In The Village

    Well just outside actually, somewhere in the woods. Number 6 constructed himself his own private gymnasium. It appears that subsequent Number 2’s have not involved themselves in deterring him. On the contrary, it seems they have been happy for Number 6 to use his gymnasium because while he’s conducting his daily work-out he’s not doing anything else. By causing trouble, poking his nose in where it has no business, or attempting to escape. Mind you it’s an interesting observation, but since Number 6 built his private gym he stopped attempting to escape!

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Village Life!

    “Did you know you bear a strong resemblance to Number Fourteen?”
    “Number Fourteen, who’s he when he’s at home?”
    “He dressed exactly the same as you.”
    “Yes but who is this Fourteen chap?”
    “He was Number Two’s assistant.”
    “Was?”
    “Yes, assistant to my predecessor.”
    “What happened to him?”
    “He went round the bend!”
    “Who Number Fourteen?”
    “No my predecessor, he was under the impression that everyone was conspiring against him.”
    “And were they?”
    “No, of course not.”
    “And Number Fourteen?”
    “He could have been standing here where you are, and it wouldn’t have altered the scene one little bit. In fact he was about as useful as you!”
    “What happened to him?”
    “According to our records Number Six put the poison in, and Number Fourteen went to his cottage to have it out with him.”
    “What happened?”
    “There was a fight, eventually Number Six threw him out.”
    “Oh!”
    “Out through the French window, taking the balcony railings with him. He died of a broken neck!”
    “And that’s why I’m here and he isn’t?”
    “Yes. Now make yourself useful.”
    “Useful, how?”
    “I have no idea. There was one difference between you and Number Fourteen.”
    “Yes and what’s that?”
    “At least he always tried to make himself useful.”
    “Yes, but I bet he didn’t have a job like mine!”
    “How do you mean?”
    “Serving two masters at the same time!”
    “Tell me again…..what is it you do?”

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MindGames!

    Number 2 said “Colonel, you must be aware that all major powers have in their prisons one or two of each others spies. From time to time diplomatic swaps take place. Imagine the power we would have if the spy we returned had the mind of our choosing. We could break the security of any nation.”

   Would that be possible? One man’s mind in another man’s body is fine, until you place that man in a totally different environment, say working for the Russians somewhere behind the Iron Curtain. He might look like the spy, call him ‘A,’ recently returned to them, but what of the other man’s mind, call him ‘B.’ He might have read ‘A’s’ file, but he wouldn’t know enough about ‘A’ in order for ‘B’ to replace him and live his life effectively. He would have to speak the language, but wouldn’t know enough about ‘A’s’ colleagues, or about where he fitted in. There would be ‘A’s’ friends, and he might be married, he might have children. ‘B’ wouldn’t have neither the character or mannerisms of ‘A,’ therefore ‘B’ would not know enough to behave like ‘A.’ Simply looking like ‘A’ would not be enough, ‘B’ would not have the knowledge to effectively carry it off!

   There is another problem. The subject, having had all unpleasant memories of the village whipped from his mind before being out back into circulation in order to collect information, would in time be brought back to the village. How then would the subject react? The subject would most probably react with a normal accepted behaviour pattern. The subject would show shock symptoms. He would be confused, disorientated, and possibly aggressive. And rather than simply give up the information inside his head he would refuse to talk, because he would have no knowledge that he was supposed to give up the information the agent had collected. So Number 2 would be forced to take it by fair means or foul!

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Bureau of Visual Records

   Have you observed in ‘A B and C,’ how No.6’s dreams are accompanied by a musical soundtrack? I dream quite a lot and have been in many different situations, sometimes dangerous ones. I hear voices, I have heard myself speaking pure French, when I only have a few words of French. I hear other people’s voices, and sounds, and yet my dreams have never been accompanied by music……..until one a few nights ago!

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Freedom Of The Open Road!

      I have often thought how happy the Prisoner would have been to be behind the wheel of his car again in ‘Many Happy Returns,’ even though it was registered to Mrs. Butterworth at the time! But the one thing about the Prisoner is, he's too tall! The top of the windscreen is at his eye line. That's why he has to look out through the side of the car from time to time, rather than through the windscreen.

    What was it Number 6 once said, the rain in your hair, the wind on your cheek, that and the joy of the open road.

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Exhibition of Arts And Crafts

                      Road Block!

 BCNU

MindGames

    Number 8 volunteered to help Number 6 escape, she wanted him to tell her his plan, and if it was a good one she would help him with it. After all she had helped others with their plans, although none of which ever succeeded, nevertheless Number 8 would still be invaluable, at least she could tell Number 6 what not to try. Well Number 6 could have done worse than accept Number 8’s help, after all look at the attempts he made to escape The Village, none of those ever succeeded!

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Citizen No.6

    “The one and only Number Six!”
                              {Number 2 – Free For All}
  That is how Number 2 introduced Number 6 to the madding crowd, as the one and only Number 6. But he wasn’t, was he? There were at least two of him. Curtis his doppelganger, and Number 1. Of course that’s not counting twice during ‘The Chimes of Big Ben’ when Number 6 can be seen out and about The Village, when he’s still in bed, and as he’s just coming out of the Green Dome. In ‘The Schizoid Man’ there are three Number 6’s, Number 6, Curtis, and the man seen running along the road from the air as the helicopter circles The Village. I wonder what Number 2’s explanation would be? Because whoever it is, that person cannot be Curtis, firstly he’s wearing the wrong coloured blazer, and secondly he’s dead, and it’s Number 6 who is impersonating Curtis in the helicopter, so it’s not him! So there has to be a third Number 6 in The Village.....unless the running figure is Number 1 impersonating Number 6!

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The Therapy Zone

    It is said that Number 6 is fighting against society, or the bureaucratic system, and I suppose symbolically that is what he is doing. But to my mind, he’s rebelling against his false imprisonment. I mean if you can’t chuck up a job things have come to a pretty pass. And yet Number 6 didn’t resign from an every day, run of the mill job. I presume he had been a secret agent working for M9, it should have been MI9, but for some reason they dropped the Intelligence. Mind you he did start out working for NATO Intelligence, that’s when he was an American with a terrible American accent. It wasn’t until later in his career that he changed, became British and then went to work for M9. But all good things come to an end one way or another. And he became disillusioned with the kind of work he was having to perform. He became fed up with the repetitiveness of it all, and so he resigned and woke up one day to find himself in The Village! Well he only had himself to blame, thought he was being clever you see. But in the end it was both his success and his downfall, because he made himself a prisoner. It might have been easier for him if he had answered one simple question, then he could have unburdened himself, why did he resign?

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MindGames

    I wonder how Number 2 felt when he read the headline of The Tally Ho on February 10^th? I bet that gave him a bit of a shock, to think that there was already a question mark over his administrative ability, “Is No.2 Fit For Further Term?” And with ‘The Schizoid Man’ affair hardly begun! Of course the Tally Ho headline applied to a former Number 2, not this current one, but you see mind games and it’s so easy in this case what with one Tally Ho broadsheet serving the two episodes. And yet they still didn’t manage to get it quite right, the date’s wrong you see!

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Thought For The Day

    I like the way the President offered No.6 ultimate power, to lead them or go. Had things not turned out the way they did, no doubt the President was going to usurp No.1 with his twin No.6, that might have been the plan all along. No.1 the worst of man, so why not replace him with a man of a different calibre, a better man, moral man, to make a better Village! But the mistake was No.6 saw his future, and rejected it when he let the crystal ball slip from his hands. His future as a Prisoner, because he wouldn’t accept what he was. Two halves of the same person are brought together, on a physical level it makes one wonder how they became separated in the first place. Perhaps the scientists in The Village did it, and they put the wrong one on the throne, whilst the other was like Philippe, locked away but without being forced to wear an iron mask!

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The Throne At Last!

   The throne at last, who would have thought it? He looks like some South American dictator who is so afraid of the people he has to surround himself with armed guards to protect him! The Village has gone balistic! He’s got himself a missile, what’s he going to do with that, threaten the world? He’ll start World War 3 if he’s not very careful. I wonder where The Village got that missile, not from those two gun runners I bet. The weapons they did have looked to be from the bargain basememt range, where would they would get an intercontinetal ballistic missile from?
    So this man was behind The Village all the time, the villain of the piece! But why put himself through that ordeal? Perhaps there was madness behind it. Perhaps he was pitting himself against The Village for a purpose, to put it to the test! Well it all ends in fall out, a falling out amongst friends. Violent revolution, death, evacuation, and escape! But for the Prisoner, because he’s just as much a prisoner at the end as he was at the beginning, there can be no peace of mind. The Prisoner covers 17 weeks, not long really when you think about it. But they are 17 weeks which for the Prisoner became a life sentence, to be lived over and over again without end.

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The Fall Out Rocket

    It’s strange how the inside of the rocket is bigger than the outside, a touch of the "Time and Relative Dimension in Space" {TARDIS} syndrome, wouldn't you say? There is a theory that the rocket or missile, is some kind of Doomsday rocket, capable of destroying the World. If that is the case, why bother the launch the rocket at all, why not press the self destruct button? At the very least some fans have it that the rocket destroyed The Village, if that is the case how do they account for the fact that long after the rocket has been launched The Village is seen completely intact. And because Number 6 was able to set the countdown, fuel the rocket, and launch it, he’s supposed to be a rocket scientist. Well James Bond was able to pilot a space shuttle in ‘Moonraker,’ does that make him an astronaut, I suppose it does!

    If the ‘Fall Out’ rocket was a weapon of destruction, then why does it have four orbit tubes? Orbits 2, 48, one unmarked presumably for Number 6 had he decided not co-operate, and one for Number 1 of course. These orbit tubes being life support chambers designed to enable long space flight, of the type seen in the 1960’s television series ‘Lost In Space.’

   What happened to the ‘Fall Out’ rocket after it blasted out of its silo is anyone’s guess, whether it attained a low orbit, or if it crashed in the sea, or impacted with the ground soon after re-entry. But one thing is certain the fate of Number 1 was sealed in the nose cone of the rocket. Number 6 once told Number 2 that he’d like to be the first man on the Moon, perhaps Number 1 achieved that desire or at least orbit!

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Exhibition of Arts And Crafts

                  ESCAPE VELOCITY!

 BcNu

Prognosis Report On No.6

   Daily the subject climbs the Bell Tower, well we only have the daily prognosis as evidence of that. In much the same way as it is predicted that daily Number 6 buys a bar of soap along with the daily issue of The Tally Ho! Really is there any need for Number 6 to buy a bar of soap each day? 
    Number 6 is described as being eccentric. He certainly is if he buys a bar of soap every day! And he engages with another eccentric, the artist Number 118 who paints 6’s portrait.
   Number 6 is certainly watching, waiting, constantly aggressive. Although it is possible the subject likes the view from the Bell Tower. So what is Number 6 watching and waiting for? A light, boat, a plane, someone from his world, something of an idea left in the mind from ‘Dance of the Dead’ perhaps! 

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The Therapy Zone

    In past years whenever I have seen an actor or actress on television or feature film who appeared in ‘the Prisoner,’ I would say to the wife, or she would say to me, look, there’s number so and so. Or there’s Guy Doleman {Number 2} or Peter Howell {the Professor}, and Hugo Schuster {Professor Seltzman} seen recently in the 1953 film ‘House of Blackmail,’ to name less than a handful. Guy Doleman is the Colonel in the ‘Ipcress File,’ ‘Funeral In Berlin,’ and The Billion Dollar Brain.’ It’s a little game we like to play. But now we have been doing this with actors and actresses who appeared in THEPRIS6NER, and now for me Ian Mckellen will always be 2. Vincent Regan who played 909 {Anvil} is always turning up in different television dramas. And Sara Stewart {1891 in Darling} appeared in the BBC drama ‘Mrs. Foster.’ That’s all really, it’s just a game I’ve played over the years, and continue to do so with actors and actresses from THEPRIS6NER. Most recently Ruth Wilson {313 in THEPPRIS6NER} plays her own grandmother Mrs Wilson in a BBC television drama of the same name which commences on November 27^th 2018.

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In My Mind!

   We all realize Number 6 is still as much a prisoner at the end of the series as he was at the beginning. Was that deliberate? Because it’s a pity really when it would have been so easy to have made him a free man, had they not added those 8 seconds of film from the opening sequence. It would have all been over. The Village abandoned and left to fall into dereliction and decay. The youth trying to thumb a lift, and not caring in which direction a lift might take him. While an established member returns to the folds of the Establishment, as the former ZM73 once again returns to former colleagues in order to make a final report on The Village, and hopefully this time get those elusive answers to his questions! Oh and they put the sound of thunder in the wrong place!

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Thought For The Day

   “Dance of the Dead lies eighth in the screening order of the Prisoner, yet there is a line spoken by No.6 "I'm new here." After No.6's arrival in The Village, he has been duped into thinking he escaped The Village during ‘The Chimes of Big Ben.’ Had the privacy of his dreams invaded by the use of a drug that has been developed by a doctor-No.14. In ‘Free For All’ he stood for election into public office, met his doppelganger in ‘The Schizoid Man.’ Destroyed the General by asking a question, supposedly insoluble to man or machine WHY? Then having woken one morning to find The Village deserted, No.6 built a sea-going raft and set out on a sea adventure, although he had no idea where he was navigating to, because he had no idea where he was navigating from, well not until he’d made himself a compass, at least that gave him direction. So to say "I'm new here"........just how long does a citizen of The Village have to be a resident so as not to be new here? And when No.6 asked Dutton how long he’s been in the Village, Dutton finds it difficult to say, a couple of months. And The Prisoner? “Quite recently.” Sounds to me that ‘Dance of the Dead’ should be a much earlier episode, at least third. What’s more it’s patently obvious that No.6 and No.42-Dutton are ex-colleagues, but you noticed that Dutton doubted him for a moment, as though

he might be working for The Village. And seeing as how Dutton had already been in The Village for a couple of months, might it not have worked better had it been Chambers, late of the Foreign Office, who the Prisoner had met with, instead of Dutton?

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Exhibition of Arts And Crafts

                     The Scream!

BcNu

Page 6

    Number 2 once said he didn’t want a man of fragments, however some Number 2’s weren’t allowed to use the normal techniques, while at other times no extreme measures were to be used against Number 6. There is always the threat though, that they have many ways and means, but they do not wish to damage him permanently. And yet in ‘Living in Harmony’ Number 2 was allowed to break him, mind you I should think by that time they had grown completely annoyed with Number 6, that’s why Degree Absolute had been sanctioned. And yet had they managed to break Number 6, I expect they would have at least tried to put him back together again. They might even have made a better 6, an improved 6, a reformed 6, a 6 who would prove to be co-operative. And yet after Humpty Dumpty had had a great fall from sitting on a wall, all the Kings horses and all the Kings men could not put humpty together again. But of course they didn’t have the advantage of modern medical techniques and the doctors in The Village.

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60 Seconds With No.2

    “I trust we have not called at an inconvenient time Number Two.”

    “Inconvenient, certainly not, what can I do for you?”
    “I am Number One-one-three, and this is my photographic colleague Number One-one-three b, we contribute to The Tally Ho.”
    “Smile” click goes the camera.
    “Yes I wanted to ask you something about that, now what was it?”
    “About the rumours, would you like to make a comment?”
    “Rumours, what rumours are they?”
    “That two Number Six’s have been seen about The Village!”
    “Two Number Six’s, don’t be ridiculous man!”
    “They have been seen leaving their cottage and walking to the Recreation Hall.”
    “Don’t be silly man.”
    “Later they were seen being herded to the Green Dome by the Guardian.”
    “Impossible.”
    “You refute these rumours?”
    “Most certainly I do, two Number Six’s in The Village, I’ve never heard of anything so preposterous!”
    “We can quote you on that Number Two?”
    “Of course you can.”
    “Smile” click goes the camera.
    “I’ve just remembered what I wanted, a word with you about.....about the headline in The Tally Ho. Is No.2 Fit For Further Term? What the devil do you mean by that?”

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Well You’re In My Country Now!

   In ‘A B and C’ it is suggested that we shall see what would have happened had those behind The Village not got to Number 6 first. Yet there was still the possibility that ZM73 would still have been abducted, not to The Village, but possibly behind the Iron Curtain by ‘A,’ seeing as he defected about six years ago, making World news in the process! 
   Having been abducted by ‘A’ and his henchmen, during the car journey ZM73 remarks that Paris hasn’t changed much, and eventually the Citroen D6 car arrives at a chateau. Getting out of the car ‘A’ says “Well you’re in my country now.” Which country might that be? Because they do not appear to have driven very far, which suggests that the Chateau is just outside Paris. Perhaps ‘A’ only defected across the English Channel to France! So was ‘A’ working for French Military Intelligence? Throughout the 1960s and into the 70s, Franco-British relations and British foreign policy were dominated and largely shaped by efforts to convince the French to accept British membership of the Common Market or the EU as it has become. But as we know espionage can be a very dirty game, and dirty tricks are generally employed in that game. And yet we do not know whether ‘A’ is working for a foreign agency, or independently, possibly in the hope that he can sell ZM73 and the information in his head to the highest bidder! And that line from ‘A,’ “Well you’re in my country now,’ does suggest that they left France, otherwise they would have been in ‘A’s’ country all the time, and therefore ‘A’ would have been wasting his words. Also we do not know how long that journey should have taken. Remembering that Number 6 is in a dream. a long journey can take only a few moments. So in one minute ‘A,’ his henchmen, and ZM73 are on a car journey in Paris France, the next perhaps they are in Russia, well behind the Iron curtain. There is no logic when it comes to a dream.

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Protection!

    I like the canopies on the taxis, the canopy is strictly for fair weather, because they would afford little protection against the elements. The canopy attached to the RWS 16 bicycle was originally fitted to a Penny Farthing bicycle, but is completely useless and would afford no protection against the elements whatsoever. As well as being somewhat ungainly, it’s also makes the bicycle top heavy. However it is aesthetically pleasing.

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Quote For The Day

   “Congratulations on yet another day.”
                              {A Village announcement – Free For All’}

   This made me think that any citizen waking up and hearing that announcement means they have made it through another night. They come for you in the night you see, well your resistance is lower then, having been sedated by your nightcap! They did that to Number 6 in ‘A B and C,’ they came for him three times during that episode, and one night he collapsed, and if it had not been for the doctor-Number 14, Number 6 might not have survived that night! On another occasion when Number 6 was taken from his cottage in the middle of the night, he woke up the next day in a strange apartment, but as someone else!

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A Favourite Scene In The Prisoner

   It’s surreal really, the way the three individual Guardians work as one to bring Number 8 back to the shore. To serve and protect, isn’t that how it goes? The Guardian serving The Village and its community, whilst at the same time protecting the individual. They must have thought the scene worked so well, they used it again but with Number 6 in ‘Free for All.’ It’s just a pity that you can see Number 8’s legs kicking in the water trying to keep up with the three balloons!
   I once found myself thinking how the scene might have looked after Nadia having been half drowned half suffocated by the membranic Guardian, had been picked up out of the water by the crew of the helicopter? Being fitted with floats the Alouette helicopter could have landed on the water with a medic on board. Then the crew or medics having retrieved the unconscious body of Number 8 from the sea, they could have flown her direct to the hospital. The scene would have seemed less surreal that way, but it might have looked more dramatic. And we as the television viewer wouldn’t be left wondering how it was that the three Guardians managed to bring Number 8 to the shore the way they did!

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Caught On Camera!

   The Prisoner was once abducted from his London home. Now we witness Number 6 being abducted from his cottage in The Village! I wonder why they went to such extreme measures? You will observe that it takes four security guards to extract a struggling Number 6. Why when they could have subdued him with a blow from a truncheon? But somehow Number 6 is subdued, or sedated, as he lies perfectly still in the Red Cross trailer towed by the mini-Moke. 
   And yet they could have made it much easier for themselves. After all in the past when 'they' had come for him it’s usually been during the night, after Number Six had been sedated with a sleeping draught in his nightcap of hot chocolate! But perhaps on this occasion Number 6 had not drunk his nightcap, and therefore was not sedated. But on the other hand, Number 6 may well have been taken from his cottage later in the day, and therefore on this occasion the use of force was unavoidable. 

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Village Life!

    “It’s going to be one of those days!”
    “You can tell, how?
    “We took the scenic route to the Town Hall. In fact we went the roundabout way, and went back on ourselves twice. We went passed the cafe three times, and promenaded round the pool and fountain in the Piazza for ten minutes!”
    “You noticed!”
    “The reason is clear, it’s the public works committee that sits today, and we are both on it.”
    “Well I ask you, where are we going to put a golf course? It was bad enough with the clock golf.”
    “And the croquet players were not at all happy when that oversized chessboard was laid out on the lawn.”
    “Yes, and how long did that last I ask you?”
    “Three days wasn’t it?”
    “And that’s another thing, oh no perhaps I shouldn’t say.”
    “No go on.”
    “Well whatever Number Two gets himself embroiled with, it never lasts more than three days.”
    “Well that thing during the chimes of Big Ben lasted more than three days, more than six weeks in fact.”
    “Yes well........”
    “And that affair with the schizoid man.”
    “When there were two Number Six’s in The Village?”
    “That lasted over a month.”
    “Yes but it was a complicated affair. What are you getting at?”
    “Well how is it Number Two can be dealing with Number Six, administrating the running of The Village, and at the same time bring about plans that benefit the community and the citizens?”
    “You mean the new mural in the library.”
    “There have been complaints!”
    “Complaints?”
    “There are some who say it’s obscene!”   
    “In what way obscene?”
    “Its pornography!”
    “Is that what they say?”
    “They do say.”
    “Its art, a classical scene.”
    “They have no clothes on.”
    “Some have drapes draped about their semi naked bodies.”
    “There are bare breasts on display, and there’s that rather well proportioned woman.”
    “Well?”
    “That’s Number Eighty-two.”
    “Who is Number Eighty-two?”
    “My mother!”
    “Really?”
    “Yes.”
    “And what about the cinema?”
    “What about it?”
    “Do you know what film they are going to show next week?”
    “No.”
    “Escape From Stalag Lufft Ten!”
    “Oh. Shall we go around again?”
    “Yes, but the other way this time.”
    “What by the Outlook on the cliff?”
    “No, further than that, the lighthouse on the cliff!”

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The Disappearance A Second Time Round

    Both the Colonel and Thorpe stood by and witnessed their ex-colleague go on his flight of discovery. Had they any notion of what would befall him as he laid eyes on The Village once again? Had they been “in on it” all the time, it’s difficult to say one way or the other and in that lies the ambiguity of the situation. And the same can be asked of the Group Captain, was he too “in on it” or was he simply overpowered by the milkman? Either way the milkman was awfully swift in changing out of his milkman’s attire and into this flying suit and helmet. How many minutes would that have taken him, especially if he had to remove the flying suit from the Group Captain’s unconscious body. Then again, you will recall how the Group Captain wasn’t quite ready, did he deliberately hang back in the kitting out room waiting for the milkman? Again more ambiguity.

    I wonder what the Colonel’s reaction was when the news eventually reached him of the disappearance of the Gloster Meteor jet aircraft? That his ex-colleague had died in an air accident at sea. Would that have sounded alarm bells I wonder, if he had been on the level all the time. And how extensive would the search have been once the wreckage of the Meteor jet was discovered, if it was discovered, a small aircraft in a very large sea. And how long would a search have been carried out, a few days I should have thought. The aircraft would have been crashed deliberately at sea, the pilot having been picked up by the crew of M.S. Polotska. This is of course speculation, as one cannot tell how the Colonel would have reacted to the news of the second disappearance of his ex-colleague. If he was in on it all the time he’d probably just shrug it off, on the other hand had he been on the level all the time he might have asked some questions. As it is the Colonel is guilty of assisting an old, old friend on his way back to The Village.

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A Favourite Scene In The Prisoner

   “The atmosphere here is very different here from what it was elsewhere.”

    What’s Number 6 talking about? It’s certainly not the password, but it sounds like a password, or a recognition sentence, Like “It’s hot enough for June,” and the reply, “But you should have been here last September.”

  The guardian in red then asks “What’s the password?
   “Gemini” Number 6 responds.

   “That’s not the password,”
   And neither it is to them, obviously Number2 had not briefed them on the Gemini password. But then Gemini is a password between Number 6 and Number 2 alone, so that Number 2 would be able to distinguish between the two 6’s. There was no need for anyone else to know it. 

 

   Number 6 stands victorious having vanquished his two adversaries in a fist-fight. Although it has to be said that the punches thrown in the fight sequence of this scene are atrocious, never come even close, and if the stunt sequence is looked at frame by frame, the punches thrown actually miss by a mile! But that does not stop it from being one of my favourite scenes in ‘the Prisoner,’ even though for an outdoor scene it does look very “indoors!”

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Village Life!

   Could that be the new “Blue Zone” in the post listed in Number 2’s achievements during the Appreciation Day ceremony? Especially when in the film library order for ‘the Prisoner,’ ‘Hammer Into Anvil’ precedes ‘It’s Your Funeral!’ And yet this is the first time we have seen a post box of any king in the Village. Postman yes, but no post box!

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Checkmate!

    “It’s stopped!”  {meaning the automatic distress signal the Rook is transmitting off shore}
    “The ship’s come for us!”
    “It’s too soon. Wait here, I’ll check, could be trouble.”

                         {Number 42, Number 19 and Number 6 - Checkmate}

    I think that if it had been the ship arriving, the group of escapees would have had to have met the vessel half away at the very least, seeing as the tide was out at the time. As a matter of fact it was much the same except in reverse, when Number 6 had attempted to escape The Village by boat in ‘Free For All,’ the tide was in. Number 6 was eventually forced to abandon the craft when the Guardian appeared on the scene. He was then over powered by the Guardian, having been half drowned and half suffocated, and taken in tow by three Guardians. Moments after, the tide had gone out, as a taxi towing a Red Cross Trailer is seen racing across the sand!

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Village Life!

    Number 2 “Mmm yes.”

    Supervisor-Number 56 “Control here on yellow.”
    “On yellow, that’s a coincidence, so am I.”

    “I thought you ought to know sir, Number Six getting friendly with the Rook.”
    “Switch me into vision.”
    {Number 2 watches and hears what Number 6 and the Rook are saying, they are discussing the chess match}

    “It seems alright.”
    “Do you want a watch kept.”
    “Yeesss, no just a minute” Number 2 presses a button on the control panel……..doctor.” 
    “Yes Number Two.”
    “How confident do you feel about the success of the rehabilitation treatment.”
    “On the Rook……I’m on turquoise by the way.”

    “I’m sorry?”
    “The colour of my telephone, I’m on turquoise.”
    “Well I’m using IDIS.”

    “What’s IDIS? I’ve never heard of it.”
    “It’s the new Inter-departmental intercom service, IDIS for short.”
    “But I’m on the telephone.”
    “Yes, but I switched you onto IDIS.”
    Supervisor “Am I switched onto, what’s it called, IDIS?”

    “Can you hear me?”
    “Yes.”

   “Well that’s the whole idea of the Inter-department intercom system.”
    Supervisor “I’ve just had a brilliant idea.”
    “What’s that?”
    “I’ve got a video screen here in the Control Room, and you have the same in your office.”
    “And?”
    “Well if the doctor had a video screen in her office, well not only could we talk to and listen to each other…….”
    “As we are doing at this moment.”

    Doctor-Number 23 “Look I haven’t got all day, even if you two have!”
    Supervisor “….We would also see each other as well. We could call it video conferencing!”

    “Yes, well where were we?”
    “About the Rook.”
    “Yes doctor you were saying.”

    “I think you’ll find he’s properly integrated.”

    “You heard that?”
    Supervisor “Yes.”

    “Well I don’t think we need waste time there, nor on your idea of video conferencing!”

    “Well I like that!”
    “Well I don’t!” Video conferencing, whatever next?!”

Be seeing you

Hammer Into Anvil Won’t Go!

    A better title would have been ‘Hammer or Anvil?’ After all you have to be hammer or anvil. Mind you I think I’d rather be the anvil, then Number 2 could hammer away for all he’s worth. After all hammers wear out faster than anvils, and that’s what happened to Number 2, wore himself out trying to hammer Number 6! Somehow I don’t think life in The Village suited that particular Number 2, it makes me wonder when he first began having these paranoid delusions that everyone was conspiring against him? After all there was no conspiracy, and no-one was against him, save for Number 6. But was Number 2 really so paranoid? After all in the next episode an interim Number 2 has a list of known malcontents, and top of the list is Number 6, not forgetting Number 12 of Administration in ‘The General!’

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Caught On Camera!

    “You’re not thinking of getting up there are you?”
    That is what one person asked me during a re-enactment from ‘Dance of The Dead’ at a Prisoner Convention back in the 1990’s.
   “Of course I am” I said “A re-enactments needs to be as close to the original scene as possible. And what Pat McGoohan did, so can I!”

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Thought For The Day

    Patrick McGoohan described Number 1 as being the alter ego of Number 6 who he was trying to beat, Number 1 being the darker side of the Prisoner’s nature. But which side of the Prisoner’s nature forced him to hand in his letter of resignation, was it Number 1? If so that would explain why Number 6 agonised over his resignation, that much is clear at the end of ‘A B and C’ when we see Number 6 lying on the operating table, whilst he is reliving that act of resigning on the wall screen over and over again. And that being the case, Number 1 didn’t need to know the reason why the Prisoner resigned, he knew all the time. And he knew that it would be difficult to make his alter ego talk. Not only that, he knew not to allow Number 2 to go too far against Number 6. Because to spoil Number 6 might mean reducing Number 1 to a man of fragments!  

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Have I time For An Ice Cream?

    Have I time for an ice cream?

    No, only for your future!
    What do you mean by that?
    You’ll see.
    But you said we were going for a walk?
    Yes, you, me, and your mother.
    Is that mother?
    Yes, just as I am your father.
    My father.
    Yes, now get into the pushchair and we’ll all go for a nice walk.
    Passed the ice cream parlour?

    If we must!
    What’s the flavour of the day?
    Mint choc chip!
    I want a ninety-nine, with a flake.

    You’ll have a mint choc chip and like it!
    I want a ninety-nine with a flake!
    You’ll get what you are given boy, and that includes a clip round the ear!
    Why did you resign?
    What?
    Come on boy, its not that difficult, why did you resign?
    From what?
    Don’t hold back boy…..why….did….you….resign?

    I haven’t resigned, I haven’t done anything yet, I haven’t even left school.
    Well leave school now boy. All I want to know is why you resigned.
    All I did was leave school because you told me to, I didn’t want to leave, the best years of my life they were!
    You went to work in a Bank.

    I should have been a carpenter.

    A carpenter, why a carpenter?
    I graduated top of my class in woodwork! Are we going for this walk or what?
   Get into the pushchair, and mother will push you.

    The Butler gave No.2 a derisory glance as he began to push the wheelchair up the ramp and out of the Green Dome.

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Caught On Camera

    During his de-briefing in ‘Many Happy Returns,’ Number 6 makes mention that The Village even has its own graveyard. Number 73, having committed suicide by jumping to her death out of a hospital window in ‘Hammer Into Anvil,’ is buried next to Number 113 in a graveyard. 113 isn’t the photographer seen in ‘Free For All,’ but an old woman who died a month ago. However Cobb, supposedly having committed suicide by jumping out of a hospital window, his body is buried in a different graveyard altogether, the one down on the beach at the foot of the cliffs. It would appear that in death the men and women are segregated in death. The one under the sod, the other a watery grave and yet even in life there is segregation in The Village. One example is how men and women are segregated while queuing up outside the Labour Exchange in ‘Arrival!’

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The Colonel

    There are three faces of the Colonel, there might have been four, however there is no picture of the fourth Colonel in the series, as his rank is only mentioned by Dutton during the ‘Dance of the Dead,’ in conjunction with Arthur. Is that like Fotheringay and the Colonel, to make nothing of Thorpe and the Colonel I wonder?
    The Colonel has something in common with No.2 in this instance, that the rank remains the same, it is only the face that changes. I have often wondered if the Colonel in ‘Many Happy Returns’ was aware of The Village long before his ex-colleague briefed him on the installation. If he was, then the Colonel was a cold fish to allow No.6 to simply go off looking for The Village, knowing that his escape had been contrived by The Village administration, and controlled by the Prisoner's own predictability. But somehow I'm not sure if this particular Colonel was aware of The Village at the time, unlike his predecessor of ‘The Chimes of Big Ben.’ Now if he had been there that day with Thorpe to see his ex-colleague off, I could well believe that he would have calmly stood there watching his ex-colleague go on his way, back to The Village, without saying one word of warning!  
    Colonel Hawke-Englishe? Well whether or not he knew of the Village's existence is irrelevant, as his involvement in the series takes place well outside the Village. In any case he is murdered by the Girl who was Death with the aid of an exploding cricket ball. As a matter of interest, at a cricket match at the end of the film ‘Carry On Follow That Camel,’ filmed in Wales, an exploding cricket ball is used to try and kill Bo West whilst at the wicket.   As for the Colonel in ‘Do Not Forsake Me Oh my Darling,’ his experience of the Village is not as pleasant as that of one of his predecessors. Because his mind died in the body of Professor Seltzman, who is buried in The Village graveyard!

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They Have Taken Quite A Liberty!

    Who Are They? Surely Number 2 doesn’t mean Number 1, otherwise he would say “He has taken quite a liberty,” perhaps Number 2 means those masters we hear so much about from time to time. You know the ones, who Cobb mustn’t keep waiting. “I’m not allowed to use the usual techniques, mustn’t damage him permanently say our masters.” Those masters back in London would be my bet. Mind you having said that, I can’t really see the Prisoner’s resignation being the reason why he was brought to The Village. Number 2 must have had prior knowledge of Number 6’s arrival in The Village, after all it would take time for his cottage to be prepared. Interior structural changes might be needed, that and painting and decorating, not to mention fitting it all out to at least make the study look identical to the one in his London home. We don’t know about the kitchen, bedroom, and bathroom of No.1 Buckingham Place, but we do know they do not comply with the arrangement of Number 6’s cottage in The Village. To make 6 Private ready for its forthcoming occupant would take days, possibly weeks, not hours!

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Exhibition of Arts And Crafts

             Not Feeling Suicidal Are You?

 BcNu

File No.6 back to the beginning!

    Oh no, not back to the beginning, what to start all over again? A man resigns his job, goes home and after being rendered unconscious wakes up in what is called The Village! What man, what job, why did he resign? Brought to The Village, what for, to have the reason behind his resignation extracted? Surely that couldn’t have been so important, unless of course they thought that if the Prisoner answered one simple question all the rest would follow. But there could be other reasons, make him talk, then turn him to work for The Village. Then he, like Cobb, could be released back into the outside world in order to carry on his work, but while working for The Village when called upon to do so, like the Colonel and Fotheringay. But that doesn’t work, Number 6 had resigned his job, there was no employment for him to return to. On the other hand, perhaps Number 6 had already been working for The Village, but then he couldn’t stand it anymore, and after a falling out as witnessed in the opening sequence, he hands in his letter of resignation. Hence he was brought to The Village in order to discover that had gone wrong with one of their agents, why had he resigned?

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Quote For The Day

    “I am not a number, I am a free man.”
                                  {The Prisoner}

    A protest, we like protests, but sometimes you can protest too much. “I am not a number,” he was perfectly happy to be known by his code name ZM73. But the trouble with that was, the Prisoner wasn’t in his right frame of mind at the time. Yes I realize I should have said body, but the actor was different.
    “I am a free man,” What he’s just been released from prison or something? Or perhaps he’s announced himself free from slavery, as the historical definition of a “free man” is “a person who is not a slave or serf.” I don’t think Number 6 fits the British definition being a person who has been given the freedom of a city or borough.

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The Therapy Zone

    In The Village there are no locked doors. The only time doors are locked is at curfew time, because the administration doesn’t want The Village citizens roaming free during the night. Some, like Number 6, might take it into their heads to try and escape away under the cover of darkness. That was attempted twice by Number 6, and both times he was aided. First by Number 8. But then that was fair enough as she was an agent working undercover. The second time Number 6 had his chosen men about him. But that time there was a slight mix up. The Rook-Number 53 thought that Number 6 was one of “them,” having put to him his own test. Such was Number 6’s air of authority he had over his “reliable” men. So at the end of the day Number 6 only had himself to blame for the failure. Besides which, that motor cruiser, even if it had been a genuine vessel looking for the downed aircraft, would never have reached The Village, seeing as the tide was out at the time! And strange that Number 6 should choose to send a mayday call from an aircraft in distress, especially when in the previous episode, ‘Dance of The Dead,’ the amended body Number 6 found on the beach, was to have been put in the water so that it was Number 6 who had died in an accident at sea. 
    And in that same episode ‘Dance of The Dead,’ Number 6 found that the door to his cottage electronically locked at Curfew time. But that for some reason the French door had been left unlocked. And as we know Number 6 is never one to miss taking up any given opportunity. So he stepped out onto the balcony, climbed over the railings and disappeared into the night. Down on the beach Number 6 encountered the Guardian. It looks as though Number 6 is trying to run away, but that is impossible, as the Guardian can easily outpace the running figure. It’s more like Number 6 is testing himself against the white membranic thing, which leaves Number 6 on his knees on the sand. I was going to write that Number 6 having been locked out of his cottage, he had no opportunity but to spend the night on the beach. He could have returned to the confines and comfort of ‘6 Private’ via the French window. But I expect Number 6 much preferred the freedom of the beach.
    The only time doors are locked in The Village is when Number 2 and the administration have something to hide, as with the time Number 6 made a sweep of the Town Hall the evening of the ‘Dance of The Dead’ Ball. Yes there was one door which was previously secured against Number 6, but which later allowed him access to the room. But only because Number 2 allowed it so. Then there was that time Number 6 woke up to find the Village deserted, the doors of the café and Old People’s Home were locked against him, but not that of the Green Dome. The door of the General Stores might have been left open so as to make it easy for Number 6. But then that may not have been a good idea, and might have made Number 6 suspicious. And in any case why make things easy for Number 6, who is the most capable fellow, and would have broken his way into the General Stores with no great difficulty.  Anyway I’d best be on my way. It’s almost curfew time, and I don’t fancy spending a night on the beach. The tide’s in!

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Exhibition of Arts And Crafts

         It’s the only place he can ever go!

 BcNu