The Prisoner

    Questions, they are the very burden especially when you don’t know what the answer is. Even after almost 51 years of ‘the Prisoner’ it’s still unsure whether or not the woman in Number 6’s dream who hands him one of her earrings is Mrs. Butterworth of ‘Many Happy Returns’ or not, because he hasn’t physically met her yet! The fact that she says to him “Number six, I just know it’s your lucky number” might simply be one of those in-jokes which springs up within the series from time to time. Fictionally there’s no reason why the woman isn’t Mrs. Butterworth, surrealistically it does make for an interesting little scene. Equally there still remains the question of the General as mentioned in ‘The Schizoid Man’ by Number 6 Curtis who talked about reporting to the General which Number 2 said was a new one, reporting to the General! So is that General the same General as in the next episode of ‘The General?’ If it is it’s no wonder Number 2 found it peculiar that Curtis should suggest reporting to the General, one cannot report to a computer personally! And yet it might well be that as Curtis {Number 6} was about to leave The Village, the General was just arriving!

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Thought For The Day

    It’s never sad to arrive at the end of a screening of ‘the Prisoner,’ because one can always put the DVD or indeed VHS video tape back in the machine and begin it all over again. After all that’s what Number 6 does, he gets into his car, drives off and it begins all over again. Seeing as the Butler is the only one to enter the house of No.1 Buckingham Place, does that make him Number 1? Many enthusiasts for ‘the Prisoner’ came to think he was. And that automatic electronic door, despite the door having been upgraded, it also shows The Village is in London. Ah but when ZM73 arrived home from having handed in his letter of resignation, he has to open the front door of the house himself. It doesn’t open automatically for him, not like it did for the Butler! And where is the Butler, in the kitchen perhaps. More likely he’s on his way to The Village in time for the Prisoner’s arrival there, having first packed two suitcases for his master, laid out his passport, and arranged his airline ticket first.
    Yes begin it all again with ‘Fall Out’ followed by ‘Arrival, but to mix the rest of the episodes up. Keeping ‘Once Upon A Time’ and ‘Fall Out’ as the last two episodes, yes that does mean watching ‘Fall Out’ twice. And yet had the start of the opening sequence been added to the end of ‘Fall Out,’ it would have meant the Prisoner had escaped The Village, and now went searching for those answers he’s so keen on finding!
     But all the episodes in between mix them up. Never mind about times, dates, and all that kind of thing, put them in alphabetic order is one way. Mind you my second favourite episode is ‘Checkmate,’ to put them in order of preference, has that been tried before?

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In The Village!

    Poor old Number 2, its almost as though Number 1 had deliberately put Number 2 under pressure by allocating him only three days in which to extract the reason behind the Prisoner’s resignation. Well that’s how it seems, but of course the three days were a restriction imposed upon him by the number of doses of Number 14’s drug. Three was dangerous enough, a fourth would have killed him! But at least Number 2’s successor had been given a week to try and extract the Prisoner’s reason why he resigned. But he saw that as not being long enough, you don’t want to damage him, you don’t want to end up with a man of fragments! What like humpty Dumpty who sat on a wall, as Humpty Dumpty who had a great fall, all the King’s horses and all the King’s men couldn’t put Humpty together again!

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Village Life!

    “Tell me again why we’re standing here?”
    “We’re both twits............”
    “Too right, I feel a right twit standing here!”
    “We are observers for TWITS The Western International Treaty Secretariat, we are here to oversee this election.”
    “What, this little tin pot village requires our attendance?”
    “This is the last bastion of democracy in the world!”
    “You are joking?”
    “No.”
    “And we are here to oversee that this election is not corrupted in any way.”
    “Didn’t you read the instructions?”
    “Well, to be perfectly honest, no.”
    “There is a plan to make the whole Earth as The Village.”
    “Where’s the democracy in that when it’s at home?”
    “That’s why we are here.”
    “I thought you said we were going to protect democracy?”
   “We are, but there are those who would try and stop the spread of democracy.”
    “In other words they don’t want the whole Earth as The Village.”
    “Precisely, and as long as these elections go through, then The Village will become the blue print for world order.”
    “A global village will effectively be created. Everywhere just like everywhere else, everywhere just like The Village, little Italianate Villages, self contained units of society all over the world.”
    “All of them trading information with each other, and Speed Learn will cross the globe turning the human race into nothing more than a field of knowledgeable cabbages!”
    “I don’t want to be a cabbage!”
    “Education is a wonderful thing.”
    “Not if it’s going to turn me into a cabbage!”
    “Oh don’t worry it’s not going to happen in our lifetime.”
    “Look out, here come the candidates.”
    “Now the speeches will begin.”
    “Good people of our community.”
    “Ra.”
    “That’s not right is it?”
    “What isn’t right?”
    “That short fat bloke in the bowler hat showing the electorate what to shout!”
    “There’s recently a lack of opposition in the matter of free elections” “This is not good for our community and reflects an acceptance of things as they are. We know what we must do, what must we do?”
    “Progress progress progress.”
    “See he’s doing it again, he’s showing them what to shout!”
    “That needs reporting.”
    “It’s a flagrant breach of electoral rules.”
    “Mind you, you know what this means.”
    “We’ll have to put a halt to the election, and start the campaign all over again.”
    “More than that, it will create a pile of paper work, and the report will go into hundreds and hundreds of pages, and we’ll have to write it.”
    “What do we do, turn a blind eye?”
    “It’s probably for the best don’t you think, especially since we’re wearing these white rosettes!”
    “Observers of life should never get involved.”
    “Bit late for that don’t you think?!”

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Quote For The Day

    “A request you say?”

    “Yes sir. That's all, he asked me to play the Farandole from L'Arlesienne suite.”

    “What else?”

    “I don't understand sir.”

    “What else did he say?”

    “Nothing sir.”

    “Nothing! Number Six just asked you to play a tune... and then walked away.”

    “Did he sir? I didn't notice.”

    “Does that make any sense to you?”

    “No sir.”

    “No, it doesn't, does it. I'll ask you once again... did Number Six say anything else.... about me for example?”

    “About you sir?”

    “Well did he?”

    “No sir.”

    “Perhaps you've forgotten. Try to remember!”

    “He didn't sir.”

    “You're lying aren't you? There's something going on!”

    “I don't know what you mean sir.”

    “I don't know what you mean sir. I'm as much in the dark as you are. You're all lying! Its a plot! Going behind my back. Who do they think they're dealing with? Pigmies!”

                        {Number 2 and Number 202 - Hammer Into Anvil}

       Number 2 has leader of the Brass Band into his office in order to interrogate him about Number 6. But as usual he was barking up the wrong tree, all Number 6 did was ask the band leader to play the Farandole from the L’arlesienne suite. But Number 2 didn’t believe him, he was sure Number 6 had said something else to him, but of course he hadn’t. Number 202 was merely unwittingly used in one of Number 6’s little jamming activities against Number 2, and he fell for it! But in the end Number 2 did finally realize that the Band leader didn’t know what Number 2 was talking about and let him go. This Number 2 doesn’t appear to have a very high opinion of the citizens!

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60 Second Interview With No.2

    “Good morning Number Two, we hope we haven’t caught you at a bad time.”
    “Pushed for time perhaps.”
    “Isn’t it always the way!”
    “Look I’m expecting someone for breakfast in a few minutes, what can I do for you?”
    “I am Number One-one-three, and this is my photographic colleague Number One-One-three b, we contribute to The Tally Ho. We haven’t had anyone of your calibre in The Village before.”

    “Smile” click goes the camera.
    “He took my photograph!”
    “Yes he does that. But don’t worry you won’t appear in The Tally Ho.”
    “No?”
    “Well not unless you have a photograph of yourself in mufti.”
    “You mean civilian clothes.”
    “Yes, that’s what I said.”

    “Well as it happens I do have a photograph of myself, is this any good?”
    “Perfect. Just a minute, this photograph it reminds me of someone, I mean you remind me of someone.”
    “Really, who might that be?”
    “Colonel Ross!”

    “Colonel Ross?
    “Of British Intelligence.”
    “And what do you know about British Intelligence?”
    “I saw the IPCRESS file once.”
    “Really, how very boring!”
    “I’m surprised that technique hasn’t been employed here.”
    “Really.”
    “So how did you end up here Colonel Ross?”
    “Never you mind.”
    “A Colonel as Number 2, we’ve never had a Colonel before. We had an Admiral in charge for a time but that didn’t work out.”
    “Perhaps he didn’t know how to play the game.”
    “Oh he does, but now chess is his game. Well we’re all pawns aren’t we?”
    “I’ve never met anyone as insolent as you, unless it’s Palmer!”
    “Is that who you are expecting now Colonel, Palmer?”
    “Sergeant Harry Palmer…….”
    “A sergeant eh, we’ve never had a non-commissioned officer here

before, but then we do get all sorts here. Never know who you’ll meet next.”
    “Well if that’s all…………..”
    “Alight Colonel……I mean Number Two, keep your hair on. No doubt you’ll be giving Palmer the full guided tour.”
    “Oh it will be my pleasure to give Palmer the full works. He’ll be made very welcome!”

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Exhibition of Arts And Crafts

                              Of A Mind!

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