Watching The Prisoner – Dance of The Dead

   Following my screening order of ‘the Prisoner’ which takes place over 15 months, over two months have now passed since No.6’s arrival in the village, and during the month following ‘Free For All’ and prior to ‘Dance of The Dead’ democracy has been dispensed with. Hence one of the black ballot boxes having found a new use in No.6’s kitchen……. as a waste bin!

    Number 2 has attempted to fix him up with a date with one of three attractive girls. No.6 discovered a dead body, which I believe to be No.34, on the beach, a radio in the dead man’s pocket, and attempted to get a message to someone, anyone in the outside world, and met with an old colleague Roland Walter Dutton. Dutton tells No.6 that he’s been in the village a couple of months, if he’s right then his arrival was only a few days after No.6 arrived. But where has Dutton been all that time? He told No.6 that he had been released for 72 hours {it’s strange how things take place over three days in the village} to reconsider in the peaceful atmosphere of the village. Presumably Dutton has a cottage, but had been held prisoner at the hospital while the doctor-No.40 carried out his experiments on Dutton as he extracted all the information he had. At this point we remember Cobb lying in a bed in the hospital, where No.6 encountered Cobb, apparently having undergone interrogation at the hands of a doctor. Presumably it was much the same for Roland Walter Dutton, except he talked, and told them everything he knew. The only thing we can be sure about Cobb is that he was allowed to leave the village, whereas Dutton no doubt spent the rest of his life in the village dependent on Health and Welfare to look after him, as he obviously was unable to look after himself once the doctor had finished with him!
   Clearly ‘Dance of The Dead’ is about more than Roland Walter Dutton. It’s also the only episode which gives the impression of being female orientated. For the first time No.6 hears word from the outside world, but from someone who appears to have problems of their own.

  “Nowhere is there more beauty than here. Tonight when the moon rises, the whole world will turn to silver. Do you understand, it is important you understand. I have a message for you, you must listen, the appointment cannot be fulfilled. Other things must be done tonight. If our torment is to end, if liberty is to be restored we must grasp the nettle even though it makes our hands bleed. Only through pain can tomorrow be assured.”

    The question is, where is that radio message being transmitted from? Because I am convinced the voice reading that message over the radio is actor Eric Portman-No.2 from ‘Free For All.’ I am also sure that the message was meant for No.34, the dead man found on the beach.

    A number of episodes have a theme running through them. The theme for this episode is clearly death. The death of No.34, No.6 is sentenced to death, and once the body of 34 has been amended, No.6 will lie dead in that little room. And not before too long, he’ll be dead to the rest of the world as well, which appears to have its advantages. Dutton is left brain dead, and no doubt is left to a living death. The original script has a scene in which No.240 and No.6 return to the ballroom leaving No.2 amid the wiring and paper ripped out of the tele-printer by No.6. There is a hectic dance in full swing in the ballroom; No.6 asks 240 “Shall we dance?” Elizabeth the 1^st, Julius Ceaser, and Napoleon are dancing in a ring which is broken to allow 240 and No.6 to join in. Hands join to the quick music. They dance as if the devil is playing, continuing the music faster and faster. Seeing as this episode is all about death, what more fitting an end then than a dance of death, which is documented in my book ‘The Prisoner Dusted Down.’  
    ‘Dance of The Dead’ is obviously a reasonably early episode on the simple grounds that No.6 states “I’m new here.” Also I wanted to put the four episodes filmed partially at Portmeirion first in the series. Whatever happened to that body of No.34 in the mortuary is anyone’s guess. It was supposed to have been amended to turn up in the sea somewhere, so that it’s No.6 who died in an accident at sea. However either the body was washed away at sea, or was never put in the sea in the first place. Because when No.6 finally returns to London in {according to my screening order} ‘Many Happy Returns’ neither the bureaucrat in the office, nor Colonel James or Thorpe appear to know that No.6 is supposed to be dead! But then it’s the same in the television and DVD screening order in which ‘Dance of The Dead’ precedes ‘Do Not Forsake Me Oh My Darling’ by several months when ZM73 returns to London. Janet Portland, Danvers, PR12 or Sir Charles Portland, none of whom are aware that ZM73 is supposed to be dead!

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Thought For The day

    I sometimes I wonder if the right No.2 was selected for the right situation. They certainly seem to have made a mistake with No. 2 of ‘Hammer Into Anvil,’ he was a weak link in the chain of command waiting to be broken. I doubt very much that he would have been any better given any situation. Number 2 of ‘The Chimes of Big Ben’ he was more than capable even to the point of laying his life down for the cause! No.2 of ‘Checkmate’ was a fair administrator, and happy to let others get their hands dirty. Then there’s No. 2 of ‘A B and C,’ and ‘The General’ he was guilty of one thing, underestimating No.6, but on both occasions! ‘It’s Your Funeral’ turned out to be a failure but only because they involved No.6. Other failures for No.2 in ‘Free For All’ despite No.2 being good at manipulating the community. The Schizoid Man’ ‘A Change of Mind, ‘The Girl Who Was Death,’ ‘Living In Harmony,’ ‘Once upon a Time.’ Perhaps if the mix of No.2’s seen in the series were shaken up and a different No.2 selected for a different situation within the 17 episodes, he or she might have faired better. Mind you given the fact that restrictions were placed on No.2 in ‘A B and C’ I cannot see any other No.2 succeeding in that scenario! And of course there is no accounting for the variable known as No.6.

   And yet not all Number 2’s were brought to the village to deal with Number 6, yet they mostly fell foul of him one way or another! Only the lucky few survived with their reputations intact!

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Harmony Posters

    Belle Starr “Queen of the Oklahoma Outlaws” She was born Myra Maybelle Shirley on February 5^th 1848 in Carthage, Missouri, she died on February 3^rd 1889 at the age of 40 near King Creek, Oklahoma. The cause of death, she was shot!

    Belle associated with the James–Younger gang and other outlaws. She was convicted of horse theft in 1883. She was fatally shot in 1889 in a case that is still officially unsolved. Her story was popularized by Richard K. Fox the editor and publisher of the National Police Gazette, and she later became a popular character in television and movies.

    She knew the Youngers and the James boys because she had grown up with them in Missouri.

    Belle always harboured a strong sense of style, which fed into her later legend. A crack shot, she used to ride side-saddle while dressed in a black velvet riding habit and a plumed hat, carrying two pistols, with cartridge belts across her hips.

    It was alleged that Belle was briefly married for three weeks to Charles Younger, uncle of Cole Younger in 1878, but this is not substantiated by any evidence. In 1880, she married a Cherokee man named Sam Starr and settled with the Starr family in the Indian Territory. There, she learned ways of organizing, planning and fencing for the rustlers, horse thieves and bootleggers, as well as harbouring them from the law. Belle's illegal enterprises proved lucrative enough for her to employ bribery to free her cohorts from the law whenever they were caught.

    In 1883, Belle and Sam Starr were arrested by Bass Reeves, charged with horse theft and tried before “The Hanging Judge” Isaac Parker in Fort Smith, Arkansas; the prosecutor was United States Attorney W.H.H. Clayton. She was found guilty and served nine months at the Detroit House of Corrections, Detroit, Michigan. Belle proved to be a model prisoner, and during her time in jail, she won the respect of the prison matron. In 1886, she eluded conviction on another theft charge, but on December 17, Sam Starr was involved in a gunfight with Officer Frank West. Both men were killed, and Belle's life as an outlaw queen, and what had been the happiest relationship of her life, abruptly ended with her husband's death.

   For the last two-plus years of her life, gossips and scandal sheets linked her to a series of men with colourful names, including Jack Spaniard, Jim French and Blue Duck, after which, in order to keep her residence on Indian land, she eventually married Jim Starr a relative of Sam Starr.

    On February 3^rd 1889, two days before her 41st birthday, she was killed. She was riding home from a neighbour’s house in Eufaula, Oklahoma when she was ambushed. After she fell off her horse, she was shot again to make sure she was dead. Her death resulted from shotgun wounds to the back and neck and in the shoulder and face. Legend says she was shot with her own double barrelled shotgun.

According to Frank “Pistol Pete” Eaton, her death was due to different circumstances. She had been attending a dance. Frank Eaton had been the last person to dance with Belle Starr when Edgar Watson, clearly intoxicated, had asked to dance with her. When Belle Starr declined, he later followed her. When on the way home, she stopped to give her horse a drink at a creek, he shot and killed her. According to Frank Eaton, Watson was tried, convicted and executed by hanging for the murder. And yet another story says that there were no witnesses and that no one ever was convicted of the murder. Suspects with apparent motive included her new husband and both of her children as well as Edgar J. Watson, one of her sharecroppers because he was afraid she was going to turn him in to the authorities as an escaped murderer from Florida with a price on his head. Watson, who was killed in 1910, was tried for her murder, but was acquitted, and the ambush has entered Western lore as unsolved. One source suggests her son, whom she had allegedly beaten for mistreating her horse, may have been her killer.

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Who’s That On The Telephono?

    “Hello are you there?.........Yes I’m sorry I took so long to telephone you Number Two.......................yes well I couldn’t make up my mind which coloured telephone to use.................yes I realize that, that you have three coloured telephones to choose from and that makes the choice more difficult for you.....................well in the end I chose the grey telephone.....................I have two telephones, and curiously they are both grey in colour!.........................Yes I will………I’ll get the report to you straight away.

    He thinks I’m an idiot, but at least I’m not completely round the bend like someone I could mention!

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Harmony Posters

     A Representation of the framed poster of ‘The Adams Express Company’ as seen hanging on the wall in the Silver Dollar Saloon in ‘Living In Harmony.’

    Adams Express had its beginnings in 1840, when 36 year old Alvin Adams (1804-1877) began personal delivery of securities, documents, and parcels between the financial centres of Boston and New York. Adams took in Ephraim Farnsworth as a partner to run his New York office, and on Farnsworth's death took in William Dinsmore as partner. They expanded their business, but nevertheless limited it to New York, New London, Norwich, Worcester, and Boston.

    During its early years it was known as Adams & Company's Express, Adams & Company and Adams Package Express, probably in agreement with the various partnerships.

    In 1854, the business was incorporated as the Adams Express Company, consolidating Adams & Company, Harnden & Company, Thompson & Company, and Kinsley & Company, with Alvin Adams as President. Apparently the Harnden portion of Adams Express business operations retained its company name as late as 1871.

    Following its incorporation, the company expanded rapidly, first through the south and southwest, and in 1870 to the west coast. It was soon one of the "big three" among the express companies, Wells Fargo and American Express being the others.

    During the Civil War Adams Express Company initially acted as paymaster for both the Union and Confederate armies. Later, it set up a separate wholly-owned company, Southern Express, to handle payments to Southern troops. Reportedly, at least one slave was shipped north to Philadelphia in a box as a way for his master to free him.

    By the 1880s, the Company had nearly 8,000 employees, and was operating over 20,000 miles of railroad track, and had offices all around the United States and in most of the major cities in Europe.
  

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A Second Term In office

    The red ‘L’ shaped intercom began to bleep, No.2, who had been contemplating his future walked over to his desk and picked up the bleeping intercom. He paused for a moment before he spoke.

    “Number 2 here…….yes sir I realize that sir, but things got out of hand……….well I realize that sir………my future sir, as a matter of fact I have been giving that some thought……………..you want me to remain here sir for a second term in office………..I see sir, there isn’t time to bring a new Number 2 to the village in time……well I will sir, thank you sir.

    “Where am I?”

    “In the village.”

    “What do you want?”

    “Information, information, information.”

    “You won’t get it.”

    “By hook or by crook we will.”

    “Who are you?”

    “I am the new Number 2.”

    “Who is Number 1?”

    “You are Number 6.”

    “I am not a number, I am a free man!”

    “Yes, yes, yes we’ve heard it all so many times before. I expect you’re thinking I want to know why you resigned, I know why you resigned. For peace of mind, because too many people know too much blah, blah, blah! Let me tell you I do not care a fig about why you resigned, so you can tell it to the judge for all I care…..oh but you did, didn’t you. Then you trapped Number 1 in a rocket, launched the damned thing, and managed to escape in the chaos. But where did that get you, right back here that’s where, and there’s no escape this time. Forgetting the events of ‘Fall Out,’ the last time you attempted to escape was by the motor ship Polotska. You even managed to recruit a number of co-conspirators, and you still failed. See, I have read your file. So seeing as we are no longer interested in the reason why you resigned, you can resign yourself to living out the rest of your life in peace and quiet here in the village. Now get out.”

    No.6 remained seated in the black leather chair, he had never been dismissed like that before. He was used to being the centre of attention.

    “What is it you want? He demanded to know.

    “From you….nothing but to leave my office.”

    “Where do I go?”

    “To your cottage, it has been made ready for you.”

    “What am I expected to do?”   

    “Nothing, just settle down and live out the rest of your life.”

    “Has it begun all over again?”

    “Has what begun all over again?”

    “Why you had me brought back here.”

    “You came back here because you couldn’t keep away. Going about shouting your mouth off about the village to anyone who would listen, and demanding compensation, you had to be brought back just to shut you up!”

    “Get Number 1.”

    No.2 looked at the Prisoner from the relative comfort of his chair “Number 1……oh yes, you can’t. He died on impact after the rocket re-entered the Earth’s atmosphere.”

    “There must be a Number 1 get him!”

    “There is no Number 1, I’m in charge now. So get used to it, and out of my office Number 6, you’re no longer important to us.”

    No.6 cut a lonely figure as he made his way down the steps, across the street, across the square, and back to his cottage. The door opened and he found a housemaid flicking a yellow dusted about the place.

    “Aren’t you wasting your time!”

    The housemaid-No.66 looked at him “What do you mean?”

    “There’s no dust in here. You are no longer required, get out” he told her.

    No.66 left the cottage in a huff, dropping the yellow duster as she went, the door closing automatically behind her, leaving No.6 to settle into his home from home.

    In the Control Room No.2 and the bald-headed Supervisor-No.28 stood watching No.6 on the wall screen.

    “Do you think he’ll be as much trouble a second time round?” asked the Supervisor.

    “He’s not so important this time, and he knows there’s no point in rebelling, or trying to escape, or to cause any kind of trouble, or to go about poking his nose into things which are none of his concern.”

    “Pity” was all the Supervisor said.

    “Pity, why pity?”

    “It’s going to be rather quiet in the village without Number 6 and his antics!”

    No.2 threw the Supervisor a quizzical look “You want him to try and escape. Or you wish I had some cunning and elaborate plan to implement against Number 6.”

    “No not really” the Supervisor said “but you have to admit, as all of your predecessors would agree, he’s been our most interesting prisoner. There’s never been anyone quite like him before or since.”

    “A pretty speech indeed, however one should be most careful about what you wish for……you might receive it!”

    No.2 walked across the Control Room floor to the steel steps leading up to the mezzanine level, “if you want me you know where I am.”

    No.2 climbed the steps using the umbrella shooting stick as a walking stick, the pair of steel doors were already opening, they closed behind him with a resounding clang.

    No.6 prowled his cottage like a caged tiger, every so often he would pause and glance out of the window. He could see citizens promenading around in the Piazza. Two white Mini-Mokes drove slowly round, and an elderly chap pushed a Penny Farthing bicycle making no attempt to ride it. From what he could see nothing had changed since he was last here, the same old faces, the same people doing exactly the same thing. Suddenly quiet, gentle music began to play through the black loudspeaker. It was playing in order to try and calm him. There was no on/off switch, and he remembered that trampling the thing to bits under foot made no difference, but then he recalled putting the speaker in the fridge did do the trick. He did so, and the music stopped. Then the door to his cottage opened and the housemaid in her dark blue dress, white frilly apron, and white sailor’s cap stood framed in the doorway.

    “What have you come back for?” he shouted.

    “I forgot……” she started pointing at the yellow duster lying on the floor.

    “Yes I bet you did, deliberately on purpose no doubt.”

    “Who says?” No.66 asked somewhat sternly.

    “On your way out don’t forget what you came back for!”

    “What did you come back for?” she asked stooping to pick up the duster.

    “Because this room is the only place I can ever go, either here or in London.”

    “London, how is London?”

    “About the same.”

    “Yes, places don’t change….only people.”

    “That’s rather philosophical for a Tuesday” he told her.

    “Be seeing you.”

    The door to the cottage closed.

    “Not if I see you first!” he said under his breath.

    The next day in the village was much like any other day, it could have been yesterday, it might have been tomorrow, but it was today. And as usual the ice cream flavour of the day was strawberry. The Tally Ho broadsheet was on sale, the headline read “New Concert Hall To Be Built.” No.6 wasn’t interested, to be perfectly honest when push comes to shove he wasn’t interested in very much at all. He went on his daily stroll around the village. He climbed the Bell Tower, played chess with some old chap at the Old People’s Home, he had a coffee at the café. Bought a bag of sweets for a little old lady, then sat on a bench in the Piazza contemplating the free sea. There were two men fighting in the pool, another chap wearing a straw boater and piped blazer sat in a dingy pulled along by another chap at the end of a long rope. He wore sunglasses and a colourful striped jersey. Two burly set guardians came along and broke up the fight, the two wet men were manhandled out of the pool and frogmarched away. The young man in sunglasses and striped jersey let go of the rope and started splashing about in the free sea, then stepping out of the pool began to dodge about. The command “Be still” came from the public address system. Then the young man stood still, then backed away as the white amorphous Guardian appeared, it gave a sound like something crossed between a bicycle pump, someone breathing through an aqualung, and Gregorian chant. Then the thing floated down from the top of the Gloriette and was on the young man in an instant. The Guardian covered its prey’s face, hands clawed at the membrane as he fought to breathe, he screamed, his lungs bursting for lack of air. Finally the hands fell away, and the body of the young man fell back limp and lifeless. The Guardian moved off along the Piazza, down the steps and across the lawn. An ambulance turned up, two male orderlies alighted and picking up the body placed it in the Red Cross trailer, who then climbed back into the white Mini-Moke and drove away.

    “What was that?” a man asked.

    “That” said another “was a warning to those with a mind to step out of line.”

    No.6 sat watching the man on a bench on the opposite side of the Piazza. The man opposite saw No.6 looking at him, he shifted his position and went back to reading his copy of The Tally Ho, so he did not see No.6 stand up and walk away.

    “I thought it was you Chambers.”

    “The man put down his newspaper and looked at the man sat next to him.

    “You didn’t keep our appointment.”

    “I wanted to.”   

    “You went over!”

    “No.”

    “What then?”

    “Who do you think you are to be questioning me?” I suppose Number 2 sent you to spy on me.”

    “No.

    “What are you doing here anyway?”

    “I resigned the job, and before I know it I’m waking up in this place.”

    “You honestly expect me to believe that?”

    “It’s true.”

    “But you were always so loyal, about to marry the boss’s daughter.”

    “Circumstances alter cases. But what about you, you sold out, I was going to try and make you change your mind.”

    “I went home from work, packed two suitcases, the next thing I know I’m waking up in what I thought was my own home. I was here.”

    “Cobb was here as well.”

    “Was?”

    “He jumped from a window at the hospital, he’s buried in the graveyard!”

    “So what now?”

    “What do you suggest, we go and put flowers on his grave?”

    “I didn’t think you were quite so sentimental.

    “Cobb was a good man, there are few of us left.”

    “Yes and we all seem to end up here in the……the village. All we want is for Dutton to put in an appearance and have a full house!”

    “Dutton, he’s not here is he?”

    “No, no I don’t think so. They were working on some poor blighter in the hospital, a nasty looking doctor who gave the appearance that he would go to any lengths in order to test a man’s breaking point. So how do we get out of this place?”

    “We don’t, there is no way out. We are here for the duration.”

    “You seem very sure of that.”

    “I am. Unless you have someone on the outside who knows where we are, get used to the village, you’ll be here for a very long time.”

    “Well I suppose if you can’t escape, then no-one can.”

    “Oh I escaped alright, but then I came back.”

    “You mean you were brought back.”

    “No.”

    “Well if you’ll excuse me” Chambers said folding his newspaper “I’ve a suitcase to pack.”

    “Why where are you going?”

    “They’re letting me go, I’m going back to the Foreign Office. I’ve no doubt Cobb went back to work for his new masters. But of course you ZM73, you have no job to go back to, seeing as you resigned!”

    “Cobb?”

    “The next time someone commits suicide by jumping out of a hospital window, I’d have a look if I were you, just to make sure. Be seeing you.”

   Be seeing you

The 2020 Prisoner Calendar {Unofficial}

Compliments of the season 

Reverse side picture an aerial view of the village/Portmeirion

Please print off should you wish and enjoy throughout the coming year.

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