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The Prisoner
"Many Happy Returns"
TV episode
Written by Anthony Skene
Directed by Patrick McGoohan (as Joseph Serf)
Original air date: November 10, 1967 |
Number 6 wakes up to a deserted Village and immediately escapes
via an arduous raft voyage on the sea back to England.
Read the complete story summary at Wikipedia
Notes from the Prisoner chronology
This is the last escape attempt from the Village made by Number 6 in
the series (except for the final episode of the series). He actually returns successfully to
England and
spends at least a couple of days there, reunited with the
Colonel and a former agent friend, Thorpe. They set about
finding the location of the Village in order to shut it down,
but he has been tricked...they trick him back into the Village.
Number 6 must have come to the realization that he cannot escape
surveillance even if he physically escapes the Village, and from
this point on, he seems to work solely on undermining the
powers-that-be from within the Village, leading into the
Be Seeing You portion of PopApostle's Prisoner
chronology.
Didja Know?
The title of this episode is borrowed from the greeting "many
happy returns" used on birthdays or the celebration of the new
year. Number 6's birthday occurs in this episode.
Georgina Cookson, who plays Mrs. Butterworth/Number 2 here, also
appeared in a minor role as a "blonde lady" in
"A, B, and C".
In "A(r)rival", she is mentioned in
a report as Division Director-ret. of MI-5;
MI5 is the UK's domestic intelligence service, possibly the same
organization that Number 6 worked for before his resignation.
Patrick Cargill plays Number 6's former agent friend Thorpe here and
will later play Number 2 in "Hammer Into Anvil". It's not clear
whether they are intended to be the same person.
Didja Notice?
A male voice is heard for Number 2 in the opening titles of this
episode, even though a female Number 2 (Mrs. Butterworth) is
seen at the end of the episode. The male must have been the
person in the position when Number 6 went to bed the previous
night and the woman took over the next day, unbeknownst to
Number 6 until the end of the episode. The male voice is actor
Robert Rietti.
When Number 6 awakens to find the utilities off and the Village
deserted, notice that the front door of his apartment does not
open by itself and does not make the usual electronic opening
and closing sounds.
Two empty milk bottles are seen outside Number 6's door.
Apparently the Village (normally) has its own milkman!
The black cat from
"Dance of the Dead" makes a
return appearance in this episode.
At 6:10 on the Blu-ray, the clock on the Village bell tower
appears to read about 12:40. Is this intended to be the actual
time? It seems it would be much earlier than that if Number 6
has just got up from bed for the day (unless he's a late
sleeper, which is definitely not the indication in other
episodes). Does the clock actually work or is it perpetually
stuck on that time?
Number 6 drives one of the Village taxis to the outer edge of
the Village grounds and finds a seemingly unscalable mountain
range, preventing his escape over land.
As Number 6 readies his raft at 8:50 on the Blu-ray, notice that
there appears to be a boat tunnel in the hillside in the
background. Or maybe it's just a bridge on the land?
When Number 6 is in the Village store taking
supplies, notice there is a small spinner rack of postcards on
the counter. We don't get a clear view of the postcard images,
but they appear to be photos of the Village. Why would anyone need
them? I don't imagine the town's guests are allowed to mail them
out to friends and relatives in the rest of the world!
A rack of musical record albums is visible
behind the counter. A recording company header on the rack has
the slogan "The greatest recording organization in the world",
with the recording company's logo (EMI)
obviously covered over with a label for Village Foods! The
titles of three of the record albums are legible: The Fabulous
Victoria de Los Angeles, Four Saints in Three Acts
and It's Right Here for You.
The Fabulous Victoria de Los Angeles UK edition was
released in 1961 and featured a number of songs sung by the
Spanish operatic lyric soprano Victoria de los Ángeles. Four
Saints in Three Acts was a 1934 American opera by Virgil
Thomson with Gertrude Stein (this album was released in 1964).
It's Right Here for You is a 1961 jazz album by Alex
Welsh.
A simple red on yellow poster above the music rack
features the words "music says all" in the standard Village
font.
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At 10:20 on the Blu-ray, the black cat has seemingly
broken a cup and saucer on a table outside the Village
retirement home. It seems highly unlikely the cat could
have done such a thorough job of shattering it without
at least knocking it off the table to the ground. Did
something else break it? If so, who? How was it done
without being seen? Maybe a gun with a silencer would do
it, but wouldn't the shattering china scare away the cat? Did the
cat, angry at Number 6's preparations to leave the
Village shatter them with telekinesis?! Recall that Number 6
was kind to her in
"Dance of the Dead",
feeding her and even letting her sleep on his bed.
Recall also that it was Number 2's cat at the time and
even seemingly had teleportational abilities, depicted
at the same time on Number 6's bed in his apartment and
on Number 2's desk back at the green dome! And is there
a significance to the broken china here and the saucer
Number 6 breaks in "Arrival"
when he slams his fist on his boss's desk as he resigns? |
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When Number 6 opens the camera he used to take photos of the
Village, we see that it is, of course, loaded with film labeled
"Village Films". And when he makes his own magnetized compass,
he uses Village Needles!
When Number 6 prepares his homemade compass while out at sea,
it's obvious that he's actually in very shallow water.
At 11:27 on the Blu-ray, we can see that Number 6 used a Gem
Fine Writer pen to draw a dial for his compass. He also uses
this pen to keep his diary of the voyage.
The headline of the Tally Ho newspaper Number 6 brings
on his voyage is "What are facts behind Town Hall?"
Is Number 6 a litterbug? On Day 5 of his raft voyage, while he
eats meat out of a can, there is a yellow piece of trash
floating in the sea behind him!
From his diary entries, we see that Number 6 spent at least 18
days at sea. Later, when Number 6 has been reunited with his
former agency colleagues it is claimed that he spent 25 days at
sea.
The gunrunners' boat in this episode is actually the same boat
that was the MS Polotska in
"Checkmate". Was this just a convenience by the series
producers to use the same boat? Or does it mean that the
gunrunners were actually just acting for the powers-that-be of
the Village? And if it was the same boat, wouldn't Number 6 have
been observant enough to notice that?
The cans of Village Food are rearranged when
the smuggler enters the bridge of the boat
at the top of the stairs
from what they were just seconds before when he started
up the stairs.
One of the cans looks like a disguised can of
Spam.
At 14:27 on the Blu-ray, notice that the smugglers have a number
of female pin-up pictures hanging on the wall in the storage
room of the boat.
Before noticing the kitchen smoke created by Number 6, the two
smugglers on the bridge of the boat are seen drinking
Mataxa, a
Greek spirit of wine distillates.
The "captain" of the gunrunner boat seems to be named Gunther,
called that by his single crewmember. In fact, the
script of the episode identifies the smugglers as Gunther and
Ernst.
At 15:53 on the Blu-ray, Gunther smells the smoke from the
kitchen and says something to Ernst in German. He says it too
quickly to make out.
At 16:03 on the Blu-ray, Ernst says, "Gunther! Wo bist du?" This
is German for "Gunther! Where are you?"
During Number 6's fight with the gunrunners, there are several
moments when the "foggy" background clearly has wrinkles in it!
Arriving on land and encountering some Gypsies, the Gypsy group argues
among themselves, presumably in Romany (Gypsy).
At 25:48 on the Blu-ray, Number 6 steals away on a Netco truck.
As far as I can tell, Netco is a fictitious company for the
time.
When Number 6 jumps out of the Netco truck, he's in
London, in
front of the
Marble Arch at the end junction of Park Lane and
Oxford Street. The arch was originally the front entrance to
Buckingham Palace. He has exited very near his own former London
house at 1 Buckingham Place!
A London Transport (now known as
Transport for
London) double-decker bus passes behind Number 6 at 26:34 on
the Blu-ray. An advertisement for
Typhoo
tea is seen on it. An
Odeon
cinema is seen in the background as well.
At 26:57 on the Blu-ray, Number 6 walks by the
Wellington Arch
in
Hyde Park. Seconds later, he spins around to see a
couple taking a photo in front of the Royal Artillery Memorial.
At 27:22 on the Blu-ray, Number 6 walks past a stylized statue
of a stag which was formerly situated near Victoria Station from
1963-1997.
At 27:52 on the Blu-ray, an
Esso gas
station is seen in the distance, just around the corner from
Number 6's London house at 1 Buckingham Place. Across the
way, Boebuck House is seen (probably an apartment building).
Any true Prisoner fan notices right away, of course,
that Mrs. Butterworth is driving Number 6's old Lotus Seven.
Number 6 tells Mrs. Butterworth the engine number of KAR-120C is
461043TZ. This same number is used in the
Big Finish audio drama remake of The Prisoner
in the
episode "I Met A Man Today".
Number 6 tells Mrs. Butterworth his name is Peter Smith. The
plainness of the name and the slight hesitation he gives when he
says it suggests he made it up, but it's possible it's his real
name.
Mrs. Butterworth tells Number 6 the current date is Saturday,
March 18. He tells her tomorrow is his birthday. He also stated
this date as his birthday in
"Arrival".
March 18 did fall on a Saturday in 1967 and the series
was filmed in 1966-67. But
"The Schizoid Man"
has an in-episode date of Wednesday, February 10, which only
occurs in 1965 or 1971 as far as any year close to when the series
was shot goes.
Notice that Mrs. Butterworth appears to keep a plant in the
fireplace!
Mrs. Butterworth claims that her late husband Arthur (presumably
Butterworth) was in the Royal Navy. Might he be the same Arthur
mentioned by Dutton to Number 6 in
"Dance of the Dead"?
I suppose not, since it would seem that Number 6 knew who that
Arthur was and should have recognized the photo of him on the
mantle here.
The actress (Grace Arnold) who plays Mrs. Butterworth's maid,
Martha, later plays Number 36 in "It's Your Funeral". Is it
meant to be the same character each time?
Mrs. Butterworth tells Number 6 the estate agents who sold her
his house were Stumbell and Croydon. This appears to be a
fictitious company.
As Number 6 borrows back his Lotus from Mrs. Butterworth, she
tells him, "Don't forget to come back! I might even bake you a
birthday cake." When Number 6 is tricked back to the Village at
the end of the episode, Mrs. Butterworth, now the new Number 2,
brings him a home-baked birthday cake.
When Number 6 returns to his former employer's office, the map
of the world behind the bureaucrat's desk
has several pinpoints lit by white or red lights. What do the
lights represent? Trouble spots?
The bureaucrat is once again played
by George Markstein, script editor for
most of the episodes of the series. He is the same bureaucrat
seen in
"Arrival" and in the opening credits
of most episodes of the series.
Safely in London, Number 6 works with a man called the Colonel
and an agent named Thorpe to track down the location of the
Village.
The Colonel's office and patio appears to be the same set used
as the garden in "The General".
Looking at the photos of the Village that were developed from
Number 6's camera, Thorpe remarks it looks like a "holiday
resort" and he wouldn't mind a fortnight's
leave there! Of course, the village of Portmeirion where the
Village exteriors were shot is a holiday resort! And perhaps what happened when we find Thorpe
(or at least the same actor!) as Number 2 in
"Hammer Into Anvil" is...he
spent a fortnight as Number 2!
Number 6 tells the Colonel that the Tally Ho was issued
daily at noon in the Village.
Number 6 states that the Village town council is democratically
elected (allegedly) once a year.
Number 6 tells Thorpe that no names were used in the Village,
just numbers. But this is not entirely true. Several former
acquaintances of his from the outside world were known by name.
And he also made friends with a couple of women there (who later
betrayed him) whom he addressed by first name, even though they
also had numbers.
Thorpe tells Number 6 that he tells a yarn that Hans Christian
Andersen would reject for a fairy tale. Andersen (1805-1875) was
a Danish writer who wrote numerous fairy tales that have become
known around the world.
The Colonel instructs Thorpe to check out every single detail of
Number 6's story. At 39:43 on the Blu-ray, we see a man
questioning Mrs. Butterworth about the help she gave to him in
her home. But if she and Thorpe and the Colonel are already in
on the scam (as indicated later in the episode) with the powers-that-be, why would she actually be
questioned?
As the agency begins helping Number 6 backtrack his course to
discover the location of the Village, a Royal Navy commander
(you can tell the rank by the sleeve badge) tells him they estimate his
raft was travelling at an average speed of 3.5 knots with good
wind. A knot is one nautical mile per hour (about 1.151 miles
per hour).
The man who stands next to the Royal Navy commander appears to
be a Royal Air Force captain. He estimates that Number 6
travelled 1,750 miles at sea on his raft.
Although the spot is not named in the episode, the beach where
Number 6 came ashore after his escape from the gunrunners was
Beachy Head. At 41:46 in the episode, the RAF captain places
his compass at approximately the correct spot on the world map
for Beachy Head as he draws a search perimeter for the location
of the Village.
Number 6 and his cohorts allegedly locate the Village off the
coast of Morocco, southwest of Portugal and Spain. Yet
"The Chimes of Big Ben"
implied the Village was on the coast of Lithuania, just 30 miles
from the Polish border; but that claim came from Number 6's
co-conspirator Nadia, who was later found to be working for the
Village, so it might have been possible to fool him during the
rigged breakout as to their location upon escape. But then again,
"Fall
Out" suggests the Village is on the coast of England.
At 42:48 on the Blu-ray, a milk float drives by with the slogan
sign "Pinta Man Is Strong". "Pinta Man" was part of an
advertising campaign for milk used in Great Britain in the 1960s. In
the ads, Pinta Man was accompanied by the slogan, "Drinka Pinta
Milka Day".
The airfield scenes in this episode were shot at Chalgrove
Airfield in Oxfordshire, an airfield in use by Martin-Baker
Aircraft Company, a manufacturer of ejection seats and safety
equipment. The jet Number 6 and pilot fly off in, a Gloster
Meteor was provided to the production by Martin-Baker.
At the airfield, the RAF captain gets off the phone and says the
clearance has come through for refueling at Gibraltar.
Gibraltar is a British territory on the tip of the Iberian
peninsula of Spain. There is an RAF station there.
Number 6 refers to the Colonel as James.
The car Thorpe and the Colonel race off in is a
Rolls-Royce.
At 45:42 on the Blu-ray, Number 6 and the pilot spot the Village
from the air. It seems pretty clear the Village is not on an
island, or, if it is, it's a fairly large one with other roads
and buildings spread out on it that Number 6 has never seen
before.
At 46:05 on the Blu-ray, we see that the pilot is clearly not
the RAF captain Number 6 had been working with and who was
suiting up to fly the plane for the search for the Village. The
pilot is the milkman instead! Obviously he was planted by the
powers-that-be. Does this mean the RAF captain was not in on the
whole thing? On the other hand, he did tell Number 6 he would be
ready in a minute as Number 6 walks out of the kitting-out room,
giving the milkman a chance to slip into place instead. In fact,
it's not clear whether the Colonel, Thorpe and the Navy
commander were in on it or not, though someone who may be Thorpe
(the same actor) is the new Number 2 in
"Hammer Into Anvil". If any of the four were not in on it from
the beginning, they learned a lot about the existence of the
Village; this may mean they would have to be either killed or
sent to the Village themselves to keep them quiet!
When Number 6 walks off the beach back into the Village, the
black cat is sitting at the same table with the broken china,
watching him, as if it has been sitting there waiting for the
past month!
Mrs. Butterworth, appearing as Number 2 at the end of the
episode, is wearing a white-on-black badge instead of the
standard black-on-white with red number used by every other
Number 2 on the series.
At the end of the episode, the Butler is seen with his
black-and-white umbrella open. There seems to be a tendency that
when this occurs, a turning point between
Number 6 and the powers-that-be has just occurred.
