Watching The Prisoner - The General

    I have placed ‘The General before ‘A B and C’ in my screening order, on the basis of what is said during the opening sequence when No.2 says “I am the new Number 2.” Whereas in the opening sequence to ‘A B and C’ No.2 “I am Number 2.” I realize that later in the episode No.2 tells madam professor that he and No.6 are old friends; however sometimes one has to ignore certain things in order to make things fit. Otherwise that would put ‘The General’ after ‘A B and C’ and then that would make it wrong on the grounds of what No.2 says in the opening sequences!

   Just how long the Professor and his wife have been in the village is clearly impossible to determine. However there might be a clue in that bust of No.2 from ‘The Chimes of Big Ben.’ Its clearly one of the busts seen at the Exhibition of Arts and Crafts, and being an artist what could be more natural than for Madam Professor to enter that exhibition. Which makes it, according to my own particular screening order, that it was about three months since the Professor and his wife were brought to the village.
   We do not know the names of the Professor and his wife, nor do we know their numbers, as they do not wear a numbered badge. Also they are permitted to wear their own clothes! This is possibly because they are not allowed out into the village, but remain under a form of house arrest, or life in a “safe house” cut off from outside influences, and vice versa. Indeed the only times the Professor is allowed out of the house is when he’s in the General’s office typing up and processing his lectures in readiness for their transmission.
   It’s also impossible to determine when the educational experiment of Speed Learn began, as by the time No.6 is sitting at the café in the opening scene;

   Number 6 is sitting at the Café drinking a cup of coffee. A helicopter is circling above, he looks as though he is wondering who is just arriving, or maybe he remembers the time when he piloted the helicopter for a short time. But the truth of the matter is, the pilot of the helicopter is searching for someone, as it turns out it’s the Professor they are looking for. 

    There comes a public announcement

Number 6 asks for another cup of coffee, but the Cafe is closing, he did hear the announcement......

    “Waiter.”

    “Sir?”

    “Another coffee please.”

    “Sorry sir, we’re closing………..you did hear the announcement sir…..about the Professor.”

    “I’m not one of his students.”

    “One coffee sir…two credit units if you please……..you’re never too old to learn sir.”

    “Who told you that, the Professor?”

    “No sir, the General!”

    “The General?”

    “Best of luck with your exams sir.”

    “Thank you.”

    Number 6 doesn’t seem to be aware of either the Professor or the General, which begs the questions where has Number 6 been all this time? After all the Speed Learn experiment didn’t just begin over night, judging by the students and the announcement, Speed Learn has been running for quite some time. Or at least that is the impression I get!
   This episode appears to have a link to ‘The Schizoid Man.’
    No.2 “Have you thought any more about that proposition I put to you when I arrived?”

    No.6 “Sorry, I’ve had no time.”

    “But you must have some views?”

    “I’m afraid not.”

    “Look old chap, we’ve been through some scrapes before, but we’ve never fallen out over them. The General’s not going to behead you!”

    “We won’t know until I’ve reported to the General, will we?”

    “Report to the General? That’s a new one!”

    So in this episode we get to meet the General, and turns out to be a computer! If this is correct its no wonder No.2 thought it was a strange thing for Curtis to say “We won’t know until I’ve reported to the General, will we?” Whether or not we are to believe the General mentioned in ‘The Schizoid Man’ is the same General as in the computer, is up to the individual. But it would make sense of No.2’s reaction “Report to the General? That’s a new one!”

Be seeing you

Tales From The Village

     No.2 sat in his black spherical chair behind a grey curved desk. Leaning forward he pressed a button on the Control panel switching on the large wall screen. The view was not one of the village but of the Guardian perpetually moving in its confinement area somewhere on the seabed. In one respect it seemed to be malevolent, as though it would do you serious harm if it were to get out. And it would, the effects have been witnessed. But confined as it is it has a calming, soothing effect, it relaxes one almost to the point of sleep. No.2 often sat watching this Guardian when he felt stressed. The Guardian its job to care and protect, and yet it is confined and just as much a prisoner in the village as anyone. Worse, it’s a slave forced to police the village, to round up and subdue escapees even to kill if necessary.

    The pair of steel doors opened and a gaunt looking man in a white coat walked down the ramp.

    “Good morning Number 2” the doctor said.

    No.2 made no recognition of the man.

    “Number 2, you wanted to see me.”

    No.2 finally looked away from the screen and at the man in the white coat “Fascinating don’t you think?”

    The doctor looked at the screen “Currently we are conducting experiments using that Guardian in therapy techniques; also it’s possible that through the Guardian we can carry out indoctrinations on patients.”

    “To what ends?”

    “We do not know as yet, it’s very early days. You wanted to see me to ask about our friend Number 6.”

    “Yes doctor, how are things in that department?”

    “He’s given us quite a lot of information, most of it we already knew. He’s playing with us. I shall have to use more extreme measures in order to get him to give up the more vital information.”

    “Perhaps there is another way doctor……….”

    No.6 was eventually discharged from the hospital and allowed to return home. You know how it is when you’ve spent a long time in a hospital the outside world seems crowded and noisy. Well the village was anything but that, quiet yes, and there seemed to be no-one about. The taxi had dropped him off outside his cottage, which was at the back of the row of terraced cottages. He opened the door and went through into the lounge opening the French window he stepped out onto the small balcony.

    “Aren’t you going to offer me a drink?” a voice asked.

    No.6 turned round to see the figure of a man in the lounge. He was about 5 feet ten inches tall, with greying hair, 53 years of age with a thin moustache.

    “Doyle what the devil are you doing here?”

    “Get me that drink and I’ll tell you.”

    No.8 poured out two large whiskies, looks the same tastes the same but it won’t get you tiddly no matter how much you drink of the stuff!

    “Cheers.”

    “Bottoms up as we say in the Navy.”

    “I could ask the same of you.”

    “You’re the last person I thought to see here.”

    “What do you mean by that?”

    “Too clever by half you are or were. I never thought the other side would catch up with you.”

    “And what about you?”

    “Oh you know me, I wasn’t that high up in the Admiralty, just about good enough to transport some secret plans of the Navy’s new guided torpedo. I was on a train in a locked compartment. I must have dozed off, I woke up here, and the plans……..well you can guess.”

    “I’m surprised they took you if all they wanted was the plans.”

    “Yes I wondered about that they don’t seem to believe me when I tell them I’m just a minor bureaucrat. Nevertheless they keep asking me questions about files I have seen, the projects I know about.”

    “You’ve told them?”

    “What do you think?”

    They drained their glasses and No.6 refilled them.

    “So why have you come to see me?”

    “I guess I’ve been sent here as a guide, to show you that you can expect the worst of it.”

    “Believe me I’ve already had the worst of it, you name it and they have just about done it to me.”

    Doyle thought for a moment “A man like you should be able to break out of here easy.”

    “Believe me Doyle it’s not so easy, I’ve tried.”

    “Perhaps we could try together.”

    “Why, do you have a plan?”

    “No, I thought you might?”

    “I’m fresh out of ideas. Really why are you here?”

    “I told you?”

    “Did Number 2 send you?”

    “How do you mean?”

    “I haven’t forgotten, we never did find out who the leak was in navy Intelligence.”

    “You think it was me!”

    No.6 threw his glass of whisky into Doyle’s face.

    “You were always a bit of a blister. It’s no wonder no-one could stand you!”

    “Get out!”

    “Don’t you worry, just wait until I file my report with Number 2.”

    “I’m sure he’s already well apprised of the situation, and you’re still nothing more than a lap dog!”

    “Why you scumbag!”

    The two men began to grapple with each other exchanging punch for punch, throwing each other about the cottage, upsetting table lamps picking up ornaments to throw at each other and smashing against a wall when they missed! The fight was brutally hard fought Doyle was thrown against shelves in an alcove his body receiving a number of blows. But he managed to throw his adversary off and lunged at him hurling him to the floor; No.6 hit the back of his head on the coffee table and slumped on the carpet, unmoving.
   No.6 was dead! The terraced cottage of 6 Private was cleared of all the furnishing, fixtures and fittings, and then closed up ready for a new occupant. Doyle who had gone too far with No.6, was held to account in London by his masters. A few weeks later he arrived back in the village…….as a prisoner!

Be seeing you

Drink It Up Before It Gets Cold!

    In the dinette of ‘6 Private’ No.8 is busy making No.6 his nightcap of cocoa, her demeanour is of a very happy woman. She is pompomming the nursery rhyme “Pop goes the weasel.” In the shower room No.6 is curious about who else is in his cottage. It’s certainly not the housemaid, as I suspect she was sent away by No.8 saying she would make No.6 his nightcap. I wonder if she obligingly drugged the cocoa as well, unwittingly she probably did if the sedative is in the tap water!
    No.6 “Hello.”
    No.8“Hurry up before it gets cold.”

    “Hello.”
    “Nothing like a cup of hot chocolate for a good nights sleep.”

    “Cheers.”
    “Had a hard day?”
    “No worse no better.
    “Anything you’d like to tell me?”
    “Yes….how’d you get in here?”
    “Oh the usual way by the door…It’s so wonderful to be with you.”
    “Yes.”
    “It’s a warm feeling.”
    “On a cold night!”

    “Yes.”
    “Its nice chocolate.”
    “Oh you like it?”
    “Very nice.”
    “Would you like some more?”
    “No, no, thank you very much indeed but it was a kind thought though.”
    “You’re the one that’s kind.”
    “Mmmm”
    “To allow me to be with you.”
    An announcement “Curfew Time, ten minutes, all citizens ten minutes to curfew, sleep well.”

    “If only you care a little I’d be happy.”
    “I do care, who put you up to this?”
    “Please?”
    No.6 helps himself to more chocolate “Who put you up to it?”
    “Nobody!”
    “Then get out!”
    “Nobody put me up to it, I only want to help you.”
    “Get out!” he shouts in anger.
    “I only want to help you.”

    “Everybody wants to help me!”
    No.8 begins to cry.
    “What’s the matter?”
    “Nothing, nothings the matter.”
    “Stop crying.”
    “Sorry to bother you.”
    “It’s alright. Not bothering me.”
    “I’m not bothering you?”

    “No.”
    “Do you like me?”
    “Yes” he smiles, his angry demeanour has collapsed.
    “Oh you’re so good to me.”
    “Pardon?”
    “Thank you” No.8 says shaking his hands.
    “That’s alright, that’s fine, that’s okay.”
    “Would you like some more chocolate?”
    “Chocolate no, no I I’ve got some.”
    “Will I see you again?”
    “Oh yes I’m here all the time.”
    “Thank you…ever so much.”
    The door to the cottage opens and No.8 dashes out into the night, she stops, turns and waves at No.6 who returns her wave with a casual village salute the way he does, which is barely a salute nor a wave. The door closes leaving No.6 wondering……..
   Just a minute! The door opened automatically before No.8 was anywhere near it, how did it know to do that? The door usually only opens automatically for No.6 or for someone important like No.2, or sometimes for the housemaids who have their hands full carrying a breakfast tray. True the door did open for Monique that time she went to call on No.6, but then the door was programmed to open for her, unless it was an Observer in the control room who opened the door for her, because whenever anyone knocks on his door No.6 doesn’t always answer. I recall when Nadia called on No.6 one evening during ‘The Chimes of Big Ben’ the door didn’t open for her, she had to ring the door bell of ‘6 Private.’ It seems there are two important people in the village; you can tell who they are because the doors to the Green Dome and ‘6 Private’ open automatically. A far as I can tell most other cottage doors has to be opened manually!

Be seeing you

Harmony WANTED Poster

BCNU

Harmony WANTED Poster

BCNU

The Village Motor Pool!

   My modest collection of model cars of the type which feature in both series of the Prisoner, three Lotus 7’s or should that be Loti? A Caterham Seven does appear in the 2009 series. The ‘E’ type jaguar, the Ford/Lotus Cortina, and three Mini-Mokes, just one more and I have the full village fleet. Two of them need new canopies, previously I made three types which became rather old and tatty. The candy striped canopy, orange and white, and one black and white for the village hearse.
   For the 2009 series there’s the Renault Dauphine which served as the village taxi. Also the Morris Minor, the black Bedford van which acted at the village ambulance which took patients to the Clinic or to an even worse place! And amongst others the Volkswagen camper van which appears in both series not to forget the “Bubble Car” the Isetta. Not amongst them is the Scammell Highwayman Transporter complete with cage, that’s in a box in the archive, as is the Alouette, and Bell Ten helicopters, as well as a London Route Master bus. I used to have them all on display, but not so much these days. In fact it was collecting the model cars for the 2009 series of ‘the Prisoner’ that rekindled my enthusiasm for collecting ‘Prisoner related model cars. There are still a few model cars I should like relating to the 2009 Pris6ner series, but it’s difficult to identify some of them, as they have no distinguishing makers marks or badges on the cars in the series. I think one of the buses used is a Mercedes, but I’m not sure!

Be seeing you

Caught On Camera!

  This is a frame from a film shot by a member of the public who was either staying, or visiting Portmeirion in September 1966, at the time when the location shoot for four episodes of ‘the Prisoner’ were being filmed. As far as I am aware the short piece of amateur film footage is all there is of the Village helicopter, a French Alouette, landing on the water of the estuary at Portmeirion. Had the production crew filmed the helicopter with its floats landing on the water in ‘Free For All’ after No.6 had been attacked by the Guardian, there would have been no need to repeat the type of scene in which three Guardians rescue Nadia during ‘The Chimes of Big Ben.’ For a change they could have recovered No.6 using the helicopter instead of the three Guardians again. In fact the picture does have the look of a scene in ‘Free For All’ when No.6 was floundering in the water, doesn’t it readers?

Be seeing you