Comments on: The Prisoner – The Chimes of Big Ben https://visualmutterings.com/the-prisoner-the-chimes-of-big-ben Archive television thoughts Fri, 12 Jun 2020 17:32:34 +0000 hourly 1 By: Anonymous https://visualmutterings.com/the-prisoner-the-chimes-of-big-ben#comment-106 Wed, 11 Mar 2015 09:02:48 +0000 http://visualmutterings.com/the-prisoner-the-chimes-of-big-ben#comment-106 I thought this episode, being second, was brilliant because it established that Number 6 is intelligent, proactive, and was damned good at his job as a spy if he notices something as small as the number of chimes by Big Ben. It shows Number 6 is not just being petty when he takes 3 lumps of sugar or commits other small acts of defiance … he's doing his best to keep them all off balance. We needed that because the only thing we saw in "Arrival" was that he was contrary and could pilot a helicopter and be fooled by a former co-spy. NOW, he's a man to be reckoned with.

I had missed the point you caught about the portrait of Number 2 being in the background of Number 6's art piece. Interesting.

Leo McKern (Rumpole of the Bailey) was a very effective Number 2, and probably came closer than anyone to getting Number 6 to reveal all. It's probably why he's the only one who came back. (Note: one other Number 2 was in two episodes, but my DVD box set has the two episodes in the wrong order. Be sure you watch them in the right order because in the second, they altered the opening credits again to avoid the "The new Number 2" line, since he wasn't new.)

I was never certain it WAS one side or the other which ran The Village. I got the feeling The Village was run by someone like The Illuminati or some other non-governmental organization which wanted to control everything. Of course, the finale of the series cancels all bets, but I always treated The Village as being run by some independent outfit.

One more note: I'll be curious to see your reaction to a later episode which seemed to indicate that, if not engaged, Number 6 was in a serious relationship with someone. I suspect there were more than a few continuity errors because McGoohan wanted to make only 7 (maybe 10) episodes but the network wanted more and eventually got 17. Adding those extra episodes probably added some conflicting details, like his girlfriend.

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