Monday 5 March 2012

A Quiet Chat

   It was only the other day that I learned of the death of actor Dennis Chinnery, who played Ernst in the episode Many Happy Retruns, and so far I have not been able to find an obituary for him, perhaps it's early days and one will appear in a newspaper, or perhaps The Stage.
    At the end of this month there's the Prisoner Convention at Portmeirion, March thirtieth to April the first. I don't think I'll be attending, as Prisoner conventions these days are not what they once were, and besides I'm no longer a member of Six of one: The Prisoner Appreciation Society. I could go to Portmeirion and simply see the out-door events, it would be a day out I suppose. It's been a while since I was at Portmeirion, I might even meet people I know there.
   But more importantly for me, I will be watching THEPRIS6NER-09 in April so to celebrate the third anniversary of the series. I wonder how many other fans of the Prisoner will be doing that, not too many I suppose. I have been a fan of the original series for 45 years now, and although I enjoy the series, having watched it countless times, THEPRIS6NER-09 came like a breath of fresh air to me, and it is a series which many fans of the original cannot find appreciation for. I don't know why not, as THEPRIS6NER-09 contains much of the old series, but reinvented. Of course the new series could never hope to live up to that of the original series, it could only try, and in my book Bill Gallager did an excellent job with the script.
   Later in the year, starting in October, I'll be watching the original series of the Prisoner to celebrate the forty-fifth anniversary. I know that in the past fans have messed about with the screening order, suggesting that this episode should go before that episode and so on. But for me the screening order in which the series comes on both television, Video, and DVD is good enough for me. Although I have once watched the series starting and ending with Fall Out, and for me it worked.
    Like my mate "Stimpy" Stimpson, that's David to you, I've had Number Six on my mind for the past fourteen days, while he has been at sea aboard his raft. He set sail on February 20th after first constructing his sea-going raft, and is keeping a "school boy" log, which goes only as far as the eighteenth day. Yes I know, Number Six confirmed that he spent twenty-five days at sea, perhaps he was to exhausted to maintain the log after the eighteenth day! I had Number Six especially on my mind yesterday, with the report that a meteor having been seen in the sky recently, which might have come to Earth in the Bay of Biscay......Number Six is somewhere in the Atlantic, of which the Bay of Biscay is part. It would be a terrible thing if Number Six, having gone to so much trouble, and having to endure such a journey at sea, was sunk by a meterorite hitting his raft! I'll leave you with that thought.

I'm Johnny Prisoner
   

Obsevers Of Life Should Never Get Involved!

    I've been making several observations on the matter of the Prisoner begining with the Town of Harmony, which if it had been a real Wild West town of America in the 1800's would have been placed in the state of California. How am I able to do this, well it's all thanks to Joaquin!
   In A,B,C if there had been a picture in the 'C' box file as there had in both 'A' and 'B', then the photograph would have been of Engadine.
    Whatever the village is, it is more than a helicopter flight away. The mention of a "quick flip in the helicopter to the landing stage" by No.2 during The Schizoid Man is an indication of a known fact.
    You will have observed that the Tally Ho is issued daily at in the village. However during the episode of A Change of Mind there are two issues of the Tally Ho newspaper. In fact A Change of Mind is the only episode to have two issues of the Tally Ho, on different days of course.
    The painter, we see has clearly been taking his time painting that wall in Checkmate, seems to have been making the job hang out! Just as well he wasn't asked to paint it again, or was he?
    No gardener appears to mow the lawns, or trim the hedges. They just fiddle about in the flower beds! Perhaps Sir Clough Williams-Ellis wouldn't let them do more than that during filming at Portmeirion!
    In his cottage the Prisoner smashed that black loudspeaker under foot on the day of his arrival in the village. Yet the music played on, liked piped music you hear, but cannot switch off in supermarkets. However by the time of The Chimes of Big Ben No.6 has found a more subtle way of dealing with the annoying programme of early morning music, by placing the speaker in the refrigerator. Thus rendering peace and quiet to '6 private,' which was not the case in Arrival.
   Tea features strongly in the episode of A Change of Mind, as No.6 cannot stand girls who can't make a descent cup of tea. But why warm the pot "always?" Well it certainly has nothing to do with improving the flavour of the brew. Tea doesn't taste all the better for warming the pot first. No, it has to do with the tea pot and boiling water. Because if you pour boiling water straight into a cold porcelain or ceramic tea pot, the boiling water will cause the pot to crack. So "warming the pot always" guards aginst the tea pot from cracking. Simple and foolproof!
    No.6 drinks tea when he is at home, but at either the cafe or on the lawn of the old peoples home he drinks coffee.
    Since his arrival in the village No.6 has reverted back to taking sugar. This after No.6 gave up sugar four years and three months ago on medical grounds. It seems that No.6 is afraid of nothing. Not putting on weight, nor of being reduced, not of diabetes.

I'm Johnny Prisoner