A Favourite Scene In The General

   When No.6 is down on the beach, in the sand dunes digging in the sand for the Professor’s tape recorder, which he buried earlier that the day. However the tape recorder has gone…what was that, a twig snapping….someone skulking in the bushes……and No.6 is on whoever is there in an instant! Dragging the man out by the lapels of his jacket we see its No.12. He doesn’t look very happy does he, this John Castle. Probably because he’s just received some rough treatment at the hands of Pat McGoohan!
    “Is there anything I can do for you?”
    “You want to get out of this place don’t you?”
    “So?”
    No.12 reaches into his jacket pocket and produces the Professor’s tape recorder. This indicates that he was on the beach earlier in the day, and observed where No.6 had buried the tape recorder which No.6 came back to retrieve, only No.12 beat him to it. Which is an indication that the tape recorder was originally meant for him!
    “Here is your passport” No.12 tells him.
    No.6 takes the tape recorder, but there’s a look of distrust on his face.

    “No.2 offered you a deal didn’t he, or don’t you trust him?”
    “I don’t trust No.2, I don’t trust you, and I don’t trust your tame Professor.”
    “Who do you trust No.6?”
    “I trust me.”
    “Join the club” No.12 turns to leave, then turns back “Oh, what was the treaty of Adrianople?”
    “September 1829.”
    No.12 shakes his head “Wrong. I said what, not when….you need some special coaching.”
    No.6 is left alone on the beach to listen to the Professor’s message on the tape recorder.
   “Ladies and gentlemen, fellow villagers, students this is the Professor speaking. I have an urgent message for you. You are being tricked Speed Learn is an abomination, it is slavery. If you wish to be free there is only one way, destroy the General. Learn this and learn it well, the General must be destroyed,”

    So why did No.12 give No.6 the Professor’s tape recorder? Presumably so that he could gain that “special coaching” No.12 spoke of. Also perhaps he thought No.6 would be the better man to make good use of the Professor’s message, or at the very least make him intrigued enough to go poking his nose in, and make an ally of him. Perhaps 12 thought No.6 would find a way to return the tape recorder to him, so he could have the Professor’s message micro reduced in readiness for having it transmitted to the villagers. But as we know No.6 gave the tape recorder to No.2, so No.12 must have somehow got it from him in secret. No.12 is a dissident, and the first true ally No.6 has found up to now.

Be seeing you