Vicious Circle

For a long time now I have thought of 'The Prisoner' as a vicious circle, there is no beginning, no ending. There is only 'The Prisoner'. A clap of thunder, a green and yellow sports car hurtles down an empty road, and so The Prisoner begins.

We are all aware of what follows after The Prisoner resigns, right up to the point in 'Fall Out' where the butler enters the Prisoner's home and the Prisoner drives off in his green and yellow sports car. We see one word on the screen 'PRISONER'! And so it all begins once more. A clap of thunder, a green and yellow sports car hurtles down an empty road etc, etc, etc. In fact it reminds me of a ghost story called ' Midnight Express'.

The ghost story commences with �"It was a book bound in red buckram" � and ended with the words � "It was a book bound in red buckram". The ghost story, 'Midnight Express' was written by Alfred Noyes and like The Prisoner, 'Midnight Express' has no beginning and no ending. Still, there you go, reading a ghost story into The Prisoner! But of course, you can compare The Prisoner to almost anything, and almost anything to The Prisoner.

But I digress, where was I? Oh yes, a vicious circle! I began to ask myself, can a vicious circle be broken? And if it can, how could Number Six break his vicious circle? And then of course, if Number Six did break the vicious circle (The Prisoner) what would happen? Well, I can hear you all saying, the series would have to come to an abrupt end.

Okay, forget all that for a moment, Number Six's chance (his best chance) came, I believe in 'Many Happy returns. Having escaped from the village, Number Six arrived in London. And this is where he did something very stupid indeed. Number Six jumped out of the back of a lorry! He landed in the middle of a road in London, he could have been run over by a bus! And that would have ended the series!

But Number Six was not run over (it wasn't in the script!), he arrived outside his old home. Okay, I suppose I would have done the same. Number Six needed food, a shower and a change of clothes and money. And of course, he needed to know about his beloved 'Kar'! Even in the hands of Mrs Butterworth, Number Six was doing well, he got all he needed even to the extent of driving his beloved 'Kar' once more. But as he drove off in KAR 120C, Number Six was about to make a fatal error! The Prisoner (Number Six) was going back to the place where he resigned, back to his ex-colleagues.

This was Number Six's chance, not to go back. But to keep driving, go anywhere and keep away from the Colonel and Thorpe! Could Number Six have done that? The answer must be yes, if he was able to forget what had happened to him, his abduction and captivity in the village, was something that the Prisoner could not forget. And he wanted answers to where? Who? And why? And to be perfectly honest, so should I if I had been in The Prisoner's shoes, I would be screaming for someone's head! But upon reflection, Number Six did have one better chance of breaking the vicious circle of events which held him 'PRISONER'. After going through it all once, and to stop himself from getting trapped once again, Number Six could simply not go home. Then he couldn't be gassed and abducted again! So simple. My wife, Morag pointed that one out to me!

But of course, Number Six would not have realised that The Prisoner is a vicious circle. But he may have realised it the second or third time round and perhaps try to change events. But where ever The Prisoner went, the village authorities would have picked him up somewhere else. So trying to change the events of The Prisoner would only be delaying matters perhaps.

But 'The Prisoner' is only a TV programme, I have said that before somewhere! But for a long time now I have thought of The Prisoner as a vicious circle. There is no beginning, no ending, there is only The Prisoner. A clap of thunder, a green and yellow sports car hurtles down an empty road ��. Oh no, it's all happening again�. AAAAAHHH!!!

Editor's comments �..

An interesting theory David. It's not unlike the movie, 'Groundhog Day', where the main character played by Bill Murray gets up each morning and lives the same day out over and over. He sees people every day saying the same things and doing the same things. He is stuck in a never ending circle.

More recently, we have seen the same sort of thing in the movie 'The Trueman Show' with Jim Carrey in the starring role. He too, gets up each morning and witnesses similar things�.neighbours appearing on key to greet him with the same comment each day. Like the Prisoner, he is trapped in a world where he is constantly watched and can never leave.

An interesting theory David. It's not unlike the movie 'Groundhog Day' where the main character played by��..AAAAHHHH