Well You’re In My Country Now!

   In ‘A B and C’ it is suggested that we shall see what would have happened had those behind The Village not got to Number 6 first. Yet there was still the possibility that ZM73 would still have been abducted, not to The Village, but possibly behind the Iron Curtain by ‘A,’ seeing as he defected about six years ago, making World news in the process!
   Having been abducted by ‘A’ and his henchmen, during the car journey ZM73 remarks that Paris hasn’t changed much, and eventually the Citroen D6 car arrives at a chateau. Getting out of the car ‘A’ says “Well you’re in my country now.” Which country might that be? Because they do not appear to have driven very far, which suggests that the Chateau is just outside Paris. Perhaps ‘A’ only defected across the English Channel to France! So was ‘A’ working for French Military Intelligence? Throughout the 1960s and into the 70s, Franco-British relations and British foreign policy were dominated and largely shaped by efforts to convince the French to accept British membership of the EEC. But as we know espionage can be a very dirty game, and dirty tricks are generally employed in that game. And yet we do not know whether ‘A’ is working for a foreign agency, or independently, possibly in the hope that he can sell ZM73 and the information in his head to the highest bidder! And that line from ‘A,’ “Well you’re in my country now,’ does suggest that they left France, otherwise they would have been in ‘A’s’ country all the time, and therefore ‘A’ would have been wasting his words. Also we do not know how long that journey should have taken. Remembering that Number 6 is in a dream. a long journey can take only a few moments. So in one minute ‘A,’ his henchmen, and ZM73 are on a car journey in Paris France, the next perhaps they are in Russia, well behind the Iron curtain. There is no logic when it comes to a dream.

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BIG FINISH – Press Release

  The Prisoner! 

5 January 2015
Big Finish is proud to announce the return of a sixties classic - The Prisoner.

Big Finish is proud to announce that it has entered into a licence agreement with ITV Studios Global Entertainment to produce a series of full-cast audio dramas based on the world renowned, cult classic 1967 TV series, The Prisoner — bursting with state-of-the-art sound design and a brand new dramatic score.

January 16th 1967. A secret agent suddenly resigns from MI6, then wakes to find himself imprisoned in ‘The Village’ — a bizarre community with a cheery veneer, but an underbelly of threat and mystery. Re-branded as Number Six, our agent must enter into a battle of wits with the sinister Number Two, whose sworn aim is to discover why Number Six resigned. But Number Six refuses to divulge his secrets and must fight off increasingly outlandish and deadly attempts to break him, as he fights to escape and find out… 

‘Who is Number One?’.

The new audio series of The Prisoner is to be written and directed by Big Finish’s 

co-executive producer, Nicholas Briggs: ‘The Prisoner has been a great love of mine for many years, ever since my late father told me all about it back in the 1960s. It actually premiered on British TV in 1967 on my sixth birthday! I finally got the chance to see it as a teenager when ITV repeated it on Saturday evenings in 1977. I instantly fell in love with the series and have been avidly re-watching it ever since. The chance to re-imagine the 1967 series for audio drama is a great privilege and I can’t wait to get started — actually, I’ve already started.’

Giles Ridge, SVP Content and Brand Development, ITV Studios Global Entertainment, said: ‘The Prisoner changed the landscape of British television in the 1960s — a thought-provoking series that feels as fresh and dynamic now as it did almost fifty years ago. Big Finish are renowned for their audio plays based on cult properties and we are delighted to be working with Nick and his team on this true classic.’

The new audio version of The Prisoner will be very much based on the original, which starred Patrick McGoohan. ‘It won’t simply be a slavish retelling of all the original episodes,’ explains Nick. ‘But aficionados of the original series will certainly recognise much of what they loved about it. A lot of the familiar iconography will be there, but my aim is to push the boundaries, all the while pursuing McGoohan’s stated agenda of the fight against rampant progress and dehumanisation.’

No casting decisions have yet been made. ‘For Number Six, we’re looking for someone who can portray that vital determination and anger, creating a lethal package of dynamite charisma’ says Nick. ‘They need to be compelling and powerful as well as having great enthusiasm for the series.’

The initial release of a lavish, collectors’ edition box set of five CDs (four hour-long episodes and a behind-the-scenes documentary, with full-colour, souvenir booklet) is set for January 2016, with other box sets to follow. You can pre-order it here – http://www.bigfinish.com/releases/v/the-prisoner---volume-1-box-set-1181

1. The Prisoner Volume 01

Out in January 2016
Prices
Pre-order CD        £40.00
Pree-order Digital £50.00

Synopsis
‘I’m not a number. I’m a free man!’

January 16th, 1967...
A secret agent resigns from MI6, then wakes up to find himself imprisoned in ‘The Village’ — a bizarre community with a cheery veneer, but an underbelly of mystery and threat. All occupants of The Village have numbers instead of names, with our secret agent forced to accept the mantel of Number Six.
The authorities running this Village are intent on discovering why Number Six resigned — but it’s a secret he steadfastly refuses to divulge. As the drama unfolds, the authorities, in the guise of the sinister Number Two, try ever more ingenious and aggressive means to bend Number Six to their will. All the while, Number Six is intent on two aims: to escape and to find out ‘Who is Number One?’.
Episode One: Departure and Arrival
A failed meeting in Belgium catalyses Agent ZM-73 to resign from his top secret post, but when he wakes the following morning  everything has changed — even his name. Trapped in a bizarre coastal village, and with his every move monitored by the mysterious Number Two, the man now known as Number Six struggles to make sense of it all.
Episode Two: The Schizoid Man
    Six finds himself fascinated by a strange bond which has suddenly developed between himself and Number Nine. But the next morning, Six wakes to find himself changed. A moustache, different hair, and… a new name. Number Twelve.

Episode Three: Your Beautiful Village
    Something is very wrong, as Six experiences the most disturbing sensual deprivation. Almost complete darkness, filled with haunting sounds, fragments of conversations, and a desperate call from Nine start to test his reason.
Episode Four: The Chimes of Big Ben
    A new prisoner arrives in the village. The woman is strong-minded, independent, and refuses to accept her new number — Eight. She is not a number, she is Nadia. And Six is convinced that she is his ticket out of the village.
This set contains four one-hour episodes, a Behind-the-Scenes audio documentary, and a lavish colour booklet:
Written By: Nicholas Briggs
Directed By: Nicholas Briggs
Cast
Casting announcements TBC
Writer/director Nicholas Briggs
Script Editor Jamie Anderson
Executive Producers Jason Haigh-Ellery and Nicholas Briggs
© ITV Studios Global Entertainment
© Nick Briggs - Big Finish

http://www.bigfinish.com/news/v/the-prisoner

http://www.bigfinish.com/news/v/prisoner-update

http://www.bigfinish.com/releases/v/the-prisoner---volume-1-box-set-1181

Be seeing you

Be Seeing You

   During the dream of ‘A’ of ‘A B and C’ as Number 6 straightens his bow tie, having dealt with ‘A’ and his henchmen, he says “Be seeing you.” This could show a memory of The Village even in his dream, and  why not? After all, any unpleasant memories of The Village had not been wiped from his mind, because he wakes up in his cottage in the Village after each of the first two experiments, and secondly “Be seeing you” was a very fashionable phrase used in both the 1950’s and 60’s.

Be seeing you

The Colonel

    Here are four faces of the Colonel, there might have been four, however there is no picture of the fifth Colonel in the series, as his rank is only mentioned by Dutton during the ‘Dance of the Dead,’ in conjunction with Arthur. Arthur and the Colonel, being like Fotheringay and the Colonel, as well as Thorpe and the Colonel
    The Colonel has something in common with No.2. In this instance, that the rank remains the same, it is only the face that changes. I have often wondered if the Colonel in ‘Many Happy Returns’ was aware of The Village long before his ex-colleague briefed him on the installation. If he was, then the Colonel was a cold fish to allow No.6 to simply go off looking for The Village, knowing that his escape had been contrived by The Village administration, and controlled by the Prisoner's own predictability. But somehow I'm not sure if this particular Colonel was aware of The Village at the time, unlike his predecessor in ‘The Chimes of Big Ben’. Now if he had been there that day with Thorpe to see his ex-colleague off, I could well believe that he would have calmly stood there watching his ex-colleague go on his way, back to The Village, without saying one word of warning!
   Colonel Hawke-Englishe? Well whether or not he knew of The Village's existence is irrelevant, as his involvement in the series takes place well outside The Village. In any case he is murdered by the Girl who was Death with the aid of an exploding cricket ball. As a matter of interest, at a cricket match at the end of the film ‘Carry On Follow That Camel,’ filmed in Wales, an exploding cricket ball is used to try and kill Bo West whilst at the wicket.
   As for the Colonel in ‘Do Not Forsake Me Oh my Darling.’ his experience of the Village is not as pleasant as that of one of his predecessors. Because his mind died in the body of Professor Seltzman, who is buried in The Village graveyard!

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Rover!

   The question should be asked, why does the Guardian Rover kill Number 12-Curtis? In previous episodes the Guardian has been called upon to stop potential escapees, who up until this time, in the series, have only been Number 6 and Number 8-Nadia Rakovsky. Oh there was that chap who wouldn’t be still in the Piazza during ‘Arrival,’ but he’s more likely to have been the subject of a warning aimed at the newly arrived Prisoner. But Rover has not killed before, it has always captured its quarry.

   There seems no rhyme or reason for having Curtis eliminated. Can we be sure that Number 6 actually checked the body for signs of life, or did he merely presume that as he reported to Number 2, that Number 6 was dead? The only reason why the script called for the death of Curtis, suffocated by the membranic Guardian, was so that Number 6 could escape The Village by impersonating his doppelganger Curtis.

   But then there is the question of fingerprints. Is it possible that they found a way of giving Curtis the exact same fingerprints as those of Number 6? Well a thumbprint at least. It’s quite on the cards that a thin latex copy of Number 6’s thumbprint had been created and so “worn” by Curtis over his right thumb. This trick has also been done by James Bond in the 1971 film ‘Diamonds Are Forever, when Bond was impersonating professional smuggler Peter Franks. Bond wore a latex copy of Frank’s thumbprint on his own thumb, as proof to his identity, in the same way that Curtis proved his identity as Number 6.

   Had the fingerprints of the dead Curtis had been checked, they would clearly have discovered the false latex thumbprint. Unless it had been removed after the fingerprint test, but either way they would have discovered that the dead man’s fingerprints were those of Curtis, not Number 6.

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Caught On Camera!

   Having watched ‘the Prisoner’ so many times over the past forty-eight years, one would think that everything there is to be seen has been seen. Well that’s been noted to be wrong before, and so again here. Sometimes when we miss noticing something its because the eye is concentrating on the action taking place. In this instant a bout of fencing is about to take place, but it would appear that the gymnasium has been constructed in Number 2’s office of the Green Dome! Observe if you will the purple wall in the background, and the steel framework.
    At the same time as this I also observed something else, an article from another episode which turned up later in ‘The Schizoid Man,’ and being put to an entirely different purpose. But that’s for next time.

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Exhibition of Arts And Crafts

                               “I Am Six!”

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