Caught On Camera!

   What do these two think they're looking at? The two people in the top righht-hand corner of the picture looking over the wall. They are not dressed in Village attire, so they cannot be citizens living in the Village. So they must be day visitors to Portmeirion!

Be seeing you

The Power Of The Press by our own reporter

     It has to be said that the press has been accused of manipulation from time to time, manipulation of the news we bring you on a daily basis. And that is true when it comes to the article in which No.6 Speaks His Mind. You will recall the questions put to No.6 by No.113 during the taxi ride to the Town Hall.

No.113 "How are you going to handle your campaign?"

No.6 "No comment!"

No.113 writes "Intends to fight for freedom at all costs. How about your external policy?"

No.6 "No comment."

No.113 writes "Our exports will cover the four corners of the globe. What about your internal policy?"

No.6 "No comment."

"No.113 writes "Will tighten up on village security. Who do you feel about life and death?"

No.6 "Mind your own business!"

No.113 writes "No comment."

   But of course that's not which is written in the article, a story which No.6 has not given to the press, as No.6 Speaks His Mind.

    So this is the manipulative side of the press, by writing and publishing an article which the candidate never said, by putting words in the candidates mouth in fact.

     But the press itself can be manipulated, take the accompanying photograph to this article for example.  The photographer-No.113b, was snapping away all the time through that interview with No.6, "Smile". However I have to ask the question, "Smile", whether or not there was any actual film in his, "Smile" camera. The reason for this, "Smile", is the above photograph, "Smile", "look will you get that bloody camera out of my face!"

    Because really the photograph of No.6 which accompanies the article, should have him wearing a piped blazer, as No.113b was taking the photographs at the time.  

    Yet here he is, No.6 pictured wearing civilian attire, of suit and shirt, and tie.

   So was there actual film in No.113's camera, or was he simply wasting good film? And yes, I did write the above article, by putting words in the candidates mouth, words he never once uttered to me. And I am ashamed of what I did, and I want you to know it has never happened since.

your own reporter

Photographer No.113b

The Therapy Zone

   Why Wychwood? Well basically because whoever it was in "properties" during the production of ‘The Girl Who Was Death,’ who had this sign made up, because it is a made up sign and not at all real. Witchwood has been misspelling of the name of Wychwood, of which there are plenty up and down the counties of England.

    Wychwood, is a deserted village, taken over by the girl as a "killing ground." Once it was  a thriving community, with a family Butcher - Brendan Bull. A Baker - David Dough, and a Candlestick maker by the name of Leonard Snuffit.

   It was most pleasant sitting on the roadside eating my spam sandwiches, a fruit pie, both washed down with a small bottle of beer. But now back to my investigation.

    The village of Wychwood in the county of Hertfordshire, was abandoned some years ago, after talk of a by-pass which has yet to be built, which was to go right through the heart of the village. Indeed in the building of the Blacksmiths there is a bulldozer to be used in the demolition of Wychwood. Something I fear will not prove to be a hard task, as some of the buildings are being supported by huge buttresses. Whilst others have temporary fencing around them in order to keep people out and safe from falling masonry.

   The deserted village of Wychwood actually features twice within two episodes of the Prisoner, ‘The Girl Who Was Death’ of course, but previously in ‘A B & C’ one street of Wychwood doubles for an avenue somewhere in Paris, where No.6 encounters a man of mystery, who prefers to maintain his anonymity as it is always the best disguise for really important people.

   Wychwood is quite like any other village, it even has a bell tower with a green dome. In the past when the bell has been tolled in Wychwood it is not to sound curfew, but is the death knell. The death knell was sounded when a great man of this village was dying. And that is what was supposed to have happened to Mr.X, although he is a born survivor as we are all witness to. So in Mr. X's case the sounding of the death knells is premature!

 The Prisoner

   It was once written that "The Prisoner can never be fully explained. It isn't meant to be. It is what you see in it - and you should be free to see as much as you like."

   Well just as long as what you see isn't simply made up, misinterpreted, or made to look like something else, otherwise what's the point? But if that's your bag, then who am I to tell you differently? And its quite true that the Prisoner can never be fully explained, but if you can come to an understanding of most of the Prisoner, then you are able to sit back and appreciate that which will always be inexplicable within the series, and thereby all the more interesting.

  And what about the sections of the Prisoner which we do not see, that can never be understood, or explained by anyone? I mean the sections between say the end of Arrival and the beginning of ‘The Chimes of Big Ben’ for example. What happened the next day when there was the new No.2 who took part in the Appreciation Day ceremony - how did he treat No.6 the next day? And of course the same can be said of the new No.2 of ‘Free For All,’ was she brought to the village with the remit of extracting the reason for No.6's resignation, or was she to be involved in something else, simple administration work perhaps? If it was the former, then I wouldn't wish to be in No.6's shoes the next day after ‘Free For All!’

   You see, all one has to do is use one's imagination to fill in the gaps to your own satisfaction, and then you can enlarge upon Patrick McGoohan's masterpiece that is the Prisoner.

 Mind Games

   And not playing it according to Hoyle, is probably why this particular No.2 isn't very good at them, playing mind games that is. After all he stood there watching, along with certain members of the hospitals medical staff, and he still didn't spot it....... that Professor Seltzman switched the minds of three people at the same time!

   Well who did know?..... No.6 knew that's who!

 Many Happy Returns

   That photographic evidence of the Prisoner's, I wonder if that photographic evidence was suppressed by the Colonel? Filed away in one of those grey filing cabinets in that long warehouse we see during the opening sequence of ‘the Prisoner.’

Be seeing you

A Favourite Scene in The Prisoner

      "Mopping up operations Number Six?"
    The scene where No.2 brings an operative with a metal detector to '6 Private' in order to make search for the Professor's tape recorder. There seems to be a rapport between No.6 and No.2. Well they have met previously in 'A B and C.' In fact I've only just noticed, but this No.2 appears not as other No.2's, he's a cross dresser!
   Most No.2's wear grey flannel trousers, deck shoes, a grey polo neck jersey, and a double or singe breated plain blazer. This No.2 dresses half and half, the grey polo neck jersey and double breasted blazer. But the blue deck shoes and same coloured trouses as won by the new No.2 in 'Arrival,' and No.6/new No.2 in 'Free For All.'

Be seeing you

Quote For The Day

    "Do you still think you can escape Number Six?"
    "I'm going to do better that that."
    "What?
   "I'm going to escape and come back. Escape, come back, wipe this place off the face of the Earth and you with it!"
                               {No.2 and No.6 - The Chimes of Big Ben}

   Well No.6 was almost as good as his word in keeping two of his promises. In 'Many Happy Returns' No.6 did escape, he did come back to the Village, and it's just as well that the Gloster Metor Jet aircraft was not armed!

Be seeing you

Village Life

    "What I woudn't give for a safety pin right now!"

    "And you needn't look at me like that!"

    "Do you have a safety pin?"

BCNU

What’s That Number 6 Up To?

   The following image has been taken from routine surveillance footage of No.6 peering out through the rhododendron bushes. I can't for one moment think No.6 has turned into some kind of voyeur, libertine, or heaven forbid, a peeping tom!

 

   But whatever he's doing, he's done it before on the morning of his arrival here in the Village, here for example.

 

   And it seems to be quite a habit the Prisoner is developing, because it's not once or twice.

  

   So what's No.6 up to? Well okay, in the first photograph No.6 is following the Rook-No.56, and pops up in the Rhododendrons during Checkmate. In the following three images from Arrival, the Prisoner is skulking in the bushes to avoid that white membranic  Village Guardian, and from being seen as a Village taxi passes by.

   Although "lurking" in and "emerging" from bushes and undergrowth is a habit Pat McGoohan developed during the episodes of his former series 'Danger Man.' At this time photographic evidence of this is unavailable, there are several episodes in which John Drake can be seen lurking in bushes and undergrowth. And then he went on to adopt that technique in scenes for 'the Prisoner.'

Be seeing you!