Welcome To The Village!

    Is he having a laugh? “Welcome to the village sir” Village, Kandersfled is more like a town than a village. And why say Village, why not Welcome to Kandersfeld, after all that’s where they are. Surely the waiter didn’t say “Welcome to the village sir” in order to unsettle ZM73. That would mean the waiter is an agent working for The Village, which would be ridiculous!
   Certainly in having arrived at the café in Kandersfeld there is a parallel with the scene at the café in The Village on the morning of the Prisoner’s arrival in The Village, in that the waitress offered him breakfast. The waiter appears out of the café holding a menu ready to perhaps offer ZM73 breakfast. But that’s natural anyway when you arrive early enough at a café you are expected to eat or drink something, so there’s nothing more to be made out of that.

Be seeing you

The Pri50ner

   For 50 years of ‘the Prisoner I have always thought this agent, who obviously works for The Village, first masquerading as an Undertaker abducting the Prisoner from his London home in the opening sequence. Also during ‘Do Not Forsake Me Oh My Darling’ following in that guise as well as the hearse, the Colonel/ZM73 through the streets of London, to be waiting in Buckingham Place when he arrived home. Then he was acting as a waiter, who we see carrying a tray of champagne glasses at Janet Portland’s birthday party. Then the next day masquerading as “the man in the street” when he follows the Colonel/ZM73 to the photographic shop “World Cameras,” and finally he turns up again in the basement of the barber’s shop in Kanderfield as…… but as what? A Chauffeur? A Private car hire driver? A bus tour driver? A lorry driver? Or a delivery van driver? Mind you he’s still wearing the white shirt and black tie of an Undertaker! I do recall in the 1949 film ‘Passport To Pimlico,’ that a delivery van driver wore the same style of uniform as our friend here.
   It stands to reason that he must have had some form of transport in order to have been able to follow Potter, who was following the Colonel/ZM73 through Europe to Austria and the town of Kandersfeld. Although we do not see Potter being followed by this chap, it also stands to reason that he must have been, seeing as its only ZM73 who knows where to find doctor Seltzman!
   But in all the 50 years of ‘the Prisoner’ I still find this chap’s uniform something of a puzzlement! Somehow I don’t think the producers of this episode ‘Do Not Forsake Me Oh My Darling’ thought it all through properly. There are far too many imponderables! 

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A Favourite Scene - Dance of The Dead

    “You’re late.”
    “There’s a lot to do.”
    “Are you going in?”
    “To make my report.”
   “Does it concern me and Number Six?”
    “No……we’ll over look that, and put it down to enthusiasm.”
    “Oh thank you. Could you get me a directive about Dutton, he’s being rather difficult!”
    Surely the doctor should have used Number 42 instead of Dutton’s name, but then the television viewer wouldn’t have known who he was talking about if he had!

    Well why shouldn’t Number 2 go in, after all it is her room, and no doubt a replica of her own room somewhere at home in another place. The room itself certainly has a feminine touch {which is strange considering its current occupant} and with a French influence stemming from the 18^th century. It does make one wonder if this same room is used as accommodation for all the Number 2’s, after all the Green Dome is hardly Number 2’s residence, merely an office.
   As for this room, which was probably redecorated and refurnished for each new incumbent Number 2, one can only feel for the painters, decorators, and the people responsible for furnishing all the room and cottages in The Village, but perhaps not as frequently as this particular room.
    The room is elegant and yet functional, hence the writing desk and of course the teleprinter through which Number 2 not only sends her reports, but also it seems, receives her instructions. But just a minute, does not Number 2 receive her instructions from Number 1? After all that is whom we assume Number 2 is speaking to on the telephone in that early scene. The teleprinter gives the impression that Number 2 communicates with people somewhere beyond The Village. That being the case why confine that idea simply to the current Number 2? For all we know all Number 2’s may well communicate in the same way with their masters somewhere out there, beyond The Village. And if that is the case, then I do not really see a reason for Number 1 to be anything more than just another prisoner, at this point in the series!

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Quote For The Day!

    “He had no radio of his own {meaning the prisoner} there’s no radio he could have borrowed, so when acquiring one……….”
                                 {Number 240 – Dance of The Dead}

   At times people do say the stupidest things, and this is one such occasion! What on earth was Number 240 talking about, it doesn’t make sense, because there must have been a radio, Number 6 was seen with it! So if the Prisoner had no radio of his own, that there was no radio he could have borrowed as Number 240 believed, where did she think the Prisoner had acquired one from?

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He’s Got A Nerve!

   It’s surprising that when the agent {in the guise of a chauffeur} used his gun in such a confined space as the basement of the Barber’s shop, he wasn’t susceptible to the nerve gas himself. He wore no gas mask, but perhaps he had been inoculated with an antidote before hand.
    However never mind that for now. What about poor old Potter? No I don't mean the one put out in the cold working as a shoeshine boy. But Potter who had been shadowing the Colonel/Prisoner so closely all the way to Kandersfeld in Austria, only to be nerve gassed in the basement of the Barber's shop by the Chauffeur. Well I’ve always thought of this chap as being undercover as a Chauffeur, but come to think of it now, he doesn’t looked dressed to be a Chauffeur. My wife suggested that he looks like someone who works as a tour coach driver! One thing is………he’s still wearing his white shirt and black tie of an undertaker. Or perhaps that should be when he was masquerading as a waiter, who we see carrying a tray of glasses filled with champagne at Janet Portland’s birthday party!
    I've often wondered what happened to that Potter. Might he have been taken to The Village along with the Colonel/Prisoner, and Doctor Seltzman who himself was probably paralyzed in the barber's shop due to the effects of the nerve gas. Or maybe Potter had been left lying paralyzed on the floor of the basement. He wouldn’t be left for dead because the agent only pulled the trigger of the gas gun once, twice would have meant everyone in the basement {apart for the agent himself} would be dead. If Potter had been left behind {he probably soon wished he hadn’t been} eventually he would have a great deal of explaining to do to Sir Charles Portland. After all he'd not only lost the Colonel/Prisoner, but more importantly of all, Doctor Seltzman. Always assuming that the department run by Sir Charles Portland and The Village are two different entities. The only thing you can be sure of in the case of ‘Do Not Forsake Me Oh My Darling’ is that you can be sure of nothing!

I'll be seeing you……………..I'm off to get my shoes shined!

Exhibition of Arts And Crafts

                        “Alien Indoctrination!”

BCNU

My Life Is My Own – Is it?

                                             {Is that really Number 6?}

    On the morning of his arrival in The Village the Prisoner is invited to join Number 2 in the Green Dome for breakfast. But it’s a working breakfast, not that the Prisoner eats his breakfast, and Number 2 has already had his. During the Prisoner’s debriefing Number 2 shows him images of when he was a baby, the photographs in the Prisoner’s personal file are projected onto the wall screen. Suddenly the Prisoner snatches the file out of Number 2’s hands and begins to flick through the file, but back to front, which plays no effect on the pictures projected on the screen. The photographs are of moments in the Prisoner’s life, from the cradle to………… the moment he discovers there is a camera behind the mirror, and over there, yes over there too as someone is keeping him under the closest possible surveillance. In fact those photographs give the impression that the Prisoner has been under surveillance since the day he was born. Either that or somehow Number 2 had been able to get his hands on the Prisoner’s family photo album!
    I know they wanted to know everything about the Prisoner, that Number 2 wanted to bring his file up to date. But really, was there any need to go all the way back to his childhood, even as far back as a baby? Mind you Number 2 did once say of the Prisoner “Even as a child there is something in your brain that is a puzzlement, I intend to discover it. “A” find missing link, when I’ve found it I will refine it and tune it, and you will play our game. “B” put it together. And if I fail, “C” BANG!” So it appears the Prisoner’s current trouble stems from his childhood {as any psychologist might tell him} and the answer is to be found in A B and C once more, even though the extraction of that answer might not be as easy!

Be seeing you