Category: Prisoner, The

Number Six watches with curiosity and suspicion as the Village welcomes a new resident whose background is almost too conveniently similar to his own. But Number Six finally admits to compassion when he steps forward to cooperate with Number Two to put a stop to his new neighbor’s torturous interrogation. When the two prisoners begin hatching an escape plan, can either of them truly trust the other – or are each of them testing the other?

written by Vincent Tilsley
directed by Don Chaffey
music by Ron Grainer and Albert Elms

Cast: Patrick McGoohan (Number Six), Leo McKern (Number Two), Nadia Gray (Nadia), Finlay Currie (General), Richard Wattis (Fotheringay), Kevin Stoney (Colonel J), Peter Swanwick (Supervisor), Christopher Benjamin (Number Two’s assistant), David Arlen (Karel), Hilda Barry (Number 38), Jack Le-White (Judge), John Maxim (Judge), Lucy Griffiths (Judge)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Number Two and his interrogators embark on a new project to pry into Number Six’s dreams, hoping to find the events behind his resignation in his subconscious. Three individuals figure prominently in Number Six’s thoughts about his resignation, but before Number Two can discover their involvement, something unexpected will interrupt his attempt to eavesdrop on his prisoner’s dreams.

written by Anthony Skene
directed by Pat Jackson
music by Ron Grainer and Albert Elms

Cast: Patrick McGoohan (Number Six), Colin Gordon (Number Two), Katherine Kath (Engladine), Sheila Allen (Number 14), Peter Bowles (A), Georgina Cookson (Blonde), Annette Carrell (B), Lucille Soong (Flower Girl), Bettine Le Beau (Maid), Terry Yorke (Thug), Peter Brayham (Thug), Bill Cummings (Henchman)

Original title: Play In Three Acts

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Village officials enter Number Six’s residence in the dead of night, drugging him and taking him away. He is experimented on, injected with drugs, and awakens with a new face – or at least a new hairdo. Number Two tries to convince him that he is, in fact, Number Twelve – a deep cover agent assigned to break the will of the difficult Number Six. Number Six is unimpressed with this latest attempt to break him…until he returns to his residence and finds a man there with the number and the face that were once his own.

written by Terence Feely
directed by Pat Jackson
music by Ron Grainer and Albert Elms

Cast: Patrick McGoohan (Number Six), Anton Rodgers (Number Two), Jane Merrow (Alison), Earl Cameron (Supervisor), Gay Cameron (Number 36), David Nettheim (Doctor), Pat Keen (Nurse), Gerry Crampton (Guardian), Dinney Powell (Guardian)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

When a new speed-learning lecture series takes the Village by storm, Number Six is immediately suspicious, and finds a like-minded ally in Number 12. Their skepticism is quickly proven to be correct when they learn that the speed-learning device uses subliminal messages – and that the hidden masterminds of the Village, not the Professor, control what information is subliminally fed to the population. Number Six discovers that the enigmatic General is behind the whole endeavour…but it may cost him dearly to find out any more than that.

written by Joshua Adam
directed by Peter Graham Scott
music by Ron Grainer and Albert Elms

Cast: Patrick McGoohan (Number Six), Colin Gordon (Number Two), John Castle (Number 12), Betty McDowall (Professor’s wife), Peter Swanwick (Supervisor), Conrad Phillips (Doctor), Michael Miller (Man in buggy), Keith Pyott (Waiter), Ian Fleming (Man at cafe), Normal Mitchell (Mechanic), Peter Bourne (Projection operator), George Leech (Guard), Jackie Cooper (Guard)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Number Six sees an opportunity to escape when he finds that the entire population of the Village has disappeared without a trace. He hitches a boat ride back to London, but finds himself in even worse trouble among a boatful of gun smugglers. Upon arriving in London, Number Six returns to his former employers and briefs them on the Village…only to discover that no one believes his story. He offers to find the Village for them to prove its existence, not suspecting that his return to his prison will be a one-way trip.

written by Anthony Skene
directed by Joseph Serf
music by Ron Grainer and Albert Elms

Cast: Patrick McGoohan (Number Six), Donald Sinden (The Colonel), Patrick Cargill (Thorpe), Georgina Cookson (Mrs. Butterworth), Brian Worth (Group Captain), Richard Caldicott (Commander), Dennis Chinnery (Gunther), Jon Laurimore (Ernst), Nike Arrighi (Gypsy girl), Grace Arnold (Maid), Larry Taylor (Gypsy man)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Number Six spots a former co-worker trapped in the Village, only to find that the man is being tortured for information about him. Worse yet, Number Two informs Number Six that the man’s ordeal can be ended if only Six will reveal everything he knows. The new prisoner is broken quickly, while Number Six finds a possible means of summoning help – and finds himself on trial as well…

written by Anthony Skene
directed by Don Chaffey
music by Ron Grainer and Albert Elms

Cast: Patrick McGoohan (Number Six), Mary Morris (Number Two), Duncan MacRae (Doctor), Norma West (The Observer), Bee Duffell (Psychiatrist), Alan White (Dutton), Aubrey Morris (Town crier), Camilla Hasse (Day supervisor), Michael Nightingale (Night supervisor), Patsy Smart (Night maid), Denise Buckley (Maid), George Merritt (Postman), John Frawley (Flower man), Lucy Griffiths (Lady in corridor), William Lyon Brown (Doctor)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Number Six participates in a bizarre, life-size game of chess where people are the pieces – and Number Two is one of the players. Number Six believes he has found allies among the other pawns in the game, but one by one, they are gradually taken away from him – either literally, or through mind control. Number Six is left with only one co-conspirator – and when he escapes on his own, Number Six remains imprisoned in the Village.

written by Gerald Kelsey
directed by Don Chaffey
music by Ron Grainer and Albert Elms

Cast: Patrick McGoohan (Number Six), Peter Wyngarde (Number Two), Ronald Radd (Rook), George Coulouris (Man with stick), Rosalie Crutchley (Queen), Patricia Jessel (Psychiatrist), Bee Duffell (Psychiatrist), Basil Dignam (Supervisor), Danvers Walker (Painter), Denis Shaw (Shopkeeper), Victor Platt (Assistant supervisor), Shivaun O’Casey (Nurse), Geoffrey Reed (Skipper), Terence Donovan (Sailor), Joe Dunne (Guard), Romo Gorrara (Guard)

Original title: The Queen’s Pawn

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Rumors abound that an assassination will take place in the Village – and despite the fact that he knows nothing about this plot, Number Six discovers that he is rumored to be a part of the scheme. Finding the man who is building the bomb to be used in the killing is a simple task, and he even confesses that Number Two is his target. But when Number Six goes to warn Number Two, he finds that there is more than one Number Two in the Village – and one could be trying to do away with the other.

written by Michael Cramoy
directed by Robert Asher
music by Ron Grainer and Albert Elms

Cast: Patrick McGoohan (Number Six), Derren Nesbit (Number Two), Mark Eden (Number 100), Annette Andre (Watchmaker’s daughter), Andre Van Gyseghem (Retiring Number Two), Martin Miller (Watchmaker), Wanda Ventham (Computer attendant), Mark Burns (Number Two’s assistant), Peter Swanwick (Supervisor), Charles Lloyd Pack (Artist), Grace Arnold (Number 36), Arthur White (Stall holder), Michael Bilton (Councillor), Gerry Crampton (Kosho opponent)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Once again, Number Six is subjected to a torturous session of brainwashing, but the process backfires, leaving him perfectly normal. In another plot to tear the Village apart from within, Number Six hypnotizes the woman who was used by Number Two to lure him into brainwashing. Number Six confuses his enemies by offering to repent and confess – and by planting a human time bomb in their midst. While this person poses no physical threat to Number Two, she does carry an important message that will turn the Village’s people against their dictator.

written by Roger Parkes
directed by Joseph Serf
music by Ron Grainer and Albert Elms

Cast: Patrick McGoohan (Number Six), John Sharpe (Number Two), Angela Brown (Number 86), George Pravda (Doctor), Kathleen Breck (Number 42), Peter Swanwick (Supervisor), Thomas Heathcote (Lobo Man), Bartlett Mullins (Chairman), Michael Miller (Number 93), Joseph Cuby (Member of social group), June Ellis (Number 48), John Hamblin (Woodland man), Michael Billington (Woodland man)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Number Six learns of a manhunt for a scientist who has perfected a means of transferring one subject’s mind to the body of another – a technology which the Village already possesses. When a foreign dignitary visits the Village, Number Six is forced to undergo the procedure, placing his knowledge and personality in the foreigner’s body, and is unleashed in the outside world on a mission to find the scientist. If Number Six fails in his assignment, he will never return to his own body.

written by Vincent Tilsley
directed by Pat Jackson
music by Ron Grainer and Albert Elms

Cast: Patrick McGoohan (Number Six), Clifford Evans (Number Two), Nigel Stock (The Colonel), Zena Walker (Janet), Hugo Schuster (Seltzman), John Wentworth (Sir Charles), James Bree (Villiers), Lloyd Lamble (Stapleton), Patrick Jordan (Danvers), Lockwood West (Camera shop manager), Frederic Abbott (Potter), Gertan Klauber (Waiter), Henry Longhurst (Old guest), Danvers Walker (New man), John Nolan (Young guest)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Number Six is subjected to an intense series of drug-induced hallucinations about a wild west saloon. Number Six is urged repeatedly to don the badge and revolver of the local sheriff, a job he refuses to take. But the choice is made painfully clear for him – if he does take the job, he will have to kill, and if he doesn’t, others will die. Even Number Six’s refusal to do exactly what is expected of him doesn’t save any lives this time.

written by David Tomblin
directed by David Tomblin
music by Ron Grainer and Albert Elms

Cast: Patrick McGoohan (Number Six), David Bauer (Judge), Alexis Kanner (Kid), Valerie French (Cathy), Gordon Tanner (Town Elder), Gordon Sterne (Bystander), Michael Balfour (Will), Larry Taylor (Mexican Sam), Monti de Lyle (Dignitary), Duglas Jone (Horse dealer), Bill Nick (Gunman), Les Crawford (Gunman), Frank Maher (Gunman), Max Faulkner (Horseman), Bill Cummings (Horseman), Eddie Eddon (Horseman)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Number Six desperately tries to defuse a mad scientist’s attempt to launch a missile into the heart of London. But Number Six is also being pursued by the scientist’s daughter, who hatches a number of elaborate schemes to destroy him. Even if Number Six manages to foil the diabolical plot, he will still end up in the Village when it’s all over.

written by Terence Feely
directed by David Tomblin
music by Ron Grainer and Albert Elms

Cast: Patrick McGoohan (Number Six), Kenneth Griffith (Schnipps), Justine Lord (Sonia), Christopher Benjamin (Potter), Michael Brennan (Killer Karminski), Harold Berens (Boxing M.C.), Sheena Marsh (Barmaid), Max Faulkner (Scots Napoleon), John Rees (Welsh Napoleon), Joe Gladwin (Yorkshire Napoleon), John Drake (Bowler), Gaynor Steward (Little girl), Graham Steward (Little boy), Stephen How (Little boy)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Number Two – actually one of the first men of that rank to interrogate Number Six – returns in a final desperate attempt to break his mind. Number Two forces Number Six through a brutal regression into his own childhood, but the prisoner still doesn’t break – and finally, his interrogator does. Number Six’s reward for surviving the encounter is, at long last, a confrontation with Number One.

written by Patrick McGoohan
directed by Patrick McGoohan
music by Ron Grainer and Albert Elms

Cast: Patrick McGoohan (Number Six), Leo McKern (Number Two), Peter Swanwick (Supervisor), John Cazabon (Umbrella man)

Original Title: Degree Absolute

Note: According to numerous sources, actor Leo McKern suffered a nervous breakdown during the production of this episode, citing the show’s intense content as the cause.

LogBook entry by Earl Green