’s the General, a super computer which is used in the educational experiment, but which at the same time could be the same General Number 2 mentioned in ‘The Schizoid Man,’ hence the reason for him saying to Number 6, “Report to The General? That’s a new one!” The General being a computer isn’t something an agent would be likely to report to personally if at all!

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Caught On Camera!

    Number 6 has just purchased a copy of The Tally Ho, the price is 2 Work Units. Now he’s contemplating the records which must be like the Cuckoo clocks, a special import. Number 6 chose Bizet’s l’arlesienne conducted by Davier, and takes all six copies of the record to the record booth and listens the first few seconds of two of the records, and not all six. I expect he became bored after the first two! Certainly the new shopkeeper has made improvements to the General Stores, bringing in special imports, and the addition of a record booth. But why, in the cashless society of The Village is a vintage cash register {wooden box on the counter} dating back to the 1930’s required? Perhaps its there simply for decoration, to help give the General Store a certain ambiance of yesteryear.

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Escape!

    There he is, Number 6 all at sea aboard his raft, and there’s M. S. Polotska coming to his rescue! But haven’t we witnessed something like this scene before? Why yes, in ‘Many Happy Returns,’ when Number 6 having escaped The Village on his raft collapses and is found by the crew of a gun runners boat! There are certain differences of course, but there is a parallel between the two scenes which culminate in a fight scene between the two man crew and Number 6. Only this time he doesn’t need to jump ship. And even if he did he couldn’t swim so far that the Guardian at the stern of the vessel couldn’t subdue him in the water, like that time in ‘Free For All!’

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Free For All

    Whatever you do, do not damage the tissue, just enough therapy and drugs to carry him right through the election! Number 6 could never turn down such an opportunity to stand for election in the local council election, and they knew it. Otherwise how do you explain the sudden and miraculous appearance of the Vote for No.6 placard? And all those smaller placards held up by members of the electorate, all of them facing away from the camera so as not to see the candidate’s face too soon. Vote for Number 6, he’s for you, you’re for him, never let him go, let him be and he’ll be ever so comfortee! And if Number 6 hadn’t been up for standing for election, all that pre-planning would have been wasted. They were if anything, certain of their subject!
    Number 6 won the vote, a unanimous decision, even Number 2 voted for him. But it was to be a short lived victory, in fact Number 6 and the new Number 2 held one of the shortest terms in office. The same could also be said about the even newer Number 2, the former Number 58. But her term in office had only just begun at the end of ‘Free for All,’ it is such a pity we are not privy to that, I should hate to think what she had in mind for Number 6!

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A Favourite Scene In A B and C

    This housemaid vaguely reminds me of someone, it might almost be Martha, Mrs. Butterworth’s housemaid from ‘Many Happy Returns.’
    I have to say they looks after the resident’s very well, seeing as she’s just made Number 6 his nightcap of hot chocolate. I wonder how many more residents she does this service for, not all of them I expect. No doubt there are a number of such housemaids hurrying about The Village performing this self same task in the early evening for any number of residents. And there’s curfew time to consider, all of them trying to get finished in time. I wonder if housemaids make their own nightcap, or if they make it for each other?
    “Goodnight sir.”
    “Goodnight.”
    Its no wonder Number 6 has never seen a night, he just sleeps.....but that’s another episode!

Be seeing you

Village Life!

    “How do you find the tea?”
    “Very nice. Indian or china?”
    “Typhoo!”
    “What’s on the agenda for today?”
    “The Committee for agriculture is sitting to discuss whether or not the Lion stamped on the imported eggs should be changed for that of a Penny Farthing.”
    “How do you mean?”
    “Well British eggs have the small stamp of a Lion on them to prove they are fresh, it’s a quality mark.”
    “So instead Village eggs should have a little penny farthing stamped on them?”
    “Yes.”
    “It seems a lot of fuss about nothing to me.”
    “I expect it’s important to some people.”
    “No rush then.”
    “What shall we have for breakfast?”
    “Bacon and eggs?”
    “Where does the bacon come from?”
    “That’s Danish.”
    “Oh good. Nice view this morning.”
    “It’s the same view every morning!”
    “Who do you think that is?”
    “Don’t know, he’s wearing a suit!”
    “Do you think he’s one of us?”
    “He’s not wearing a top hat!”
    “Number Two is with him, do you think he’s giving that man a tour of The Village?”
    “I bet he’s an Inspector!”

    “A Policeman, why should they send one of those here?”
    “A Government Inspector, to see if The Village is being run properly or not!”
    “He’s looking at us!”
    “And we’re sitting here drinking tea waiting for our breakfast!”
    “What time does the Committee sit?”
    “In about five minutes.”
    “Crikey we’ll be late if we don’t get our skates on!”
    “Damned Government Inspectors!”

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A B and C

    It’s as easy as that, Number 2 has had Number 6’s whole life researched and computed, and it all boils down to three people, A B and C. Number 2 thinks Number 6 was going to sell out, he wants to know what he had to sell and to whom he was going to sell it. I wonder what gave Number 2 that idea? If it was the computer’s then it was barking up the wrong tree. Despite Number 6 having resigned his job, and now a Prisoner in The Village, he remains loyal. He really was going on holiday! Poor old Number 2, he once told Number 6 not to underestimate him. In this case he underestimated Number 6, who so easily turned the tables on Number 2. And what’s more at the end Number 14 seemed rather pleased about that! Her drug didn’t fail, Number 6 succeeded, and Number 2, he’ll be given a second chance. And hopefully it will not involve Number 6, for his own sake!

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Page 7

    I thought to use a different number for this page, well I find 6 is an overrated number, one can tire of it given enough time. And don’t you find it’s all about 6, ‘the Prisoner’ I mean, all that fuss simply because he’s chucked up a job. If he will answer one simple question....why did he resign? Perhaps it would have been much better had Number 6 told them from the start, but no, he would not be pushed, filed, stamped, indexed, briefed, debriefed or numbered his life was his own! Laughable isn’t it? No-one’s life is their own, we all belong to someone, share our lives with other people. And let us not forget Number 6 was engaged to be married, oh I know that’s not made clear until ‘Do Not Forsake Me Oh My Darling,’ and is something of a contrivance, but nevertheless an engagement is an engagement, and I bet old Sir Charles Portland couldn’t believe his luck when ZM73 asked him for his daughter’s hand in marriage, it’s no wonder he dropped his secateurs! And ZM73 he’s a rather conventional fellow, to go and ask Sir Charles for his daughter’s hand, after all those were the 1960’s when everyone seemed to be dropping out, hanging out, and enjoying free love. Women were liberated, they went about burning their bras, or so it appeared, although I imagine less of all that sort of thing actually went on outside London. And I couldn’t imagine Janet Portland having burned her bra, she far too conventional! Anyway it’s not about her, it’s all about that Number 6, everything in The Village seems to revolve around him, and when it doesn’t, there he is poking his nose in where it has no business. I bet no-one else had been given the opportunity to stand for election like Number 6 had, mind you they’ve not had a man of his calibre before, and there you go you see, no-one of Number 6’s calibre he’s just the kind of candidate they needed. And Number 6 fell for it, hook, line, and sinker, such was the overweening feeling of his self-importance! And we don’t even know his name. Peter Smith, it’s not a very imaginative name for an ex-Secret Agent. But then Secret Agents, spies, and counter Agents are supposed to be, look, and behave just like anyone else, trained not to break their cover. So Peter Smith is as good a name as any I suppose. I wonder if Peter was his real name? After all secret agents do use their real first name, it’s the one they’re most used to and more importantly it’s a name they respond to, so to use it saves any embarrassing situations. If using a false first name an agent might forget himself for a moment and respond to his real name by accident instead of his false name. Peter Smith, John Drake, Duval, Schmitt, ZM73, what’s in a name real or otherwise, it’s all about Number 6 everything revolves around him, and that goes for ‘Checkmate.’ He just had to take charge didn’t he, there’s something about Number 6 that’s really irritating, but that time he was hoisted by his own petard.....I had to smile!

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The Therapy Zone

    We know the great list of achievements made by the retiring  Number 2, and judging by that list, he was entitled to that retirement, to be looked after in the Old People’s Home for as long as he lived. Well that’s my guess what happened when the helicopter returned him to The Village at the end of ‘It’s Your Funeral.’
   But what had The Village administration achieved with Number 6? Not forgetting what Number 2 once told Number 6 “We never fail.” And yet despite everything they put Number 6 through he was just as much himself at the end as he was at the beginning, in other words they failed, and they do not like failure in The Village. Perhaps they should have used some of those “extreme measures” they were not too keen on using against Number 6. Or perhaps too high a value had been placed on his head, too important say our masters, why he mustn’t be damaged, or broken, to end up with nothing more than a man of fragments! That there are other ways. Perhaps they should have employed some of those extreme measures they didn’t want to use on Number 6, but then they didn’t want to damage him permanently! What Number 2 achieved in question to Number 6, no matter what guise of person, how intricate or elaborate the plan, is absolutely nothing! Is that why it all had to begin again, or was ‘Fall Out’ just the beginning?

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Chimes of Big Ben

    This episode has my favourite Number 2, and it’s said that the reason why there are so many Number 2’s is so that Number 6 cannot strike up a relationship with just one single Number 2. Well to my mind Number 6 and Number 2 appear to be sharing something, if not a relationship then certainly there is a rapport between them. And didn’t Number 2 say in ‘Once Upon A Time’ that he was beginning to like Number 6, yes he did. And my how angry Number 6 is at the end at the death of Number 2! Mind you on the whole Number 2 isn’t around long enough for Number 6 to strike up a rapport with them, some last a week at most, one as little as three days, whilst others are gone almost as soon as they arrive. Well that’s how it appears, the reality of it is, their term in office takes place in the episodes we do not see, between the ones we are so familiar with!
    Poor old Number 6, he has a weakness for a damsel in distress, and that is a chink in his armour. He in his eagerness allows himself to be taken in by a woman, he doesn’t stop to ask himself some basic questions about Nadia. He goes to so much trouble to escape, and without showing one blister upon his hands after chopping down that tree, clearing it of all its branches, and then carving out the hull of the boat! He fails to escape, he’s been betrayed by those who he was pleased to call colleagues, so what is he to think? That it’s his own people who put Number 6 in The Village, that its run by British Military Intelligence. Or is it? If Fotheringay doesn’t get back to London quick sharp some embarrassing questions could be asked, by whom? Both Fotheringay and the Colonel are working for The Village, are they former prisoners brought back for this assignment? And what is Fotheringay’s next assignment? He’s keen I’ll give him that, and the Colonel will give him further instructions when he returns to London, his instructions, where will they come from, the General?

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Shinda Shima

  Continuing the screening of ‘the Prisoner’ for its fiftieth anniversary last night with ‘Danger Man’s – Shinda Shima,’ which is a more adventurous episode than ‘Koroshi.’ More than that, there is a distinct pre-Prisoner feel about it, from Drake’s soft canvas shoes to the clicking of his fingers. Then there’s mister Edward Sharp British security electronics expert of Q department most secret communications operations, a Civil Servant who has resigned his job taking a number of important electrical components with him. Stopped at Tokyo airport and after which impersonated by John Drake. Then there is the uniform worn by the disciples of a revived ancient brotherhood, who deal in murder by the blow of oblivion, a Judo outfit. This uniform is seen in two episodes of ‘the Prisoner,’ first in ‘Arrival’ by people sat on the floor in the Aversion Therapy room, and then by Number 2 {Peter Wyngarde} himself in ‘Checkmate,’ He sits upon the floor, concentrating on a plank of wood laid out before him, as he practices the discipline of the martial art of Karate. Suddenly, swiftly, and with one fatal blow he breaks the plank in twain. He could simply be practicing a karate blow, he could also be practicing the blow of oblivion! Is Number 2 a lost disciple of the ancient brotherhood? It seems highly unlikely, but there is the parallel of the uniform. In fact it’s about as unlikely as Richards {Kenneth Griffiths}, a beachcomber and self imposed exile being Number 2 in ‘The Girl Who Was Death,’ especially as he dies later in the episode! Also two members of the ancient brotherhood went on to work in The Village. One as a motor mechanic, the other one of Number 14’s bully boys in ‘Hammer Into Anvil.’

    Impersonating Sharp, Drake infiltrates the complex on the island of Shinda Shima. The man in charge of the complex on the island is the Controller {George Coulouris} , who could be a relative of Number 14 the ex-Count, he could be his identical twin, who wants to break the Unicode, the operations code of the United Nations.

  You have seen these images before, in ‘Many Happy Returns’ as Number 6 finds The Village. So that puts The Village on an island after all, in the far east on the Japanese island of Shinda Shima!
   In setting up the code breaking equipment Drake intercepts a coded message……..To Potter embassy Tokyo……Drake routine report overdue…….What is his current assignment? Report his whereabouts immediately urgent M9. So Potter also gets a mention! There is also a scene in which Drake and a young Japanese woman are escaping the island by boat, they are being shot at by guards on the island, and have to jump overboard, just like Number 6 and Nadia in desperation to escape the pursuing Guardian. It is a parallel, but no more than any of such parallels noted here. Oh I forgot, the sound effect of the electronically operated doors, also used in The Village. It has been a simple yet interesting exercise, simply because at the time, next on the television drawing board, was ‘the Prisoner.’ However like ‘Koroshi,’ Shinda Shima’ was produced in 1966 but not actually seen until three quarters the way through ‘the Prisoner’ in 1968!

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Village Life!

    “That’s perfect.”
    “It wasn’t difficult to make. But what is it for?”
    “If I told you, you would know as much as I do friend!”
    “You asked me to make this device, but I still don’t understand.”
    “It’s a remote control device.”
    “Don’t you think I don’t know that, I made it!”
    “It’s going to be a surprise for someone.”
    “Who?”
    “I’m going to fly a helicopter out of here!”
    “Don’t be stupid, you’ll never escape that way....it’s been tried before. Before you get a quarter of a mile away Control will take over the helicopter by remote control and fly it back to The Village.”
    “Precisely friend, but that’s where the surprise comes in.......I’ll be the one with the remote control.”
    “I still don’t.......... well its worth a try I suppose!”
    “This time tomorrow I’ll be free!”
    “Yes that’s what the Rook said!”
   

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Exhibition of Arts And Crafts

                  “You ain’t seen me, right!”

BcNu

Arrival

    My most absolute favourite episode, when a man hands in his letter of resignation effectively resigning his job. Why did he resign? Well that’s no business of ours or of anyone else’s as it goes, only of that of The Man With No Name! And why should he have to explain himself? It wouldn’t surprise me if his abduction by the two undertakers had no connection with his resignation! He had been under close surveillance long before his resignation, perhaps he had become suspect, perhaps they were expecting him to go over to the other side like Chambers suddenly late of the Foreign Office!
   I always love to watch ‘the Prisoner’ but especially ‘Arrival, watching the Prisoner wake up in what he imagines to be his own home in London. But we are where we imagine ourselves to be. I like to watch as he takes his first tentative steps in The Village. At first there seems to be no-one about, but then a figure looking down from the Bell Tower, and the first surreal moment, because there is no sign of the man in the Bell Tower. Perhaps he was never there! He explores The Village, he refuses breakfast at the cafe, doesn’t want any coffee. He wants to know where he is.....in The Village. At the phone box around the corner he attempts to make a telephone call to make a telephone call, to whom, the Colonel back in London? He tries to gain information from an electronic information board, a taxi pulls up, where to sir, the taxi driver speaks to him in French, because French is International, as she thought he might be a Pole or Czech. A map of The Village, either in black or white or colour avails him nothing, and then an invitation to the Green Dome and breakfast with Number 2...... What’s it all about? Well sit down and later in the year I will be in the position of being able to tell you things you didn’t know or realize about ‘the Prisoner,’ starting with ‘Arrival.’

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Actor Peter Wyngarde

  As I posted earlier this morning, actor Peter Wyngarde of stage, film, and television passed away in a London hospital. Having appeared in ‘the Prisoner’ as Number 2 in ‘Checkmate’ his character comes over as one of the most competent administrators of The Village, and always happy to allow others to get their hands dirty! Peter will be most fondly remembered for his role as Jason King in the television series ‘Department S’ and ‘Jason King,’ a best selling novelist turned sleuth with the Mexican moustache, the turned up shirt cuffs, and with a cigarette always close at hand.

https://www.mirror.co.uk/3am/celebrity-news/peter-wyngarde-dead-90-jason-11870928

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/wires/pa/article-5283017/Jason-King-star-Peter-Wyngarde-dies-90.html

https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/entertainment/celebrity/jason-king-department-star-peter-11871017

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Wyngarde 

  For myself I shall always remember Peter in his role of gossip columnist and shameless informant for tabloid newspapers and magazines of the time, Langdale Pike in the Sherlock Holmes episode ‘The Three Gables.’ Pike is a similar character to Holmes, a somewhat isolated character. A favourite film starring Peter is the 1960’s film ‘The Siege of Sydney Street in which he played Peter Piatkow, a.k.a. “Peter the Painter.”

Peter will always be fondly remembered by friends and fans.

Rest In Peace

Actor Peter Wyngarde

    The sad news reached me a few minutes ago via radio 4 news, that actor Peter Wyngarde of ‘the Prisoner,’ Department S,’ and ‘Jason King’ has passed away in hospital in London at the age of 90.

   A tribute will appear on my blog later today.

Rest in peace Peter.

The Prisoner

    “So there you are!”
    “Well if I’m not I’m someplace else!”
    “Don’t be flippant Nine zero nine it doesn’t suit you.”
    “You’ve taken a bit of a liberty haven’t you?”
    “Hark at the pot calling the kettle black!”
    “All I did was..........”
    “Resign?”
    “It’s not against the law is it?”
    “If it wasn’t you wouldn’t be here.”
    “All I did was chuck up my job, if I can’t do that what can I do?”
    “Stay loyal, and don’t bite the hand that feeds!”
    “I like that!”
    “Well Number 1 didn’t like it!”
    “I was going away my overnight train ticket booked, I was going to visit my old granny on her hundredth birthday. The next thing I know I woke up in this place!”
    “In The Village.”
    “You can call it that.”
    “It’s what it is after all.”
    “Well you can keep it!”
    “I imagine we’ll be keeping you m’ dear fellow, so there’s no point in rebelling, you might as well settle down and accept the inevitable.”
    “That’s not my way.”
    “There’s no way out if that’s what you’re thinking, ask anyone.”
    “I’ll find a way.”
    “That’s what Number Six thought.”
    “Number Six?”
    “He’s Number Six, you are Nine zero nine, and I am Number Two.”
    “Numbers!”
    “Yes, everyone has a number for official purposes.”
    “My name is........”
    “Yes I know your name.”
    “Well say it!”
    “If it will make you happy.......Jones, Jermaine Jones. As I was saying about Number Six, he kept trying to escape until he was too old. Fifty years he’s been here, can you imagine?”
    “Can I go now?”
    “Go, go where?”
    “Home.”
    “No, and if you don’t behave yourself, I’ll hand you over to a doctor who will turn your mind inside out so that you won’t know what day of the week it is!”
    “What is today?”
    “Wednesday February the tenth. It’s always February the tenth, unless it’s a Thursday, then it’s Appreciation Day.”
    “Appreciation Day?”
    “Don’t worry about that, today is...........why did you resign?”
    “I don’t have to tell you that.”
    “No, but if you did.............”
    “Then you would expect me to tell you everything else!”
    “How perceptive of you, but now you are here, and this is just the beginning. From here on in it could all get very nasty, it’s up to you!”
    “You won’t hold me!”
    “I rather think we will. Would you like breakfast….?”

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Not Caught On Camera!

   When Number 6 and Nadia were busy collecting the three pieces of his sculpture together with the tapestry from the Recreation Hall that night, what were the Observers doing while all that was going on? Were they, and the Supervisor on a tea break? Or perhaps Number 2 had instructed them to wink a blind surveillance eye, as Number 6 suggested that Number 2 could, when it came to those illicit tools of his!

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Quote For The Day

    “Many happy returns.”
                             {Number 2 – Many Happy Returns}
    That was a surprise Mrs. Butterworth turning out to be Number 2, didn’t see that one coming fifty years ago! But has she been Number 2 all along, or is she the new Number 2? Either way she has been doubling as an agent working for The Village administration, or those masters, in London. 
    But it was nice to see her keep the promise to Peter Smith Number 6, by baking a cake for him as long as he promised to come back. Well he came back, and Mrs Butterworth didn’t stipulate where to come back. We as the television viewer may have assumed she was talking about No.1 Buckingham Place, when in fact she meant The Village. But then Number 6 wasn’t to know that either!
    Birthday cake my foot, there were only six candles on it, and when Mrs. Butterworth came in and presented the cake with the words “Many Happy returns,” not “of the day” meaning birthday, but to The Village! But what’s really astonishing is how Number 6 took it all in his stride! All that time and effort for what, to end up back in The Village where he started! Rather like the local taxi service, they’ll take you as far as you like, just as long as you arrive back there in the end! And there’s the aspect of having taught Number 6 a lesson, that he may manage to escape The Village one day, but he’ll always arrive back there in the end! But there’s something more to ‘Many Happy Returns’ than that, the episode is rather like the whole ‘Prisoner’ series, its cyclical, it begins where it ends.....in The Village! What’s more Number 6 could be seen as a new arrival in The Village, that would account for the fact he claims to be new in The Village in the next episode ‘Dance of The Dead,’ because he only arrived in The Village in the previous episode! Yes, well it’s stretching a point I know, because if ‘Dance of The Dead’ was placed second in the series as originally intended and not eighth, I wouldn’t be able to write what I did, and for Number 6 to have said it then would have made better sense, but there it is.

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Fifty Years of The Prisoner – Special Event

    We might be in 2018, yet fans of ‘the Prisoner’ are still immersed in the 50^th anniversary. On Sunday January 21st commencing at 7pm is the ‘Fifty Years of The Prisoner’ a special 50^th anniversary event which  takes place. The event will be held at Elstree Studios, across the road from the former site of MGM where the series was filmed. A number of guests have now confirmed for the event.

   Original crew members who worked on ‘the Prisoner’ Tony Sloman, David Shillingford, and Ian Rakoff. Film directors John Hough {who directed McGoohan in ‘Brass Target’} and Alex Cox. Nick Briggs of Big Finish, 'In My Mind' and 'Six into One' director Chris Rodley, and actor Brian Gorman will take part in exclusive Q & A’s at the event. There will be screenings, other special guests, and attractions, the event promises to be a very special celebration of our favourite TV series, at an iconic TV and Film location.
   There are a few remaining tickets for the event priced at £20 each and can be purchased from:
http://www.quoitmedia.co.uk/prisoner50.htm
https://www.theunmutual.co.uk
  This is the latest exciting event to celebrate 'The Prisoner' 50th anniversary, organized by Quiot Media Limited and The Unmutual
and profits will be donated to Ty Gobaith Children's Hospice in North Wales.
Earlier in the day, commencing at 2pm Prisoner aficionado Dave Lally will be conducting a walking tour of Borehamwood, along with other Prisoner film location sites. Dave Lally writes “We meet at 2.00pm at the ticket barriers at Elstree and Borehamwood train station {trains are every 30 minutes from St Pancras} for a 3.5 mile walking tour {Wear comfortable shoes, proceeds irrespective of weather} of the area, includes film and TV locations, studio historical places, and locations from 'The Prisoner' {including several scenes from ‘The Girl who was Death’}.”


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I Am Not A Number I Am A Person!

    Aren’t we all! After all we’ve all been pushed, filed, stamped, briefed, debriefed, and numbered at one time or another, and more often than not. Having a number doesn’t stop someone from being a person, number or not you are still you. After all they only took Number 6’s name away {not that he had one in the first place} not his identity, his personality, although they did try that once, but to no avail. Let’s not forget Number 6 wasn’t all that keen on using his own name himself, even when he had the chance to use it he had to think up some pseudonym instead. Peter Smith indeed! And don’t forget the Prisoner was known by a number during his former employment, ZM73, in fact during ‘Do Not Forsake Me Oh My darling’ when he was given the opportunity to use his name then he preferred to use his code name! And didn’t he sign a message to XO4 D6? As for The Village, basically it’s a prison, and in prisons Prisoners are given numbers, and more often than not they are known more by that number than a name, certainly for official purposes they are. As for Number 6 he’s a troublemaker, Number 12 knew that, and when not attempting to escape Number 6 likes nothing more than going about poking his nose in where it’s not wanted, and generally causing trouble. The man’s a goat!

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A Favourite Scene

   Number 6 returns to his cottage, apparently confused, no longer sure of who he is any more. But he’s Number 12 isn’t he? “Sometimes in my dreams I’m, I’m somebody else.” He doesn’t know who, but sometimes in his dreams he has resigned his job. Now why did he resign his job? “Sometimes I’m here in my dreams, then I come back…I wonder now who am I, why am I here?” Perhaps it might be advantageous to call Number 2 at this point, he might be able to help.
   Curtis he was so gullible, taken in by Number 6’s performance, he wasn’t that much better in defending himself in a fist-fight! The fight scene in ‘The Schizoid Man’ is reminiscent of the time when John Drake was fighting with himself in the ‘Danger Man’ episode ‘The Ubiquitous Mr. Lovegrove.’
   It’s stated that ‘the Prisoner’ is all about the mental struggle within himself, here we see that mental struggle transformed into a physical one for a change, symbolically speaking that is. Looking at it another way, perhaps Number 1 had decided to take a personal hand in this episode, presenting himself as Curtis. Then the whole of ‘The Schizoid Man’ could be physically based on the struggle Number 6 finds within himself. As for Curtis perhaps Number 6 made a mistake when he reported the death to Number 2, that Number 1 was alive and able to retake his place at the summit, perhaps ruing his decision to take part in this episode. Not that he came off any better during that final confrontation. It’s no wonder Number 1 ran away, he had no stomach for another physical beating!

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Falling Out!

    Number 48 was allowed to plead his case before the assembly, and we discover that he had been with them, but at some point he went and gone!
    The “late” Number 2 was allowed to formally address the Assembly, he stated his case quite eloquently. And then it was Number 6’s turn to address the Assembly, to make a speech that could only be his own, but for them. Almost 50 years ago when as a boy of 12, I watched Number 6 take the rostrum and I thought I was about to hear something profound, that I should hear at least some sort of explanation. Because as I understood it ‘Fall Out’ was supposed to have the answers to all those questions I had gathered together over the 16 previous weeks. Only then ‘Fall Out’ left me more confused than ever. There were no answers, but there was action and adventure. The evil Number 1 thwarted and his lair The Village evacuated, and left abandoned. But it didn’t end, there was no escape, no answers forthcoming for Number 6, it was most unsatisfactory. And there it was gone, it would be another 8 years before I would be able to see ‘the Prisoner’ again, and of course ‘Fall Out.’
    Do I like ‘Fall Out’ today? Well it’s never been one of my top five favourite episodes, but I can see it’s the only logical ending to ‘The Prisoner.’ Not only that, fictionally I can see that it’s possibly the episode where it all began, as a falling out amongst friends. Because ‘Fall Out’ fits as well at the beginning of the series as it does at the end.

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Village Life!

    “There’s something different today!”
    “Different, how can something be different, we walk this way everyday to the Town Hall.”
    “Haven’t you noticed it?”
    “Noticed what?”
    “There is a distinct lack of colour in The Village this morning!”
    “Oh that!”
    “How do you account for this strange phenomenon?”
    “If I’ve learned anything while I’ve been in this Village, it’s never to wonder about anything.”
    “It’s not one of Number Two’s crazy schemes is it?”
    “No, it’s far simpler than that.”
    “Has it anything to do with Number Six?”
    “Just for a change it hasn’t, the answer’s pretty simple really.”
    “Do tell.”
    “We’ll be late for the meeting.”
    “What you mean the vote about whether or not to build a new concert hall?”
   “It’s not cut and dried yet.”
   “You mean it’s not black and white, which reminds me.....”
   “Well you see we might be filmed in colour, but there are no colour television sets yet, so we appear in black and white!”
    “You mean we see the colour, but those who are observing us via surveillance only see us in black and white?”
    “That’s about the size of it.”
    “But I can see in black and white, that’s because someone is watching in black and white, the colour is taken away!”
    “When will we see in colour again?”
    “I suppose not until people have colour television sets.”
    “Oh, I wonder what Number Two will say about this?”
    “There’ll probably be a board meeting or committee meeting about it.”
    “And what will that achieve?”
    “You mean like the time it was decided The Village should go green.”
    “Yes and the committee couldn’t decide on the shade!”

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A Change of Mind

   In ‘Free For all’ we learn that The Village has a Town Council, Council being another word for Committee, and the leader of the Council is the Chairman Number 2. On the face of it, it appears that the Council or Committee members have no voice when Number 6 is afforded the opportunity to put questions to them. The only voice being that of the Chairman. Whether or not this Town Council actually administers The Village administration is unclear. Yes there is an administration of which Number 2 is the Chief administer, but he is answerable to Number 1. Whether or not Number 1 has absolute control or if he is answerable to a Committee or those “masters” we hear so much about is unknown. Chairman Mao Tse-Tung in his little red book wrote of the Party Committee system being an important Party Institution. There is a further Committee within The Village administration which fights disharmony within the society of The Village. And like the Town Council and its Chairman, only the Chairman, Number 18, of the Committee has a voice, while the rest of the members remain silent. Anyone with a disharmonious tendency is put up for further investigation, and should there be any further complaints against the individual he or she is pronounced as being unmutual!
   It would appear that despite there being a Town Council, and Committee for disharmonious unmutualism, it falls upon one person or individual, to monopolize and conduct affairs and decide upon important problems within The Village administration. And that does not take into consideration the Board of Education supposedly responsible for both Speed Learn and that of the Professor’s lectures. For as the Projectionist asked Number 2 if the latest lecture had been approved by the Board, Number 2 said “It will be.” Because the members of the Board of Education have no more say in how Speed Learn is administered than the members of the Town Council or of the Committee!

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There’s Just One Thing I Don’t Understand

    If Mister X is told to use a standard disguise by the Chief, what kind of disguise is it that makes a man stand out from the crowd? Perhaps dressed as Mister X, that makes him an eccentric, and no-one takes any notice of eccentrics. And yet it was in the 1960’s when everything was “way out,” or should that be “far out?” It was a time when it was fashionable for trendy young things to go about wearing army tunics from the Napoleonic wars for example. Number 48 wore such a tunic, he also wore Mister X’s frilly shirt. I have such a shirt myself, handmade, and I’ve worn it about town. But it’s the second of such shirts that I’ve owned, the first was for a Prisoner convention for a re-enactment of the boxing scene from ‘The Girl Who Was Death.’ I also own a deerstalker which I also wear about town, but not as part of a disguise as Mister X, but with either a long coat, or tweed jacket. When I wore the deer stalker with a long coat once, I was approached by a little old lady who congratulated me upon my appearance, because I looked so like Sherlock Holmes. Not that I was trying to, it’s just that I have a collection of different hats that’s all. Plus three piped jackets, a couple of black polo shirts, the jacket from my ‘Arrival’ suit, and now Number 2’s scarf. I’ve only ever played the role of Number 2 once, that was for the part in a pop video. But then I don’t always associate that scarf worn by Number 2 with ‘the Prisoner,’ the self same coloured scarf was worn by “The Mole” in an episode of ‘Campion’ called ‘The Case of The Late Pig.’

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50th Anniversary Screening of the Prisoner

    Currently it’s the two week break in the screening, as in 1968 allowing production to catch up with the broadcasting of the series. Two ‘Danger Man’ episodes were inserted and tonight it is ‘Koroshi.’ Special agent John Drake is sent to Tokyo in order to investigate the death of a young Japanese woman who dies after sending information on a number of planned assassinations to M9. Posing as a reporter Drake comes up against an ancient murder cult brought very much up to date….beware the blow of oblivion!
   To be perfectly honest my wife is not at all keen to watch the episode tonight, and I have to agree it’s far from being one of the best episodes of the ‘Danger Man’ series. In one scene Drake goes to visit an old man, and crosses the floor in his stocking feet, but some fool has added the sound effect of shoed footfall! Knowing how my wife feels about the episode I did volunteer to not watch ‘Koroshi,’ but she said I must watch it, she doesn’t want to stop me from my personal enjoyment as I am probably unique as no other enthusiast for ‘the Prisoner’ would bother to watch ‘Koroshi’ as part of a screening of ‘the Prisoner.’ When I told a good friend of mine what I had planned he said to do so it is a sign of a true enthusiast, which was nice of him to say.
   Perhaps ‘Koroshi’ will appear better in black and white.

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You Won’t Get It!

    They wanted information, information, information and all the Prisoner told them was the time of his birth, but then they knew that anyway, and I guess the Prisoner knew that they knew, so where was the harm in giving that piece of information away? They wanted to know why the Prisoner resigned, but he wouldn’t tell them, not that he was obliged to tell them. The trouble is, a man in his position, if he told them the reason behind his resignation, then what else might he tell them? But perhaps the only reason as to why they wanted to know was to be able to make up his personal file, they do like to know everything. Or perhaps the Prisoner had gone wrong! It might be that the Prisoner had been working as an agent for The Village in the outside world. But hadn’t taken to the work and wanted out, there being only one credible way, to resign. But working for The Village makes one a lifer, it’s not permitted to resign, and so as one of their agents does decide to take such action, they would quite naturally want to know why? The fact that when the Prisoner first wakes up in what he thinks is his own home, but is in The Village, and he doesn’t know where he is, does pose a problem. And yet ‘the Prisoner’ is a vicious circle, the end being the beginning, makes the fact he doesn’t know where he is on the day of his arrival unimportant. Because what does the Prisoner do after ‘Fall Out, a falling out amongst friends and colleagues, which is a kind of resignation in itself. He goes to hand in his letter of resignation, which he must have written in the cage on the journey home, to those masters in London!

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A Change of Mind

   It has been an idea of mine that perhaps some of the phrases used in ‘A Change of Mind, such as ‘He who plough’s a straight furrow need hoe for nothing,’ and ‘the slowest mule is nearest the whip’ might have come from Chairman Mao Tse-tung’s little red book. However, and despite my search on-line, I’ve not been able to really test my theory properly. Then this Christmas I was given a copy of Mao Tse-tung’s little red book. What really set this idea in my mind is the scene in the woods where a meeting of the Social Group was taking place. Two young men were debating Number 42 who had apparently ignored Number 10’s greeting, her excuse being she was composing poetry at the time. A young oriental gentleman, presumably Chinese said “There can be no mitigation, we all have a social obligation to stand together, neglect of social principle.” That oriental gentleman speaks like a Maoist.  I have always been of that opinion, and it was that which led me to Mao Tse-Tung’s little red book. As I read that Mao wrote of the people standing together. Lucky for me the copy of the book I have does have English translations.
   Number 6 once asked the question “Which is which, how many of each, who’s standing beside you now? I intend to discover them, who are the prisoners and who the warders?” Also In an article in The Tally Ho about an increased call in vigilance by Number 2 it states “We must be on our guard against enemies in our midst,” We do not necessarily know who our enemies are, or who they may be.” Mao in his book asks the questions “Who are our enemies? Who are our friends?” Although it is not an exact analogy between the two, I find it interesting enough that Chairman Number 2 has a compunction to use quotations as Chairman Mao Tse-Tung had done. Mao also wrote of a “Democratic dictatorship,” democracy is an irritation The Village administration has done away with. And yet there are, as Number 2 said, democratic in some ways. Perhaps The Village reached a status of being a democratic dictatorship!

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Thought For The Day

    During his escapades in ‘Checkmate, Number 6 broke an aerial off one of the taxis, he needed it to make an aerial for the radio transmitter the Rook had constructed. So what was an aerial doing on the taxi, when radios are not permitted in The Village? I don’t recall seeing a radio in either the taxis driven by Number 6 or Number 8. Perhaps there were no radios, that the Mini-Mokes came with aerials already built into them, a radio could then be fitted into the Mini-Moke if required. Well its one explanation.

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Escape!

    Everyone, according to Number 8, tries to escape when their spirit’s broken. But I don’t think Number 6’s spirit was broken when he first attempted to escape in a Mini-Moke, he hadn’t been in The Village long enough for that. He did try on the next day, by helicopter, after Number 9 had given him the Electro Pass, little good it did him. And then it was during ‘The Chimes of Big Ben that Number 6 encountered Number 8 who claimed to know the location of The Village. That would be handy to know where one is escaping from, then one can calculate where one’s escaping to, again little good that did him. ‘Free For All,’ and an off the cuff impromptu escape, by boat this time, but with much the same result on the day of his arrival in The Village, another near fatal encounter with the white membranic Guardian! Then Number 6 attempted another one-off spontaneous escape, this time by impersonating Curtis, but sadly he lacked one important piece of information, that Susan died a year ago!
   Other attempted escapes followed, in ‘Dance of the Dead’ Number 6 looks to be simply running away from The Village along the beach. But he couldn’t run so fast to outpace the Guardian. Then one morning Number 6 woke to find that he was the only citizen of an otherwise deserted Village. Where was everyone? He did make a search, he climbed the Bell Tower and rang the bell so to arouse the attention of anyone who might be about. But no-one was about, just 6 and the cat. And that’s how it was for a time when Number 6 was returned to The Village, until Mrs Butterworth turned up on the scene bearing a cake she promised to bake if he came back. Well Number 6 came back alright. But I think Number 6 was under the impression Mrs. Butterworth meant No1. Buckingham Place. Next he gathered some reliable men about him, and put together a plan of escape, and it almost worked. Pity Number 6 put himself in charge of the enterprise. Had it not been for his authoritative behaviour which let him down.............And that was the last time Number 6 attempted to escape, except for ‘Fall Out’ and we know how that ended, or didn’t, depending on your perspective.
    I suppose the question might be asked why did Number 6 stop attempting to escape? After all he had one further opportunity in ‘It’s Your Funeral,’ or did he? Unlike himself who hindered the new Number 2 from removing the Great Seal of Office, as well as the bomb, from about his head and shoulders, there was no-one Number 2 could trust to do the same for him. So that cannot be included. Perhaps to have Number 6 continually trying to escape The Village would have become increasingly boring. And besides there are only so many ways to try and escape, and even those can be limited if you can’t fly a helicopter, drive a vehicle, or build a sea-going raft or navigate!
   There are some devotees of ‘the Prisoner’ who think it’s all in the mind of Number 6, and to some degree I’m one of them. So was Number 6 trying to escape The Village, or himself? Is it possible for Number 6 to escape himself? Because no matter where he goes, or how far, when he gets there, he’s still himself, because you take everything that makes you, you, with you. In that respect death is the only escape. But if it’s simply The Village Number 6 is trying to escape from, and he’s created it in his own subconscious, then simply forget it, don’t remember it, don’t keep it in mind. But perhaps it’s more than that, perhaps The Village is so engrained, so indelibly imprinted  in Number 6’s subconscious that he can be no more be free of it than he can be free of himself.

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