The Schizoid Man

    Two Number 6’s in The Village, one was bad enough, now there’s another one and he seems a better 6 than the original, and far more relaxed and self-assured. I thought Alison-Number 24 looked to be a little nervous after that mind reading incident in Number 2’s office. Almost as though she didn’t want to identify the false Number 6 as the real one, when any fool could see he wasn’t!
   It was most fortunate for Number 6, that accident with the soda siphon. If Alison hadn’t knocked it over bruising his fingernail, without which the plan might well have succeeded. Number 6 is often in lucks way!
   I wonder how Number 24 wormed her way in with Number 6? Perhaps she like Monique went looking for his help, but why Number 6 should feel he had to help Alison with her mind reading act I’ve really no idea. And there’s no-way of knowing, whether she went to seek Number 6’s help voluntarily, or whether she was sent there by Number 2 as part of the master plan. But one thing is true, Number 6 and Alison genuinely shared a mental link, that couldn’t be faked. Although having said that they gave it a damned good try when it came to her and Curtis!

Be seeing you

Forthcoming Book - The Prisoner D***** D****

    Have you ever wondered what the inspiration was for the trial scene in ‘Fall Out’?

    50 years of ‘the Prisoner,’ and the origin of The Village salute, is finally realized!

   Then there is the Prisoner’s connection to ‘Danger Man’!

   And the Hope and Anchor, a pub which Number 6 used to drink at is located!

   Also find out what happened when I asked WHY? The answer to this much, much more can be found in an exciting new book on the subject of ‘the Prisoner’

    This is not another handbook about the series

   

    Not an extended episode guide

   This book is unique because of the new information and detail it will contain. Giving a new and fresh outlook to ‘the Prisoner’ series, with a dash of realism sprinkled amongst its pages.

      Enthusiasts for ‘the Prisoner’ have been waiting a long, long time for the emergence of this book. I am highly delighted to be able to write that the wait will soon be over. An official press release from my publisher will appear on my blog closer to the time of publishing. But in the meantime look out for further intimations.

                               David Stimpson

Quote For The Day

     “Do we know where Seltzman is?”

                {Sir Charles Portland – Do Not Forsake Me Oh My Darling}  

    Its lucky for them that Number 6 is in The Village, otherwise they might be a bit stuck without him, seeing as he was the last to have contact with Doctor Seltzman. It was a year ago since Number 6’s abduction to The Village. It was a year ago when he attended the last fitting of Janet’s yellow silk dress. It was about a year ago when ZM73 wrote to Seltzman in Scotland, and in keeping that location to himself, not divesting it to anyone, was ZM73 protecting Doctor Seltzman from even his own people? Was Seltzman part of the reason why he resigned? Perhaps its all too coincidental.

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The Trivia!

    There are lines from ‘Arrival’ which are repeated during ‘Free For All,’ “I am not a number, I am a person” and the classic line “I am not a number, I am a free man”. The fact that this line is repeated so often in the series does perhaps reinforce the message. As a matter of fact, it was once stated that if Patrick McGoohan hadn’t been allowed to say that particular line, he probably wouldn’t have done the series at all! And if you believe that, you’ll believe anything!!

    In ‘Many Happy Returns’ having been washed up on the shore at Beachy Head and having scaled the white chalky cliffs, Number 6 follows a gipsy out walking his whippet to a gipsy camp site. There he asks the young gipsy woman “Where is this place?”

    It has been said that these first words Number 6 speaks, not “Where am I?” but “Where is this place?” are quite revealing in his personality. He knows where he is, just like he knows who he is. Well of course Number 6 knows where he is, he must have recognised the lighthouse at Beachy Head and the white chalky cliffs all along the coast. He knows he is back in England and so “Where is this place?” refers to the gipsy camp. When the Prisoner utters those immortal words “Where am I?” it is because he is disorientated having just woken up in what he thought to be his own home. But then looking out of the window he finds he isn’t home at all, hence “Where am I?”

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Caught On Camera!

    Why isn’t Number 6 wearing a straw boater? It seems that all the male chess pieces are wearing straw boaters. Mind you 6 only ever wore a straw boater twice. Once was for a few moments as he was being discharged from the hospital on the day after his arrival. He tossed it into the back of the taxi and was seen never to wear it again. On the second occasion was on his graduation day.......as it was played out in the Embryo Room. Perhaps Number 6 simply isn’t a hat man. The straw boater is also known as a New York Skimmer.

Be seeing you

Many Happy Returns

    Many Happy Returns, not for Number 6 it wasn’t, or was it? Because for a man who was so desperate to escape The Village when he woke one morning to find the place deserted, it was almost as though he couldn’t return there quick enough! Did he really have to go back to locate The Village, surely he could have left it to the Royal Air Force, and other such professionals. But as we see he had to do it himself, perhaps he only trusted the task to himself. Perhaps not thinking for one moment that he was putting his head back in the lion’s mouth! It did strike me that perhaps there might not have been the necessity to change the Group Captain with the Milkman, if the Group Captain had been working for The Village. Think of it, the Group Captain as pilot of the Gloster Meteor Jet, and having refuelled at Gibraltar the two set about commencing the search for The Village. Suddenly there, that could be it, go closer, there is it, we’ve found it. The pilot raises the visor of his helmet and looks back over his shoulder as his hand reaches for the yellow and black striped ejector seat leaver. “Be seeing you” the Group Captain greets his navigator and pulls hard on the leaver ejecting Number 6 out of the aircraft. I think that way would have had a bigger impact on the viewer than the original scene. What think you?

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A Favourite Scene In Chimes of Big Ben

   Number 6 has discovered that it’s all been a set up, right from the moment he met with Number 8 back in The Village. Oh but of course they are in The Village, they hardly left it really! Anyway, Number 6 leaves the office he thought he knew very well in London, but he’s been in The Village all the time during that 12 hour journey. And there they are, apparently conspiring with each other, Fotheringay and Number 2.
    “Well done Fotheringay. Well you’d better get back to London before any embarrassing questions are asked.”
    “What’s my next assignment?”
    “The Colonel will give you your orders when he returns.”
    He’s keen that Fotheringay asking about his next assignment. Well done Fotheringay. He was only there to help dress the scene, had he not been there Number 6 may well have smelt a rat! As it is he felt nothing at having betrayed an ex-colleague, but at least Number 6 now knows where he stands. He’s all alone and can no longer trust anyone, in The Village or otherwise. As for the Colonel, did he actually return to London? After all by the time of ‘Many Happy Returns’ there’s a new Colonel been installed, and Fotheringay has gone, replaced by Thorpe. Perhaps Fotheringay didn’t get back to London soon enough to stop those embarrassing questions from being asked!

Be seeing you