The Prisoner

    I know you, surely.
    I don’t think so.
    Drake isn’t it?
    No, Blake.
    Close enough. You disappeared, what are you doing in a place like this?
    The Village?
    Yes.
    Possibly the same as you, only I’ll probably last longer than you, being a field agent.
    I’m told everyone talks on the third day.
    How did they get you, a man with your reputation?
    The same as they got you.
    I doubt it. I was in a Turkish brothel, her name was Karla, she came from Hull!
    I was at home, I’d just written my letter of resignation.
    You were chucking it in?
    There’s a limit you know. Next thing I know I’m here!
    Number Two wants to know all about me.
    She knows already, she’s a tough madam!
    Why do you say she? Number Two is a man.
    She could be a man, she looks like a man, even has a moustache!
    No, Number Two is most definitely a man.
    They are playing a new game!
    New game?
    You’re one of them!
    Me, what about you?
    I was here first, then they brought you in, roughed you up a bit, then tossed you in here in order to get me to talk with someone I once knew!
    I could say the same of you!
    Look, we don’t trust each other, so I suggest you stay on your half of the dungeon, and I’ll stay here, okay?
    It’s not going to work Number Two.
    I can see that for myself!
    Put Number Eight in with them.
    A damsel in distress, she’ll come under the protective wing of one of them, and the other will feel alienated.
    Rough her up a bit, ripped clothes, that sort of thing.
    Anyway it’s time for me to go.
    Go, go where?
    Home, my term in office is over, that’s why you are here, to take my place.
    I can’t possibly allow you to leave, you know too much.
    No, that’s not how it works.
    I am the new Number Two and its works the way I want it to work.
    You can’t keep me here.
    No? We’ll see about that Number Two f.
    Two f?
    Yes, there’s a spare place on the town council, you have just been co-opted onto it.
    You can’t do this to me.
    It’s not I that’s done it, its Number 1, and top of the pops this week it’s Angelique.
    Angelique, that’s his favourite song!
    Don’t worry, we’ll be bringing him to The Village before too long!

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Exhibition of Arts And Crafts

                      No.2 Gets My Vote!

BcNu

Caught On Camera!

    Number 2 of ‘It’s Your Funeral’ made the claim that the Observers do see and hear everything. The Village is a small enough community I suppose, but I find it difficult to believe that 7 Observers see and hear everything that takes place.

   There is one Observer in ‘Once Upon A Time’ who has attracted my attention for years, there was something about him which and for some reason I could not put my finger on what it was. Indeed it has taken me until now to realize what it is.

   This is the chap, I cannot identify his number, but he is one of the 5 Observers who in ‘Once Upon A Time’ are released by the Supervisor as subsidiary personnel. Do you recognize him? He is a former interim Number 2!

    It’s more likely that this supposed former interim Number 2, in ‘It’s Your Funeral, would have been an Observer who was chosen to pose as a former Number 2 for the camera, possibly because of his resemblance to a previous Number 2.

   Both Number 2 in ‘It’s Your Funeral’ and the Observer in ‘Once Upon A Time’ are played by the actor Tony Mendleson as seen here in the ‘Danger Man’ episode ‘Jossetta.’

    Tony had been previously identified as the interim Number 2 on the website;

https://moviedude.co.uk/[TV]%20'The%20Prisoner%201.11%20It's%20Your%20Funeral'%20(1967).htm

   However he has not previously been identified as the Observer in ‘Once Upon A Time,’ so I am pleased to bring his file up to date!

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Busy Potter?

    “It’s our form of Siberia!”

                                {Potter – The Girl Who Was Death}

    It is generally speaking the case that we put people we know, or have met, made the acquaintance of, into our dreams and stories. Therefore it is reasonable enough for Number 6 to make Number 2 Professor Schnipps and Number 10 {technically Number 2’s first female assistant} as The Girl, Schnipps daughter in his fairytale. And then there’s Potter, Mister X’s contact man. No doubt he’s there because Number 6 encountered Potter, manager of the Labour Exchange, on the day of his arrival in The Village. Thereby remembering a previous encounter in ‘Danger Man – Koroshi.’
    I don’t know how much work Potter did whilst manager of the Labour exchange, he didn’t seem to be that busy. But he was eventually promoted as assistant to Number 2 in ‘The Chimes of Big Ben,’ and seemed to have even less to do, ending up walking the floor of the Control Room, as Number 22 did in ‘It’s Your Funeral.’ Not that Number 2 needed an assistant, he seemed a capable administrator, after all he only had to oversee that Number 6 managed to escape The Village with Nadia unhindered.

    So Potter, working in The Village, well why not, after all both the Colonel and Fotheringay were there as well, suggesting to Number 2 that there are methods {against Number 6} they hadn’t used yet, and against an old colleague!

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Bureau of Visual Records

    There he goes, Number 14 having been ejected from 6 Private, by Number 6, through the French window taking the balcony railings with him. The question is, did he survive the fall, and end up in hospital with broken bones. Or was it fatal for 14 when he hit the ground? True we do not seen Number 14 again in this episode, however we do encounter his look-a-like and dress-a-like in the following episode. It could be said that we encounter Number 14 again in ‘it’s Your Funeral’ in the Kosho scenes, but that cannot really be counted, seeing as they were filmed for ‘Hammer Into Anvil.’

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Exhibition of Arts And Crafts

          Just Like Old Times Isn’t it No.2!

BcNu

In The Village!

   Whereabouts is the landing stage mentioned by Number 2 in ‘The Schizoid Man’ “It’s just a quick flip in the helicopter to the landing stage, and the jet picks you up from there.” I suppose a “quick flip” would be about ten minutes away. As for picking up a jet from there, a landing stage is not a runway for aircraft, it’s a platform, usually a floating one, on to which passengers from a boat disembark or cargo is unloaded. I would suggest that’s where the milk, the ice cream, the potatoes, and aspirins are unloaded from a boat. Then flown to The Village by helicopter, or then again, why not cut out the helicopter and bring the supplies up the estuary by boat to The Village? That way it would be possible for Curtis to have left The Village by boat, providing the tide was in of course. Except in ‘The Schizoid Man’ that’s not possible, that fact the atmosphere there being very different to what it was elsewhere, meaning they are at MGM film studios and not Portmeirion!

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A Favourite Scene In A B and C

    Poor old Number 2, he certainly looks the beaten man. Number 14’s drug didn’t succeed, Number 6 succeeded. Number 6 came face to face with himself twice in this series, but Number 2 also when he begged his other self to open the envelope Number 6 had given to him. Number 6 wasn’t selling out, he really was going on holiday!
    It’s strange, but ‘A B and C’ and ‘The General’ are like the age old question, which came first the chicken or the egg? After all during the opening sequence to ‘The General’ he announces himself as the new Number 2, and in ‘A B and C’ he’s Number 2, but ‘A B and C’ precedes ‘The General’ in the screening order, when it appears that it should be the other way around. And yet in ‘The General’ Number 2 tells Madam Professor that he and Number 6 are old friends, which puts ‘The General’ after ‘A B and C’! Its no wonder this Number 2 is in a mess, he looks thoroughly fed up! However as the episodes stands he’ll be brought back later for a second term, that should make his day!

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Escape?

   At the end of ‘It’s Your Funeral,’ did No.6 miss a golden opportunity to escape The Village? Some might see it that way, however, instead, gave the detonator to the recently retired No.2 so that he could get away instead. As we witness in the episode, it is No.6 who stops the new No.2 from removing that Great Seal of Office from about his shoulders. If No.6 had tried to escape in the same way, using the detonator as a bargaining chip, who then might he have trusted to do likewise for him?

   Also, as the helicopter was departing The Village for the landing stage, the new No.2 looked to the skies in surprise to see that the helicopter was suddenly turning back to the village! I suppose the pilot could have received an order from the Control Room. Maybe the helicopter was being brought back to The Village by remote control at the hand of an operator in the Control Room, as in the same way in ‘Arrival’ when No.6 tried to escape in the helicopter. Or perhaps the retiring No.2 had had a change of heart, and had himself returned to The Village of his own free will. I bet the new No.2 couldn’t believe his eyes when he saw the helicopter turn and fly back towards The Village! To use this ex-No.2’s own words, "They'll get me wherever I go," so most likely he decided to return to The Village, the possibility of his assassination/execution now well and truly over. And so he might live out the rest of his life in peaceful retirement in the Old People's Home, without having to keep looking over his shoulder!

I'll be seeing you

Exhibition of Arts And Crafts

                           Surprise!

 BCNU

Sixty Seconds With Citizen No.2

    There are a small number of 2’s that can be liked, there are others who are downright brutal. Those who make good administrators, interrogators, and whilst some remain in office for a few weeks, others are gone within a matter of hours. This particular Number 2 for me, is the worst of the lot! He gives me the shivers! For a large man he has a dainty way of nibbling on a shortcake biscuit. Mind you Number 6 nibbles on an ice cream cone in much the same way! He has a fondness for sayings, the slowest mule is nearest the whip for example. He wants to steal the minds of the citizens, oh not to drain it of information, or to condition it by brainwashing. Never mind the fact he wants to discover the reason behind Number 6’s resignation, he wants to make all the citizens docile! Lucky for the citizens that Number 6 out manoeuvred him, with the help of Number 86. What happened to him at the end is unknown, having been chased back to his office he might have found safety behind those blast proof doors. Had the pursuing citizens caught up with him, it seems likely he would have undergone the full personality change through Instant Social Conversion.

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The Therapy Zone

    The first person, or the first Number 2 to speak to Number 1 is Colin Gordon’s 2 on that ridiculously over-sized, curved, red telephone. The new Number 2 in ‘Arrival’ makes a report via a telephone about Number 6 before an interview with Number 9.

    “He has not volunteered any information so far, but appears to be settling down. He even attended the regular brass band concert today.” 

    Number 2 does not have the ‘L’ shaped turquoise telephone to his ear, so he is not listening to anyone, he is simply talking into it. It might be interpreted that this particular Number 2 is apparently using the telephone as a recording machine. Or he is dictating his report to someone who is listening, perhaps a typist in the typing pool, and that person is physically typing up that report as he speaks. It seems unlikely that he is speaking to Number 1.

   Of course one must not forget the advent of ‘Fall Out,’ that according to Patrick McGoohan Number 1 is the alter ego of Number 6, and vice versa. So perhaps it could be argued that it was the first Number 2 in ‘Arrival’ who actually spoke to Number 1 first on the telephone, that time when he invited the Prisoner to join him in the Green Dome for breakfast!

  Other than that, had the screening order of ‘the Prisoner’ adhered to the library order of the series, then Number 2 {Mary Morris} would have been the first to speak to Number 1, when she’s talking about Number 6 being no trouble. That it’s just a matter of time. And about the preparations for Carnival, along with the Ball in the evening, to which Number 1 expressed his wish that he could be there. To which Number 2 wished he could be there also. But unlike her predecessors, of ‘A B and C’, and ‘Free For All, and successor in ‘Once Upon A time,’ Number 2 of ‘Dance of the Dead’ uses a turquoise coloured ‘L’ telephone, instead of red {red’ generally being the hot-line to someone in ultimate command}. So is it the case that Mary Morris uses the wrong coloured telephone? Well not in the case of the Interim Number 2 of ‘It’s Your Funeral.’ He always uses a yellow telephone when speaking to Number 1. In the Control Room, when the call came through from Number 1, it did so via a yellow telephone. You will recall that it was the Supervisor-Number 26 who answered the phone. Perhaps, the colour of the telephone doesn’t matter at all.

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Caught On Camera!

   I would say imagine the scene in ‘Fall Out’ as the order to evacuate The Village is given, but we do not have to imagine it as we can see the evacuation for ourselves. Helicopters taking off from all corners of The Village, Mini-Mokes racing through the streets, and across the beach. People running to get away, well that’s what it appears to look like.

   We know what these people are doing, they are running along the beach away from The Village not in an evacuation, but in pursuit of the Professor. And next there is one group of people running passed that awful grassy bank on the way to 6 Private as seen both ‘It’s Your Funeral’ and ‘A Change of Mind,’ and here it is again.

   And there is Number 56 from ‘A Change of Mind,’ amid that group of people, not running during the evacuation, but hurrying to 6 Private in order to attack Number 6 then to manhandle him to the hospital! Such is the penalty of the over reliance of film stock footage. Unless of course Number 56 being caught up in the evacuation just happened to get herself caught on camera!

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Village Life!

    “Here we go again!”
    “That doesn’t sound like you.”
    “I find it difficult to summon any enthusiasm this morning. I get up, have a bath, shave, get dressed, have breakfast, then a second cup of tea, I like two cups of tea in the morning don’t you?”
    “Yes, with an extra slice of toast and marmalade.”

    “Then I make my way to the Town Hall, meeting with you along the way. We pass through the archway, down the steps and onto the shared area of the Piazza.”
    “Yes I find that part of our walk most dangerous.”
    “You mean the cyclists and taxis sharing the same space as us pedestrians.”
    “I was very nearly run over by a taxi the other day.”
    “Then we cross the lawn, and continue on our way passed the statue of Hercules........”
    “Atlas surely!”
    “No Hercules, Atlas had to go off and do something else, so Hercules took the world on his shoulders for a while. Then we turn left......”
    “We could go straight ahead at that point, up the steps, through the gate, across the road, and up the steps into the Town Hall.”
    “Yes but this way takes a little longer.”
    “Its only trying to avoid the inevitable........just a minute, there’s a public safety committee sitting today.”
    “They had one of those during the French Revolution.”
    “That’s as maybe, but I’m going to sit on that committee and raise the question of public safety in the shared space of the Piazza. It’s a danger to pedestrians.”
    “Hustle and bustle that’s you.”
    “And you, fed up with the daily grind?”
    “No, a special assignment.”
    “You’re on assignment, where to?”
    “Kandersfeld!”

    “Where’s that?”
    “Austria, I might not come back!”
    “Why is it a dangerous assignment?”

    “No, but I might just disappear. They won’t let me resign!”
    “If you were to resign they’d only bring you back here!”
    “I hadn’t thought of that.”
    “Come with me and sit on that blasted committee, and together we’ll get the shared space of the Piazza altered!”
    “I hear they intend to make more space.”
    “How do they intend to do that?”
    “By removing the pool and fountain!”
    “They can’t do that, Number Sixty-six will have nowhere to sail his plastic boats!”
    “Isn’t there a by-law against that sort of thing, sailing plastic boats in the free sea?”

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Quote For The Day

    “Sir Charles at last, I am ZM Seventy-three.”
    “You claim to be ZM Seventy-three.”
    “And I can prove it.”
    “Do so.”
    “I could pitch this on a very personal level Sir Charles.”
    “Don’t spare my feelings, speak as freely as you wish.”
    “Very well……I will confine myself to simple domestic details of no interest to anyone except the family. Details incidentally which couldn’t possibly be known by anyone except ourselves, would you accept that?”
    “Yes I suppose so.”
    “You are a keen Rosearian, and it was when you were pruning your Baccara’s those ones down by the little goldfish pool when I asked for your permission to marry your daughter. Ha, I remember you dropped your secateurs I never understood why, because it couldn’t have been that much of a surprise to you. The next day you took me to lunch at your club, out favourite dish jugged hare was on the menu.”
    “I don’t dispute the accuracy of your statement, it is correct in every detail. Trouble is you see, there’s nothing you can tell me which may not have been told you by the person you claim to be, under sedation or hypnosis. We’re all aware of truth drugs and other ingenious means of extracting information. It could all have been recorded and you could have learned it parrot fashion.”
    “Ask me the minutest details you know that we did together.”
    “The same problem applies.”
    “I could never convince you then.”

            {ZM73 and Sir Charles – Do Not Forsake Me Oh My Darling}

    There is a parallel between ‘The Schizoid Man’ and ‘Do Not Forsake Me Oh My Darling,’ in that Number 6 has problems proving his identity in both episodes! In one he’s not quite himself, and in the other he appears to be someone else entirely! Number 6 seems to have a problem when it comes to his identity. And yet he proved it well enough to Janet Portland during a tender love scene, and come to think of it, the original script for ‘The Schizoid Man’ had Number 6 proving to Alison who he was by kissing her. That makes two parallels! Of course Pat McGoohan wouldn’t have anything to do with a kissing scene, so it was written out and the mind reading scene was written in instead. And of course there was no such problem in ‘Do Not Forsake Me Oh My Darling’ as it was Nigel Stock playing ZM73 in the romantic role. Much to the disappointment of Zena Walker I might add!

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The Tally Ho

Running With The Hounds

by our own reporter

        Tally ho, that’s what they shout when the chase is on for the fox. Well in bygone days it used to be, however the chase is on and the fox in this case is No. 6 and No.2 is head of the chasing pack. Of course this broadsheet will always favour The Village, and the way we work here is quite miraculous. Like the time we got the election edition printed so quickly and with No.6’s article, only it wasn’t written by No.113, his interview with the local candidate was a complete waste of time. No, the article was written in an office long before the election began.
    Generally The Tally Ho has no date, but there is one exception, and that led to some confusion. The date Feb10th appeared twice, as did the same headline, both of which related to two specific times, the one Tally Ho doing two jobs.
    Printed daily at noon, well yes and no, at one point No.6 buys a copy of The Tally Ho at 20 minute past 10 in the morning. Furthermore two issues are printed the one day, so work that out!
    We report the news whilst providing a voice, like the time No.2 called for an increase in vigilance against indeterminate enemies who are amongst us here in The Village. Did No.2 mean dissidents, like that No.12 of administration? Or he might have meant jammers, No.6 was a jammer all those activities of his, all came to nothing but No.2 couldn’t see it, because he didn’t trust anyone not even his assistant No.14. No.51 was against The Village, he had been radicalized by No.100 in making a detonator for the bomb, but he had been neutralized by No.6!
    No.6 is a troublemaker, a malcontent, and top of a list of malcontents. So now we’re getting towards it, malcontents they are the enemy within The Village. Formerly No.2 didn’t know who these malcontents are, yet by the time another interim No.2 takes up office in the Green Dome a list of malcontents has been drawn up. As I was writing No.6 is a troublemaker, he’s either trying to escape, or poke his nose into business which does not concern him! He is a thorn in the side of No.2, I don’t know why he just doesn’t deal with the man and by doing so bring peace and harmony back to The Village.
    Living in harmony, that’s what No.2 wanted. Instant Social Conversion was one way of achieving peace of mind. No more aggression, agitation a thing of the past. It was a witch hunt against anyone showing the slightest bit of disharmony. Being posted as unmutual came next, and after that complete peace of mind. The Committee was a tool of No.2’s who wanted to steal the minds of the people. If Speed Learn made people into rows of cabbages, even knowledgeable cabbages, Instant Social Conversion finished the job! It destroys and makes people docile, it takes away their will. But at least they have peace of mind.

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Bureau of Visual Records

    The question here is, what is this brief scene from ‘Arrival’ doing in ‘Checkmate?” The Prisoner has just arrived, there he is at the other end of the pool and fountain, wearing his own suit for pity’s sake! Rover is on patrol and about to pass by as on the lawn the human chess pieces are assembling for a game of chess. How can Number 14 the ex-Count ask Number 6 if he plays chess when he’s standing over there in his suit only just arrived in The Village? I mean what was it, one of those little slapdash improvisations in the cutting suite? Oh dear we’ve a few seconds to spare, lets drop in a very brief scene from ‘Arrival’ no-one will notice?! Obviously the editors didn’t realize ‘the Prisoner’ was far too important for slapdash improvisations! Come to think of it, if you think this is pretty weak when it comes to slipping in the odd piece of film footage, just wait until ‘It’s Your Funeral!’ The Prisoner wearing his suit turns up again in that episode but for a much longer time. That’s when Number 6 is on his way to warn Number 2 about the assassination plot against him. Pity they didn’t have more film footage of Number 6 wandering about The Village all on his own, at least he’d have been wearing his piped blazer!

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Vote For 6 And He’ll Be Ever So Comfortee!

    Yes Number 6 wanted the citizens vote, so that he could be co-opted onto the town council. But he had to be elected as the new Number 2 first. Mind you did he really want to become one of those brainwashed imbeciles who stood on the council at the time of its disillusionment? Only ex-Number 2’s can be town councillors, well they aren’t that important anymore, yes they retain their number 2 but its subdivided. Obviously these Number 2’s who stand on the council are failed 2’s who were not permitted to leave The Village. Either that or they weren’t reabsorbed back into administration! I tell you what, Number 6 wouldn’t have been feeling so comfortee had he been co-opted on the town council, he wouldn’t have been feeling anything much at all! Look at him, can he laugh, can he cry, can he think? In his head there must be the remnant of a brain, in his heart there must be the desire to be a human being again...... that was a lucky escape for Number 6. After all he hadn’t turned out to be much of a Number 2 at all. Talk about Chairman of The Village, the man couldn’t organize a booze up in the Cat and Mouse! Lucky for Number 6 the tissue wasn’t damaged, only bruised a bit!

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It Doesn’t Really Mean Anything!

    Brilliant it doesn’t really mean anything, brilliant! But people will make it mean something, even if they do not understand it themselves, they’ll probably make it up as they go along! Just like Number 6 did that time at the arts and crafts exhibition, abstract art is basically primitive, that’s why he made his own tools. Rubbish! He had to make his own tools because he couldn’t get any proper tools! Stone axe and chisels, it’s not stone tools he needed, but good strong flints! Perhaps we make too much of ‘the Prisoner,’ does it really have to mean anything? Can it not simply be enjoyed for its own sake, as pure escapism? I did during my screening of the series for the 50^th anniversary. I shut off my mind to any possible questions and just watched, just watched, and it was brilliant. None of it mattered but the action and adventure of the series. Not one man’s fight against bureaucracy, but one man’s determination to escape a government prison! To maintain his identity, yes they took away his name and gave him a number, but that’s what happens in Prison. Prisoner’s no longer have a name but a number, so there’s nothing unusual in that. What is unusual is a prisoner being given the opportunity to be the Governor! But Number 6 turned the offer down, he threw it back in their faces, and brought the system down from within so to speak. ‘The Prisoner’ is good agricultural stuff, but doesn’t really have to mean anything......unless you what it to!

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Exhibition of Arts And Crafts

                                White Friars

 BCNU

Gardeners Question Time!

    You would think this gardener would have better things to do with his time instead of chatting with Number 6.
    “Roses Number Six, what about roses?”
    “My Betty Uprichard has got a touch of mildew.”
    “What do you want me to do about it?”
    “I thought you could give me some advice about it. It won first prize at The Village flower show last year you know.”
    “Did it? Betty Uprichard you say? Well let me think for a moment……........I’d advise a one to one thousand sulphuric wash that should clear it up in no time.”
    “Well thank you, I’ll remember that.”

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The Trivia

    A mechanical band in the Cat and Mouse nightclub, except it isn’t really that at all. It’s a mechanical drum kit with a statue of a lion on a rotating stool! Yes the drums bang, the cymbals clash, but as for the rest of the music, it’s piped in through loudspeakers!
    A nightclub that’s trendy for The Village, modern in that it only sells non-alcoholic beverages, gin, whisky, vodka looks the same tastes the same, but no-one can get tiddly! The decoration of the Cat and Mouse is of a nautical persuasion. A mermaid figurehead from a ship, fishing nets, ships wheel. But what’s that woman doing carrying that large pot about with her, and is that incense burning in it, or some kind of drug to bring about the illusion of intoxication? If it is it doesn’t work on Number 6, he demands Number 58 get him a drink, an alcoholic drink, and smashes a glass on the floor in a fit of temper. And he upset the waitress, after all she was only doing her job. I expect she’s not had much to do with awkward customers like Number 6 before!
   Was the Cat and Mouse merely set up for one night? I only ask because it’s just a step or two from Number 6’s cottage, and there has never been any sign of the Cat and Mouse before, and is never seen again. Not even on the morning of the election, as Numbers 2 and 6 leave the cottage to assess the madding crowd!

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A Favourite Scene In Free For All

    Clever aren’t they? Yes they are, damned clever! They were not only confident of their choice of candidate, but they knew Number 6 wouldn’t be able to resist running for electoral office, after all what had he to lose? I like the way they reveal that prefabricated placard “Vote for No.6.” And those others held up by members of the electorate, always kept blank to the camera until it was time to reveal the face on the other side. That came as a shock to Number 6, he wasn’t expecting that I bet! No matter how good Number 6 is, no matter the type of calibre the man, he would never be able to manipulate such a community as this. Number 6 must have been deluded to think that he could have organized a mass breakout the way he tried. Not one single citizen took the least bit of notice of him as his voice boomed out this is their chance, that they are free to go. Number 6 in command? Never! Anyway what did Number 6 care about the citizens? It would have been enough for him to have the citizens create such chaos and mayhem to allow him to slip quietly away unnoticed!
   But it didn’t work, it would never have worked. Number 6 might well have saved himself a lot of trouble, time, effort, and a beating at the fists of the two motor mechanics. As for Number 2, well he was on his way out, he wasn’t going on leave was he? It was a very elaborate plan, but what exactly did it achieve? Perhaps that Number 6 is capable of being manipulated as any other citizen in The Village. As for the new Number 2, what had she actually achieved? Well she hadn’t been in the job five minutes so give her a chance. No doubt she thought some good old fashioned brute force against Number 6 would loosen his tongue. It didn’t, but perhaps this Number 2 would have something more subtle in line for Number 6, to which we are not privy!

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Thought For The Day

    Who was No.1 before the current No.6? Because The Village has been going for a long time, since the war, before the war even, there had to have been a No.1, and long before this current No.6 had been brought to The Village! In fact there must have been a long line of different No.1’s during that very long time!

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The Therapy Zone

    I like to think of the Therapy Zone as a place where people go to think about ‘the Prisoner,’ either to discuss the series with other like minded enthusiasts, or simply to sit quietly and think about it in solitary contemplation. But does it help? I suppose it might help clear the mind of thoughts and ideas which help clog the brain. Or perhaps one has become lost, having travelled along one avenue of thought, only to have found yourself detoured at the crossroads, and now you find yourself going along another track, and so on and so forth until there you are, absolutely lost with no idea how to get back to your original thought! Why the crosspiece? Why not the crosspiece? Does there have to be a crosspiece? Yes, otherwise Number 6 would have no spar to hang a sail from! I think that tapestry of Number 38’s, when set as a sail give Number 6’s sailing craft a touch of the Vikings! The first cross appears as ZM73 pulls open the double doors of the office during the opening sequence. Number 48 stretches out his arms to form a cross, likewise the late Number 2 stretches out his arms, and yet that has no religious connotations for me as it does for some. Others would have it that Number 2 was resurrected, if they listen to the word, and you’ll find the word is resuscitated! Number 2 might feel like a new man, that’s perhaps because he’s been given a second chance, well perhaps not. They couldn’t let him rest in peace you see, they had to bring him back in order to be put on trial for all of his misdemeanours, whatever they may be. Because Number 2 is a good man, he was a good man, but if he’s going to die he’ll die with his own mind. Number 1 will hypnotize him no longer. He’s seen the light hallelujah! Number 48 saw the light, he was with them then he went and gone, gone away! As for Number 6 he’s a man of a different calibre, he’s always seen to have a future with The Village, that’s why no harm was allowed to befall him, you can’t expect a man of fragments to be put in place as Number 1. As for Number 1, I’ve always thought it such a pity that a little effort could not have been made for 6 and 1 to talk together during that confrontation. But then what might they have said? Number 1 turned out to be as mad as a hatter, well that’s how he’s always struck me, and Number 6 is not much better, but at least he does remain calm and calculating. Number 1 does evade capture, but his ultimate fate is then unavoidable, whatever that might be. There’s no leaver on the upper section of that hatch, he can’t let himself out of the nosecone of the rocket! As for Number 6, his fate is the same fate as it was at the beginning, Number 1 showed him his future in that crystal ball, the future Number 6 rejected by allowing it to slip through his fingers and shatter into a thousand splinters on the floor!

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A Favourite Scene

    When an unknown man storms into an office, and in a fit of rage hands in what we suppose to be his letter of resignation, because at this point no-one is completely sure what he’s doing, well not the first time we don’t! We are not told that he has just resigned his job. Nor does that man look important enough to be handed a letter of resignation. No, not handed, the letter is slammed down upon the desk and stamped with the man’s fist! This angry man paces the office shouting at the passive man sat behind the desk who remains unemotional. It’s not even a very impressive office come to think of it. It’s nothing more than a poky little box room, perhaps the man sat behind the desk is nothing more than a first contact, a receptionist within whatever organization he represents, although we assume its a department within British Military Intelligence. The man is angry about something, angry enough for him to chuck up his job. And the letter, what happened to the letter? Perhaps the man sat behind the desk went and handed it to someone else, the Colonel seems a likely candidate. Which in turn asks, why didn’t this man hand in his letter of resignation to the Colonel in the first place? Did the Colonel then keep the letter? He might have passed it to Sir Charles Portland, after all he’s the boss despite his late appearance in the series! And what then? The letter filed away in one of those grey filing cabinets we see during the opening sequence! And the location of this office? For filming purposes a small room in the underground car park was used. But of course the man having parked his Lotus 7 left the car park via the way out, so fictionally I like to think the office is located somewhere in a building in White Hall, which is but a stone’s throw away from the car park!

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Exhibition of Arts And Crafts

                         XO4?

BcNu

The Therapy Zone

    Who is XO4? XO4 is the person to whom Number 6 wrote the message;

    Ref you enquiry via Bizet

    Record.

    No.2’s instability confirmed.

    Detailed report follows.

                                         D.6.

    What happened to that message? Number 6 put in the inside pocket of his blazer, what he did with it after that is anyone’s guess. He could have passed it on to XO4, he might have thrown it away.
    So XO4, did he exist? If so was he operating in The Village independently gathering a report on Number 2, and did Number 6 give him that message later? XO4 may not have existed in The Village, but might Number 6 know who XO4 is. After all Number 6 himself had a code name in the same vein, that of ZM73. In ‘Do Not Forsake Me Oh My Darling’ other such code names were used, PR12, and XB4. Is it possible that XO4 is none other than Sir Charles Portland, seems doubtful somehow.
   Anyway Number 2 knows who Number 6 is, he’s D6! Sent to The Village by their masters to spy on them, to spy on Number 2! Planted in The Village by XO4…..so Number 2 knows who XO4 is. That being the case, doesn’t that put Number 6 and Number 2 on the same side? Certainly it would if Number 2 is Thorpe! But then that’s not a code name is it, but NO2 is, get it?
    As for D6, well there was the suggestion years ago, that D stands for Drake, and 6 for 6 as in Number 6 hence D6. It would have been a nice touch had the message been signed ZM73, but clearly that would have been impossible as he wasn’t given that code name until ‘Do Not Forsake Me Oh My Darling!’

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Village Life!

    “I don’t know what it is, but days here seem to be the same as yesterday with the prospect of tomorrow being as today. Do you know what I mean?”
    “Yes old boy I do. This morning I got out of bed the same time as usual, and guess what.”
    “What?”
    “Nothing happened!”
    “My maid arrived at the usual time with my breakfast.....”
    “Just a minute, what’s this about a maid?”
    “She brought me my breakfast.”
    “What on a breakfast tray?”
    “How else was she to do it?”
    “How is it you warrant a maid bringing you breakfast, I had to make my own, tea and toast!”
    “I have my breakfast brought to me on a tray, by a maid because it’s a privilege I have earned.”
    “So what did you have for breakfast this fine morning?”
    “Well as a matter of fact, I had a pot of tea, toast, and a glass of orange juice.”
    “Jam or marmalade?”
    “Does it make any difference?”
    “To have marmalade is the English way, to have jam is International!”
    “As a matter of fact the maid forgot the marmalade”
    “Doesn’t sound much of a privilege to me.”
    “You’re right, it isn’t. By the time the maid arrives with it, breakfast is cold anyway!”
    “I blame those garden tractors they use.”
    “A bit slow I agree, but they get you there in the end.”
    “Be quicker to walk!”

    “Is that why we walk to work every morning?”
    “What do you mean?”
    “When we could take a taxi to work.”
    “What and arrive late?! I took a taxi ride once, Number two had asked me to meet a currier off a helicopter. I arrived ten minutes late!”
    “Why so?”
    “The taxi driver took the scenic route! We went down the same streets, then back again, twice past the Café, along cobbled paths, round the statue of Hercules, at one point I swore we met ourselves coming back the other way!”
   “That hasn’t happened this morning.”
   “No.”
   “But we have taken the long road!”

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A Favourite Scene In Dance of The Dead

   I bet he wasn’t expecting that!

   “Are you alright, you tried to go in…..by mistake? Its fussy about who it lets in…. this is the Town Hall.”

   I bet Number 6 wasn’t expecting that, to be hit by an electronic force field! But then why should he, after all he had been in the Town Hall before. Unless of course ‘Dance of The Dead’ was to precede ‘Free For All,’ then it would have been right, Number 6 would not have known that this is the Town Hall, not having been in it before. However had ‘Free For All been preceded by ‘Dance of The Dead’ then there would have been no need for Number 6 to go to the Town Hall in order to witness the disillusionment of the out-going Council, because there would not have been an election. The fact that the Village political system has no opposition! In the first place, Number 2 is appointed, not elected by the people, and in the second place Number 6 knew that this is the Town Hall, Number 2 told him so during his aerial tour of The Village on the day of his arrival. But perhaps he had forgotten, after all there had been a great deal for him to take to take in that morning!

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Caught On Camera!

   The Village is never very far away. The bust in the background, seen before in the cave where four Villagers are being indoctrinated or something by the Village Guardian in a scene in ‘Free For All.’ Not only that, but Sir Charles has one of the Professor’s paintings of a general hanging on the wall!

    Also there is a similarity, or a parallel, between Sir Charles Portland’s office and that of Number 2’s office in the Green Dome. Although the one is minimalist and futuristic looking, whereas Sir Charles office is much more comfortable, traditional, and rich looking, they are both accessed via a foyer or anti room. And in both cases hanging on the walls of that anti room, are the two same seascapes of sailing ships. Also both Sir Charles office and that of Number 2, are accessed through two pairs of double doors. He might not be a Butler, but there is a man standing by to show Janet Portland into her father’s office!   
    Parallel lines, they are easily drawn as they have been here, but there is coincidence, I think we can allow coincidence!

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Exhibition of Arts And Crafts

           Section of The New Mural In The Library!

 BcNu

Map of Portmeirion

Map of Portmeirion Circa 1935

    So what has a map of the Italianate village got to do with ‘the Prisoner?’ Well Portmeirion is the home of ‘the Prisoner,’ plus there is a similarity in the way the two maps have been set out, almost child-like. The map shows the hotel, the woods, sea lawn, the lower terrace. The slipway and the sea, and the drive to Portmeirion. Also a number of buildings are noted on the map, Angel, Neptune, Mermaid, Dolphin, The Watch House, Government House, Campanile, Priory Lodge, Battery Gate, The Pilot House, and Toll Gate. Whereas the Map of The Village shows the woods, the mountains, the sea, the Old People’s Home, Tower, the Palace of Fun, Shop, Labour Exchange, lawn, the beach, cliffs and caves. It’s possible that The Village map was based on the map of Portmeirion, although there is no physical proof of this, only the similarity between the two maps. There is also something curious about the Portmeirion map seen in the upper right-hand corner. “PLEASE RETURN.” Obviously copies of this map were not sold, but handed out to visitors to Portmeirion, who had to hand the map back as they left the village. I must apologize for the quality of the map, as it is a copy of a copy. The map could not be found anywhere on the world-wide web, in fact the only place it can be found, as far as I know, is within the 2006 book ‘Portmeirion.’ And although the map is printed in blue, it had to be printed for The Tally Ho in greyscale for any of the detail to be shown. 
   The date of the map can be estimated circa 1935 because that is when the tennis court first appeared in Portmeirion. Then in 1965, a year before filming of ‘the Prisoner’ began in September 1966 the tennis court was relocated along the drive to Portmeirion, and the Piazza along with its pool and fountain were established. And that was lucky for the production of ‘the Prisoner,’ because had the tennis court remained, it would have given episodes filmed at Portmeirion a completely different look, there would have been no central area for citizens to promenade around, and especially in ‘Free For All’ when it came to the two speeches given from the Gloriette. Although the tennis court would have given citizens the opportunity to hold their own tennis tournament!

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Here Is A Very Sad Announcement

Picture Daily Mirror

     On the news this morning the BBC announced the sad death of Fenella Fielding, who passed away at the age of 90.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/45409341

    Although Fenella never physically appeared in ‘the Prisoner,’ she was the voice of The Village. Her sultry, cheery voice would float over The Village announcing the ice cream flavour of the day, the weather forecast such warnings of intermittent showers, and the fine spell of good weather to continue for at least another month. As well as special events.
    “Good evening citizens, your local council wishes to announce an exciting competition….the subject this time Sea Scapes.”

Rest in peace Fenella

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Village Life!

    “What's all this?”

    “You'll never believe it.”

    “No I wouldn’t. Believe what?”

    “It's a formula for the missing link!”   

    “Don’t tell me you've found the missing link, what is it?”

    “It's not a what, it's a who?”

    “Who?”

    "You!”

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Caught on Camera!

    Now you see the thing is, who put that cardboard cut-out of the Judge in the Saloon? Someone had to have physically placed it there, because a few moments before it wasn’t there! So someone, during the action between the Man With No Name coming into the Saloon for a drink after gunning down the Kid in the street and the gunfight with the Judges boys, had to have sneaked into the Silver Dollars Saloon and put it there!

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Exhibition of Arts And Crafts

                        A Holiday Romance!

 BSEENU

Prismatic Reflection

    What is it about ‘the Prisoner’ that enthusiasts enjoy so much? Watching the series obviously, yet everyone also enjoys the series for a number of reasons. Discussion and debate with others, arriving at individual ideas and theories as to what ‘the Prisoner ‘is all about, and escapism plays its part. We all want to escape, many escape to The Village {Portmeirion} once a year as they embrace The Village. Indeed Morag and I were once upon a time one of their number. Artists and writers have been inspired by ‘the Prisoner,’ and I count myself to be one of them, and many fans create websites devoted to the series But on a personal level, I gain enjoyment through ‘the Prisoner’ by sometimes thinking of what takes place between the episodes we know. Also finding something pictorially new in ‘the Prisoner,’ like the time I spotted Number 6 using the ballot box, used on Polling day, as a waste bin in ‘The Schizoid Man.’ On a fictional level, I like to bring a little continuity between certain episodes, such as Potter of ‘Danger Man’ being the manager of the Labour Exchange, and then becoming Number 2’s assistant during ‘The Chimes of Big Ben,’ and who later appears in ‘The Girl Who Was Death’ as Number 6 recalls the type of work he used to do. Some would argue that Potter in ‘the Prisoner’ cannot be Potter of ‘Koroshi – Danger Man,’ because the character is different. And yet when actor Christopher Benjamin attended a Prisoner Convention in 2017, 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?” Then there is Thorpe of whom I like to think life in The Village didn’t suit him as Number 2. But as Number 2 I think Thorpe would relish the opportunity to “hammer” Number 6! And we must not forget Martha, Mrs. Butterworth’s housemaid. It appears that when she came to The Village she brought Martha with her, but when Number 2 left The Village she left her housemaid-Number 36 behind. Who no doubt found employment as a housemaid, well it’s hardly rocket science is it. And the time she tried to buy a bag of sweets, but her weekly allowance having been all used up, so in Number 6 buying a bag of sweets for her perhaps he recognised her and felt sorry for the woman, even though she had looked down her nose at him when they met previously on the doorstep of his former home! Characters you see, if an actor or actress plays more than one role in ‘the Prisoner’ I like to link those roles. And when it comes to characters Tony Sloman once said you can put the episodes of ‘the Prisoner’ together in such a way that they correspond to the changes in Number 6’s character. Really? To my way of thinking Number 6’s character doesn’t change at all, he’s just as arrogant at the end as he is at the beginning. Except when Number 6 is played by Curtis, who is far more relaxed, there he is coming into his cottage whistling, he obviously feels very much more at home. He’s even taken to wearing his numbered badge. In fact Curtis makes a better Number 6 than Number 6 does! There is one character who is unique to the series, a character who changes about mid episode. Then there’s Number 48 who I like to think of as the former Number 8. Up until him Number 8 had always been a woman, perhaps Number 8 in ‘Living In Harmony’ might have been better as Number 48, that would then make the link though the President’s words “You were with us, then you went and gone,” perhaps meaning 48 had committed suicide and died at the end of ‘Living In Harmony.’ And how am I to account for that and 48’s appearance in ‘Fall Out? Well they brought Number 2 back from the dead, so why not Number 48? It is also interesting that like Number 6, Number 48 is allowed to wear his own clothes, a privilege un-afforded to Number 2 as surgeons were busy resuscitating him! I sometimes wonder what was it that brought Number 48 to the point of ‘Fall Out’ that permitted him to wear his own clothes? But no amount of conjecture and supposition will answer that one. It seems more the case that Number 48 is nothing more than a contrivance on the part of the scriptwriter. Number 48 is merely a representation of uncoordinated youth that rebels against nothing it can define, because it must. And yet although we have met the “late” Number 2 on two previous occasions, he is also representative, of the Establishment who turns upon and bites the hand that feeds. And what about the former Number 6, well he’s representative of Everyman who fights to make himself heard in a world of officialdom and bureaucracy, and against the protestations of officials in an organization or government department, considered as a group who refuse to listen! No he’s not, he’s rebelling against the system to which he was abducted, and incarcerated against his will, in The Village! And the Butler, he’s representative of the little man, or the man in the street who has no voice in officialdom. And so follows unquestionably those who govern supposedly so wisely. Together they make up the four Musketeers who combat the Cardinal’s men so valiantly, and make good their escape from the Bastille. I suppose that is one way of putting it, to give it a novel twist.

    As for myself, I did my best to re-create the character of the Prisoner in re-enactments at Prisoner Conventions, which many thought I carried off rather well, members of the general public thought I was Patrick McGoohan, or his son. And as we filmed ‘Village Day’ in Portmeirion, people thought I was filming a remake of ‘the Prisoner.’ One woman went into the Prisoner shop and asked Max Hora if she paid £20 could she possibly stand next to the great man, meaning me!!!!! But at the time it had nothing to do with my trying to be Pat McGoohan, but the character of the Prisoner, which I suppose basically is one and the same thing I suppose!                

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The Trivia!

    There is nothing more important than trivia! Number 2 knew that when he was trying to relieve Number 6 of that trivial matter of his resignation that had been causing him so much trouble. Why did he resign? He needed time.....oh that was it eh, a question of time. He hated his job so much that he chucked it in. But it wasn’t just a question of time, Number 6 needed time to think! I have often wondered if ZM73’s resignation had anything to do with Professor Seltzman? After all he was the last man to have any contact with him, it seems to me that ZM73 had been shielding Seltzman! He knew that science can be perverted, he stated as much in ‘The Schizoid Man.’ No doubt he was under the impression that if anyone laid hands on Professor Seltzman, his machine, and mind transference technique, it would be perverted. He was too late, because although The Village administration had been unable to trace Seltzman, they had been able to acquire both the technique and the machine. What’s more they had perverted its use, and had already been putting the machine to good use for an undisclosed length of time, long before ‘Do Not Forsake Me Oh My Darling!’

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