The Village!

    “I’m glad you came to see me Colonel.”
    “It was made perfectly plain to me, that I had no choice in the matter General.”
    “Really, well no matter, you’re here now. Do sit down.”
    “Why am I here.”
    “Why am I here......sir.”
    “Why am I here General.”
    “The war is over.”
    “Yes General.”
    “No, it’s not, the war rages on, but its turned cold. There’s a Russian winter on the way, and we’re not prepared for it!”
    “Best dress up warm then.”
    “There’s no point being flippant, that does no good, and does you no credit Colonel.”
    “So why am I here?”
    “There are a large number of undesirables in Britain, did you know that Colonel?”
    “Russians?”
    “I don’t believe I said Russians did I Colonel?”
    “No General.”
    The door opens and a middle aged woman wearing a pinafore enters carrying a tray.
    “Ah, good, tea.”
    The woman places the tray on the desk and makes to leave the office.
    “Just a minute!”
    The woman stops and turns “What is it now?”
    “Where are the biscuits?”
    “There are no biscuits.”
    “We had biscuits yesterday.”
    “Yes and the day before that, that’s why there are no biscuits today!”
    The woman leaves the office closing the door behind her.
    “Tea Colonel?”
    A few moments were spent pouring out the tea, before the current business was resumed.
    “So what are we to do with these undesirables?”
    “Deport them? Send them back where they came from.”
    “Oh no” said the General stirring his tea “We cannot possibly let that happen. You never know who we would be getting rid of, and possible secrets in the process. But I have the solution.”
    “Good” the Colonel said finishing his tea.
    “You are going to deal with them.”
    “I am?”
    “You will take up office in Whitehall where you will become head of your department within British Intelligence. But don’t worry no-one will bother you, I’ll see to that. Your task will be to gather information. It doesn’t matter who has what information, it will not matter which side they are on. You will extract all information.”
   “I will?”
   “Well not personally, you will have specialists in your department. But first all undesirables will be gathered up, and sent to The Village.”
    “The Village?”
    “The sole purpose will be to confine, contain, and gather information. Information which will either be extracted or protected, depending on who has it.”
    The General dropped a file on the desk, the Colonel glanced at the heading “The Village,” he picked up the file.
    “It’s Italianate.”
    “A mixture of architecture certainly.”
    “And its location?”
    “It’s in the file, but it’s not on British soil.”
    The Colonel closed the file and placed it in his briefcase.
    “This is the last time we shall meet Colonel. Sir Charles Portland will be your future point of contact.”
    “Sir Charles?”
    “You have a problem with that?”
    “No General.”
    “Oh by the way, we might well end up sending people of our own to The Village.”
    “In other words no-one is immune.”
    “The Village may well end up as a self-contained unit of society, self contained, self-sufficient, and independent of the homeland.”
    “We used to exile prisoners to penal colonies.”
    “In less civilized times yes, now they’ll exiled to The Village, which is basically the same thing!”
    The Village is a place where people have been turning up for a very long time.

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A Man Who Feels Happier As Himself!

   This is the Colonel but with the mind of ZM73. He might not act the part but at least he looks it, dressed in those clothes. However he doesn’t stay dressed like that for long. He changes into flannel trousers, a double breasted blazer, shirt and tie, as he was on the day of the Colonel’s arrival in The Village. Strange ZM73 should do this, not that I’m suggesting that he always went about dressed in a charcoal grey suit and black polo shirt.

   But now he’s dressed more like the Colonel, and less recognizable as  ZM73, or perhaps it was a question of Nigel Stock feeling happier as himself rather than Patrick McGoohan!

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Quote For The Day

   “Is your Number Six?”
    “Yes.”
                      {The telephone operator and the Prisoner – Arrival}

    “Is your number Six?” I’ve always thought that a clever ruse, I mean the telephone operator knew exactly which number she was calling, and a neat way of getting the Prisoner to acknowledge his number for the first time. Well that’s the way I like to look at the scene. Although there is a more mundane way of looking at it, and which is in all likelihood the right way, is that when the Prisoner is asked by the telephone operator “Is your number 6?” he glanced down and looked at the number on the telephone dial, it was six, so what else was he bound to say except “Yes.” Especially having seen the number of his cottage on the sign post outside, ‘6 Private,’ so he naturally thought 6 was the number of the cottage he was in, and not as his personal number. Because at that time he didn’t know that everyone in The Village was known by a number and not a name!

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Caught On Camera!

   Touché! When Number 6 presented the Rook with an aerial for the radio transmitter the Rook asked him where he got it. He told him he’d broken the aerial off one of the taxis. Had he, because Mini-Mokes aren’t generally fitted with aerials let alone radios. So where did Number 6 really get that aerial? However he did break it off one of the taxis just as he said. Pictorial study has proved that The Village taxis were fitted with aerials, if not with radios. In both ‘Arrival’ and ‘Checkmate’ an aerial is attached to the off-side mudguard which would be right. However the Mini-Moke driven by the white Queen-Number 8 has its aerial attached to the off-side of the bonnet just behind the clip that secures the bonnet. This looks very suspicious, and is a possible indication that the actual aerials are fitted simply for aesthetic reasons, also so that Number 6 could break an aerial off one of the taxis in Checkmate. This is backed up by the fact that the Mini-Moke HLT 709C, which was only used for filming in ‘Living In Harmony,’ has no aerial! And let us not forget, radio receivers are not permitted in The Village, it’s against the rules!

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Given A Voice Over?

   It is the case that a number of actors playing the role of Number 2 were given a voice over by Robert Rietty during the opening sequence. This was simply to save time filming each actor in same opening scene. However that excuse cannot be used in the case of Christopher Benjamin having been given a voice over, when assistant to Number 2 during ‘The Chimes of Big Ben,’ as this was not the case in his role as the Labour Exchange Manager in ‘Arrival.’

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Village Life!

    “What are you doing here?”
    “I might ask you the same thing.”
    “We’re the beach patrol.”
    “The beach patrol?”
    “Yes, it’s our job to make sure the beach is safe.”
    “Safe from what? I had no idea it was in danger.”
    “You trying to be funny?”
    “Obviously not.”
    “What were you doing lurking about in the sand dunes?”
    “Mmmmm, my badge, it came off and I was looking for it in the sand.”
    “Really, that could be dangerous. Someone might come walking along and prick themselves in the foot by the pin of the badge you dropped.”
    “Yeah, we don’t like people dropping litter on the beach.”
    “Oh your mate.......”
    “What about him?”
    “……….He does speak then!”
   “Look mister we don’t like silly beggars lurking about on the beach, especially in the dunes, they might be up to no good.”
   “I’m not neither silly or a beggar!”
   “Oh get in the Moke.”
   “Why?”
   “We’ll give you a ride home.”
   “You don’t know where I live.”
   “The Village should be close enough, you can walk from there.”
   “Thanks very much!”
   “Think yourself lucky we’re taking you that far.”
   “Yeah, we’re not a blooming taxi service you know.”
   “What about the Professor?”
   “Up the Professor that’s what I say.”
   “I couldn’t agree more!”
   “Here what’s your game?”
   “Chess what’s yours?!”
   “A pint, we’ll call in at the Cat and Mouse on the way home!”

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Prisoneresque

Cape Wrath

   Welcome to Cape Wrath…. a psychological thriller set in a 21^st century suburban paradise, and called the Prisoner of its day. Underneath the pleasant façade lies such a rich seam of unsettling secrets where everyone has something to hide. On the run from the past, the Brogan family are sent to Meadowlands to create a new life as part of a protective custody programme, and arrive blindfolded. But as they get to know their neighbours and settle into this mysterious world they begin to realize that everything is not what it seems.
    The 2007 television series ‘Cape Wrath’ can be described as being Prisoneresque, indeed at the time it was considered to be ‘the Prisoner’ of its day, even if less subtle in its brutality and sexual content. But it is more comparable to the second series of THEPRIS6NER-2009 rather then the first. Cape Wrath at the time was described as being a cross between ‘the Prisoner’ and ‘Twin Peaks.’
   Meadowlands can be described as a typical New England town, and rather like The Village. Everyone is there for life, no-one is allowed to leave, and there is no escape. When Evelyn Brogan and her daughter Zoe decide to go shopping in the nearest town they call in at the local petrol station. There was no membranic Guardian to stop them from leaving Meadowlands, no supervisor to issue a yellow alert, no warning to Post Fourteen of the prisoners approaching the outer zone in their vehicle. But there was an out post of a kind, in the form of a petrol station. As Mrs. Brogan was paying for her petrol, a young girl Kerry, approached her daughter Zoe pretending to be a friend of hers, and using her real name Nicky Foy. Kerry upset Zoe so much, that Evelyn Brogan turned the car around and drove her daughter home. Thus effectively having stopped the pair from leaving Meadowlands! Later when Danny Brogan goes to call on Samantha at the Motel, Kerry emerges out of room 111 telling Mark she cannot permit access without scheduling an appointment. Then Samantha comes out of the room. Danny complains to Samantha about the local Police detective knowing all about him. Samantha tells him he’s safe, that Meadowlands is the safest place on Earth. Why is it so safe? Meadowlands is controlled from room 111 in the Motel which is actually the administration building. There is a large wall screen showing Meadowlands and the surrounding area. As for Samantha she is a cross between No.2 and a Supervisor. For a “midnight football match” Danny Grogan is given the number 6 yellow tabard, an in-joke perhaps?

   The thing about Meadowlands is everyone there is there as part of the protective custody programme, for their own protection, and everyone has their secrets, secrets they would prefer no-one else to know. The good people of Meadowlands may have been given completely new identities but no-one can change what is in their minds, they are still the same people they were before being taken to Meadowlands. A sexual predator, Jack Donnelly, is always a sexual predator, well he is until he’s battered and strangled to death, and buried in a muddy hole by Danny Grogan and his cross-dressing son Mark! After that the local police detective, Bernard Wintersgill, starts asking questions about the whereabouts of Jack Donnelly, there follows an investigation. But Samantha tells Wintersgill that it really isn’t his problem, at least she admits there’s a problem, but as she sees it as a number of curious incidents do not mean Wintersgill can conduct a full police inquiry. He’s to go back and just carry on with his job, which is to police Meadowlands and whatever curious incidents it happens to throw his way! As Samantha tells Wintersgill, no-one leaves Meadowlands, which to Wintersgill means Jack Donnelly is still there…somewhere, and he means to find the body and prove that Danny Grogan is the murderer, and will go to any lengths in order to prove it.
   As a soap opera ‘Cape Wrath’ continues in this vein, with murderous intrigue, infidelity, family life, lies, deceit, loves, hates, friendships, relationships just the content of everyday life in which people deal with everyday problems. But eventually Brogan’s brutal murder of Jack Donnely is brought to light, to the attention of Samantha, who even has photographs taken by Freddie, a young man who works for Samantha, whose remit is to see new residents settle in, but who misused his skills. What he did to Danny Grogan was to turn him into a murderer by using an auto suggestion technique, associating something which Danny knew to be true, Jack’s death, with something he wanted Danny to forget….Cape Wrath! Danny wants to know what it is he and his family have been brought to.
   Back in London to Samantha’s masters Cape Wrath appears to be a white elephant, it would appear that Samantha’s accelerated process seems to be an unequivocal failure, and yet she confirms to her masters that her father’s theories do work!
   Danny has a plan to escape Meadowlands, and stocks up with petrol bought at the local petrol station. Watched by the petrol attendant he is allowed to fill up his car, but when he attempts to fill a petrol can the fuel to the pump is cut off! He doesn’t know what’s real anymore, who’s trying to get inside his head! So to fool Samantha he appears to be happy and settled, too happy and too settled, and that makes Samantha suspicious, as people in Meadowlands are under as much surveillance as those citizens in The Village! But Danny’s family do not want to leave Meadowlands, they want to stay, Evelyn thinks Danny is being paranoid, that everyone in Meadowlands are against them, against him! He has money, food, and petrol, and organizes a party to which he has invited everyone, this will be his only chance to get out of Meadowlands, and his wife and two children are going with him! But Mark Brogan tells his sister Zoe the trouble with Meadowlands is, the more you struggle the more you get tangled up.
   What was it Danny Grogan said with great optimism on the day of his family’s arrival “A new house, a new life, new us.” That would be all very well, if it wasn’t for that fact that no matter where we go, we take our problems with us! And that is another parallel between ‘Cape Wrath’ and THEPRIS6NER, both places are filled with broken people!
   So Danny Brogan leaves his family behind and drives as fast as he can away from Meadowlands and out into the countryside {as No.6 does in Many Happy Returns} trying the radio to pick up any broadcasting radio station, there’s nothing but radio static. Then eyes wide open Danny stops the car, gets out, climbs to the top of a rocky hill and stands there looking out over a desolate landscape of hills, mountains and desert, a wasteland with nothing for thousands of miles in all directions, and in the middle….. the fertile oasis of Meadowlands!

           This final scene is similar to a scene in THEPRIS6NER, when in ‘Arrival’ Six first drives out into the mountains and the desert stretches for thousands of miles in all directions!

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