The Therapy Zone

    ‘The Chimes of Big Ben saw both No.6 and Nadia sealed up together in a crate for twelve hours. If that had been me landing in the Colonel's office after such a long journey, I wouldn't want to go straight into an interview with the Colonel, it would be the toilet for me! {Ah, but then hero's don't sweat, nor do they feel the need to go to the toilet!} Hang on a minute, the Prisoner perspires all the time, you can se it on the re-masterd vidoes and DVD's during the close-up shots, and the Prisoner is supposed to be a hero! {Hero or anti-hero?} Now you're just being difficult! {No I'm not. John Drake was your boyhood hero, so why not the Prisoner?} It depends upon whose side your on. {I'm on our side!} Didn't the Prisoner admit to that when he paid a call on the new No.2 during the episode of Arrival? He's on leave.{On leave, no one goes on leave from the Village!} Number 2, the retiring Number 2 that is, went on leave halfway through his term of office. He left his heir presumptive in charge, not to mention the other interim No.2's.

    And regarding the retiring No.2 of Its Your Funeral. When No.6 came to pay a call on number 2 that morning, he stormed into the office and said "I want to see Number 2." The man sitting behind his oval desk informs the visitor "I am Number 2." On his previous visit to see Number 2 only the day before, it was an interim No.2 who No.6 met, the retiring No.2's heir presumptive. But that does not take into account that No.6 did not seem to recognise the retiring No.2 sat behind his desk in his office, otherwise No.6 would not have asked to see No.2!

    Those Juke Boxes along that passageway, one of which used to be found in my local cafe back in the seventies. Were they all really playing that Beatles song "All You Need Is Love?" If they were, they’d have had to have been started at the exact same moment! And while we are on the subject of that underground passage way. The Butler, he seems to know more about what's going on than he lets on. I mean how come he's got the key to the welcome door? I've just watched the footage of the three of them walking along that underground passage way, and I didn't see the supervisor hand that key to him. So the butler must have had the key in his pocket it all the time. Which only confirms to me that the Butler knows much more about the village and what goes on than he admits to. Not that the butler admits to anything!

    The exploding lighthouse as seen in ‘The Girl Who Was Death’ is actually stock-footage from Thunderbirds.

   Some would have it that the Prisoner is some kind of hero. Others see him as a rebel in the way he rejects the village. Yet there can be no doubt that the Prisoner is a man of violence, violence which he takes to extremes causing bloody and murderous revolution and insurrection of ‘Fall Out!’

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Thought For The Day

    I like the symbolism regarding what Dutton said, that he told them all he knew, he didn't have access to the vital stuff. The irony being was, they didn’t believe him! I used to wonder what people and fans of the series would have thought, had Pat McGoohan explained all he could about ‘the Prisoner,’ and would that have been enough for us? Somehow I don’t think so, I would have probably contradicted him for a start, even if only on the grounds that alter egos of self cannot physically meet! I'm sure that even if Pat McGoohan had explained the series, fans would have dissected his explanations, as well as the series itself. I couldn’t see people, fans of ‘the Prisoner’ simply accepting McGoohan’s explanations. Yet on the other hand, I know of some fans who idolised McGoohan so much, that they would have believed, and swallowed every word he said, and have done without question! McGoohan did tell us a little of his creation, but the rest he left to us to arrive at our own conclusions. I just don’t think he expected us to be still doing it almost 46 years after the event!

    We didn't think McGoohan would  have handed explanations of 'the Prisoner' on a plate did we? We wouldn't have expected him to, would we?

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Caught On Camera!

    Of all the entrants, and exhibitionists in the Arts and Crafts Exhibition, the most chosen subject is that of No.2. A bit creepy crawlie I should have said. However nonetheless for that, the artists have depicted No.2 in different guises. As No.2, in shirt and tie, and as a classical actor, possibly as Sir Roger Delisle in 'The Adventures of Robin Hood' 1955, a role played by Leo McKern, as seen below.

I cannot but help think, that there is a similarity between the above picture, and the two picture below.

   All of the items in the exhibition, were created by members of the production crew working on 'the Prisoner,' and some by their chidren.

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Exhibition of Arts and Crafts

                                                        "Taxi!"

BcNu

60 Second Psychiatric Report On An Ex-No.2

    What follows is part of a transcript which was taken during a routine recording of conversations in No.2's office, the conversation between No.2 himself and the head of Psychiatrics department No.249.

    No.2: “You aren't preparing a report on my... mental health?”

    Psychiatrist No.249: “Of course not.”

    “And Number 6 didn't see you later on?”

    “No.”

    “Then why did he ring you?”

    “I told you I don't know.”

    “ You're a psychiatrist aren't you? Would you say Number 6 was mad?”

    “Not according to our records.”

    “Then he had a reason for telephoning you, didn't he? What was it?”

    “Why don't you ask him?”

    “Would you like to sit in this chair? bellows No.2 in a sudden pique of anger.”

     “I was merely suggesting....”

    “Don't tell me what to do. You can go.”

    “Thank you.”

    Well I bet by the time No.249 returned to his office in Psychiatrics he was preparing a report on No.2's mental health! Because as we know No.2 was a weak link in the chain of command, in fact he lost it on more than one occasion. And then came the final breakdown, as telephoning No.1 and reporting himself as a breakdown in control and that No.2 needed to be replaced.

   This particular No.2 is a sad case, for almost as soon as he had reported himself, the men in white coats came to take No.2 away to the funny farm. Well the psychiatric wing of the hospital to be exact, and that is where he has been ever since that day, yet there has been a sign of improvement in his mental health, although whenever the No.6 is mentioned he suddenly flies of in a sudden fit of rage......

   Ex-Number 2 “What are you doing here?

    Psychiatrist: “I've come to keep you company. I heard all your friends have deserted you. You couldn't trust anyone anymore.... pity. Odd isn't it? All that power at your disposal and yet you were alone. You did feel alone didn't you?”

    “What do you want?

    “To talk, to listen.

    “I've nothing to say.

    “That's not like the old Number 2. Where is the strong man, the hammer? You have to be hammer or anvil, you're words, remember?

    “I know who you are.”

    “Who am I?”

    “Sent here by our masters to spy on me.”

    “Sorry, I'm not quite with you.”

    “Oh yes, you can stop acting now you know. I was on to you from the beginning. I knew what you were doing.”

    “Tell me.”

    “All those messages you sent. And all the people you recruited. I knew you were a plant. You didn't fool me.”

    “Maybe you fooled yourself.”

    “What does that mean?”

    “Let us say for arguments sake that what you say is true, that there was a plant here in the Village...”

    “Sent by X o four.”

    “X o four?

    “Hmmm....”

    “Very well by X04. To check on village security, to check on you.”

    “He was.”

    “Who?”

“Six, Number Six....... I'll break this conspiracy,  I'll break the lot of you!  You're in it as well.... oh yes. You don't know anything.... oh get out, get out. And I thought you were the one man I could trust, oh get out, get out!!!!”

   It was at this point that four white coated men brought the straight jacket, and the Ex-No.2 was placed back inside his padded cell for his own protection.

No.249 {Head of the psychiatrics department}

The Therapy Zone

    When it comes to the question of twins in the Village, there are two such cases that we know of. The first demonstrated in ‘Arrival,’ that of the electrician who attends '6 Private' the Prisoner's cottage, this to replace the busted loudspeaker which the Prisoner trampled under foot. And that of the gardener whom the Prisoner encountered after he left the cottage, feeling like a bit of a walk. The gardener who asks No.6 to "Mind the plants," and who seems to be a twin to that of the electrician, and not just a twin, but an identical twin!

    The second demonstration for the possibility of twins in the village comes in the episode of ‘Free for All,’ this between the photographer No.113b and No.113c the operator of The Tally Ho dispenser, that quirky looking press device outside of the Town Hall    "Get your election edition now." Again this appears to be another case of identical twins in the Village, which is I suppose acceptable, well we have to accept it do we not? Because if not then there is a possible case for cloning within the confines of the Village, as it was once suggested that Curtis was a clone of No.6, that is a theory which I have to say I do not subscribe to.  Yet if not cloning, then we must take to the possibility that twins, and for that matter identical twins were either being brought to the Village of their own free will, or twins who were abducted together.

   It is said that we all have a double somewhere in the world. No.8 in ‘A Change of Mind’ certainly does, she works with her in the computer room, handing her the daily prognosis report on No.6.

   The Prisoner is not free of look-a-likes himself, Curtis for one, No.1 for another, if you do not subscribe to the idea that No.1 is Curtis, and not No.6’s alter ego. Otherwise we might be dealing with triplets. But I’m not about to be led along that avenue. However there is one further possible explanation as to the two sets of identical twins in the Village, that they were born in the Village!

    “Hope and Anchor, it's a pub I used to drink at." This mentioned during a word association test of Checkmate, there is a Hope And Anchor public house at Wanlip, a small village in Leicestershire, and not too far away from the school/college of Ratcliffe, where during the second world war the boy McGoohan spent his school days. And it was not unheard of that pupils/students went to the Hope and Anchor public house. I mention this because one's childhood makes us what we are today, and childhood and school day memories stay with us all our lives, such is the strong impression made upon our minds. So perhaps the mentioning of the Hope and Anchor, as being a pub he used to drink at, was a remembrance of McGoohan's school days.

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Who's That On The Telephono?

   
    New No.2 "Number Two here, I'm on red."
    Ex-No.2 "I'm in the helicopter!"
    "On red?"
    "No, about a mile away now!"
    "Lucky old you!"
    "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!"

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