The Prisoner

Many Happy Returns - S1-E7

Factual error: Number 6 wakes up to find the Village deserted, but the central plaza fountain is still running - until he looks at it from the bell tower, when it's suddenly off. The Village fountains never appeared to be on timers (they were always on, day and night), and no one is there to turn the water off, yet it's somehow still off when Number 6 returns at the end.

Jean G

The Chimes of Big Ben - S1-E2

Factual error: The truck transporting Number 6 and Nadia drives on the left side of the road. Fine for England, where the scene was shot - but they're supposed to be in Poland, where everyone drives on the right.

Jean G

The General - S1-E6

Factual error: When Number 6 types "WHY?" on the typewriter, the sheet of paper comes out with the word centered on the page. But the typewriter's carriage was pushed all the way to one end, so the word couldn't possibly have wound up in the page center.

Jean G

The Schizoid Man - S1-E5

Factual error: Alison's Polaroid pictures develop themselves instantly. (In reality, you had to wait just over a minute before separating the developer sheet and finished photograph.) She also leaves the same flash bulb in when she takes a second picture - and it flashes again.

Jean G

Checkmate - S1-E9

Factual error: Several of the chess moves called out over the loudspeaker are not possible with the players in their current positions. The Queen, for instance, is ordered to King three while in her starting position (can't be done). The "Knight to Knight's Bishop three" move is also impossible. When she is free to move to King three, though, the Queen goes there twice - without moving anywhere else in between.

Jean G

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Number 6: Be seeing you.

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Living in Harmony - S1-E14

Trivia: This episode was not shown in the initial U.S. airing of "The Prisoner" on CBS. There was speculation that its pacifist, anti-violence moral might have been construed as a Vietnam War protest, but the network's reason for censoring the episode has never been disclosed.

Jean G

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Chosen answer: We were never told. In the series finale [Spoiler alert] Number 6 demands an answer to that question, only to be shown his own reflection.

Jean G

Answer: It's even more obvious than you think, you know who number 1 is in the very first episode. When 2 replies to the question "who is #1?" Change the way he answers from you are number one (in the monotone or accented answer to, "You are, number 6. The comma gives you the answer. #6 is #1. It's the tone of the answer.

Answer: The Prisoner was first shown on British television in 1967. I did not watch it then, but the series was was repeated on UK television in 1977, at which point it became a massive cult. Certainly, I was hooked. Well, ten minutes after I started watching The Prisoner, I was 110% certain as to who Number 1 was. In my opinion, the identity of Number 1 was so utterly, glaringly obvious that I could not understand how anybody could even ask such a question. I thought there was only one candidate for the identity of Number 1, and it was so plainly visible that nobody could even vaguely consider it to be anybody else. So, who did I think Number 1 was? you all ask. My answer? Himself! Patrick McGoohan (or rather, the character Patrick McGoohan played in The Prisoner) was Number 1. I was proved right. In Fall Out, the seventeenth and final episode, "The Prisoner" gets to meet "Number 1." Now this is a real "blink and you'll miss it" moment, but Number 1 has his face covered. The Prisoner pulls off the covering to see a mask, he pulls off the mask, to see himself! The Patrick McGoohan in Number 1's costume laughs in The Prisoner's face and runs away. Unfortunately, I don't know why Patrick McGoohan should be both The Prisoner and Number 1. I don't think anybody does.

Rob Halliday

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