Going Uncredited

      There are several actors/actresses who appear in the Prisoner but who are not credited as being so. Fennella Fielding, the voice behind the Village, giving out the weather forecast and other public announcments is one such actress. Then there is the actor/television extra who played the role of Colonel Hawke-Englishe in The Girl Who Was Death, who so far to date, I have been unable to identify.

And the only picture I can find of this gentleman, is one as he appears as Colonel Hawke-Englishe. Although my wife Morag, has seen the actor/extra in an episode of Randell & Hopkirk, although she cannot remember which episode it was. And here is someone else who appeared in the Prisoner, driving the Bentley passed the Scammell Highwayman transporter as No.6, No.2, and No.48 dance about, and drink tea in the cage during the epsidoe of Fall Out.

                                                            His name, Frank Forsythe.

THEPRISONER

Shattered Visage

  A graphic novel based on the Prisoner, published in 1990, previously published in four volumes A B C & D IN 1988.
   If you study the front cover, you see the aged faces of No.2 and No.6, together with the face of a young girl. Take away the face of No.2-Leo McKern, and you are left with an old man-No.6, a young girl, along with a desert, and the Ocean, as in the 2009 seres of THEPRISONER. Inspiration comes from many places, or at least it seems to, even if scriptwriter Bill Gallagaher was not inspired by Shattered Visage.
   I always thought it a pity that Six never came across a half buried canopied Penny Farthing as on the front cover of this book!  Be seeing you
   

Playing Second Fiddle

    Stricktly speaking it is not clear if No.12 in The General is a direct aide to No.2 or not. Certainly No.12 spends time with No.2, and carries out his instructions as far as Speedlearn is concerned. What is certain is that No.12 holds a position in Administration, and is a self-confessed cog in the machine. No.12 also holds a position on the Educational Board, and has strong opinions about the Professor who he sees as being a crank, and should be treated as such. And cannot help but think the Professor is also a troublemaker, who attracts other trouble makers! More than that, No.12 can see the flaw in Speedlearn. When asking No.6 a question he said what not when!
   No.12 is also a trouble maker, who sees No.6 as a possible ally. His first approach to No.6 is ambigous enough, and an attempt to stimulate his interest in both the General and Speedlearn. Ultimately No.12 will become a traitor to the Village, which No.2 begins to pick up on towards the end of the episode.
    The Professor sees Speedlearn as being an abomination, that the General must be destroyed. Well No.12 is keen to see the wish of the Profesor carried out. But he  is not the man to do it, perhaps he lacks the courage, or is too close working in Administration. But an act of sabotage is not beneath No.12's capabilities, which he blames No.6 for. Hence getting No.6 to call at No.12's office in Adminitration in order to give No.6 a disguise as a Top Hat Official. Also being in Administration gave No.12 access to and the opportunity to go through the files on Village citizens, and reading No.6's file found him to be the man he wanted.
    But for all No.12's acts of conspiracy, sabotage, treason. A man who holds strong person opinions against the Professor, he still finds the courage to try and save the Professors life when he is being electrocuted to death by the General. Or is it a selfish act of suicide on the part of No.12? After all, No.2 was onto No.12, seeing him as a possible traitor. You will recall how No.2 was going to get the General to answer the question of a traitor in the Village, by answering three very impotant points, a traitor in the Village - security pass discs were issued to Number Six - Access to these are through where........? Administration repiled No.12, No.2 ordered that to be put down as well, also that No.12 is an official of Administration.......it looked to be all up for No.12. So perhaps No.12 wasn't trying to save the Professors life at all, but was taking, what is laughingly called, the easy way out!  Be seeing you.

A Character Witness

    Dance of the Dead was something of a trial for No.6. And having been put on trial, he called for a character witness. Someone he thinks he once knew. Someone who is scheduled to die, and therefore more fitted to say the things that need to be said. And so it was that No.6 called Roland Walter Dutton.
    What it was that No.6 expected Dutton to say, will now always remain a mystery. Perhaps No.6 expected Dutton to say something about No.6 in his defence. What are the things No.6 thinks are needed to be said? It might be, that seeing as Roland Dutton is due to die, a termination order issued against him, that he is in the prime position to say the things which need to be said, speaking out against the Village, and his own treatment. The only trouble is.........the doctor-No.40 has gone too far in his experiments on Roland Walter Dutton. Experiments in order to gain the remainder of the information inside Dutton's head. Oh Dutton gave quite a lot of information, but he is reluctant to go any futher. Trouble is, Dutton didn't know any more. He never had access to the vital stuff. Dutton told the doctor this, but the doctor wasn't listening. And so Roland Walter Dutton was left a brainwashed imbicile! As though a Leukotomy, which the Village doctors are only too keen to operate, had been operated on Dutton, and that operation had gone badly wrong.
    Roland Walter Dutton was dressed as a Court Jester at the Dance of the Dead, have you ever wondered why? Well back in the dark and distant past, when every King had a Court Jester, the Jester could voice to the King any complaints his subjects might have against him, and get away with it. Perhaps that is what No.6 meant, seeing Dutton dressed as a Court Jester, in being able to say the things that needed to be said against No.2 and the Village, and being able to get away with it! Be seeing you.

Arts And Crafts

        The Prisoner once quipped to No.2, that he'd like to be the first man on the Moon. Well perhaps not the Moon, but I've managed to put him in some alien landscape at the very least!

BCNU

THEPRISONER