Caught On Camera!

    Rover eggs!

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Quote For The Day

    “I didn’t think it would be like this.”
                            {Nadia – The Chimes of Big Ben}

    Whatever did she think it would be like, a Russian Gulag? The Village gives the appearance of a holiday resort, where people seem to be enjoying themselves. But that is surely on the surface. The Village is a place of pain and torment for the.....well how many of each would you say? What would be the ratio between guardians and prisoners do you think, more guardians than prisoners, or roughly the same? Or perhaps more prisoners than guardians, after all the first people in the Village, those who manually built the Village with their own hands were no doubt building their own prison, although they probably didn’t know that at the time!

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MindGames!

    The Village is a place where people turn up, well they don’t just turn up, they arrive there having been abducted from all kinds of places and situations. People who know too much, well that would be right, or too little, well that would be Number 42 better known as Roland Walter Dutton. That’s a bit of a mouthful isn’t it? Roland Walter Dutton, I mean why not simply Roland Dutton, after all how many people actually use their middle name? So why was Dutton brought to The Village if he didn’t have access to the “vital stuff,” don’t tell me he’s another who chucked in his job! Generally people are taken to the Village who cannot be left to roam free at large, the knowledge inside their heads being of great value to one side or another, knowledge which is to be either protected or extracted, depending on whose side you are on. So there’s no danger of just anyone being abducted to the Village, not ordinary Joe public. Ordinary run of the mill people are not important enough, not even if they have resigned their job, they end up at the Labour Exchange, or the Job Centre as it’s now called. That’s where they want to know all about you, and you walk out having been pushed, filed, stamped, indexed, briefed, debriefed and numbered! But they don’t make you wear a badge, nor do they give you a new set of clothes having burned your old ones. Mind you not everyone was forced to wear a badge in the Village, just ask the Butler. And prisoners own clothes were not taken away and burned because some people, the fortunate ones, were allowed to wear their own clothes. Not that the Professor and his wife ever went out into the Village much, if at all, they were not allowed to. Mind you the Professor did manage to break out of the house, escaping through the Village and down onto the beach. I wonder how he managed to get out from under the nose of his ever caring doctor? Perhaps he had help from Madam Professor. Having made a wax model of her husband’s head she laid it on the pillow of the Professor’s bed in order to fool, the doctor. Later it was used to fool Number 6!

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Who Is That On The Telephono?

    New No.2 “Number Two here, I'm on red by the way.”

    Ex-No.2 “Red, yes I’m on red.”

    “Where are you?”

    “I'm in the helicopter!”
    “Yes I know, what are you doing?”
    “About a hundred miles an hour! Did everything go according to plan?”

    “Don't worry.”

    “I'm not, I've done my bit!”

    “All will be satisfactory in the end. Give my regards to the homeland.”

    “He's a tricky customer you know.”

    “Yes, but we didn't damage the tissue, we just bruised it a bit! You attacked the pilot.”
    “Yes.”
    “Why did you do that?”
    “He wouldn’t fly me out of the Village!”
    “You have to come back you know.”
    “Not likely!”

    “Then you force my hand.”
    A few moments later the ex-No.2 struggles with the joystick as the helicopter makes a right-hand turn back towards the Village. The speed of the helicopter reduces as the Village gets closer, the ex-No.2 is now frantic, pulling on the joystick is useless as the controls have been taken over, the helicopter being flown by remote control. The helicopter makes its approach to land on the triangular lawn by the sea wall. He can see the white Mini-Moke and the Red Cross trailer, and the figure of the new No.2 waiting to receive him……..

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Village Life!

     “Who is that getting out of the taxi with Number Two?”
     “That’s the new Number Six.”
     “Oh.”
     “Acquisitions have had the very devil of a time with his cottage, with the fixtures and fittings, not to mention the furniture, personal possessions, knickknacks and the like.”

     “You should have brought them to The Village from his house in London.”
     “We thought of that, but Number Two said it was a waste of time and manpower, as one day they might have to be taken back. So what we couldn’t purchase we’ve had to replicate right down to the last detail.”

     “Why’s that then?”
    “Apparently he has a strong sense of possessions, so everything has to be just right, exactly the same in fact.”
    “And his cottage?”
    “The only spare building has been the round house, so we had to adapt it accordingly, everything on the ground floor.”
    “But isn’t it supposed to be a home from home, exact to the original?”

    “Well yes, that’s what they say, but the only part which could be described as being a home from home is the study. And that back wall, we had to lose that once the new occupant had become accustomed to his new surroundings. And that’s another thing, the interior of the cottage had to be completely gutted after the previous occupant had left.”
    “What happened to him?
    “Who Chambers?”
    “Yes, Chambers.”
    “He was released and sent back to London to retake his position in the Foreign Office in order to continue the good work.”
    “I used to work for the Foreign Office, until I was posted here.”
    “I used to work for a firm of Undertakers.”
    “You fitted in straight away as I remember, our uniforms both gye weel for the jobs in hand!”

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MindGames

    They say that the Prisoner plays with the mind, and to some extent that is perfectly true. And yet isn’t it more often the case that we play the mind games with the Prisoner? We think about the series, we theorise, interpret. One day we follow one avenue, a particular train of thought, and arrive at a conclusion. And another time we take another look, and arrive at a completely different conclusion. The Prisoner can be like a maze, and the way to the centre of any maze is to keep turning left whenever you can. But that’s not easy, one gets distracted something interesting turns up and you find yourself turning right, and end up following your nose until you are completely lost, and cannot find your way back. And there are blind alleys, and you have to go back on yourself. And then the moment comes when you finally stagger out where you came in, and have to begin all over again. There’s nothing wrong with the Prisoner apart from the continuity errors, and the slapdash editing. But then those also help make the Prisoner what it is. Even ‘Do Not Forsake Me Oh My Darling’ plays its part, even though aspects of it are somewhat contrived. But there’s always the consolation of the music. No, basically the Prisoner is a fine piece of television art work, its only ‘Fall Out’ that’s the main problem. It’s the odd episode out, its stands by itself without proper relevance to the previous 16 episodes. Number 1 was okay as a man of mystery, but once revealed, well okay Number 6 turned out to be Number 1. However I have come to the notion that it might have been better had Number 1’s identity not been revealed. ‘Fall Out’ seems to make a mockery of what has taken place before. 16 episodes of action and adventure, of mystery and intrigue, we’re dealing with a physical Village, but ‘Fall Out’ deals more with the metaphysical. It gives you James Bond, when perhaps it should be John Drake but then he’s been here before, twice he dealt with a rocket in the series. But that made fans think Number 6 was a rocket scientist! Perhaps Number 2 got it right after all, that 6 was a plant, perhaps Number 34 was a plant, and the prisoner simply means what it is. And that it is we who play mind games with the Prisoner, and not the other way around. For example perhaps Number 6 resigned because he was fed up with working for The Village, and he was brought back there because something had gone wrong with one of their agents. They had to know why he resigned because something must have gone wrong with their indoctrination technique. Perhaps they had never had an agent resign before!

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The Prisoner

    “Do you mind telling me why I am here?”
    “Not at all.”
    “Well?”
     The man sat in a chair, while the other strode about the domed chamber.
    “You have been brought here because you can no longer be trusted.”
    “What do you mean by that?”
    “Have you had breakfast?”
     At that moment the pair of blast proof doors opened and the Butler pushed a breakfast trolley down the ramp and approached the small table which had risen up through a hole in the floor.
    “I don’t want anything to eat.”
     The Butler proceeded to lay out the breakfast. Eggs, bacon, beans, fried bread, tomatoes and sausage. Tea, toast, and marmalade. He then bowed, and pushed the trolley across the floor, up the ramp and out through the opening doors which then slid closed again.
    “You said I can no longer be trusted.”
    “Did I, well it was you who chucked in your job. People in your position cannot be allowed to do that. If everyone behaved like that where would we be?”
    “I had had enough, more than enough.”
     Number 2 occupied himself by pouring himself a cup of tea. He added milk and sugar and stood there looking at the prisoner and stirred his tea.
    “You observed people.”
    “Yes.”
    “You observed people, then had reports made on them. What work they did, where they lived, what they liked to do, what they wanted to be. What they liked to do, read, listing hobbies. Religion, politics and the like.”
    “And you had them brought here.”
    Number 2 sipped his tea “Not me old boy, but someone very like me.”
    “They were brought here.”
    “To the village yes, and now you are here. What went wrong?”
    “How do you mean?”
    “With you, why did you suddenly resign?”
    “I’ve nothing more to say.”
    “You have plenty to say, and will.”
    {Number 2 picked up a yellow ‘L’ shaped intercom.
    “Hospital........doctor Number Two here, I have a patient for you......no he’s not like Number Six, this man is expendable.”
    “I won’t tell you anything, no matter what you do to me.”
    Number 2 replaced the intercom back on his desk.

    “A brave statement, but it takes a brave man to carry it out. Everyone talks on the third day, it’s just remains to see whether or not you last three days.”

    The pair of steel doors opened and two medics walked into the office, down the ramp. One took hold of Number 45 whist the other pulled up a sleeve and injected something into the patient’s upper arm. Number 45 felt the pain of the needle, the dome’s chamber began to spin, and he collapsed onto the floor.

    In a room in the hospital Number 45 woke to find himself strapped onto an operating table. A figure stood over him, a figure in a white coat.

    “You might not believe this, but this is going to hurt me more than it hurts you.”
    The doctor held a syringe, he pushed the plunger and a clear liquid spurted out of the needle, a needle which was inserted into the patient’s right arm.
    “Now we begin. Why did you resign?”
    “Jack and Jill went up the hill to fetch a pale of water.”
    “What?”
    “Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall, Humpty Dumpty had a great fall. All the King’s horses and all the King’s men couldn’t put Humpty together again.”
    “What is this?”
    “He’s resisting doctor” said a nurse.
    “Oh the grand of Duke of York he had ten thousand men, he marched them up to the top of the hill and he marched them down again. Now when they were up they were up they were up, and when they were down they were down, but when they were only half way up someone called out.....where the bloody hell are we?”
    “If drugs won’t make him talk then perhaps pain will be a better persuader.”
    The doctor was an expert in pain, torture, and had a fine hand when conducting medical experiments. Number 45’s screams filled the room, his lasts words were............ “I sold out, I sold the village out. They know, and now they are coming.”
    “Who, who is this who is coming?”
    In Number 2’s office the turquoise ‘L’ shaped intercom bleeped.
    “Number Two here.”
    “Supervisor here sir, there are four small craft coming along the estuary from the sea.”
    “Who are they?”
    “Don’t know sir, haven’t been able to establish contact.”
    “Activate the beam.”
    “Yes sir.”
    “Hell fire.”
    The four black craft manned by Special Forces sped across the water of the estuary, their target the village.

    “This is Savoy six to all boats follow me in and deploy from the slipway.”
    Suddenly one of the boats burst into flames, the men their bodies engulfed in flames dived overboard. Ammunition went off detonated by the flames. A second, third, and finally the fourth boat engulfed in flames voices screamed out in the night until all fell silent.
    The beam was de-activated, the Supervisor picked up the yellow ‘L’ shaped intercom.

    “Get me Number Two..........Supervisor here sir, the four targets and been destroyed.”
    “Thank you, I shall expect a full report on my desk first thing in the morning.”
    “Yes sir. Who were they?”
    “People who had no business here, keep a sharp look out, maintain surveillance. Oh and despatch M.S. Polotska to make sure there were no survivors.”
    “Sir don’t you mean......”
    “I know what I mean. Security of the citizens is our primary objective, remember that.”

   “Yes ………sir!”

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