Caught On Camera!

    He left two windows open when he left his house. And what a house, surely it’s too big for one man alone. And it is all his house, it’s not a set of flats as some fans of the Prisoner would have you think. Because we know his bedroom is upstairs, as is the bathroom. Mrs. Butterworth sent him upstairs to the bathroom, and said she would lay some of her late husband’s things out on the bed. And when Janet came calling that morning seeing her fiancés car parked outside, she went upstairs looking for him. And the President in Fall Out told Number 6 that his house was being made ready for him. The evidence is plain enough. So how does one man get to live in such a large house in the first place? And with the ‘for sale’ sign having been taken away in Fall Out, the question is, who bought the house for him, and why? Not that he hung around long enough to make himself at home, because no sooner had he arrived than he was on his way again. Had he not done so, he would have been horrified to discover the front door of his house had been given an upgrade!

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MindGames

    Colonel Hawke-Englishe is the odd one out, or at least that is how it appears, that he is the only one in his position not to have had any contact with the village! Of course one can never be certain about Colonel James one way or the other, as he keeps his cards very close to his chest. He could have been playing the game either way, which makes it extremely difficult to make up ones mind whether he already knew about the village and so being in pay of those “masters” behind it. Or if he was genuinely trying to help his ex-colleague! But at least with Colonel Hawke-Englishe we know where he stands, at the crease just in from of the stumps on a very sticky wicket! Working as a field agent he has been on the trail of the Girl Who Was Death, and hopes she will lead him to Professor Schnipps, a mad scientist hell bent on destroying London, obliterating it, wiping it off the face of the earth! But he like his predecessor in Do Not Forsake Me Oh My Darling who comes to a band end, having been forced to have a change of mind, while Hawke-Englishe was blown to pieces at the wicket by an exploding cricket ball. Who turned these two Colonel’s into field agents is unknown, perhaps the department was merely short of agents, suffering from sudden defections, resignations, sudden disappearances, and goodness knows what. But if only Potter had been paying greater attention to what was taking place, and less to a pair of shapely legs he might have saved the Colonel, and not have been put out in the “cold!”

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Quote For The Day

   “All we ask is your complete confession.”

                     {The voice on the tape recorder – A Change of Mind}

   Confession is seems is good for the soul, see how Number 99 felt after confessing that they are right of course, quite right. That he is inadequate, inadequate, inadequate, inadequate, disharmonious, believe him, believe him, believe him! And yet he was told what to say, but that doesn’t make 99 believe what he was being forced to say. Number 86 was another who suffered the shame of being posted disharmonious, which must have been terrible for her. Equally she would have made an excellent Committee member if her attitude is anything to be judged. Her confession being that she was at fault, and yet Number 86 is a doctor, making it difficult to believe that she was ever disharmonious, seeing as it is she who heads the social group meeting, and carries out the operation known as Instant Social Conversion. A person like that would never be disharmonious, she’s part of the system, and part of Number 2’s game!

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In Conversation With

    Thursday December 13^th I was privileged to take part in an on-line conversation/interview with Karl Frunz of ThePrisonerCon’s held in Seattle. Karl contacted me after coming across a copy of the Prisoner Variations, and invited me to talk to him about it, and the 2009 THEPRIS6NER series. I have to say that I was very nervous at the beginning because I had no idea what I was going to be asked. However I grew into the conversation as it progressed. The Conversation has been split into two audio programmes. Click on the link below to listen.

http://www.theeternalvillage.org/village-cast.html

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The Therapy Zone

    What’s Number 6 doing as a child-minder? Who would want Number 6 as a child-minder? I mean look at the expression on the man’s face! Whose children are they, and why would anyone in the village be in need of a child-minder in the first place? Where did the parents of these three children go in the evening in order to require a child-minder?
   I suppose there might have been some form of evening entertainment, a music concert perhaps. Then again the parents might have been working the nightshift in the Control Room as Observers! To ask Number 6 to be their child-minder is one thing, for Number 6 to accept is quite another. Surely there was someone else they could have asked to look after their three children. Oh I know the whole thing was a set up, so as to try and get Number 6 to drop his guard with children in the hope he might give something away. But surely someone would have had to approach Number 6 and ask if he would act as child-minder to their children in the first place. And so why did Number 6 accept, unless he realized it was another ploy on Number 2’s part to try and get him to talk. As indicated by the placing of the toy clown in front of the camera lens…………... he knew all the time!

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Exhibition of Arts And Crafts

                       Brief Encounter

BcNu

Chimes of Big Ben

    As Number 8 wakes up on her bed, in what she thinks is her own home {forgetting Nadia is an agent assigned to The Village} Number 2 sees it as being quite like old times isn’t it Number 6 “Do you remember your first day?” As it is it must have seemed just like yesterday. However it would have been a few months ago had ‘The Chimes of Big Ben’ taken place later in the series as originally intended! And lets not forget Number 2, it wasn’t exactly by accident that one day he should be abducted, and wake up in The Village amongst them as a prisoner. So its not surprising that such a community should find a use for such a man considering his background working in either from the Foreign Office or the House of Lords where he wielded a not inconsiderable power. He has had the ears of statesmen, Kings and Princes of many lands. He has swayed governments, policies defined, and revolutions nipped in the bud at a word from him in the right place and at a propitious time.
    After spending a night reciting nursery rhymes to the slumbering Number 6 in ‘Once Upon A time,’ Number 2 pulls back the curtains and looks out of the window seeing the waitress setting up the tables at the café. Perhaps that in itself reminds him of his first day waking up in The Village!

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MindGames

    If Curtis had not died, this might have been another mission for him. He had the looks for the job, if not the mind for it, and yet they had the Seltzman machine for that. Number 6’s mind transferred into the body of Curtis, at least he would have felt more at home than he would have done as the Colonel. But of course it would never have worked, once Number 6 had woken up back in London his mind housed in Curtis’ body, well who knows what would have happened then. Certainly there should have been no need for him to have gone looking for Professor Seltzman! He would have been reunited with his fiancée Janet that morning she came calling, and then surely he would have gone running to Sir Charles Portland. But then what? Spill the beans to him about The Village, or to hand in his letter of resignation? If he had he’d have ended up waking up in The Village as himself. But then what? To undergo a second mind transference in order to render him whole once again?

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Wot No Blog!

   Sadly there have been no blog entries recently, this is due to illness. This service will be resumed as soon as possible.

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All At Sea With No.6!

    Whenever I watch Number 6 on his voyage of discovery in ‘Many Happy Returns,’ I cannot help think how easy he has it. Always a calm sea, at times we can see the seabed, and with fair winds. He constructs his homemade compass, keeps a daily log. He is observed shaving, and eating corned beef from a tin. But a man can only go without sleep for so long, and before long tired, exhausted, and from lack of sleep Number 6 collapses unconscious, leaving the raft to drift on the tide, carried along by the current, and blown by the wind. Of course we see but only a fraction of Number 6’s 25 days at sea. But it’s the impression the film gives, indicating that Number 6 had it pretty easy during that voyage, and by no means indicating the hardship he would have had to endure. I have made much of Number 6’s sea voyage in my book The Prisoner Dusted Down, which deals with what we see on the screen. However recently I have had the opportunity to examine the script for Many Happy Returns to see how it was originally intended. So after the disappointment of “Don deron doy doy,” I turned my attention to Number 6’s experience at sea.
    The script is far more descriptive of Number 6’s sea voyage than could be shown in the actual episode. To indicate this, for those of you who have not read the script, I shall insert a few extracts to indicate how Number 6 had it much harder at sea than at first thought.

    “The raft is on the open sea. No land. No village, nothing but sea. P is starving. From one of the boxes he takes bread, cheese and ham. The sail is flapping cheerfully in the wind.”

Day

    “The sail hangs limply. The boxes of food are only half-full. P, looking far from cheerful, stares for sight of land.”

Day

    “The raft is swinging a bit, so P has to hang on. But at last the sail is full. He looks very tired as he goes to the food boxes. But they are empty. He takes up the last can of orange-juice, thinks of opening it but changes his mind and puts it back. He takes out a fishing line with five hooks and plays it into the sea. Then stretched on the raft and the end of the line about his wrist. He waits.”

Day

    “P is staring thirstily at the can of orange-juice again as the line suddenly tugs at his wrist. Excited, he pulls in the line, the fish swinging it from side to side. Then just as he is about to land the fish, the line snaps. So does his temper. He grabs up the orange-juice, pierces the can angrily with a knife and drains it. He wipes his stubbly chin as he throws the empty can back into the box.”

Day

    “P is stretched on the raft, his arms over his face to shield it. He wakes and pulls himself wearily to the boxes. But they are empty. He sits there, bearded now haggard, staring at the sea. He takes up the empty can and leaning over, scoops up sea-water, almost raises it to his lips but does not, lets it drain back again.”

Day

    “A roll of thunder. The sky is thick with grey clouds.”

    “The first drops of rain are splashing on P. He struggles desperately to get the sail down. He does so and, as the rain really starts, he uses it to catch some.”

Day

    “Even the sea is silent as the raft drifts through thick mist. P glances up at the sail, made into a bag and hanging from the mast by its four corners. The lack of movement irritates him and he slides into the water to swim and push the raft ahead of him. But one of his pushes is too strong and it vanishes. He forces down the panic, swims methodically until he finds it again. He clambers aboard and presses himself flat against the logs.”

Day

    “A stiff wind is spinning the sail-less raft. P is hanging onto the mast for dear life. Suddenly the raft heaves and the mast snaps. The bag of water vanishes into the sea. The mast hits P knocking him out. So he does not see that some of his lashings are coming apart. As he lays there, one of the logs drifts off with its two oil drums. What is left of the raft is at an angle now and P’s lower half is in the sea. This wakes him. He clings to the upper edge desperately, at the end of his strength. He takes out his knife and cuts free the remaining oil-drums. So that the raft, even if very low in the water, is at least level. He knows he is near the end and, with the rope thus freed he lashes himself to the stump of the mast.”

Day

    “Close on P. He looks very rough now, his beard some three weeks’ growth. He is still, he could be dead. The raft beneath him rocks a little. Pull back. On either side of him is a pair of seaman’s boots.”

   So according to the script Number 6 had been at sea for three weeks, four days less than the recorded log in the finished episode. What’s more Number 6 does suffer far more in the script than we see on the screen, and had it all been filmed and included in the finished episode it may have dragged on a little, but would have added realism to the sea voyage.
   Finally I have often wondered from where Number 6 obtained that thick seaman’s jersey he wears during his sea voyage. It was suggested that perhaps he took it from the General store along with all the other items he obtained there. But clothing is not sold in the General Store. The script for Many Happy Returns has it that Number 6 took it from the wardrobe in his cottage. But that is far from satisfactory, as it doesn’t answer my question!

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Village Life!

    “Warm for the time of the year.”
    “Yes I was only thinking that myself. Do you know we’ve hardly had any rainfall for almost a month now.”
    “Really!”
    “The last time it rained was on August the twenty-third, and although it rained for two days we had less than two inches of rain. In fact we are due for another fine spell of weather that’s likely to last another month. The thing is The Village enjoys an temperate climate, which means we have a less than moderate rainfall. We have less than the average rainfall at this time of the year, with only a twenty percent chance of rain.”
    “You don’t say.”
    “It’s my job to check the rain gauge.”
    “That can’t take you very long!”
    “I’m going to have a rain gauge set up at the front of the Town Hall so that the citizens can check the rain gauge for themselves.”
    “They will be thrilled!”
    “I should say so. Do you know it often rains over the mountains, but hardly ever here.”
    “Remind me what you do again?”
    “I work for the weather bureau, it’s my job to forecast the weather.”
    “Well I don’t mind telling you....it’s starting to rain!”

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A Favourite Scene In Checkmate

    Except this is from ‘Arrival,’ film stock footage which was never used in the episode. How can we be sure? Well that’s the Brass Band coming out of the Pink Pavilion, and there’s the Prisoner in his charcoal grey suit. This is the scene in ‘Checkmate’ just moments before the white squares of the chessboard are laid out, making it appear quite miraculous how it is that one moment there is no chessboard, and the next there is, and all the chess pieces are ready to take up their positions on the board. There is another shot from ‘Arrival’ just after the Prisoner had walked on the grass and climbs the steps onto the Piazza. Its scenes like these that in reality make a mockery of the Prisoner, not having enough film stock footage to insert during the editing process, but by then of course it was all too late. But I suppose this kind of thing all helps ‘the Prisoner’ to be ‘the Prisoner.’ But to me it all seems to have been rushed, the filming at Portmeirion, it’s a pity that they were restricted to a month on location.

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Dangerous Assignment

    The helicopter approached the Village from the far side of the estuary, the tide was out, so a large number of villagers were entertaining themselves on the beach as the helicopter flew over and circled the Village twice. A man sat alone on a bench in the Piazza, as villagers promenaded around the pool and fountain. Two cyclists peddled by riding canopy covered bicycles. And two white Mini-Mokes one with its candy striped canopy up, the other with it down. The scene was perfect, almost idyllic. The man sitting alone looked up at the helicopter shading his eyes from the afternoon sun. The helicopter was gone out of sight, but it could still be heard as it flew out over the estuary before turning back on itself to land on the triangular lawn by the sea wall.

    A taxi stood waiting, the driver sitting patiently waiting, having been despatched to collect the passenger in the helicopter. Its rotor blades were still spinning, but slower now that the engine was silent. A cabin door opened and a lean tall man stepped down onto the float, then onto the lawn, which he crossed somewhat briskly. The taxi driver got out of the white Mini-Mike and quickly collected the man’s suitcase, putting it into the back of the taxi as her passenger climbed into the front seat.
    The taxi moved off up a slope towards the Old People’s Home, then took a hairpin turn and up the road towards the Town Hall where it stopped.
    “Is this it?” the passenger asked.
    “This is where I was told to drop you sir.”
    “This...this is the Green Dome?”
    “No, this is the Town Hall.”
    It was then that a tall man dressed in a double breasted blazer, grey flannel trousers, with a scarf wrapped around his shoulders and carrying an umbrella shooting stick appeared on the steps of the brick building.
    “Ah Colonel, glad you could make it.”
    “I wasn’t given much choice in the matter.”
    “Indeed, that unfortunately for you, could not be helped.”
    “And you are?”
    “Number Two, Chief Administrator. But let’s not stand about here all day, shall we go inside?”
    “I would offer you lunch, but sadly time is of the essence.”
    Number 2 led the Colonel into the Town Hall, a few doors led off from the foyer, and a staircase led upwards. Number 2 opened a pair of doors, and immediately a set of steel steps led downwards.”
    “This way” said Number 2 leading the way.
    A pair of steel blast doors slid open, Number 2 and the Colonel stepped through onto a steel gantry. The pair of doors slid shut behind them.
    “This is the Control Room Colonel, the nerve centre of the Village.”
   Roughly two thirds of the domed chamber was decorated in a map of the world, the rest was covered by an astral chart of the stars. There was also a large wall screen. In the centre of the chamber was a steel see-saw device, one man sat on one end and another at the other, as it rotated round and round, as well as up and down. Five men and women sat at monitors.
   “They are the Observers, and the bald-headed man pacing the floor is the Supervisor.” Number 2 explained “Shall we?”
    Number 2 led the way down the steel steps to the floor of the Control Room. The Supervisor crossed the floor and approached the two men.
    “Is this him?” asked the Supervisor looking the Colonel up and down.
    “Yes.”
    “He’s not much to look at, is he up to the task?”
    “I don’t know” said Number 2 “I’ll ask him. Are you up to the task Colonel?”

    “What’s my assignment?”
    “Dangerous” the Supervisor replied.
    “I would have sent one of my operatives, they sent me instead!”

    “Seeing as who they are, you should feel very gratified.”
    “I’m curious to know what my assignment is.”
    “Of course you are.”
    “Well?”
    “We’ll have to go and see the doctor.”
    “Why aren’t you feeling very well?”
    “I’m fine.”
    “Then why the visit to the doctor?”
    “It’s you he’ll be giving the once over to!”
    “Once over?”
    “Your medical.”
    “I am perfectly fit thank you very much.”
    “Yes......but one has to be sure, doesn’t one?”
    At the hospital the Colonel was put through a rigorous medical. And was declared.......
     “Absolutely fit, fit in fact for any contingency” pronounced the doctor.
    “Do you have anything in mind?” asked the Colonel.
    “Now we go to the laboratory, if you would follow me Colonel.”
    It was but a short taxi ride from the hospital to the densest part of the woods. Ahead was a set of high rocks, in those rocks was a solid blast proof steel door. The taxi stopped, Number 2 and the Colonel alighted and walked towards the rocks.
    “Where are we going?”
    “To the laboratory, its top, top secret.”
    The six inch thick steel door opened and both Number 2 and the Colonel stepped through, the steel door closing behind them and they walked along a corridor to a pair of steel doors at the far end. The doors slid open to reveal a large laboratory where technicians in white coats were busy at their work.

    “What is this?” the Colonel asked.
    “It’s why you are here........ah Professor how does it proceed?”
    A grey haired man, quite short and in his late fifties turned and pushed his spectacles on top of his head.
    “It goes very well, preparations are almost complete, we’ll be ready in two hours.”
    “Good.”
    “Is this the man?”
    “Yes Professor, this is the Colonel.”

    “He has been briefed on the assignment?”
    “Ah no, not yet.”
    “He realizes that this is a dangerous assignment?”
    “He does, and he’s just about to undergo a briefing, if you would Colonel.”
    Number 2 indicated a small room just off the main laboratory.
    “What is all this equipment?” asked the Colonel as they crossed the room.

    “It’s all for you.”
    “Me?”
    Number 2, the Colonel, and the Professor entered the room, and closed the door.
    “You are about to undertake a most dangerous assignment. Sit down Colonel.”

    The Colonel did as he was asked.

    “You saw the machine?”
    “The one with the curved steel spikes you mean?”
    “That Colonel is a time displacement machine, it displaces time and makes time travel possible” Number 2 began.
    “Time travel? No it’s not possible.”
    “On the contrary” said the Professor “It is very possible, as previous experiments have shown.”
    “Previous experiments?” asked the Colonel.
    “Of course, you don’t think we would send you back in time without first making sure the machine works do you?”
    “Colonel, you are to go back in time, and stop the evacuation of The Village” said Number 2.
    “Even if I believe you, back in time to where?”
    “The Village.”
    “Here? But I’m here already.”
    “Yes, but now, and not then.”
    “No this can’t be right” the Colonel protested.
    “There is no such word as can’t Colonel. You can go the easy way, or we’ll have to send you back to the Village the hard way. Which is it to be?”

    The Colonel sat gathering his thoughts.

    “Professor if you would continue with the preparations.”
    “Yes Number Two.”

    “What am I to do?”
    “You will be sent back to the Village in nineteen sixty seven, you will go to the Green Dome and make yourself known to Number Two. You will make him or her aware of the current imminent danger. Now everything is set in place, we have taken a great deal of time and care to set all this in motion for you. Now if you would please change out of your clothes and put these on, I shall be waiting for you in the Control Room.”
    “Why should they believe the ravings of a man whom they do not know?”
    “It is up to you to convince them.”
    Left alone the Colonel changed out of his grey suit and into beige trousers, a grey turtle neck jersey, and blue blazer with grey piping. The number 21 was pinned to the lapel. He left the room, crossed the laboratory to the Control Room, which Number 2 and the Professor were just leaving.
    “Ah Colonel we are almost ready for you.”
    “This will work won’t it?” the Colonel asked nervously.
    “There is no need to be nervous, all systems and circuits have been run and tested. Everything is on the top line, nothing can go wrong” the Professor said completing his check list.
    “Colonel if you would please take your position on the centre disc.”
    The Colonel stood looking at the machine.
    “I am being sent back to the Village in order to stop an evacuation. Why is the village to be evacuated, and why must I stop it?”

    “In order to put things right of course” said the Colonel “now if you would.”

    “How do I get back?”
    “Get back?”
    “To the village?”
    “Don’t worry Colonel, we’re about to send you back now.”
    “Eh?”
    The Colonel approached the machine and stood on the centre disc, while everyone retired to the Control Room.   
    “Bring up the power to maximum, set the time displacement reactor” the Professor ordered.
    Suddenly the laboratory was filled with arcs of electricity, which grew with intensity. The three points of the time displacement machine began to glow, there was a sudden clash of thunder, and the Colonel stood there no more.
    The pain intense, his whole body tingled and burned. The Colonel lay prostrate on the leafy ground. Slowly he sat up and began to study his surroundings. He was in a woodland, it was daytime. He got to his feet and stumbled forward along a path which eventually brought him to steps which led down to a road. There were people, people dressed in colourful clothes. Then the sound of a two tone horn and a white Mini-Moke with a candy striped canopy went passed. Then a girl on a bicycle, also with a canopy, and a chap riding a tricycle and holding up an umbrella.
    “Lovely day” the Colonel said from the bottom step.
    “Showers later” the cyclist said peddling passed.

    There was a woman walking along, wearing a blue trilby hat and a striped cape. The Colonel addressed her.
    “Excuse me madam. But could you direct me to the Green Dome?”
    “Up the street, up the steps on your left, you can’t miss it” the woman instructed.
    “Thank you” and with that the woman went on her way, as did the Colonel.
    Once on the balcony of the Green Dome the Colonel wasted no time in approaching the door, he paused and pulled on the wrought iron bell pull, the bell tolled once. He stood there expecting something to happen, it did. The door opened and there stood a diminutive butler. The Colonel looked at him.
    “I’m here to see Number Two.”
    The butler waited a moment, said nothing, then gestured the Colonel inside. There was an anti room, a table stood in the centre, there was a fire place, and a comfortable looking armchair, and pictures of sailing ships adorned the walls. The butler opened a pair of doors which led to a ramp and a pair of steel blast proof doors which opened as the butler approached. Slowly the Colonel stepped forward and followed the butler.
    “Who are you?”
    “The Colonel.”
    “I don’t know you, what do you want?”
    “I was sent here to see Number Two. Are you Number Two?”
    “I am the acting Number Two.”
    “Well I guess you’re the man I need to see. I’ve been sent to the village.....”
    “Well we all were at one time or another.”
    “No, you don’t understand.”
    “How did you get here?”
    “I was sent back to the Village.”
    “Oh you’ve been here before.”
    “Not exactly. I was sent back to the village by Number Two.”
    “I don’t understand.”
    “I was sent from the village back to the village, in order to stop an evacuation of said village.”
    “Evacuation, what evacuation?”
    Suddenly
    “Evacuate, evacuate, evacuate.!
    “I don’t understand, that’s Number Two’s voice!”
    “I thought you were Number Two?”

    “I said I was the acting Number Two. Number Two is somewhere holding a closed security session. Something to do with a democratic crisis, he cannot be reached at this time.”

    Outside there was complete chaos as the command “Evacuate, evacuate, evacuate boomed through the public address system, people running this way and that, helicopters taking off from all corners of the Village, white Mini-Mokes racing through the streets and across the beach their sirens blaring out.
    “Well Professor?”
    “As can be expected Number Two.”
    “Tell me does anything feel different to you?”
    “Different?”
    “Has anything changed at all?”
    “No.....I do not think so. I am still here, you are here, the laboratory is here, so too the Village.”
    “Yeeeeeeeeesssss!”
    “Unfortunately it can mean only one thing.”
    “It hasn’t worked!”
    “I shall have to recalculate, and recalibrate.”
    “And try again? Number One isn’t going to like this!”
    “I shouldn’t think the Colonel will be too chuffed about it either!”
    “Or indeed any of the others!”
    “Yes, but none of the others went through. The Colonel was the first.”
    “But still something went wrong.”
    “Perhaps he never arrived, or arrived too late. I must recalculate, and recalibrate. Yes, perhaps the timing was out!”
    “Professor, we have your next subject, isn’t that right Number Fourteen!”

Be seeing you

A Brief Encounter!

    There he is, Number 6 washed up on a beach on the south coast of England, although he didn’t know that at the time. Just off shore a red and white striped lighthouse. Exhausted Number 6 pulls himself together and gets to his feet, the shingled beach is deserted, the lighthouse appears to be an automatic one and unattended {although in reality the lighthouse at Beachy Head wasn’t fully automated until 1983} Walking along the beach Number 6 gazes up at the chalky cliffs, as it happens there has been recent cliff erosion which makes it easier for him to scale the cliff face. Once reaching the top of the cliff he walks inland and come across a rough looking man with his whippet. Number 6 follows the man to a Romany gipsy camp. There he is treated to the first genuine act of kindness since his abduction to the village, when an attractive young Romany woman who smiles warmly at him, gives him a cup of tea or broth. He asks her where is there a road. She replies pointing {and forgive the spelling as its unsure} “Don deron doy doy.”
   Towards the end of last year I was very kindly given copies of all the Prisoner scripts. And so I thought to work my way through them as there were a few things I wanted to check out in the scripts against what takes place in the finished episodes. Number 6’s encounter with the Romany’s was one of them. It was with eager anticipation that I turned the pages of Many Happy Returns to the required scene. Imagine my disappointment when I read that in the script the young woman doesn’t say “Don deron doy doy” at all, but speaks with a broad cockney accent! The Prisoner says he’s a long way from home, and that he wants to get to England, “I…have…..to…get…to…England. England? Inglaterra? Grande Bretagne? I…have…to…get…to…England.”
    “Just as well the, nt it? That’s where you’re at.”
    Number 6 asks where about he is, Kent is the woman’s suggestion. Number 6 then asks how he gets to London. The woman replies “Dunno. Never go there. There’s a road that way” and she points the way.
   It’s not the same as pointing and uttering the incomprehensible “Don deron doy doy,” and to be quite honest I’m not sure which version I prefer. But I was interested to see how Don deron doy doy would have been spelt, that interest soon turned into disappointment!
   I suppose the change in dialogue for that scene must have been at the last moment because there is no indication of the change in dialogue on the page in the script. Perhaps it was thought that giving the location in Kent was giving away too much information. And yet Beachy Head lighthouse is a well recognized landmark, and really that should have told Number 6 instantly where he was. However I soon recovered from my disappointment and turned my attention to the rest of the script for Many Happy Returns, and found that Number 6 had a much……… well for those who have read the script you will already be aware. However for my own satisfaction, and that of those who have not, I shall tackle Number 6’s sea voyage of discovery another time soon.

Be seeing you

The Interrogation

    “This is the ninth day, usually they talk after the third day, after the third day they want to talk, some we can’t shut up they want to talk so much. But you...............”
    “You’re doing a fair amount of talking yourself. I expect you’re one of those who likes the sound of his own voice, well let me tell you I’m not so keen on it myself!”
    “You think they’ll pin a medal on you, is that what it is? I held out for nine days and didn’t talk.”
    “Really, did you?”
    “Did I what?”
    “Hold out for nine days without talking.”
    “No I didn’t.”
    “Then you talked on the third day?”
    “I didn’t talk at all, in fact it’s not me we’re talking about, it’s you!”
    “Well I’ve nothing else to say.”
    “You will my dear fellow you will!”
    “You think so?”
    “I could have you tortured until you talk.”
    “Physical torture?”
    “Yes.”
    “Bit barbaric don’t you think?”
    “There are more subtle ways.”
    “Mental torture.”
    “Yes, the girl you helped.”
    “Sandra.”
    “Is that her name?”
    “Number Fifty-five if you prefer.”
    “If you do not give us what we want, it will be all the worse for her.”
    “You wouldn’t, no, I can see that you would.”
    “Well?”
    “Do your worst!”
    “You are very stubborn. This is Number Two, take Number Fifty-five out and shoot her.”
    “Please I’ve done nothing wrong. I did what Number Two asked of me, I.....no you wouldn’t, no please.................
    The sound of gunfire.
    “Well?”
    “How do I know she’s dead?”
    The body of the girl is brought in a laid on the floor of the interrogation room.
    “Well, are you ready to talk?”
    “She’s dead, you can’t hold her over me anymore.”
    The girl stands up.
    “I told you it wouldn’t work!”
    “He’s not like the others.”
    “Obviously.”
    “If you’re not going to talk we might as well put you up against the wall and shoot you!”
    “There is another way Number Two. Use the hollow leg treatment, pour some Vodka down him!”
    “What would be the point in that, it’s non-alcoholic!”
    “Well take him to the Therapy Zone, I’m sure the brewer will have a special brew.”
    “Oh I do like to be beside the seaside I do like to be beside the sea, as I walk along the front.........”
    “So, how do you feel?”
    “Me? I feel fine, this Vodka......it is Vodka?”
    “It’s strong stuff eh?”
    “You show me the man who says it isn’t!”
    “So what about this new weapon?”
    “What the blistering bomb?”
    “Is that what it’s called?”
    “Shhhhhhhh, its top secret!”
    “Yes I know, but you can tell me.”
    “Can’t!”
    “What makes it so secret?”
    “Because of what it does.”
    “What does it do?”
    “Don’t tell a living soul.”
    “I won’t.”
    “Cross your heart and hope to die.”
    “I cross my heart and hope to die.”
    “It burns as it bursts as it blisters!”
    “Is that it?”
    “What else do you want it to do, destroy everything within a five mile radius?”
    “That would be a bonus.”
    “Actually it’s fifteen miles, and do you know what?”
    “Know what?”
    “They are going to drop it on this place, here, on the village. I’m an automatic signal, I swallowed a transmitter which fixes my precise location.”
    “What?”
    “Oh I doubt I’ve time to explain all that again. If I’ve judged this about right the village and everyone in it will cease to exist in less than two minutes.”
    “What’s that sound?”
    “Well would you believe it, my watch is slow...................

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A Favourite Scene In Chimes of Big Ben

    “There are methods we haven’t used yet of course,” Number 2’s assistant suggests. But that wasn’t very nice of Potter, what’s he got against his old colleague? As for Number 6 making the act of putting on his dressing gown appear as a gesture of defiance. Well yes, but perhaps Number 2 is over interpreting the action. Perhaps Number 6 has simply had a bad night, or more likely he’s fed up with the woman prattling on about the weather, and making an announcement about a great new competition which has been announced by the local council, your local council democratically elected by the citizens. No doubt that rubs salt into the wounds when he thinks back to when he stood as candidate for the position of the new Number 2! Anyway I think it’s the loudspeaker he’s annoyed at, because later he puts it in the refrigerator bringing peace and quiet to his cottage!

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The Circle Line!

    The most apparent aspect of ‘the Prisoner’ is that it’s circular, like a journey in a Village taxi. You can go anywhere you like, just as long as you end up back where you started in the end. The Prisoner resigns his job, is abducted to The Village. Is put through a number of tests or ordeals, he refuses to talk, attempts to escape on a few occasions, but always ends up back where he started. And this is no better demonstrated than by ‘Many Happy Returns.’

   The wheels of the Penny Farthing turn, while their spokes point in all directions, much like the feelers of The Village.

   The Prisoner is a round peg which refuses to fit. But thinking about it, it should be the other way round, that the Prisoner should he a square peg which is then shaped to fit!

   And ‘Fall Out,’ a lasting escape? No, because the Prisoner had ended up where he began, and is about to make the same mistake all over again. How to break this vicious circle? Don’t resign in the first place…….unless his resignation had nothing to do with his abduction to The Village, that having resigned his job it was nothing more than a coincidence. After all there is no evidence that the Prisoner’s resignation was the catalyst for his abduction. Remember he was being watched before he handed in his resignation, what was that, sounded like a click…what was that, sounded like a click… something in the mirror, or was it over there? Yes over there too! So the question is, who was watching the Prisoner and why? Obviously The Village administration had the cameras installed in the Prisoner’s house, as Number 2 said that the Prisoner had sneezed himself out of their camera. Was The Village observing the Prisoner as an independent entity? However, seeing as it's the British behind The Village, then in fact it was The Prisoner’s own people, who were actually watching him. Why? Perhaps like ‘A’ and Chambers who became “late” of the Foreign Office, the Prisoner was about to jump ship, but for a very different reason.

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Village Life!

    “We’ll be open in a minute.” Whenever I hear the Town Hall clock chime here in Loughborough I always think of this scene. Why? Because the sound effect for the Village bell has the exact same tone as the Town Hall clock. It’s a Taylor bell a very distinctive toll, such a bell is made by the Taylor Bell Foundry here in Loughborough. Okay the Village bell is a sound effect, but one exact to the same sounding bell here in Loughborough. And my meaning is? Living here in Loughborough the Village is not so very far away!

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Information!

   Information is a valuable commodity, but that’s all it is, a commodity, and yet it was the Prisoner’s future. Well it would have been had those behind the Village not got to him first. He was going away, but it was no means certain that he was going to Paris as suggested in ‘A B and C.’ Had Number 2 of that episode reviewed the surveillance footage when ZM73 was deciding where to go for a holiday. He first thought of Ireland, no a bit too cold that time of year. Paris?....Maybe not. Maybe he thought that if he went on holiday to Paris he would end up at one of Engadines’s celebrated parties. Then he might well meet up with old friends and ex-colleagues, perhaps the last thing he wanted would be that. See what happened in ‘A B and C’ when he did. So, either Number 2 got it wrong, or the computer got it wrong. Number 6 wasn’t selling out, he wasn’t even planning on going to Paris. Just because he regularly attended Madame Engadine’s celebrated parties that was good enough. But the man had resigned, and ‘A B and C’ turned out to be a complete waste of time!

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60 Seconds With No.2

    “What do you want?”
    “Don’t be like that!”
    “I’m very busy, what do you want?”
    “I am Number One-one-three, and this is my photographic colleague Number One-one-three b.”
    “That’s as may be, but what do you want?”
    “Smile” Click goes the camera.
    “Why did he take my photograph?”
    “We contribute to The Tally Ho.”
    “The Tally Ho, I’ve never heard of it!”
    “The cat?”
    “What about it?”
    “Its yours?”
    “Yes.”
    “It seems to have taken a shine to Number Six.”
    “Don’t you know that cats have two homes?”
    “Yes but do you have two cats?”
    “Two cats, do I look like I’d have two cats?”
    “You must.”
    “Why?”
    “Because its recorded on surveillance film footage that when your cat is lying on Number 6’s bed, at the very same time there is a cat in your office!”
    “Yes, quite remarkable isn’t she?”
    “And you claim that she is your cat?”
    “Yes of course.”
    “Then how do you account for the fact that the cat is seen in The Village long before your arrival here. In fact she is seen with a predecessor of yours.”
    “I……….can’t!”

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Exhibition of Arts And Crafts

                           It’s A Madhouse

BcNu

Happy Landings!

   Replace Mister X in the Control Room of the rocket in the lighthouse, tied up in that chair with rope climbing rope that would hold an elephant, with Number 1 sealed in the nose cone of the red one rocket and you have roughly the same scenario, with the interior of the rockets being one and the same. The Girl Who Was Death asked Mister X to think of her when he hits town. Who would Number 1 be thinking of, once the rocket re-entered the Earth’s atmosphere to eventually impact with the ground, or splash into the sea? With the control set at “low orbit” it wouldn’t take long before that orbit deteriorated. Perhaps the red 1 rocket, like Professor Schnipp’s rocket was destined for London, taking Number 48, 2 and the former Number 6 home. But as it was, Mister X managed to escape the bonds that secured him in that chair, unlike Number 1. He was sealed in the nose cone of the rocket and there would be no escape from his fate. Unless the hatch with a handle on the one side, had a wheel on the other, by which to release the hatch. But if it’s anything like the hatch in Professor Schnipp’s rocket…………it didn’t!

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A Favourite Scene In Arrival

    Dark clouds and the sound of thunder over a long deserted road, well in this case a runway, and a speeding Lotus 7. So where has he been, where is he coming from and going to? We soon discover that he was on his way to London, so it follows that he’s been in the countryside. Perhaps, as in ‘Many Happy Returns’ he had two calls to make, one in the country and another in town, like it was in ‘Many Happy Returns.’ We know who he was going to see in town, but in the country, might that not have been Colonel James at his country residence, or perhaps the golf club! The second call was to a man sat behind a desk in an unknown office possibly in Whitehall. The man storms into the office, paces up and down as he shouts the odds at the man seated behind the desk. Then slams down a letter marked private, personal by hand, on the desk, followed by his fist, as though to put force behind his point, then storms out of the office. No I had not forgotten, upsetting the cup, saucer and side plate!
   So this letter, which we assume is the man’s letter of resignation, why not hand this letter to the Colonel instead of that bureaucrat in that office somewhere in a building in Whitehall? Don’t tell me that this man sat behind the desk is higher than the Colonel in the Civil service. If not, then he would only have to pass on the letter to the Colonel himself!

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The Escape

    “Do you think this is a good idea?”
    “What do you mean?”
    “It seems we’ve been digging this tunnel now for weeks, months.”
    "Not months."
    "Well weeks then."
    “So?”
    “Well we have been clever hiding the sand, but where exactly is this getting us?”
    “If my calculations are correct, we’ll be free!”
    “If! Where exactly do you expect this tunnel to come out, if your calculations are correct?”
    “On the far side of the estuary.”
    “Really?”
    “You realize just how far that is don’t you?”
    “Well yes, but not to the exact foot.”

    “When do we begin to dig upwards?”
    “Soon.”
    “How soon?”
    “Soon.”
    “And if too soon we’ll flood this tunnel with water from the estuary.”
    “Yes, but not if the tide’s out!”
    “How do you know if the tide’s out?”
    “The tide has been out this past week, so where’s the danger?”
    “Then why couldn’t we simply have walked across the estuary?”
    “Because the tide was in.”
    “It’s been out his past week!”
    “I know, but there is the other danger.”
    “What danger?”
    “Don’t you know?”
    “Know what?”
    “How long have you been in the village?”
    “Quite recently.”
    “And you don’t know about the Guardian?”
    “Guardian......it wouldn’t be like a white balloon would it?”
    “Yes.”
    “Well it’s here!”
   There came a blood curdling sound, something crossed between a roar, Gregorian chant, and someone breathing through an aqua lung but somehow muffled in the sand as its white membrane filled the tunnel cutting off the two men’s escape.

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Thought For The Day

    The Prisoner stays with you doesn’t it, well it’s definitely stayed in my……….. well in my mind. But it hasn’t remained with everyone, I suppose they learn to let it go and move on to other new and more attractive fields. What that says for the rest of us I don’t know, perhaps we’re a bunch of weak minded so and so’s who should know better by now. And yet it’s good to have a hobby, an interest, something which fills one’s spare time. Now the Prisoner fills all my time, and has done for years, but especially the last few days of 2018. And now even more so, I’ve got a few things simmering away on the back burner regarding the Prisoner which are in need of my attention. The 20^th anniversary of ‘the Prisoner Village Day’ for one, a special feature about the film is required, and the same for the 10^th anniversary of THEPRIS6NER. The Tally Ho requires my ever undivided attention, and then there’s......well best get on, where’s that confounded tea?

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Caught On Camera!

    Number 2 is leaving The Village! It would seem that piloting a helicopter isn’t as difficult as at first it might appear. After all Number 6 could do it, and the Butler of course, and now a former Number 2. Although he’s not trying to escape, as he’s also on the telephone to the new Number 2.
    “Just on my way. Everything go according to plan?”
    “Don’t worry. All will be satisfactory in the end. Give my regards to the homeland.”

    So what exactly was the plan behind the idea of the election, and what exactly was achieved by running it? More than that, how come Number 2 is piloting the helicopter himself? Where is the regular pilot? What’s more, this Number 2 appears to have been wearing his own clothes during his term in The Village. What makes me think that? Because he didn’t change his attire before departing The Village, he’s still wearing that very distinctive jacket, and a dark blue polo neck jersey {should be grey} and since when does any Number 2 wear black trousers?

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The Prisoner Given A Thorough Dusting Down!

    There was a mixed response to the Prisoner at the time, television viewers thought it was either the “thinking man’s” television, or that it was the biggest load of television rubbish ever created. It was also  said to be the most disappointing and ridiculous television series. Perhaps because people didn’t attempt to understand, mind you they wanted to be given the answers, and yet they didn’t always believe them. Not even when they were told the reason behind the Prisoner’s resignation, it didn’t seem enough somehow, there simply had to be more to it. We were told that all the answers would be found in Fall Out, but they must have changed their minds. Whilst others saw the answers in the conclusion to the Prisoner! People wanted to know what the Penny Farthing with the candy-striped canopy was all about. But then that’s adults for you. Children on the other hand, and I was amongst their number, were attracted to the Prisoner and continued to be attracted to the series over the years and decades ever since. And I have always been of the opinion that the Prisoner is best viewed through the eyes of a child, because children do not expect to understand every detail, that they merely follow the story. Whereas as adults we break the Prisoner down in wanting to find the answers, the reasons, why and wherefores of the series. And perhaps as adults we are guilty of over thinking the Prisoner, making it more complicated than it should be. I know that Tony Sloman {film Librarian for the Prisoner} has made the suggestion that we think about the series far too much. And yet had I not spent 5 years asking questions of, thinking about, and researching the Prisoner for my book The Prisoner Dusted Down I would never have found fascinating new details about the series and what we see on the screen. Who would have thought the inspiration for the trial of Fall Out would have come from a childhood experience, but then childishness does run throughout the Prisoner. And then there’s Colonel Hawke Englishe, what a surprise he turned out to be, his character based on……well perhaps its best not to say, because you who are reading this may have not read my book as yet. And what about Number 6 himself, well that would be Patrick McGoohan of course. There has been, in the past, and now recently, books published which have been proclaimed as being “biographies” about Patrick McGoohan but which are basically nothing more than “film and television biographies!” However The Prisoner Dusted Down does actually contain a biographical piece delving into, and revealing revelations about Patrick McGoohan’s childhood, and much more besides. So it pays to delve beneath the surface, who knows what treasures you may find now that the Prisoner has been thorough Dusted Down!

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Quote For The Day

    “I didn’t think it would be like this.”
                            {Nadia – The Chimes of Big Ben}

    Whatever did she think it would be like, a Russian Gulag? The Village gives the appearance of a holiday resort, where people seem to be enjoying themselves. But that is surely on the surface. The Village is a place of pain and torment for the.....well how many of each would you say? What would be the ratio between guardians and prisoners do you think, more guardians than prisoners, or roughly the same? Or perhaps more prisoners than guardians, after all the first people in the Village, those who manually built the Village with their own hands were no doubt building their own prison, although they probably didn’t know that at the time!

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Caught On Camera!

    Rover eggs!

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MindGames!

    The Village is a place where people turn up, well they don’t just turn up, they arrive there having been abducted from all kinds of places and situations. People who know too much, well that would be right, or too little, well that would be Number 42 better known as Roland Walter Dutton. That’s a bit of a mouthful isn’t it? Roland Walter Dutton, I mean why not simply Roland Dutton, after all how many people actually use their middle name? So why was Dutton brought to The Village if he didn’t have access to the “vital stuff,” don’t tell me he’s another who chucked in his job! Generally people are taken to the Village who cannot be left to roam free at large, the knowledge inside their heads being of great value to one side or another, knowledge which is to be either protected or extracted, depending on whose side you are on. So there’s no danger of just anyone being abducted to the Village, not ordinary Joe public. Ordinary run of the mill people are not important enough, not even if they have resigned their job, they end up at the Labour Exchange, or the Job Centre as it’s now called. That’s where they want to know all about you, and you walk out having been pushed, filed, stamped, indexed, briefed, debriefed and numbered! But they don’t make you wear a badge, nor do they give you a new set of clothes having burned your old ones. Mind you not everyone was forced to wear a badge in the Village, just ask the Butler. And prisoners own clothes were not taken away and burned because some people, the fortunate ones, were allowed to wear their own clothes. Not that the Professor and his wife ever went out into the Village much, if at all, they were not allowed to. Mind you the Professor did manage to break out of the house, escaping through the Village and down onto the beach. I wonder how he managed to get out from under the nose of his ever caring doctor? Perhaps he had help from Madam Professor. Having made a wax model of her husband’s head she laid it on the pillow of the Professor’s bed in order to fool, the doctor. Later it was used to fool Number 6!

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Who Is That On The Telephono?

    New No.2 “Number Two here, I'm on red by the way.”

    Ex-No.2 “Red, yes I’m on red.”

    “Where are you?”

    “I'm in the helicopter!”
    “Yes I know, what are you doing?”
    “About a hundred miles an hour! Did everything go according to plan?”

    “Don't worry.”

    “I'm not, I've done my bit!”

    “All will be satisfactory in the end. Give my regards to the homeland.”

    “He's a tricky customer you know.”

    “Yes, but we didn't damage the tissue, we just bruised it a bit! You attacked the pilot.”
    “Yes.”
    “Why did you do that?”
    “He wouldn’t fly me out of the Village!”
    “You have to come back you know.”
    “Not likely!”

    “Then you force my hand.”
    A few moments later the ex-No.2 struggles with the joystick as the helicopter makes a right-hand turn back towards the Village. The speed of the helicopter reduces as the Village gets closer, the ex-No.2 is now frantic, pulling on the joystick is useless as the controls have been taken over, the helicopter being flown by remote control. The helicopter makes its approach to land on the triangular lawn by the sea wall. He can see the white Mini-Moke and the Red Cross trailer, and the figure of the new No.2 waiting to receive him……..

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Village Life!

     “Who is that getting out of the taxi with Number Two?”
     “That’s the new Number Six.”
     “Oh.”
     “Acquisitions have had the very devil of a time with his cottage, with the fixtures and fittings, not to mention the furniture, personal possessions, knickknacks and the like.”

     “You should have brought them to The Village from his house in London.”
     “We thought of that, but Number Two said it was a waste of time and manpower, as one day they might have to be taken back. So what we couldn’t purchase we’ve had to replicate right down to the last detail.”

     “Why’s that then?”
    “Apparently he has a strong sense of possessions, so everything has to be just right, exactly the same in fact.”
    “And his cottage?”
    “The only spare building has been the round house, so we had to adapt it accordingly, everything on the ground floor.”
    “But isn’t it supposed to be a home from home, exact to the original?”

    “Well yes, that’s what they say, but the only part which could be described as being a home from home is the study. And that back wall, we had to lose that once the new occupant had become accustomed to his new surroundings. And that’s another thing, the interior of the cottage had to be completely gutted after the previous occupant had left.”
    “What happened to him?
    “Who Chambers?”
    “Yes, Chambers.”
    “He was released and sent back to London to retake his position in the Foreign Office in order to continue the good work.”
    “I used to work for the Foreign Office, until I was posted here.”
    “I used to work for a firm of Undertakers.”
    “You fitted in straight away as I remember, our uniforms both gye weel for the jobs in hand!”

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MindGames

    They say that the Prisoner plays with the mind, and to some extent that is perfectly true. And yet isn’t it more often the case that we play the mind games with the Prisoner? We think about the series, we theorise, interpret. One day we follow one avenue, a particular train of thought, and arrive at a conclusion. And another time we take another look, and arrive at a completely different conclusion. The Prisoner can be like a maze, and the way to the centre of any maze is to keep turning left whenever you can. But that’s not easy, one gets distracted something interesting turns up and you find yourself turning right, and end up following your nose until you are completely lost, and cannot find your way back. And there are blind alleys, and you have to go back on yourself. And then the moment comes when you finally stagger out where you came in, and have to begin all over again. There’s nothing wrong with the Prisoner apart from the continuity errors, and the slapdash editing. But then those also help make the Prisoner what it is. Even ‘Do Not Forsake Me Oh My Darling’ plays its part, even though aspects of it are somewhat contrived. But there’s always the consolation of the music. No, basically the Prisoner is a fine piece of television art work, its only ‘Fall Out’ that’s the main problem. It’s the odd episode out, its stands by itself without proper relevance to the previous 16 episodes. Number 1 was okay as a man of mystery, but once revealed, well okay Number 6 turned out to be Number 1. However I have come to the notion that it might have been better had Number 1’s identity not been revealed. ‘Fall Out’ seems to make a mockery of what has taken place before. 16 episodes of action and adventure, of mystery and intrigue, we’re dealing with a physical Village, but ‘Fall Out’ deals more with the metaphysical. It gives you James Bond, when perhaps it should be John Drake but then he’s been here before, twice he dealt with a rocket in the series. But that made fans think Number 6 was a rocket scientist! Perhaps Number 2 got it right after all, that 6 was a plant, perhaps Number 34 was a plant, and the prisoner simply means what it is. And that it is we who play mind games with the Prisoner, and not the other way around. For example perhaps Number 6 resigned because he was fed up with working for The Village, and he was brought back there because something had gone wrong with one of their agents. They had to know why he resigned because something must have gone wrong with their indoctrination technique. Perhaps they had never had an agent resign before!

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