Saturday, 23 November 2019

A Favourite Scene In The Chimes of Big Ben

    “One egg or two?”
    “Two I think. Yes so nice, be seeing you.”
    It’s all perfectly domestic. No.6 has taken to having two eggs for breakfast, at least he did on the morning of ‘The Chimes of Big Ben,’ and here he is again but having breakfast prepared for him by No.8, who appears to have rushed out early that morning without pinning her badge on the right way round. You would have thought continuity lady Doris Martin would have spotted that.
    In Both ‘Free For All’ and ‘Dance of the Dead’ No.6 enjoys the privilege of having his breakfast brought to him by a housemaid. Mind you I’m not so sure how privileged No.6 is, because surely by the time his breakfast was brought to him it would be cold!
    ‘The Chimes of Big Ben’ is the second episode in ‘the Prisoner’ however if it was placed later in the series, seeing No.6 making his own breakfast would make sense because it gives the impression that the privilege of having a housemaid bringing him his breakfast has been removed!
    On the morning of ‘The Chimes of Big Ben’ No.6 becomes annoyed by the music playing through the loudspeaker, annoyed that he is unable to switch it off. Perhaps he just got out of bed the wrong side. In ‘Arrival’ he trampled the loudspeaker under foot when he found he couldn’t turn the loudspeaker off. However it’s fascinating to watch No.6 place the loudspeaker in the refrigerator in order to bring silence to his cottage. And yet on the morning Nadia pays a call and makes his breakfast for him, he’s not bothered by the music at all, he’s in a very good mood, in fact he can be heard whistling. You see, that’s all that was needed to help No.6 settle down and put him in a better mood, was the company of a good woman!

   The side-handled teapot and milk jug are Royal Worcester Fireproof porcelain with brown lustre glaze circa1960’s. Denby pottery also produced the same teapot design in their “Homestead Brown Pattern” circa 1940s -1950s. I have been unable to identify the maker of the chrome cone topped marmalade jar.

Be seeing you

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