Bureau of Visual Records

Deliberate destruction of official property is a most serious offence which can lead the either a fine, or imprisonment. But perhaps because it’s the Prisoner’s first day they are being lenient with him. And besides such behaviour as trampling a black loudspeaker to pieces underfoot, might be part of that accepted behaviour pattern Number 2 mentioned in his report!

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Caught On Camera!

    Number 6 can certainly take care of himself in a fist fight! But I wonder how he is with a darning needle? Because the poor chap has split the seat in his trousers in that fight!

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Exhibition of Arts And Crafts

                             I do like to be beside the seaside!

Bseenu

A Favourite Scene In Hammer Into Anvil

    Number 6 “Yes good morning.”

    Number 214 “Good morning sir. Can I help you?”
    “Yes. I’d like to insert a…..a private advert in the personal column of the next issue please.”
    “Certainly sir. What is it?”
    “I have it written down. There you are.”
    “Hay mas  mal……”
    “Hey mas mal en el aldea que se suena.”

    “Nine words. That’ll be three units please sir.”
    “Good.”
    “Spanish isn’t it?”
    “Yes Cervantes, Don Quixote.”
    “Oh yes.
    “A sort of personal joke between myself and a certain friend.”
    “I see. “That word Aldea, doesn’t that mean village?”
    “Yes.”

       That’s all fine and dandy, the full quote being “y cómo hay más mal en el aldegüela que se suena” by the way. A nice little scene in which Number 6 it trying to be mysterious, there being more harm in the village than is dreamt. Well there is while Number 6 is in it! But its

a nice looking kiosk which sells picture postcards, confectionery, beach balls, but why is Number 214 selling copies of the previous day’s edition of The Tally Ho?

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Village Life!

    No.6 makes his way down to the quayside and along to the stone boat. He’s carrying a large white envelope, he goes into the stone boat, and emerges a few moments later without the envelope. No.2 and No.14 have been keeping No.6 under close surveillance, and allowing him to go his own way the two men enter the stone boat and it takes No.2 only a moment to discover the hidden envelope.
    “It’s a dead drop, used in espionage tradecraft!”
    “I know what a dead drop is!”
    “Shouldn’t we leave it where it is?”
    “Why?”
    “Well someone is bound to come along and collect it. We can keep watch and catch whoever it is in the act!”

    “When I want your suggestions I’ll ask for them! Besides I want to know what’s in it.”

     “That will be all Fourteen.”

   “I’ve been thinking sir.”
    “Really!”

    “Number Six left that envelope in a dead drop for someone to come along and collect it, thus passing on information to someone else.”
    “I know that! I want to know what Number Six was about to pass on.”

    “It’s you isn’t it sir?”
    “Me?”
    “Number Six left that envelope in the stone boat for someone to come and collect. You were the next person in the stone boat, you collected the envelope, and there it is in your hand!”
    “You must be mad!”
    “I’m a witness!”
    “And I’m Number Two, now buzz off!”
    “You wait until X O Four gets to hear about this!”

    “X O Four…..oh very well.”
    “Number 2 opens the envelope.
    “What this?”
    “Blank sheets of paper sir.”
    “I can see that! Why should Number Six hide blank sheets of paper in the stone boat?”
    “Perhaps they rubbed off in the envelope!”
    “What?”

    “Perhaps they rubbed off in the envelope!”

    “Don’t be ridiculous! I don’t believe it.”
    “What is it sir?”
    “See what you can make of these words Fourteen.”
    The envelope is tipped upside down, and a jumble of words fall out onto the desk!

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Thought For The Day

    It’s strange that a man of Number 6’s calibre and ability has to count the corresponding numbers to the letters of the alphabet to Seltzman’s name on his hand. That’s what he does in Do Not Forsake Me Oh My Darling, so that he can add the corresponding numbered slide to each letter of the name. The thing is its not Patrick McGoohan, it’s Nigel Stock who doesn’t lend himself greatly to the character of Number 6. But then who could have filled McGoohan’s shoes as Number 6 in this episode……Frank Maher perhaps!
   As for names, In the script the name is Saltzman, and yet in the episode its spelled Seltzman, so why the change? There can be only one possible reason, and it’s to do with the numbered photographic slides. A correctly numbered slide is placed in the projector, to the corresponding numbered letter of the alphabet, and for the obvious reason you cannot have two “A’s” in the name, as there would be only be one number 1 slide!

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Caught On Camera!

    Oh look, there’s Number 9 sitting all alone at a table on the lawn of the Old People’s Home. I wonder if she’s waiting to meet Cobb, after all according to her they were planning to escape together!

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Resigned!

    I am resigned! Resigned to the fact that I shall never leave the village, it’s in my mind, my psyche, I must face the fact that I am Village! But I am not Six, I am not Two, nor am I any un-number, I am not a number, I am a numberless wanderer, but I am Village. Well there is nowhere else, there is only the village, but how I came to be here I do not know. I might have arrived on a bus with other newcomers, if I did where did I get on the bus? Why in the village, I had arrived!
    I am resigned.........I am Village!

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Caught On Camera!

    That was handy for Number 6!
    “I meet everybody, I know everything, who’s sick, who’s getting better.”
    If the flower seller had set up her flower stall somewhere else in the village, outside the hospital for example, Number 6 wouldn’t have seen Number 14 buying herself flowers, and recognizing her from the night before. It’s true of course that he could have caught a glimpse of her elsewhere. I wonder what made Number 6 go to the door of his cottage in the first place, I can only think he was going to bring in the milk, but was distracted when he saw Number 14!

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Exhibition of Arts And Crafts

                          {Sniff} Be seeing you!

A B and C

    I trust that steel door at then end of the corridor would open for Number 6 from the inside, otherwise he’d have to climb out back up through that air vent!
    Later in the episode when the way Number 6 walks down the passage, slapping his thigh with what Number 2 thinks is his letter of resignation, perhaps not with the same conviction as he does during the opening sequence, but certainly with determination!
    Have you observed how Number 6 changes his socks during the scene from which the above image is taken? As he kicks out the grill of the air vent he’s wearing dark coloured socks, and after kicking out the grill he wearing beige coloured socks! 

   And Does Number 2 know that his office is involved in “time share?” Because when he’s out of the office it doubles up for Number 14’s laboratory, just like it will for The Village Gymnasium in ‘The Schizoid Man!’
   Number 6 is very single-minded in the way his mind repeats over and over the action of him handing in his letter of resignation. Number 14 describes it as an anguish pattern, certainly Number 6 does appears to be in some mental distress, agonizing over the decision he took. Perhaps he regrets it.

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A Favourite Scene In A B and C

    A, made World news a few years ago, in fact defected about 6 years previously, it would seem that’s a familiar problem when considering Chambers late of the Foreign Office. Number 6 was going to meet with Chambers in order to make him change his mind before the “big boys” found out. But Chambers never turned up because agents working for the Village got to him first. So having defected A turned up in Paris, at one of Engadine’s celebrated parties, why? Perhaps he was looking for likely targets who he could blackmail for information, or meet with counter espionage agents. After all he did kidnap Number 6. And what of Number 6? He resigned his job, thinking of going away on holiday, to Paris perhaps, in any case he turned up at one of Engadine’s celebrated parties himself, and he was certainly no stranger to Engadine, so he had been there before. Perhaps Engadine’s house gave refuge to defectors. Certainly she gathered quite a salon of seemingly important and influential people about her, including spies, one a notorious one!

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The Usual Sir?

    News reached me yesterday via The Unmutual that actress Sheena Marshe who played Doris in The Girl Who Was Death  has passed away aged 83.

https://www.theunmutual.co.uk

Rest In Peace Sheena.

Many Happy Returns

   I wonder just how many days it took Number 6 to build his raft? The episode itself suggests he built it in a day, I suppose its possible, but its hard work. I think it might well have taken him a couple of days. But anytime between February 22^nd and March 19^th is the best time of the year to watch Many Happy Returns, because of the 25 days Number 6 spends at sea. Not that the Prisoner’s birthday has got anything to do with this episodes because it hasn’t, it’s just coincidental.
   It’s strange how Number 6 is so desperate to escape the village, and once he succeeds in returning to London how he no longer fits into society, in fact everything that was once his has now been taken away from him, he’s no more than a homeless vagrant! Its no wonder he couldn’t wait to return to the village, at least there he has a home, is looked after, and sort of fits in, even if the edges are still a bit rough! So I shall be watching Many Happy Returns soon. It’s interesting that there are only 5 episodes in the Prisoner which can be watched at precise times in the year, or on a specific date.
  

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Before The War Since The War Which War?

    Apparently The Village has been going for a very long time, since the war it would seem. The only question, which war? Well I arrived here a few days ago. They asked me all kinds of questions, wanting to know all about me. I said they can’t do this to me, that I have rights. Number 2 asked me who I thought I was, Number 6? I looked at the badge pinned to the lapel of my blazer, and said “No, apparently my number is Seven.” Number 2 said there’s no such number in the Village. “Not my fault” I told her “It’s the number given to me,” she made a note in a book on her desk. “Just how much do you know” I was asked. I told them I knew hardly anything at all. “So you’re one of them!” One of whom? “One of those who are brought here because they know too little!” I hadn’t a clue as to what Number 2 was going on about, but agreed to tell them all that I knew. Well I’ve never been keen on drugs, and I’ve a very low pain threshold.

    So I began to settle down to a quiet life here in The Village. They gave me a credit card, card of identity, a health and welfare card, and employment card. I set myself a daily regime, a walk around The Village twice a day, morning and afternoon. I would have lunch at the café, and buy a copy of the daily newspaper The Tally Ho. Being a smoker I asked the chap at the kiosk for twenty Number Six, he said “Are you trying to be funny?” Alright I told him, twenty Number 10. He just scowled at me, and served me with 20 Village Woodbines and a box of Village matches!

    Some days I would play chess, or go for long walks along the beach and play ‘ducks and drakes,’ or swim in the open lido. And then there was the occasional Village activity, such as a concert of folk music, or demonstration of mime in the Recreation Hall. I never considered escape, well there are only so many ways of attempting escape. I mean take Number 82. He carved himself a dug-out canoe out of a tree trunk. He paddled out into the middle of the estuary at night, attempting to escape under the cover of darkness. But the searchlight crew in the Tower spotted him, The Village Guardian was despatched……there was no funeral, as you need a body! Well I’m no good at woodwork. I cannot navigate, or make a homemade compass. I could try for the mountains, but I’m no mountaineer. I can swim, but not so far. Nor can I pilot a helicopter, but I can drive, perhaps away along the beach to somewhere. But really I haven’t got escape in me. I like a quiet life you see, and life here is really preferable to what it is elsewhere. I was a journalist working on a two-bit rag of a newspaper and going nowhere. The wife had left me for another woman, and that’s when life for me hit rock bottom, so I resigned, I went home, woke up, I was here!

   Next week there is the Exhibition of Arts and Crafts. I’ve seen some of the entries, they’re not very original, mostly paintings, drawings, and sculptures of Number 2. Me, I’ve painted a landscape of The Village looking at it from the beach, and entitled it “View From A Villa.”

    Eventually I got a job working on the local newspaper. At least it’s work with which I’m familiar, even if I am told what to write! But now and again I’m free to write articles like this one. There’s no harm in it, no propaganda, no rebelliousness. Well I wouldn’t want to seem unmutual would I now. Not like that Number 6. It was suggested that I write an article about Number 6, citizens might find him interesting the editor said. I tried getting an interview with him, but he just slammed the door in my face. So how am I to write such an article about a man I know absolutely nothing about I asked the editor? “You’re a journalist aren’t you? Just make it up as you go along!”

   “So there’s this chap by the name Number Six. He goes about shouting “I am not a number, I am free man.” He tries to escape at any given opportunity, pokes his nose in where he can cause the most trouble. Usually he wears a dark blazer with off-white piping. But one time something curious happened, he started going about The Village wearing a cream blazer with black piping, what’s more he was seen to be wearing his Number 6 Penny Farthing badge. Well I tell you readers, when have you ever seen Number 6 wearing his numbered badge? Just about never I’d say. Then one day, just as I was passing the Recreation Hall, I saw not one Number 6, but two! They were having a fight, and the one in the dark blazer was knocked to the ground. Then The Village Guardian appeared and herded the both of them away.” I told the editor, he said I must be seeing double, and what was I making up this rubbish for? I told the editor that I hadn’t made it up at all. “What two Six’s in the Village” he barked “Next thing you know you’ll be seeing Lord Lucan here!” Well he has to be some place, and if not here, then elsewhere!     

                                     

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A Favourite Scene In Free For All

    Its Number 6’s last chance to get his message across to the electorate, “Place your trust in the old regime, the policies are defined, the future certain, the old regime forever, and the old Number Two forever. Confession by coercion is that what you want? Vote for him and you have it! Or, stand firm on this electoral platform and speak a word without fear, the word is freedom! They say six of one and half a dozen of the other, not here, its Six for Two, and two for nothing, and Six for free, for free for all vote, vote.”
    Poor old Number 6 he was wasting his time, but then he had plenty of time to waste, and so might as well stand for election while he was waiting……waiting, waiting for what, another chance to try and escape? That would probably be an even bigger waste of time, and he’d expend more energy that way, not that he didn’t take the opportunity to try and escape in this episode. That just goes to show that Number 6 as a candidate for the position of Number 2, is not a man of the people, given the way he tried to get away from the Village it suggests that he’s only looking after his own interests. And just when he was doing so well, mind you it could have been worse. Instead of running for election as the new Number 2, he might have been co-opted onto the town council!

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Village Life!

    “You’ll never guess what I saw this morning.”
    “Nothing would surprise me about this place!”
    “You know how I live just around the corner from the Bell Tower.”
    “Practically next door, the bells not keeping you awake again?”

    “No. Well I drew back the curtains and looked out to see four chaps manhandling a stone statue up the steps of the Bell Tower!”
    “Why would they doing that?”
    “I opened the window and shouted out what are you blokes doing?”
    “And what did they say?”
    “Taking this damned statue up to the top of the Bell Tower.”
    “On whose instructions?”
    1^st Workman “Number Two told Number 14, and he told us.”
    “Why?”
    1^st Workman “The chain of command I suppose.”
    “No I mean why are you taking that statue to the top of the Bell Tower?”
    1^st Workman “Oh. No idea!”
    “Number Two must be going round the twist don’t you think?”
    “He must have his reasons I suppose.”
    2^nd workman “You know what don’t you?”
    1^st Workman “No, what?”
    3^rd workman “He means that at some point Number 2 is going to want this statue brought down from the top of the Bell Tower!”
    Workman “Not when I’m about!”
    4th workman “We could just push it off the top when the time comes.”
    1st workman “Well never mind all that for now. Come on lads take the strain.”
    “Why should Number 2 want a statue taken to the top of the Bell Tower?”
    “I’ve absolutely no idea. But I find it’s always best to humour him.”

    Later that morning 

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The First Man on The Moon!

    When Number 2 revealed his inner most hope that the village is a pattern for the future, the whole Earth as the village, Number 6 responds with “I’d like to be the first man on the moon!” And that’s Number 6’s first thought escape, in other words to run away! Mind you Number 1 could help Number 6 with that, after all he has got a rocket!

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Seasonal-wise

    Anytime now is a good time to watch Hammer Into Anvil, which is my intention any time soon. Why? Spring is almost upon us, and the daffodils are coming into flower, and is a good marker for Hammer Into Anvil.
   There was a vase of daffodils in Number 73’s hospital room which is fair enough. And later in the episode when Number 6 went to the cemetery looking for a no longer existing or functioning number, someone had placed a bunch of daffodils on 73’s grave. Who in the village was there to do that? In the original script there is the following description of the final scene. “P looking down at the grave of 73. there is pain and pity in his eyes. Then he squares his shoulders. His expression is grim as he walks away.” This final scene was cut from the finished episode, and yet was the scene not retained in the episode as described above? Who in The Village would have laid flowers on 73’s grave, if it wasn’t her avenger Number 6…….her husband perhaps, finally tracked down and brought to the village!

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The Schiz6id Man!

    “Now this should be rather interesting, we have a full set of Number Six’s fingerprints.”
    “Yes, I know my own fingerprints.”

    Yes he would, mister “I’m too good to be true” No.6! The trouble with No.6 is he’s made too good, too intelligent, and I was going to write far too clever for his own good. But perhaps he’s not clever enough, did he really think he could out wit No.2 by trying to impersonate Curtis?

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Echoes of The Prisoner!

RESIGNED!

   Such have been the echoes of the Prisoner in the first episode of Man In A Suitcase covered recently on my blog, making it appear that it was almost trying to be the Prisoner, or at least the aftermath of that series. After all what would have happened to the former Number 6 had the series had a straightforward ending? Eventually he would have had to learn to live with what had been done to him, and then sort out his future. Employment opportunities would have been limited for an ex-secret agent, Callan found that out that working for a grubby little import/export business for £8 a week wasn’t up to much. Like McGill, the former agent ZM73 could well have given up his house, after all he wouldn’t want to live in house purchased for him by those responsible for having had him abducted to the village. That might well have left him living out of a suitcase like McGill! However unlike McGill who only knew Intelligence work, ZM73 did have another string to his bow in having built his Lotus 7 kit car with his own hands, which demonstrates ZM73’s mechanical ability. So a job working in a garage as a motor mechanic would not have been out of the question.
    Of course it had not passed me by without notice that at the start of the series Man In A Suitcase that McGill had already been “late” of American Intelligence for 6 years, so fictionally that’s long before ZM73 handed in his letter of resignation. And production-wise the Prisonerism’s within Man In A Suitcase – Man From The Dead are unmistakable, or perhaps they are merely coincidence, but I think we can allow coincidences, I think we can.

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Exhibition of Arts And Crafts

                            Realization!

BSEENU

Quote For The Day

    “But I must have them!”
    “For the last time, your week’s credit allowance is all used up. Come back tomorrow.”
   “But I can’t go through an entire day without my sweets!”

                     {Number 36 and the Kiosk attendant - It’s Your Funeral}

    Thursday is Appreciation Day, so the day Number 36’s weekly allowance had been all used up by was a Wednesday, and there was still another three days in the week, so how would Number 36 manage? The kiosk attendant told 36 to come back tomorrow. Why did he tell her that? Thursday was generally payday in Britain at that time, so perhaps that’s the day in The Village when weekly credit allowances were placed on credit cards, and Number 36 would be able to satisfy her sweet tooth. Except Number 6 bought her a bag of sweets, seeing another lady in distress, although Number 6 said “Candy.” Number 2 said Number 6 never eats candy, and that’s an Americanism. Being English Number 6 should have said a bag of sweets!

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Bureau of Visual Records

    This is a nice night-time shot of 6 Private. This establishing shot sets the location for the next scene, when Number 6 is lying on his bed thinking, and still confused. But it’s the wrong establishing shot, because Number 6 doesn’t actually live there at the moment, as for the time being he lives at 12 private. So the establishing shot should have been of 12 Private with its plain yellow wall, plain blue door and signpost. Which I think you’ll agree, although correct, would not have been so aesthetically pleasing to the eye.

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Echoes of The Prisoner!

   Another transposable character from the Prisoner to Man In A Suitcase is the Colonel, he was supposed to return to London following Fotheringay. However the assignment in the village during The Chimes of Big Ben had not gone well for the Colonel, as he failed to extract the reason behind Number 6’s resignation. Number 2 suggested to Fotheringay that he return to London before any embarrassing questions were asked. Perhaps for the Colonel it was already too late, his career in tatters, and forced to resign. However he didn’t end up back in the village as a prisoner, he was allowed to pursue another career, as the landlord of a public house in an out of the way village. Pictured above with McGill in the episode All That Glitters, poor old Colonel, it’s a bit of a come down for him.

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Tell Me Now Who Am I?

     You know who you are, I know who you are, and those who are watching know who you are.

    Those who are watching?
    Yes.
    Who are they?
    The television viewers.
    Oh, we’re on television are we?
    Naturally.
    They know who I am?
    Yes, you’re Number 12.
    Number 12, yes, Number 12. But it’s not right is it?
    Isn’t it, why isn’t it?
    I’m wearing the right jacket.
    The right jacket?
    I always wear a dark jacket with off-white piping. I know that sometimes it has broken piping on the lapel, and sometimes joined piping, but the colour is always the same. But I have never been seen out and about in The Village wearing a cream coloured jacket!
    Perhaps I fancied a change!
    You fancied a change?

    Yes, well I am Number Six.

    You claim to be Number Six.

    No, it’s you who is doing the claiming!
    Listen, you might be the one with the mole on your left wrist....
    What’s that got to do with anything?
    But it’s not you with the bruised fingernail!
    Bruised fingernail?
    Aha! You didn’t think of that one did you?
    I think I’d better call Number Two.
    Yes, I want a word with him myself!

    Suddenly a vicious fight breaks out between the two Six’s, one rushes outside the cottage only to be met by The Village Guardian.

    The blessed Schizoid Man.
    Schizoid man, schizoid man, schizoid man, schizoid man, schizoid........ahhhhgggggggg!
    Get me Number Two.................Curtis here, Number Six is dead.......yes, Rover got him.........yes there’s going to be hell to pay!
    Number 12 returns to his cottage and packs his suitcase ready to leave The Village. Standing beside the helicopter Number 12 and Number 2 part company with a handshake.
    Its just a quick flip to the landing stage, you can pick up the motor cruiser from there. You’ve forgotten security precautions.
    Oh yes of course.
    Must be obeyed.

    Once inside the helicopter Number 12 puts the blindfold on. Number 2 closes the door and the helicopter rakes off, circles the Village a couple of time before landing. The door of the helicopter is opened, Number 12 is helped out and the blindfold is removed, and is faced with the figure of Number 2.

    How did you know?
    Number Six has a bruised fingernail!

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Caught On Camera!

   On the night of Feb 10^th Number 6’s breathing was shallow, his sleep was light {perhaps he hadn’t drunk his night cap} so it was deepened for him. While that is being done, two medics then enter 6 Private and prepare to remove him from the cottage. Along with Number 6 the day-date calendar and his wristwatch are also taken from the bedside table. The wristwatch is given to Curtis, and the calendar put in 12 Private. Just a minute! The accompanying image is taken just moments before his encounter with his opposite self, but what’s that there on the bedside table? It’s the day-date calendar which had been taken away the night before has been put back!! Why would they do that? Well I expect they didn’t, more likely this is another of those continuity errors!

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Echoes of The Prisoner!

    If you have ever wondered what happened to Number 86 when she left the village in disgrace {disgrace because of the way she allowed Number 6 to turn the tables on her in A Change of Mind} well here she is living in London. By the looks of it she has been out shopping, doesn’t look very happy does she? Perhaps because she is no longer important as she once was back in the village, and wishes she was back there!
   Alright I’ll hold my hands up, of course this isn’t the character Number 86 played by Angela Browne in the Prisoner, which makes me guilty of transposing a character of one television series to that of another. But it was so easy to do when I watched Angela Browne as Rachel Thyssen walking down a street in Man In A Suitcase – Man From The Dead.

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The Prowler

    “And you say it happened again last night.”
    “Yes Number Two.”
    “The girl, she wasn’t.........harmed?”
    “No Number Two. She saw a figure at her window.”
    “Could she describe the figure?”
    “She said she couldn’t be sure it was man.”
    “A woman?”
    “She.......”
    “Yes.”
    “Well sir she said it was a figure, not a man or woman, but a white figure, almost translucent.”

    “Translucent?”
    “The girl said it had no facial features!”
    “What?”
    “Where the eyes and mouth should have been was membrane!”

    It was in the woods now running along a path. It had been seen, and it knew it had been seen. Now they would come to hunt it down. But what harm had it done to any living thing? No harm, no harm at all, it’s only crime, curiosity.

    “Number Two isn’t going to like this!”
    “It wasn’t our fault, just the natural progression of evolution.”
    “Tell that to Number Two!”
    “Perhaps we could retrieve it.”
    “And how exactly do we do that?”
    “It can’t have gone far.”
    “It’s already gone too far, too far outside this laboratory!”

    “We shouldn’t have kept it hidden.”
    “What else could we have done, once it showed signs of change.”
    “But really is it natural to have taken on the shape of a man?”

    “What!”
    “It has metamorphosized!”
    “How did it do that?”
    “We don’t know sir. It can now take on any form of its choosing, at the current time it’s in the form of a man.”
    “But easy to spot, it being white membrane.”
    “Yes sir.”

    Out on top of the cliffs sat the white mebranic form of a figure, it sat there looking up at the night sky, the moon and the stars, concentrating intently. But where it should have eyes there was smooth membrane, so could it see, or could it comprehend by some other means? Suddenly there came a rustling in the undergrowth. From a bush a rabbit slowly immerged. The rabbit sensed danger, it was quick to move, but the white figure was quicker and on the rabbit, smothering it, suffocating it to death.

    “Supervisor.”
    “Yes what is it?”
    “There’s something white running from the cliffs across the sand” an observer reported.
    “White you say, put up camera twenty-one.”
    On the wall screen was the great empty white expanse of sand, it was getting dark, but there running at speed across the sand was the white shape of a rabbit!
    “It can’t be!” ejaculated the Supervisor in astonishment.
    “If it gets across the estuary and into the countryside on the far side we’ll never catch it!” exclaimed 21 the Supervisor’s assistant.
    “Activate the beam, hellfire.”
    “Suddenly the pair of steel doors to the Control room opened and Number 2 immerged onto the steel gantry.
    “What is it, what’s going on here?”
    “It’s the prowler, it’s making for the far side of the estuary” the Supervisor informed him.
    “Where, where is it?” Number 2 asked peering at the large wall screen.

    “There sir, it’s taken the form of a rabbit.”
    “A rabbit.......how did it manage to do that?”
    “I don’t know sir, but if it gets away.”
    “Well carry on then.”
    “Beam on sir” reported the operator “Strength setting hellfire.”
    “Very well, fire.”

    The white rabbit was oblivious to what was taking place in the domed chamber of the Control Room. Oblivious to the top of the flagpole opening and a steel rod emerge, the rod which tilted and swivelled, then....... A team set off across the sand in a Mini-Moke, its siren blaring out, I say a team, it was more like two men with a shovel and bucket. But they were not out to build sandcastles. There wasn’t much left of what had escaped the laboratory, what there was, was a white splat of white membrane, which was scooped up with the shovel and dumped in the bucket!
    “This looks like the end of the Prowler. What do we do now Two-four three?”
    “We analyse, Two-four-nine, analyse this membrane, discover what went wrong, and start again!”

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Quote For The Day

    “Morning Number Twelve, nice to see you again.”
    “Why do you call me Number Twelve?”
    “Well that’s what you were called when I last saw you.”
                               {Number ? and Number 12 – The Schizoid Man}

    Just a minute there’s something wrong here! I realize that this young woman, along with the passing Sikh, are there to help convince him that he is Number 12. But just when is she supposed to have last see Number 12? I only ask because he’s supposed to have only just arrived in the village, having been invited for breakfast by Number 2!

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Echoes of The Prisoner!

    Westminster Bridge and the Houses of Parliament feature in the opening sequence to the first episode of Man In A Suitcase – Man From The Dead. There’s nothing wrong in that, perfectly natural I suppose because it sets the scene in London. However when I saw this Prisonerism I could not help but think of the opening sequence to the Prisoner and visualize with my mind’s eye that green, yellow nosed Lotus 7 passing over Westminster Bridge.

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The Schizoid Man

    Curtis has just arrived in the village. He woke up feeling a little strange, perhaps not quite himself, and somewhat disorientated. There is a telephone call from a man who does not announce himself, “Good morning Number Twelve, I hope you slept well after your flight, I’ll expect you for breakfast in fifteen minutes” but he never said who he was, or where to go. He should have added “Number Two, the Green Dome,” as Number 2 said to the Prisoner-Number 6 on the day of his arrival, otherwise how does Number Twelve, who is supposed to be newly arrived in the village that morning, know who was calling, and where to go for breakfast? I realize that its Number 6 Number 2 is talking to, but the same would have applied to Curtis on the morning of his arrival in the village!

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All The Fun of The Party!

    The music’s playing, all the guests have now arrived, everyone who is anyone attends Madame Engadine’s celebrated parties. People chatting, mingling, drinking, and generally enjoying themselves. Well you know what parties are.
    Elderly couple

    “Good evening.”
    “Hello, how are you?”
    “Well enough.”
    “Have you just arrived?”
    “Yes.”
    “Engadine always has the best parties we always say.”
    “If you’ll excuse me.”
    “Of course dear boy.”

    Couple in doorway
    “Have you got it?”
    “No.”
    “But you promised me you would bring it with you to Engadine’s next party.”
    “It would have been missed.”
    “Do they suspect you?”
    “No....I don’t know. Security has been stepped up. Have you got the money?”
    “Yes, but you must get those papers for me..............”
    “I’ll try.”

    Couple in foreground

    “Look I’m sorry. I only touched you in the arbour!”
    “That’s not where you touched me. What kind of girl do you think I am?”
    “Look, can you lend me twenty francs?”
    “What do you want twenty francs for?”
    “I’m meeting Louis later this evening, he’s going to sell me some gear.”
    “What kind of gear, not drugs!”
    “Course not, what do you take me for? I’ve bought a motor bike, and Louis is going to sell me the gear to go with it.”
    “Well you’re not getting me on the back of a motor bike!”
    “Don’t be silly, it’ll be great. Oh come on don’t be like that, come with me to the arbour.”
    “Yes I wish you would go to the arbour.”
    “You do?”
    “Yes, then you can go and drown yourself!”

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Village Life!

    “Have you seen today’s Tally Ho?”
    “No.”
    “It’s dated!”
    “How do you mean dated?”
    “Its got a date stamped on it, Feb tenth. Since when did copies of The Tally Ho have a date stamped on them?”
    “Never.”
    “Exactly.”
    “What’s the headline?”
    “Is Number Two fit for further term?”
    “Well that’s what dates it! Remember that Number Two who messed up because he was under the impression that Number 6 was going to sell out.”
    “Yes.”
    “Well you are obviously reading a back issue of The Tally Ho, as that headline referred to him.”
    “You mean it was him who wasn’t fit for a further term in office?”
    “Yes, because of that stomach ulcer he was suffering from.”
    “But what about the date Feb tenth, and then there’s the headline.”
    “Oh I see, well you must have been reading The Tally Ho from a year ago.”
    “I was sold this newspaper only this morning!”
    “Then there must be a question over the current Number Two.”
    “How can there be? He’s only just arrived.”
    “Then….oh I don’t know.”
    “You can’t explain it, can you?”
    “No.”
    “No more can I!........By the way, have you seen that Number Six recently?”
    “No.”
    “Well I have, he’s going about wearing a white jacket with black piping. What’s more I caught him whistling!”
   “And you’re point being?”
   “Whenever did Number Six go about the village wearing a white jacket, or was heard whistling?”
    “I see…..never!”
    “There’s something funny going on!”

    “You’re too suspicious that’s your trouble.”
    “Alright then, how is it I’m sold a copy of The Tally Ho dated the tenth, when today is the eleventh?”
    “We’ve gained a day!”
    “But why?”
    “How should I know?”
    “Number 2 is up to something!”
    “When isn’t she?”
    “No he.”
    “He?”
    “Number Two is a he, not a she.”
    “Oh I can’t keep up with all this. Let’s go to the café for a cup of tea.”
    “And tea cakes?”
    “Toasted.”
    “But of course.”

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Echoes of The Prisoner!

RESIGNED

   McGill, formerly of American Intelligence, accused of treason, but who was forced to resign. He then turned his hand to bounty hunting, operating as a private detective but without a license. His price $300 a week plus expenses.

    McGill, like The Prisoner, one day goes running back to his former colleagues because of a newspaper bulletin of a dead man seen walking in a London street. That together with a newspaper front page article about Harry Thyssen, seen to be alive, and the only man who can clear McGill of suspected treason!

   So forgetting for the moment those final few frames of the opening sequence at the end of Fall Out, is this what happened to the former Number 6 after he finally escaped the village, and returned to London? He is not a man to let the grass grow under his feet. Instead of going into his house he drives off to park in that same old underground car park then on to a familiar office somewhere in a building on Whitehall, no doubt demanding answers to so many questions. But if those answers were not forthcoming he’d simply have to live with it and get on with the rest of his life, just as McGill had to do. So, is this how the former ZM73 was to have ended up, working as a cheap private detective? If so then the green-yellow nosed Lotus 7 would have to go in exchange for a car which doesn’t stand out so much, Perhaps a Austin Mini, or Triumph Herald, or maybe a Hillman Imp!
   There are a number of Prisonerisms in the first episode Man From The Dead, when McGill is seen wearing a black polo shirt, he wears the shirt when he goes to report an incident to his former boss, who incidentally was John Drake’s one time boss in Danger Man.

   The next Prisonerism is the fact that when McGill goes into Coughlin’s office, he’s sat at a desk with a map of the World on the wall behind him. But before that McGill is confronted by a receptionist, no, not a bald-headed man filling in the crossword puzzle, but a woman.

   She is recognizable at the old lady sitting in a rocking chair by the Prisoner’s hospital bed in Arrival. So it appears that having left the village and returned to London she went to work for American Intelligence. She is described as a receptionist, and yet she seems to be head of the typing pool seeing as there are a number of young women sat at typewriters, a department which requested the transference of Danvers. Perhaps she replaced Danvers!

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Feb 10th

    Today is February 10^th, and so I thought the day should be marked. Because February 10^th is the only date which appears in the village, apart from February 11^th that is. Admittedly the date does appear twice in both A B and C and The Schizoid Man, but once was done so inadvertently, when it was The Tally Ho headline that was important. The trouble with Feb 10^th appearing on The Tally Ho used in two episodes is that it gave vent to the belief that both A B and C and The Schizoid Man took place on the same day. Either that or there is a year between the two episodes!
   The date printed on The Tally Ho was a contrivance in order to help convince Number 6 of the date, except it was the wrong date, it should have been Feb 11^th. Because Number 6 went to sleep on the 10^th, and when he woke up supposedly on the next day, he should have changed his day-date calendar to the 11^th, as one doesn’t do that when one goes to bed the night before!
   So February 10^th is the only date referred to in the village, granted a Thursday is mentioned, that’s Appreciation Day but no date is given for that day.
   Today being Feb 10^th perhaps a screening of The Schizoid Man is the order of the day, and of course one month today is the village festival. That is an event which Number 6 will not be free to attend, because he’ll be at sea aboard his raft!

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The Therapy Zone

The Therapy Zone

   It wasn’t so many happy returns even when Number 6, or to use his London name ZM73, arrived back home to No.1 Buckingham Place! He was in effect a penniless exile. As much out of place in London as he had been on the day of his arrival in The Village!

Then he found someone else, the widow Mrs. Butterworth, living in his home, the lease of the house having had six months to run when he was abducted by the two Undertakers. Not only that, but, but she had bought his beloved Lotus Seven which he built with his own hands. Since when was an Estate Agent also a car salesmen? More than that, his name as former owner of the car had been removed from the logbook of the car, in fact it was a completely new logbook!

    And there were the doubts he had of his whereabouts. Once alone in the study of his former home, he looked for reassurances, out of the window at the skyscraper in the other street. Listening to the dialling tone of the telephone, something missing from his phone back in The Village. And spoke about an area of dry rot behind the writing bureau which was made good about six months ago {he obviously meant 6 months before his abduction}. The bathroom door slides opens to the left. The sink is on the right as you go in, and the hot and cold taps of the shower which had been put on the wrong way round. Mrs. Butterworth said that he didn’t have to prove anything, that she believed him. But it wasn’t so much for Mrs. Butterworth’s sake that he was proving his knowledge about the house, but for his own.

   And things didn’t get much better when he paid a call on the Colonel, having to explain about his disappearance, about The Village, and to make his report sound plausible to two doubting Thomas’s! The problem is, ZM73 resigns, he disappears, he returns, and he spins a yarn which Hans Christian Anderson would reject for a fairytale. And they must be sure you see. People defect, an unhappy thought, but a fact of life, they defect from one side to another. That’s the Colonel’s problem. But for ZM73 he’s not sure either which side runs The Village. The Colonel agrees that it’s a mutual problem.

   So on the whole, was ZM73 really any better off back in London, than he was in The Village? It doesn’t seem so, and on the whole, perhaps he was better off in The Village. At least there was no doubt regarding his surroundings there, and he wasn’t a homeless vagrant!

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