BCNU
Wednesday, 2 November 2011
The Therapy Zone
The Man Behind The Bars
Alexis Kanner soon got into the party mood by attempting a demonstration as how to ride a penny farthing, with added stabiliser wheels set either side of the farthing wheel. Unfortunately at the first attempt he unceremoniously fell off, only avoiding injury when Patrick McGoohan and an aide, who came to his assistance and caught him.
First Patrick McGoohan was dressed in his Cossack garb which he wore for the "Kosho" matches of Hammer Into Anvil and Its Your Funeral, topped with a black Russian hat when the 39 year old star of the Prisoner, finally held court from within the cage used in the episode of Once Upon A Time. Later he was dressed in his Wild West outfit of Living In Harmony, confusing the journalists as he clutched a copy of the Living In Harmony, along with a packet of Senior Service cigarettes in his left bandaged hand. The left hand which was grazed by one of the Kids bullets in the episode, this ready for more much needed filming of Living In Harmony that afternoon.
The event was held in one of the sound stages at MGM Studios, and the 'set' into which the journalists were ushered had been specially created by Prisoner Art Director Jack Shampan. He was always able to design the most startling and impressive settings from the leftovers of other productions, thus minimising the time spent in construction and reducing the volume of scratch-built scenery required.
Of course the cage from Once Upon A time was the most dominant feature, but centre stage was the black spherical chair from No.2's office in the middle of a circle of table upon which was set the buffet lunch. McGoohan spent much of his time inside the cage along with Angelo Muscat in his butler attire. McGoohan also spent time actually serving the gathered journalists their buffet lunch!
Journalist Anthony Davis asked of McGoohan "Why are you dressed like this?" and "What's it all about?" to which McGoohan did not respond, but instead turned the tables immediately by asking "What did you think of the show?” "How did you enjoy it?” “What did you make of that ball?" “What did you think it was supposed to be made of? "What do you think its role is?" Did the old bicycle mean anything to you?" “What do you think the role of the old bicycle is?" Such was McGoohan's style of answering questions with questions of his own, which only added to the already confused journalists.
But it was all in keeping with the Prisoner series, in the way that it created more questions than it answered, and possibly that of McGoohan himself at the time, who wasn't answering any questions put to him, but asking those questions of his own!
In doing this McGoohan successfully involved the members of the press, although they did not immediately realise it, in the first discussions on the meanings behind his enigmatic allegory.
Patrick McGoohan did emerge from his cage, the bars of which separated him from the journalists and at the same time acting as a barrier. Many photographs had been taken of Patrick McGoohan depicted him with some form of barrier between himself and and his interrogators, either the spokes of the penny wheel of the Penny Farthing bicycle, the bars of the embryo room cage of Once Upon A Time.
Patrick McGoohan dominated the press conference, and after he had left things soon began to wind down, with the few journalists who were left, wanting to see some of the sets in neighbouring sound stages and to chat with some of the crew.
Never before, nor since I should imagine, has the media been given such a challenge to follow. The Prisoner is the most extraordinary series, a series which was equally matched by its extraordinary publicity as Patrick McGoohan made sure of. In the way he put the conference together, of his handling of the media during and after the launch day was a gauntlet few were able to both grasp and convey on par to their readers. They had been presented with something most unusual, a challenge the media rarely knows how to handle. Treated with distaste and decisiveness as a trivial distraction. Little did they know, at the time, the following the series would achieve.
BCNU
Tuesday, 1 November 2011
THEPRIS6NER
"Sir, You Play A Fine Game"
Now why should No.14, the Chess Champion and reputed ex-Count, say to No.6 "Sir, you play a fine game" at the end of the human chess match in Checkmate? Surely it can have nothing to do with the move No.6 made on the chessboard - No.6 was a chesspiece, the white Queens pawn on the board, not a player. No, I should think that No.14 is referring to the "game" No.6 plays against No.2 and the general authority of the Village, in refusing to accept and take orders easily.
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Heroes And Villains
Nadia Rakovsky is an agent working for the Village, or at least the administration behind the Village. But I don't think the Village was anything that she had been lead to expect, especially when it came to that white membranic mass of the Village Guardian. And she must have been taking her life into her hands when it came to that electrified floor in the Interrogation Room, trusting in No.2 to have the electric current turned off in time.
Nadia is good at her job, she hooked No.6 and reeled him in with the promise that she knows the location of the Village, thus giving No.6 hope for escape.
She pretended to like No.6, even to seem to becoming romantically involved with him. But in the end, Nadia is cold and unfeeling towards No.6.
Nadia is a plant in the Village. We cannot believe one single word she says, she is probably not even an Estonian! Well she might be, she might also be working for the British Government, depending on which side runs the Village of course. One thing is certain, Nadia did not give away the location for the Village, as it's not behind the Iron Cutain in Lithuania. I told you you can't believe a word she says! BCNU
Caught On Camera
One can imagine 'B's next line "Oh Patrick You've split your trousers!" Well Annette Carrell could not but help observe this occurrance, and then they'd probably have a laugh about it, the actors and crew.
Be seeing you
The Therapy Zone
The Individual Against Society
"You are a member of the village.
You are a unit of society." - No.2 to No.6 Once Upon A Time
"No!" the Prisoner shouts in response.
Well isn't that what No.6 is, what he stands for, an individual against society? No.2 of the Chimes of Big Ben sees No.6 as being a model, but who doesn't run on clockwork as No.6 is quick to inform him. No.2 of Dance of the Dead sees individuals as trying, but that they must not spoil him!
If the village is a complete unit of our own society, then No.6's revolt against and unacceptance of the village is that of our own society. No.6 refuses to conform to the ways of the village and apparently society, which demands conformity of its citizens. If No.6 is the ultimate individual, then in turn the village must be the ultimate society, but society must live, so too must the individual. If No.6 were to rid the world of the society he is supposed to be rebelling against, what then? Perhaps No.6 has a better system of society to replace that which he seems so willing to destroy, somehow I rather doubt it. And after destroying the society he struggles against so much and with so much vigour, would not he himself cease to exist? During the Dance of the Dead No.6 is put on trial for breaching the Rules, rules without which society would be reduced to anarchy, the idea of which seems to appeal to the Prisoner "Here here" he responds.
There are those who see No.6 as a hero, a role model, an individual against society and the system, someone to emulate. But is there not a danger with putting No.6 on a pedestal, to see him as a "superman", a man who, as the President during Fall Out puts it "A man magnificently equipped to lead us". But they fail to get the message, No.6 makes his final rejection, the offer of ultimate power and so the struggle goes on. Because a true rebel cannot ever accept or settle for anything. His rebellion must go on eternally.
Whilst on the other side of the coin there are those who see No.6 as being nothing more than an agitator, "A trouble maker" as No.14 of Hammer Into Anvil once described him. Someone who is always poking his nose in where it does not belong, stopping this, causing that. Himself sometimes deciding what is good for the citizens of the community and what is not, a dictator in fact!
But the Prisoner was never a rebel against society, only against the village in which he had been confined. Well who would not rebel given his situation? But he never rebelled against the society in which he lived, he accepted. He had a high level, secret and confidential job, he had a fine Georgian house, and was engaged to Janet Portland, daughter of Sir Charles Portland in Do Not Forsake Me Oh My Darling. All the Prisoner did was to resign from his job, "If people cannot give up a job things have come to a pretty pass" as No.2 once put it. But then it all depends on the kind of job in the first place as we have witnessed with the Prisoner. and that is all the Prisoner did, resign, no rebellion against society outside of the village. The Prisoner was part of society, he accepted it, was settled, only in the kind of work he did, did the Prisoner finally become unsettled, and how many of us can say that? I once resigned, but was never gassed and abducted to any village, nor was I rebelling against society, just against the kind of work I was doing. Now I'm sat here writing this, amongst other things.
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