It's Your Funeral
Encyclopedia
It's Your Funeral is the eleventh episode of the television
series The Prisoner
. In this episode, a young successor to Number 2
plots to assassinate the retiring Number 2 and ensure his own success in the organization.
is woken one morning by a young woman, Number 50, who tells him an assassination is being planned and she asks him to help her prevent it. Number 6 does not believe her, thinking that she's working for Number 2, and it quickly becomes apparent that the scene is being monitored by Number 2. Later that day, Number 6 meets another prisoner who tells him about jammers
, people within the Village who concoct false assassination plots, which Control is obliged to investigate. Number 6 is told that Control has a list of these people, and ignores their warnings.
The following morning, Number 2 has a meeting with the Computer Attendant and Number 100. The Computer has plotted Number 6's daily routine. When Number 2 learns that Number 6 will be attending his weekly kosho workout that morning, he realises everything is going to plan. No. 100 is sent to the gym and replaces Number 6's watch with an identical one, which is broken. Number 6 thinks his watch has stopped and takes it to the little watchmaker to be mended.
While the watchmaker is in the back room mending his watch, Number 6 notices a detonation device
that can be operated by radio
. The watchmaker returns with the mended watch, and as he leaves the shop, Number 6 meets Number 50 again and learns that she is the watchmaker's daughter. He also learns that the watchmaker is planning to assassinate Number 2.
Now believing the story, and realising that if the assassination is successful, the whole Village would be punished, Number 6 goes to inform Number 2 of the plot. However, unbeknown to him, their meeting is filmed as Number 2 tells him that the watchmaker is a jammer, and Control is not concerned about him, but he asks Number Six to find out how they intend to kill him, as it will give him a good laugh.
That evening, Number 6 and Number 50 return to the watchmaker's shop, where they discover the watchmaker is making a replica of the Great Seal of Office. They realise that this will be filled with explosives
and detonated during the forthcoming Appreciation Day ceremony.
Number 6 returns to Number 2's house the following day, but he meets a different Number 2. This Number 2 is older and tells Number 6 that he is aware of the warning - in fact, Number 6 has warned every previous Number 2 that they are to be assassinated, and he is not concerned because he is about to retire. Number 6 is shown footage of him speaking to previous Number 2s, but Number 6 says the film is fake and that the plot is being mastered by his successor. Number 2 starts to believe Number 6 as his employers are not the sort of people who pay pensions.
On Appreciation Day, the watchmaker hides in the tower ready to detonate the bomb when the seal of office is placed around the retiring Number 2's neck. He is seen by his daughter and Number 6 who both race to the tower to stop him. Number 6 gets the detonator, but is confronted by Number 100, who tries to take it from him. While they are fighting, the seal of office is transferred to the new Number 2, who looks nervous. Number 6 then gives the old Number 2 the detonator, telling him that it is his passport out of the Village
. He goes to the helicopter and leaves.
In the closing scenes of the episode, Number 6 congratulates the new Number 2, assuring him that something equally as suitable will be arranged when he retires.
and Mark Eden
both recall McGoohan and the director entering into a shouting match during filming (Andre strongly criticizes McGoohan for this behaviour). Eden recalls McGoohan losing control and nearly strangling him during a fight scene. Nesbitt, also interviewed for the programme, indicates that he was never given any information regarding what the yet-to-be-broadcast series was about, and thus played New Number Two in a state of confusion. Andre ends her comments by stating she did not enjoy her time on the program, while a crewmember expresses the belief that McGoohan, under creative pressure, experienced a nervous breakdown during filming of this episode.
Television
Television is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...
series The Prisoner
The Prisoner
The Prisoner is a 17-episode British television series first broadcast in the UK from 29 September 1967 to 1 February 1968. Starring and co-created by Patrick McGoohan, it combined spy fiction with elements of science fiction, allegory and psychological drama.The series follows a British former...
. In this episode, a young successor to Number 2
Number Two (The Prisoner)
Number Two was the title of the chief administrator of The Village in the 1967-68 British television series The Prisoner. More than 17 different actors appeared as holders of the office during the 17-episode series .The first...
plots to assassinate the retiring Number 2 and ensure his own success in the organization.
Plot summary
Number 6Number Six (The Prisoner)
Number Six is the central fictional character in the 1960s television series The Prisoner, played by Patrick McGoohan. In the AMC remake, the character is played by Jim Caviezel, renamed "Six"....
is woken one morning by a young woman, Number 50, who tells him an assassination is being planned and she asks him to help her prevent it. Number 6 does not believe her, thinking that she's working for Number 2, and it quickly becomes apparent that the scene is being monitored by Number 2. Later that day, Number 6 meets another prisoner who tells him about jammers
Culture jamming
Culture jamming, coined in 1984, denotes a tactic used by many anti-consumerist social movements to disrupt or subvert mainstream cultural institutions, including corporate advertising. Guerrilla semiotics and night discourse are sometimes used synonymously with the term culture jamming.Culture...
, people within the Village who concoct false assassination plots, which Control is obliged to investigate. Number 6 is told that Control has a list of these people, and ignores their warnings.
The following morning, Number 2 has a meeting with the Computer Attendant and Number 100. The Computer has plotted Number 6's daily routine. When Number 2 learns that Number 6 will be attending his weekly kosho workout that morning, he realises everything is going to plan. No. 100 is sent to the gym and replaces Number 6's watch with an identical one, which is broken. Number 6 thinks his watch has stopped and takes it to the little watchmaker to be mended.
While the watchmaker is in the back room mending his watch, Number 6 notices a detonation device
Detonator
A detonator is a device used to trigger an explosive device. Detonators can be chemically, mechanically, or electrically initiated, the latter two being the most common....
that can be operated by radio
Radio control
Radio control is the use of radio signals to remotely control a device. The term is used frequently to refer to the control of model vehicles from a hand-held radio transmitter...
. The watchmaker returns with the mended watch, and as he leaves the shop, Number 6 meets Number 50 again and learns that she is the watchmaker's daughter. He also learns that the watchmaker is planning to assassinate Number 2.
Now believing the story, and realising that if the assassination is successful, the whole Village would be punished, Number 6 goes to inform Number 2 of the plot. However, unbeknown to him, their meeting is filmed as Number 2 tells him that the watchmaker is a jammer, and Control is not concerned about him, but he asks Number Six to find out how they intend to kill him, as it will give him a good laugh.
That evening, Number 6 and Number 50 return to the watchmaker's shop, where they discover the watchmaker is making a replica of the Great Seal of Office. They realise that this will be filled with explosives
Explosive material
An explosive material, also called an explosive, is a reactive substance that contains a great amount of potential energy that can produce an explosion if released suddenly, usually accompanied by the production of light, heat, sound, and pressure...
and detonated during the forthcoming Appreciation Day ceremony.
Number 6 returns to Number 2's house the following day, but he meets a different Number 2. This Number 2 is older and tells Number 6 that he is aware of the warning - in fact, Number 6 has warned every previous Number 2 that they are to be assassinated, and he is not concerned because he is about to retire. Number 6 is shown footage of him speaking to previous Number 2s, but Number 6 says the film is fake and that the plot is being mastered by his successor. Number 2 starts to believe Number 6 as his employers are not the sort of people who pay pensions.
On Appreciation Day, the watchmaker hides in the tower ready to detonate the bomb when the seal of office is placed around the retiring Number 2's neck. He is seen by his daughter and Number 6 who both race to the tower to stop him. Number 6 gets the detonator, but is confronted by Number 100, who tries to take it from him. While they are fighting, the seal of office is transferred to the new Number 2, who looks nervous. Number 6 then gives the old Number 2 the detonator, telling him that it is his passport out of the Village
The Village (The Prisoner)
The Village is the fictional setting of the 1960s UK television series The Prisoner where the main character, Number Six, is held with other former spies and operatives...
. He goes to the helicopter and leaves.
In the closing scenes of the episode, Number 6 congratulates the new Number 2, assuring him that something equally as suitable will be arranged when he retires.
Additional guest cast
- Watchmaker - Martin MillerMartin Miller (Czech actor)Martin Miller, born Rudolph Muller was a Czech character actor who played many small roles in British films and television series from the early 1940s until his death...
- Computer attendant - Wanda VenthamWanda VenthamWanda Ventham is an English actress, mainly on television. She trained at the Central School of Speech and Drama....
- Number Two's assistant - Mark BurnsMark BurnsMark Burns was an English film and television actor.Burns was born in Bromsgrove in the county of Worcestershire and educated at Ampleforth College, North Yorkshire...
- Supervisor - Peter SwanwickPeter SwanwickPeter Swanwick was a British actor best remembered as the "Supervisor" in the 1967 TV series, The Prisoner...
- Artist - Charles Lloyd PackCharles Lloyd PackCharles Lloyd-Pack was a British film, television and stage actor.He was born in London, England. He was seen in several horror movies produced by the Hammer Studios including Dracula, The Man Who Could Cheat Death, The Revenge of Frankenstein and The Reptile and Quatermass 2, the film version of...
- Number Thirty-Six - Grace ArnoldGrace ArnoldGrace Arnold was an English actress. Her first film was Men Without Honour in 1939, where she starred opposite an actor named Ian Fleming.-Selected filmography:* Guilt * Spare a Copper * Went the Day Well?...
- Stallholder - Arthur WhiteArthur White (actor)Arthur White is an English actor of stage and screen, best known for his occasional role as police archivist Ernie Trigg in the crime drama A Touch of Frost, alongside his real life younger brother Sir David Jason. His parents were Arthur R White and Olwen Jones...
- MC councillor - Michael BiltonMichael BiltonMichael Bilton was an English actor best known for his roles in the British television sitcoms To the Manor Born and Waiting for God....
- Kosho opponent - Gerry Crampton
- Announcer: Fenella FieldingFenella FieldingFenella Fielding — "England's first lady of the double entendre" — is an English actress, popular in the 1950s and 1960s. She is known for her seductive image and distinctively husky voice.-Family:...
(unseen)
Trivia
- In the scene in which The Prisoner visits Number Two to warn him of the assassination plot, Number Two's line "... it's the little watchmaker that concerns you", is dubbed over the original dialogue.
- This is one of two episodes in which The Prisoner is seen engaging in a sport called kosho (the other is "Hammer into AnvilHammer Into Anvil"Hammer into Anvil" is an episode of the 1960s television program The Prisoner. It is one of the minority of episodes that do not deal with Number Six attempting to escape or the Village authorities attempting to coerce him into revealing information....
"). It is fictitious, created for The Prisoner.
Production
According to the documentary Don't Knock Yourself Out, produced for the 2007 DVD reissue of The Prisoner in the UK (and included in the 2009 DVD/Blu-Ray edition released in North America in October 2009), production of this episode was impacted by behind-the-scenes tension. Interviewed in the documentary, actors Annette AndreAnnette Andre
Annette Andre is an Australian actress best known for her work on British television throughout the 1960s and 1970s. She was educated at Brigidine College, Sydney. Her father was an upholsterer....
and Mark Eden
Mark Eden
Mark Eden is a British actor.-Career:Born in London, Eden has appeared in repertory theatre in England and Wales and at the Royal Court Theatre. His many television and film roles include the Doctor Who serial Marco Polo in which he played Marco Polo...
both recall McGoohan and the director entering into a shouting match during filming (Andre strongly criticizes McGoohan for this behaviour). Eden recalls McGoohan losing control and nearly strangling him during a fight scene. Nesbitt, also interviewed for the programme, indicates that he was never given any information regarding what the yet-to-be-broadcast series was about, and thus played New Number Two in a state of confusion. Andre ends her comments by stating she did not enjoy her time on the program, while a crewmember expresses the belief that McGoohan, under creative pressure, experienced a nervous breakdown during filming of this episode.