Collectors Corner!

    This photograph which I shall call ‘A’ taken just as Number 6 is being discharged from the hospital, I, like so many other people purchased this from the Prisoner shop in the late 1980’s. There is nothing remarkable about it. The next photograph is the same but different as you can see.

   This photograph ‘B’ is as I purchased it, I forget where from. It might have been from the Black Cat bookshop in Leicester amid a large quantity of Prisoner material, back in the early 1990’s. Or it might have been from a Memorabilia event at the NEC at Birmingham. Apart from the photograph being the mirror image of the one above, there is another difference. Although the two photographs are the same size, the one below has been taken slightly more to the left, or right if you mirror the photograph!

Be seeing you

I’m Gone Gone Away!

   “You were with us, then you went and gone!”
    He was first the Kid, a mute gunslinger in what could be the first virtual reality experience. This technique devised by Number 8 {the Kid} to be used to break Number 6. Ply the subject with hallucinatory drugs, put him in a dangerous environment, talk to him through microphones. Give him love, take it away and he’ll break if only in his mind. It might have worked before, but it didn’t with Number 6. It was difficult to control the situation, and even Number 8 allowed himself to get carried away with the role playing when he revisited the scene of the crime. Having first strangled Cathy in the Saloon because of his fixation with her, and her rejection of him, this psychotic killer then went and strangled Number 22, under the impression she was Cathy, to death, then took the easy way out and committed suicide!

    He turned up next as the Cockney fashion photographer, “Ere what’s your game Sherlock Holmes? I’ll spread your nose all over your face. I’ll bust you up and down this fairground, you’ll never pick up your teeth with a broken arm. I’ll tear off your leg and beat you over the head. I do not think for one moment that the photographer is Number 8, it’s most likely that Number 6 made up the characters in story of ‘The Girl Who Was Death’ using people with whom he had previous experience, and so exaggerating their characters and putting them in the most eccentric of situations. Well all but one, but to realize that you would have to read my book ‘The Prisoner Dusted Down.’

    However Number 8 could be Number 48, with a 4 in front of the 8, and resuscitated like Number 2. But that’s improbable, yet not impossible however improbable. To my mind Number 48 is nothing more than a contrivance with which to pad out the conclusion to the Prisoner,’ as was forcing the return of “late” Number 2. Just what had Number 48 done to see himself brought to book in ‘Fall Out?’ Why was he brought to the village in the first place? Perhaps he was at one time respectable, but once finding himself in the village he “dropped out.” It is suggested by the President that Number 48 had been “with them” but that he went and gone. Probably meaning he “dropped out,” or died in an act of suicide but then had been resuscitated as previously suggested. Oh there’s no proof of any of this, its mere speculation on my part. The Photographer, Number 8, and Number 48 may well be just as they seem, three entirely different characters. It’s just that if I can, I like to tie characters together if it’s at all possible, and in some cases it is. Does that make it right? No, but it makes for an interesting exercise all the same.

Be seeing you

Tonight THEPRIS6NER - Checkmate

   “He’s the one, Six is the one!”               

   Tonight is the final episode of THEPRIS6NER, the village is expanding "More Village" is 2's new motto. But he still having problems with Six, who seems to choose death, when everyone else in the village chooses life. 2 has belief in the village, and yet the situation has all gone wrong for him and his wife M2.
    Everyone is going happily about their daily business in the village, while Six is dying, and the only way to save himself is to accept the village when Two hands it over to him. 313 is also in trouble as Sarah impinges on 313's life in the village. 313 doesn’t want to leave the village, and accepts 2’s offer, as does Six, but for 313's sake. This leaves Two free to escape the village, in a very dramatic fashion......by exploding hand grenade!

   But before that can happen the Village has to be handed over to Two's successor, and not only the Village, but also Summakor. And it appears that Six is the one, and taking Two's lead 147 leads the people in choosing Six as the One! "We want Six, Six is the One. We want Six, Six is the One. We want Six, Six is the One.' So seeing that there has never been a Number One, perhaps this 6 is the first Number 1!

    Newcomers arrive on a bus. Six asks a woman where they've come from? "We just got off the bus." Six asks where she got on the bus? "The village" the young woman replies. Six informers her that this is the village, they've arrived. "Isn't that just the wildest thing?" The young woman might be excited by the prospect, but her son's expression tells a different story!

 On the purpose Floor of Summakor, a woman {whom Michael recognises as the winking woman} tells Michael a car is waiting for him to take him for his appointment with Mr. Curtis.

    Six is doubled over in pain. He receives a summon to the Clinic, where 313 diagnoses him. “What is it?” six asks a shocked 313.

    Surveying The Village expansion, 2 tells 11-12 he will one day inherit The Village, and that it will stay in the family for generations.

    Six confronts two with his certificate for dying. 2 tells Six that village death offers clarity of choice: This is life, or no life.

    313 continues to be haunted with visions of herself from another life. She wants to find a way to help Six. 2 Tells her there is something she can do, but that she must not let the girl from the Other Place control her.

    At the cemetery, 11-12 places 909’s grave. Six challengers 11-12 to give him the information he needs to get out of the village. 11-12 asserts that his mother cares for him. “Only a mother can destroy every ounce of hope in you,” Six says.

    Six collapses in front of 147, who offers to take Six to someone who may be able to cure him.

    Michael is escorted to Mr. Curtis’s car, where he recognises the driver as the village’s 147. En route, the driver explains how he used to be a very angry person, but Mr. Curtis helped him turn his life around.

    147 takes Six toy a village prophet, and tells Six that deliverance is coming – they just need to wait. Waiting is giving up, says six.

    Six approaches 11-12, who is drinking alone. Six asks him about his mother and the pills. He asks 11-12 to leave the village with him. “The village is best for me,” 11-12 whispers.

    In New York, Michael meets Mr. Curtis and Helen – Two and M2 in the village. Helen is in a dreamlike state. Mr. Curtis explains that the village is an experiment happening in Helen’s mind. She sacrificed herself so that “broken” people could have better lives.

    In Palais 2, 11-12 enters his parent’ bedroom and smothers M2 to death.

    In the Clinic, Two taunts a dying Six with the details of his upcoming funeral. 313 listens from afar.

    2 returns home to discover M2 dead and 11-12 nowhere to be found. 2 and the dogs search the Go Inside Bar, and find 11-12 has hanged himself. 2 carries his son out, and places his body in state.

    Holes begin to open in the village.

    2 visits 147, who he knows can empathise with the pain of losing a child. 2 tells 147 there is something he can do to end the pain, but 147 must help. When the moment arrives he must call out “Six is the one.”

    Mr. Curtis takes Michael into the city and shows him the positive effects the village has had on suffering people. Michael claims Mr. Curtis doesn’t have the right to help people without their consent. Mr. Curtis offers Michael an opportunity to help him with the village experiment, and gives him a pass to the Purpose Floor of Summakor. Before Michael can respond, they arrive at a church.

    The effects of village death begin to overtake Six. 2 concedes the plan was not enough to crack him. But he says, “Village death was not my last throw,”

    Two has decided Six’s desire to do the “right thing” will force him to assimilate to the village. He makes a deal with 313: She will give herself to Six to save him.

    In the Clinic, two confronts Six with Rover. Unable to face his deepest fear, six runs away.

    Villagers gather for 11-12’s funeral. Six attends, his fever from death miraculously gone. 2 confesses to the crowd that 11-12’s death was a suicide and that they are all Prisoners. A child throws a stone that hits 2 in the face. 2 tells the crowd to look to Six for answers.147 steps forward and proclaims “Six is the one,” inciting the crowd to join him.

    2 tells Six the only way to shut the holes is for a dreamer to take M2’s place. 313 steps forward and takes one of M2’s pills.

    At the church in New York, Mr. Curtis introduces Michael to Sarah – 313 in the village. She is nearly delusional, suffering from the affliction of childhood abuse. Mr. Curtis tells Michael he can save her. Michael takes Sarah’s hand, catching her as she collapses.

    In the village, 2 places a grenade in his mouth: “Six, I give you the village,” he says, pulling the pin. Two explodes!

    Mr. Curtis returns home to Helen, and finds her well. “Don’t look back,” he tells his wife.
    On the Purpose Floor, Michael takes a seat as the new head of Summakor.

    In the village, Six and a sedated 313 look out on the village. “It took me all this time to see how beautiful it is,” Six says. “It has to be possible to do this the right way-make a good Village.” 313 sheds a single tear.

   And so it is that this final episode of THEPRIS6NER, it and the series as a whole, has gone by all too quickly for my own personal liking. In the final scene, the new 2 sits with 313/Sarah on a sand dune in the desert. He says that is has to be possible to do it the right way, to make a good Village. He thinks he could do it, He thinks he has to try, whatever the cost. But I don't think 313 shares that thought, as she sheds a tear, but for who, herself, or for Six who dreams of making a good village? Seeing as its Sarah, 313's abused counterpart in New York who will have to dream the village, I don't give much for Six's chances!

    With Checkmate 2's own story is building to a climax...............through the sense of guilt of what he has done, within his family, within the regime of the village, and the sense of his own failing. 2 set out to create a certain kind of thing, and he looks at what he's got, and he doubts himself. You see Michael is the one - he can make it work........but as so often proved in history, the road to hell is paved with good intentions. I mean it's perhaps not a bad idea to rule the world, just as long as you are a good King. In the village, there is a man who fought the very idea of the village, and hated the nature of being a prisoner, who eventually becomes the King of the Prison!

    It is said that you cannot die in a dream, that at the moment of death you wake up just in time. Not so for M2 who is suffocated to death by her son 11-12. What it must have been like for Helen dreaming the village in New York, who experienced her own death in her subconscious. The thing about Helen is, that she couldn’t wake up, seeing as she was heavily sedated at the time. But then why couldn’t Helen manipulate the dream, so that 11-12 doesn’t suffocate M2 to death? Well according to Bill Gallagher, Helen dreams the village, but has no control over the actions of it’s citizens!

   As for 147, well he finally becomes a pawn in 2’s game............and the time does finally arrive when 147 has to anoint Six, and for the populous to follow 147's lead, for Six is the One!

   As for 313.......she accepts the situation of her circumstances, and takes the pills from Six on the understanding that it will be only until Six, who has become the new Two, can find a better way, or to find a new Two for............The Village.

   As I understand it, script writer Bill Gallagher said that there are clues one can follow through the series, which will all come together, to be resolved in the final episode, and all the questions will be answered, I’m not at all sure they were.

    I think the series as a whole has some of the disturbing qualities of the original series which ended or began with ‘Fall Out,’ depending on how you look at it. However with THEPRIS6NER there is no hint of a “vicious circle.”

The moment Helen in New York woke and stopped dreaming, the village, its entire community disappeared into oblivion! Leaving the new Two {the former Six} and 313 to begin again from scratch, to build a new and better village together.
    And there we are, and if we’re not there, we must be somewhere out there getting on a bus to take us to the village. And yet we get on the bus in the village, so we must already be there brilliant! However as it is “more village” means putting the DVD in the machine again!

Breathe in.....Breathe Out.....Village life goes on!

Be seeing you

Echoes of The Prisoner!

    Quite recently my wife and I sat watching an episode of ‘Man In A Suitcase - Somebody Loses, Somebody….Wins?’

   McGill takes a job in East Germany posing as a buyer of photographic equipment. In Dresden he encounters a former female associate Ruth Klinger who worked for Section K but apparently has defected to the East Germany. The secret police set her a loyalty test involving her old flame McGill who is trying to track down the missing Johann Liedkind, who is part of a neo-Nazi revivalist group, when McGill discovers this, it places him in a dangerous situation. By betraying McGill Ruth attempts to convince the East German authorities that she's a double-agent. At the same time McGill is faced with a dilemma. How can he escape and save Ruth with him, without blowing her cover? Someone at Pinewood studios must have been having a laugh, by design, or is it merely a coincidence? 

    In one scene McGill and Ruth are taking a walk in a park together, Ruth Klinger is wearing a light blue dress, and carrying a bunch of primroses! This was quite startling, because where have we seen that before?  My wife and I looked at each other with incredulity. We instantly thought of the scene in ‘A Change of Mind’ when Number 86 is caught picking Primroses in the woods by Number 6. Alright the dresses are not the same design, the dress worn by Number 86 was Angela Brown’s own, but the colours are identical.  

    It must be a coincidence surely, but a strange coincidence nevertheless. I think we have to allow such a thing, because if not that means………well as far as I can ascertain the only person to have worked on both ‘A Change of Mind’ and ‘Somebody Loses, Somebody….Wins?’ was casting director Rose Tobias-Shaw.

   

Be seeing you

Caught on Camera!

    In a completely unconvincing part of the woods, Number 86 high on drugs and having apparently “dropped out” has found “flower power.” Number 6 comes along and catches her picking Primroses. 
    As I have never been really convinced by that part of the woods, I’ve been even less convinced by those flowers. Half a dozen Primrose looking plants positioned on an unconvincing grass covered rocky bank, Number 86 simply picks those up plants as an assembled posy rather then spend time picking the flowers. Because when you pick real Primroses you pick the small flowers individually, not the whole plant, however we’ll pass on that small point, because the plants 86 picks do make a nice bouquet

Be seeing you

Tomorrow Is Another Day

    It had not gone well. It hadn’t gone well at all. In fact, it was an absolute failure, and they do not like failure here! It should have been so simple, the extraction of some information. Well it’s what we do here in the village, we gather information, we extract it, or protect it depending on which side the subject is on. All we wanted to know was why did she resign? There she was, well-established in a job deep in the Civil Service, then what does she go and do? She hands in her resignation.

    “All we wanted to know was why did she resign?”

    “I know that.”

    “Wasn’t much to ask. One of well-established agents deep undercover, and suddenly it all goes pear shaped!”

    “How was I to know she had become so unstable?”

    “You weren’t, no-one knew. It wasn’t in her file.”

    “I wonder what made her do it. You don’t think she suddenly developed a conscience do you?

    “Bit late for that even if she had.”

    “Yes. I suppose we’ll never know now. I wasn’t too hard on her, you don’t think that?”

    “Doesn’t matter what I think.”

    “No, you’ll be alright no matter what.”

    “That’s administration for you, serving each Number 2 with equal loyalty, and without question.”

    “You think I’ll not be here tomorrow?”

    “It wouldn’t surprise me if your successor has been lined up already.”

    “I wish him the best of luck!”

    “Might be a she.”

    “And you?”

    “Oh tomorrow is another day for me. You know it could have turned out so differently.”

    “You mean had I kept closer surveillance on her?”

    “Observers are not infallible. I know they are supposed to see and hear everything. But really what chance have they, there being only seven observers on duty at any one time!”

    The next day the new Number 2 took up his position in the sanctum of the Green Dome. A tall, lean middle aged man with silver hair had been given a second chance, as Number 2 he carried the can for the previous failure. But was told that under no circumstances would a second failure be tolerated. Number 2’s task was a simple one, to oversee an escape from the village!

    The steel doors leading into the dome’s chamber of Number 2’s office slid open, and Number 14 stepped through and down the ramp. The steel doors sliding closed behind him with a resounding clang.

    “You’re still with us then?”

    “Well you know how it is, you can’t keep a good man down.”

    “So what is it this time?”

    “Simple, we allow Number 9 to escape, then we let him run unhindered.”

    “And how far do we let 9 run?”

    “If he can make it a “home run” well all the better.”

    “We are going to let Number 9 escape?”

    “Yes.”

    “How?”

    “By winking a blind surveillance eye 14, understood?”

    “Do you mind if I check?”

    “Are you questioning my authority 14?”

    “No sir.”

    “It sounds like it to me. Tonight don’t drug the tap water in 9 Private, and make sure the French window of his cottage is left unsecured.”

    “Yes sir.”

    “I’ll be seeing you later on in the Control Room”

    It was a little after curfew, Number 9 was restless probably because he had not been given his nightcap, he wouldn’t have drunk it even if he had. From the wardrobe he produced a haversack, filled with as many supplies as he would be able to carry. For him the only way out of the village was through the woods and across open countryside.

    The night was pitch black, there were surprisingly few lights on as a darkened figure flitted about. Across the street, across the square, along a narrow path. Then left along a cobbled path, passed the statue of Hercules, then up a set of steps, through wrought iron gates, and right along the street until the figure turned left up steps taking to the back of a cottage. It was then he made a dash for the woods.

    Meanwhile in the Control room.

    “You are sure about this Number 2?” the Supervisor asked.

    “Of course. He’ll head for the far side of the woods and the countryside beyond.”

    “And if he doesn’t?

    “There’s no other direction for him to take.”

    “I’m surprised at you being party to this 14.”

    “I’m not, I’m just an impartial observer.”

    “There’s no such thing” the Supervisor told him.

    “Now that 9 is finally on his way, we can all relax.”

    “Can we?” asked the Supervisor not bothering to hide the concern in his voice.

    “Don’t worry, for you tomorrow is another day.”

    It had been a long and arduous journey over land. The escaped Prisoner was thirsty, hungry, and exhausted. He had walked by day, resting where he could by night. He had crossed mile after mile of open countryside, until there came a road. A small group of gypsies had given him food and a ride in one of their caravans for a good deal of the way. But now he was once again on his own, and walking again. He kept to the road, trying to thumb a lift. Several cars passed him, probably they didn’t want to pick up a raggedy vagrant. For his hair was matted, his clothes dirty and torn. He was about to leave the road, and ready himself to spend the night under a hedge, his supper being the two sandwiches the gypsy woman made for him, when out of the night a big bright light. A lorry was bearing down on him, it almost ran him down. But the lorry stopped, and the escaped Prisoner ran and jumped over the tailgate and into the back of the lorry. He banged on the side to alert the driver and the lorry began to move. There were a large number of cardboard boxes in the lorry all marked “import.” The man settled himself down to sleep, covering himself with some old sacking.

    When he woke the lorry was no longer moving. He crawled out from beneath the sacks, moving slowly and peered out from over the tailgate. Suddenly he leapt out of the back of the lorry, and stood frozen to the spot. There was a group of men dressed in dove grey overalls, they were being supervised by a man in a piped jacket. The man  stood there rooted to the spot.

    “Whatever do you think you’re doing. Where have you come from?” Number 138 demanded to know.

    “I……I’m back, I don’t believe it!”

    “I think we’d better get Number 2.”

    “Sorry to disturb you at such a time Number 2.”

    “Well what is it, what’s the matter?”

    Number 14 handed 2 a small box.

    “The aspirins have arrived, I thought you might like to take a couple for your headache.”

    “I don’t have a headache.”

    “Number 9 is back.”

    “I beg your pardon.”

    “The lorry bringing the milk, ice cream, the potatoes, and the aspirins also had a hidden cargo……..Number 9!”

Number 9 was escorted into Number 2’s office by two burly set men. A chair rose up out through a hole in the floor, and was roughly seated in it.

    “What were you doing in the back of that lorry Number 9?” Number 2 asked from the comfort of his chair.

    “I was escaping!”

    “To where?”

    “Anywhere that isn’t here.”

    “And yet here you are.”

    “You, you had me brought me back here!”

    “I? I didn’t want you back here, because you are supposed to be in London!”

    “London?”

    “It would appear that there’s been an error of judgement.”

    “You had the lorry driver bring me back here to the village.”

    “How did I manage that do you suppose? I’m sorry to have to tell you, but the mistake was yours.”

    “How do you make that out?”

    “It’s a sorry state of affairs for both of us really, and I suppose it was a mistake anyone could have made. You see the lorry was on its way here as part of a regular delivery run.”

Tomorrow is another day, and with it a new arrival in the village to take up office in the Green Dome………

Be seeing you

What's That No.6 Up To?

    In a scene from ‘Hammer Into Anvil’ at 11:30 Number 6 tells the shopkeeper that he’d like to hear l’Arlesienne.

   Shopkeeper “Ah the Davier recording beautiful, there’s no-one to touch him on Bizet, it takes a Frenchman.”
   Number 6 “I’d like to hear them all.”
   “I beg your pardon sir?”
   “How many copies of it have you got?”
   “Six.”              {Bloggers Note: It would have to be that number!}

   “May I have them?”
   “If you insist sir, but they’re all the same.”
   “I doubt it.”
   “Yes sir.”
   The shopkeeper begins to gather the records from the racks.
    “Thank you very much, and the others, all of them.”
    “Yes sir.”
    Number 6 then takes the records along with his copy of The Tally Ho over to the record booth, and puts the first record on the turntable, and as he begins to listen he appears to be timing it. After a few seconds he takes the record off the turntable and replaces it with another copy of the record and again times the first few seconds of l’Arlesienne. It is now that the shopkeeper begins to take notice and stands watching Number 6’s behaviour from behind the counter, his curiosity aroused. A third record is then placed on the turntable, and again Number 6 times it, only this time he takes a pen and notebook from a pocket in his blazer and writes something down, aware that he is being observed by the shopkeeper. Number 6 doesn’t purchase a copy of the record as he claims it’s not a satisfactory recording, while the shopkeeper thought it was first class. But then it’s only a matter of taste.
    Of course all the records are the same, they sound identical, there’s no variation in tempo, all the sleeves are the same, so what was Number 6 listening for, what makes one of those records different? Nothing, they are as they appear to be, all the same. And Number 6 might have kept looking at his watch as the shopkeeper observed, but that doesn’t necessarily mean he was actually timing them. And what might Number 6 have written in that notebook of his, an addition to his shopping list perhaps, a memorandum to remind himself to do something later in the day.  The shopkeeper said Number 6 wrote something on a piece of paper, which indicates he didn’t see the notebook, and if he didn’t see the note book it was because Number 6 had his back turned to him. So how could the shopkeeper have seen Number 6 writing something down on any piece of paper? As it is there isn’t any proof that Number 6 actually wrote anything down! There is certainly no discernable message hidden in the music, or in the playing grooves, and it appears that Number 2’s close examination of the six records showed that no massage had been etched onto the run out groove. Because over the years it has been a trend to have hidden messages etched on the run off groove. This is no better demonstrated than on ‘the Prisoner’ soundtrack record {the BAMCARUSO label}.

    The message etched on side one “Be seeing you - on side two” and on side 2, “I am not a number….!!” along with “Hip Hip Hooray.” To discern the messages the record does have to be held in the light at a certain angle. I didn’t know about messages myself, not until I was told about them back in the late 1980’s.

Be seeing you