The Prisoner

The Prisoner (1967)

194 mistakes in season 1

(3 votes)

It's Your Funeral - S1-E11

Continuity mistake: The towel in Number 6's locker changes colors. When we first see the locker opened, the towel is white. A few shots later, when it's opened again, the folded towel has turned blue.

Jean G

Checkmate - S1-E9

Continuity mistake: Rover herds the boat back to the beach, and several people who were aboard minutes before (some of them unconscious) have somehow disappeared from its decks.

Jean G

Living in Harmony - S1-E14

Continuity mistake: The drink Kathy brings the Kid changes positions on the table between takes. She places it on top of the small book, but it moves itself to the larger book, then back to the small one again, and so on.

Jean G

Once Upon A Time - S1-E16

Revealing mistake: When they're "playing" on the swing, Number 6 has his hands on the Butler's shoulders, and the Butler is wearing gloves - yet there's a close-up of someone's bare hand holding the rope.

Jean G

The Chimes of Big Ben - S1-E2

Continuity mistake: Nadia and Number 6 go together to the Green Dome (Number 2's residence). While they stand at the entrance, the door knocker changes to one of a completely different design between one shot and the next.

Jean G

Arrival - S1-E1

Visible crew/equipment: Watch the bottom left corner of the screen when Rover turns around and begins pushing Number 6 away from the helicopter. A film crewmember's head (probably that of the technician operating the weather balloon that played Rover) appears briefly in the shot.

Jean G

Hammer into Anvil - S1-E10

Continuity mistake: During their kosho match, Number 6 ends up dangling Number 14 over the water. In the first shot, he's holding the man with his left hand. In the next, he's using his right hand.

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 General - S1-E6

Continuity mistake: At the end, using only one finger of one hand, Number 6 types 4 characters on the typewriter. He then expressly states that what he typed was, "W-h-y question mark." But you can't type the question mark with one finger: it requires holding down the shift key.

Jean G

A. B. and C. - S1-E3

Continuity mistake: Number 14 has to push a button to activate the first tape she puts into the player. She then puts on the 'A' tape and it starts playing by itself, with no button pushed. When she puts in 'B,' though, she has to push the button again.

Jean G

Fall Out - S1-E17

Continuity mistake: The council members' signs keep changing during the "Dem Bones" sequence. "Entertainment" becomes "Anarchists" and several others switch places between cuts.

Jean G

Many Happy Returns - S1-E7

Continuity mistake: One of the bad guys prepares a tea tray in the boat's galley and carries it up to the bridge. Throughout his preparations and his trip up the stairs to the upper deck, the contents of the tray keeps changing. The items rearrange themselves, and the size and shape of the bread loaf alternates several times.

Jean G

Number 6: Unlike me, many of you have accepted the situation of your imprisonment, and will die here like rotten cabbages.

More quotes from The Prisoner

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

More trivia for The Prisoner

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.

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: 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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