The Tally Ho

    In the original script of Many Happy Returns Number 2 {Mrs. Butterworth} has a birthday cake for Number 6.

    Mrs. Butterworth

    “Many happy returns.”
    Outside the brass band play “Happy Birthday to you.”

    She puts the cake down, and from her pocket she takes a little package tied with pink ribbon and gives it to Number 6. He tips it open to reveal the cassette of film which contains his photographic evidence of the village.
    Mrs. Butterworth
    “You see, there is no escape. So be sensible and tell me why you resigned.”
    Number 6 just stares at her, then he notices the wrapping paper from his present. He opens it fully to see it is The Tally Ho newspaper. “Tally Ho”. The headline reads “Plane Lost Over Sea. No Hope of Survivors.”

    We see several editions of The Tally Ho in the village in which it asks the question ‘Is No.2 Fit For Further Term?’ ‘No.6 Speaks His Mind,’ and in The Schizoid Man gives a date ‘Feb 10^th. Colonel James reads the headline ‘What Are Facts Behind Town Hall?’ And there is an ‘Increase Vigilance Call From New No.2’. In two later episodes the headlines ‘No.6 FOR FURTHER INVESTIGATION,’ and ‘No.6 Declared Unmutual.’ In It’s Your Funeral Number 6 does buy a copy of The Tally Ho from the kiosk, unfortunately we do not see the broadsheet’s headline, so there is no way of knowing if it was specially printed for that episode, or whether it is actually a copy of The Tally Ho used in an earlier episode!
    For my book The Prisoner Dusted Down I created a poster for the village festival made mention by Alison in The Schizoid Man. Although no such poster is seen in the episode I based it upon other posters seen in both The Chimes of Big Ben and The Schizoid Man. So I decided to create an impression of The Tally Ho noted in the original script for Many Happy Returns.

   Admittedly my impression of that The Tally Ho wasn’t difficult to produce in fact it was quite simple, and I could only produce it in A4 size, and not the original A2. And yet as with The Tally Ho broadsheets in A B and C, Many Happy Returns, and A Change of Mind, it is the headline that is important and so no accompanying article is required. This is unlike the editions in Free For All and Hammer Into Anvil which both have accompanying articles which can be read, the remainder of the large amount of text in all the Tally Ho’s is made up from newspaper articles, cut and pasted higgledy-piggledy.

Be seeing you