Opening and closing sequences of The Prisoner
Encyclopedia
The opening and closing sequences of TV series The Prisoner
are considered iconic, "one of the great set-ups of genre drama."
, is held against his will in a mysterious, controlled and changing environment called the Village
.
(seen in all but two episodes) begins with a clouded sky and the sound of thunder, the latter becoming that of a jet engine. As the theme music begins, the view dissolves to reveal an angry man, the future Number Six
, driving in his Lotus Seven
at top speed down an empty highway, then past the Houses of Parliament in London, into an underground car park. Entering the building via a set of double doors titled "Way Out", he then strides down a long, narrow corridor leading to another set of double doors, pulling them open with great ferocity.
The man mounts a fierce (but inaudible) argument before a man at a desk, delivers an envelope marked "Private—Personal — By Hand" (presumably his resignation), and slams his fist on to the desk, smashing the saucer of a cup of tea. Throughout all this, the man behind the desk is not seen to speak and appears to be fiddling with a pen, so it's not clear whether he is even listening to what is being said. The angry man leaves and drives home, not realising that he is being followed by a hearse, identified by the license TLH 858.
Meanwhile, in an unknown location full of filing cabinets, an automated system types a series of large Xs across the man's photograph and drops it into a drawer marked "RESIGNED".
At the man's flat
, he quickly packs his possessions. The hearse pulls up and a man dressed like an undertaker approaches the front door. A white gas floods the room through the keyhole, rendering our hero unconscious. This is followed by a momentary blackout (in some showings, a commercial break occurs here). He awakens seemingly in exactly the same place, rises, walks straight to a window, looks out and sees the Village. This is shown in a shot from his point of view, through the window, over which the episode's title is superimposed. In all but four episodes this is followed by a montage of shots of the Prisoner running around the Village, over which the following dialogue is heard:
A close-up of the actor playing Number Two in the particular episode is usually inserted once. Credits for guest stars, producer David Tomblin
, script editor George Markstein
(thirteen episodes only), the writer(s) and director are superimposed over this.
, Mary Morris, Colin Gordon and Peter Wyngarde provided dialogue for the conversation, and for the remaining episodes (where the dialogue was used) Rietty's voiceover was used, although a shot of the actor playing Number Two would still be inserted following the line "By hook or by crook, we will" (with the exceptions of "Many Happy Returns
" and "The Girl Who Was Death
", where an extra shot of Rover was inserted instead, as revealing Number Two's identity at this stage would ruin the plot).
In "Arrival
", when the hero pulls into the underground carpark, he is seen taking a ticket from an automatic machine, parking the car next to a curb. He gets out and pushes through a double swinging doorway, with the words "Way" and "Out" on the doors. As he leaves, what appears to be the hearse can be seen waiting for the Prisoner to pull out onto the street, shortly after which the Lotus passes it. None of this is seen in any other episode. The dialogue sequence does not follow the awakening here, as it is essentially a compressed presentation of the Prisoner's learning about his new surroundings as depicted in detail over the course of this episode.
In "A. B. and C.
", instead of "The new Number Two," the line is read as, "I am Number Two". Here the role is essayed by Colin Gordon
, who would also have the part in "The General
".
"Do Not Forsake Me Oh My Darling
" precedes the resignation sequence with a scene featuring two men sitting in an office and discussing a series of projected slides that one is certain conceals a message. It further eschews the dialogue between Six and Two and superimposes the episode credits over footage of a helicopter arriving in the Village.
"Checkmate
" had Number Two's first few lines lifted from one of Gordon's episodes, then Peter Wyngarde
, who played the role in the episode, finished.
"Living in Harmony
" features none of the typical title sequence at all, instead opening with a Western
style version. McGoohan appears as a sheriff turning in his badge, and soon thereafter getting ambushed and beaten into unconsciousness by several men. He subsequently awakens in a town called Harmony, run by a very Number Two-like Judge.
"Fall Out
" also completely does away with the standard sequences, instead opening with a recap of the previous episode, "Once Upon a Time
", followed by a series of aerial shots of the Village, over which the typical credits are superimposed (as well as an additional screen at the beginning revealing the location of the Village as Portmeirion
).
; it establishes an Orwellian
dramatic premise which is deconstructed by its own absurdity. The opening sequence is absent from the final episode, which is expected to decode and confirm all the narrative of the series which has come before by revealing the identity of Number One, but which instead abandons the narrative structure for "chaotic meaninglessness". In addition, the final episode recontextualises the exchange in the opening sequence: the response to "Who is Number One?" is revealed to not be "You are Number Six", a deflection, but "You are, Number Six", a truthful answer.
" as a tag, but appears in the crystal ball held by the robed Number One in the episode's climax. Close examination of this sequence reveals that the timing of the bars closing differs from episode to episode, though usually the bars close just as the face reaches its closest point to the camera. In the early edit of "Arrival" released to DVD in 2007, the bars close long before the face arrives.
appear over a slowly assembling drawing of the penny-farthing bicycle, the logo of the Village. After the bicycle is fully assembled, the shot changes to Rover
, the large, white, balloon-like Village guard device, rising up through water and bouncing into the distance.
In the originally planned version of the closing credits, seen in the alternative version of "The Chimes of Big Ben", Rover is not shown. Instead, the image of the bicycle frame fades out to leave only the wheels. The wheels then begin to spin faster and faster transforming into the Earth (little wheel) and the Universe (big wheel). The Earth, spinning on its axis, flies toward the camera and explodes into the word "POP". (This is an acronym for "Protect Other People" which is referred to in the episode "Once Upon a Time
", and also in the show's occasional use of the song "Pop Goes the Weasel
".) In the transmission prints, there is no consistency as to when the cut to replace these graphics with the clip of Rover occurs. In a couple of episodes, the last piece of the bicycle has yet to appear, and in another, its entire framework has faded away from the wheels.
An early edit of "Arrival", released to DVD in 2007, does not include the POP animation. Instead, after the bike completely forms, the background fades to a starfield, with the Earth in the place of the smaller wheel and the universe as the big wheel. The canopy of the bike then appears in the sky above the two "wheels".
The final episode, "Fall Out", presents a further variation, i.e., the complete bicycle maintains its visual presence during the closing strains of the theme, instead of being replaced by either the cosmic animation or the live-action footage of Rover.
Regarding actor credits, three variants of note are "Living in Harmony" and "The Girl Who Was Death
", which includes the "Patrick McGoohan as the Prisoner" credit during the closing credits in place of his executive producership, and "Fall Out" which, though crediting McGoohan for writing and directing the episode early on, completely omits any other credit for him, while displaying the names of cast members Leo McKern
and Alexis Kanner
three times each. Angelo Muscat
(The Butler) also gets his name up on screen an extra time, in the closing minutes of the story where the other two actors' names get their additional displays; for McGoohan's turn here, there is an overhead shot of Number Six's car on London streets, so high that the driver is unidentifiable, and the word "Prisoner" (no "The") is superimposed instead of the actor's name as had just happened with Kanner, McKern and Muscat.
, who is also known for composing the theme music for Doctor Who
. However, before Grainer's theme was chosen, two other composers created themes: Wilfred Josephs
and Robert Farnon
. Farnon's theme, which had strong Western movie overtones, was rejected, while Josephs' discordant theme got as far as being applied to early edits of "Arrival" and "The Chimes of Big Ben". The Josephs version of the theme, aside from being released by Silva Screen records on one of its Prisoner soundtrack CD releases, can be heard on the recovered early edits of the two episodes which have subsequently been released to DVD; elements of the theme also remained in the score of the televised version of "Arrival". Farnon's theme remained unheard until fairly recently when it was unearthed for a DVD featurette "Don't Knock Yourself Out", created for the 2007 DVD reissue of The Prisoner in the UK; the featurette was also included in the 2009 A&E Home Video DVD and Blu-ray release in North America.
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...
are considered iconic, "one of the great set-ups of genre drama."
The Prisoner overview
The Prisoner is a 17-episode British TV series in which a secret agent, played by Patrick McGoohanPatrick McGoohan
Patrick Joseph McGoohan was an American-born actor, raised in Ireland and England, with an extensive stage and film career, most notably in the 1960s television series Danger Man , and The Prisoner, which he co-created...
, is held against his will in a mysterious, controlled and changing environment called 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...
.
Introduction
The title sequenceTitle sequence
A Title Sequence is the method by which cinematic films or television programs present their title, key production and cast members, or both, utilizing conceptual visuals and sound...
(seen in all but two episodes) begins with a clouded sky and the sound of thunder, the latter becoming that of a jet engine. As the theme music begins, the view dissolves to reveal an angry man, the future Number Six
Number 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"....
, driving in his Lotus Seven
Lotus Seven
The Lotus Seven is a small, simple, lightweight two-seater open-top sports car produced by Lotus Cars between 1957 and 1972....
at top speed down an empty highway, then past the Houses of Parliament in London, into an underground car park. Entering the building via a set of double doors titled "Way Out", he then strides down a long, narrow corridor leading to another set of double doors, pulling them open with great ferocity.
The man mounts a fierce (but inaudible) argument before a man at a desk, delivers an envelope marked "Private—Personal — By Hand" (presumably his resignation), and slams his fist on to the desk, smashing the saucer of a cup of tea. Throughout all this, the man behind the desk is not seen to speak and appears to be fiddling with a pen, so it's not clear whether he is even listening to what is being said. The angry man leaves and drives home, not realising that he is being followed by a hearse, identified by the license TLH 858.
Meanwhile, in an unknown location full of filing cabinets, an automated system types a series of large Xs across the man's photograph and drops it into a drawer marked "RESIGNED".
At the man's flat
Apartment
An apartment or flat is a self-contained housing unit that occupies only part of a building...
, he quickly packs his possessions. The hearse pulls up and a man dressed like an undertaker approaches the front door. A white gas floods the room through the keyhole, rendering our hero unconscious. This is followed by a momentary blackout (in some showings, a commercial break occurs here). He awakens seemingly in exactly the same place, rises, walks straight to a window, looks out and sees the Village. This is shown in a shot from his point of view, through the window, over which the episode's title is superimposed. In all but four episodes this is followed by a montage of shots of the Prisoner running around the Village, over which the following dialogue is heard:
- Prisoner: Where am I?
- Number Two (not identified as yet): In the village.
- Prisoner: What do you want?
- Two: Information.
- Prisoner: Whose side are you on?
- Two: That would be telling.... We want information...information...information!
- Prisoner: You won't get it!
- Two: By hook or by crook, we will.
- Prisoner: Who are you?
- Two: The new Number Two.
- Prisoner: Who is Number One?
- Two: You are Number Six.
- Prisoner: I am not a number; I am a free man!
- Two: [Sinister laughing]
A close-up of the actor playing Number Two in the particular episode is usually inserted once. Credits for guest stars, producer David Tomblin
David Tomblin
David Tomblin was a producer and assistant director born in Borehamwood, Hertfordshire, England. He was probably best known as the producer, director, and writer of The Prisoner .-Director:...
, script editor George Markstein
George Markstein
George Markstein was a German-born British journalist and subsequent writer of thrillers and teleplays. He was the script editor and co-writer of "Arrival," the first episode of the British cult classic series The Prisoner, and appeared briefly in its title sequence...
(thirteen episodes only), the writer(s) and director are superimposed over this.
Variations
This is not invariable across the run. Sometimes Number Two's side of the conversation is provided by Robert Rietty instead of the actual actor; only Leo McKernLeo McKern
Reginald "Leo" McKern, AO was an Australian-born British actor who appeared in numerous British and Australian television programmes and movies, and more than 200 stage roles.-Early life:...
, Mary Morris, Colin Gordon and Peter Wyngarde provided dialogue for the conversation, and for the remaining episodes (where the dialogue was used) Rietty's voiceover was used, although a shot of the actor playing Number Two would still be inserted following the line "By hook or by crook, we will" (with the exceptions of "Many Happy Returns
Many Happy Returns (Prisoner episode)
Many Happy Returns is the seventh episode of the television series The Prisoner.-Additional guest cast:* Group Captain - Brian Worth* Commander - Richard Caldicot* Gunther - Dennis Chinnery* Ernst - Jon Laurimore* Gypsy girl - Nike Arrighi...
" and "The Girl Who Was Death
The Girl Who Was Death
"The Girl Who Was Death" is a television episode of the British science fiction-allegorical series, The Prisoner. It originally aired in the UK on ITV on 18 January 1968...
", where an extra shot of Rover was inserted instead, as revealing Number Two's identity at this stage would ruin the plot).
In "Arrival
Arrival (The Prisoner)
"Arrival" is the title of the first episode of the British science fiction-allegorical series, The Prisoner. It originally aired in the UK on ITV on 29 September 1967 and was first broadcast in the United States on CBS on 1 June 1968....
", when the hero pulls into the underground carpark, he is seen taking a ticket from an automatic machine, parking the car next to a curb. He gets out and pushes through a double swinging doorway, with the words "Way" and "Out" on the doors. As he leaves, what appears to be the hearse can be seen waiting for the Prisoner to pull out onto the street, shortly after which the Lotus passes it. None of this is seen in any other episode. The dialogue sequence does not follow the awakening here, as it is essentially a compressed presentation of the Prisoner's learning about his new surroundings as depicted in detail over the course of this episode.
In "A. B. and C.
A. B. and C.
"A. B. and C." is the title of the third episode of the British science fiction-allegorical series, The Prisoner. It originally aired in the UK on ITV on 13 October 1967 and was first broadcast in the United States on CBS on 22 June 1968....
", instead of "The new Number Two," the line is read as, "I am Number Two". Here the role is essayed by Colin Gordon
Colin Gordon
Colin Gordon was a British actor born in Ceylon .He was educated at Marlborough College and Christ Church, Oxford. He made his first West End appearance in 1934 as the hind legs of a horse in a production of “Toad of Toad Hall”. From 1936 to 1939 he was a director with the Fred Melville Repertory...
, who would also have the part in "The General
The General (The Prisoner)
The General is the sixth episode of the television series The Prisoner. The central themes of this episode are rote learning and indoctrination.-Synopsis:...
".
"Do Not Forsake Me Oh My Darling
Do Not Forsake Me Oh My Darling
Do Not Forsake Me Oh My Darling is the thirteenth episode of the television series The Prisoner, produced while Patrick McGoohan was in America filming Ice Station Zebra. As a workaround to McGoohan's absence the writers contrived to have Number Six's mind implanted in the body of another man , who...
" precedes the resignation sequence with a scene featuring two men sitting in an office and discussing a series of projected slides that one is certain conceals a message. It further eschews the dialogue between Six and Two and superimposes the episode credits over footage of a helicopter arriving in the Village.
"Checkmate
Checkmate (The Prisoner)
Checkmate is the ninth episode of the television series The Prisoner; as its title suggests, the plot centres around a game of chess in which the pieces are humans, directed by a mysterious "man with a stick". The chess game has been described as a metaphor for life itself, albeit a somewhat...
" had Number Two's first few lines lifted from one of Gordon's episodes, then Peter Wyngarde
Peter Wyngarde
Peter Paul Wyngarde is an Anglo-French actor best known for playing the character Jason King, a bestselling novelist turned sleuth, in two British television series in the late 1960s and early 1970s: Department S and Jason King .-Biography:He was born Cyril Goldbert in Marseilles, France, the...
, who played the role in the episode, finished.
"Living in Harmony
Living in Harmony
"Living in Harmony" is an episode of the 1967-68 television series The Prisoner. It differs from most other episodes of the series in that it does not begin with the show's standard opening credits sequence...
" features none of the typical title sequence at all, instead opening with a Western
Western (genre)
The Western is a genre of various visual arts, such as film, television, radio, literature, painting and others. Westerns are devoted to telling stories set primarily in the latter half of the 19th century in the American Old West, hence the name. Some Westerns are set as early as the Battle of...
style version. McGoohan appears as a sheriff turning in his badge, and soon thereafter getting ambushed and beaten into unconsciousness by several men. He subsequently awakens in a town called Harmony, run by a very Number Two-like Judge.
"Fall Out
Fall Out (The Prisoner)
"Fall Out" is the seventeenth and final episode of the allegorical British science fiction series The Prisoner, which starred Patrick McGoohan as the incarcerated Number Six...
" also completely does away with the standard sequences, instead opening with a recap of the previous episode, "Once Upon a Time
Once Upon a Time (The Prisoner)
"Once Upon a Time" is the title of the 16th episode of the British science fiction-allegorical series, The Prisoner, starring Patrick McGoohan as Number Six...
", followed by a series of aerial shots of the Village, over which the typical credits are superimposed (as well as an additional screen at the beginning revealing the location of the Village as Portmeirion
Portmeirion
Portmeirion is a popular tourist village in Gwynedd, North Wales. It was designed and built by Sir Clough Williams-Ellis between 1925 and 1975 in the style of an Italian village and is now owned by a charitable trust....
).
Number One
The high production values involved have led the opening sequence to be described as more like film than television. Like the series as a whole, the opening sequence can be seen as a prefiguration of postmodernismPostmodernism
Postmodernism is a philosophical movement evolved in reaction to modernism, the tendency in contemporary culture to accept only objective truth and to be inherently suspicious towards a global cultural narrative or meta-narrative. Postmodernist thought is an intentional departure from the...
; it establishes an Orwellian
Orwellian
"Orwellian" describes the situation, idea, or societal condition that George Orwell identified as being destructive to the welfare of a free society...
dramatic premise which is deconstructed by its own absurdity. The opening sequence is absent from the final episode, which is expected to decode and confirm all the narrative of the series which has come before by revealing the identity of Number One, but which instead abandons the narrative structure for "chaotic meaninglessness". In addition, the final episode recontextualises the exchange in the opening sequence: the response to "Who is Number One?" is revealed to not be "You are Number Six", a deflection, but "You are, Number Six", a truthful answer.
Tag
Just before the closing credits of each episode (except the finale), the face of The Prisoner rises up from a bird's-eye view of the Village, to be covered by bars clanging shut. This is not seen in "Fall OutFall Out (The Prisoner)
"Fall Out" is the seventeenth and final episode of the allegorical British science fiction series The Prisoner, which starred Patrick McGoohan as the incarcerated Number Six...
" as a tag, but appears in the crystal ball held by the robed Number One in the episode's climax. Close examination of this sequence reveals that the timing of the bars closing differs from episode to episode, though usually the bars close just as the face reaches its closest point to the camera. In the early edit of "Arrival" released to DVD in 2007, the bars close long before the face arrives.
Closing credits
The closing creditsClosing credits
Closing credits or end credits are added at the end of a motion picture, television program, or video game to list the cast and crew involved in the production. They usually appear as a list of names in small type, which either flip very quickly from page to page, or move smoothly across the...
appear over a slowly assembling drawing of the penny-farthing bicycle, the logo of the Village. After the bicycle is fully assembled, the shot changes to Rover
Rover (The Prisoner)
Rover is a fictional entity from the 1967 British television program The Prisoner, and was an integral part of the way 'prisoners' were kept within The Village. It was depicted as a floating white ball that could coerce, and, if necessary, disable inhabitants of The Village, primarily Number Six...
, the large, white, balloon-like Village guard device, rising up through water and bouncing into the distance.
In the originally planned version of the closing credits, seen in the alternative version of "The Chimes of Big Ben", Rover is not shown. Instead, the image of the bicycle frame fades out to leave only the wheels. The wheels then begin to spin faster and faster transforming into the Earth (little wheel) and the Universe (big wheel). The Earth, spinning on its axis, flies toward the camera and explodes into the word "POP". (This is an acronym for "Protect Other People" which is referred to in the episode "Once Upon a Time
Once Upon a Time (The Prisoner)
"Once Upon a Time" is the title of the 16th episode of the British science fiction-allegorical series, The Prisoner, starring Patrick McGoohan as Number Six...
", and also in the show's occasional use of the song "Pop Goes the Weasel
Pop Goes the Weasel
"Pop! Goes the Weasel" is an English language nursery rhyme and singing game. It has a Roud Folk Song Index number of 5249.-Lyrics:There are many different versions of the lyrics to the song...
".) In the transmission prints, there is no consistency as to when the cut to replace these graphics with the clip of Rover occurs. In a couple of episodes, the last piece of the bicycle has yet to appear, and in another, its entire framework has faded away from the wheels.
An early edit of "Arrival", released to DVD in 2007, does not include the POP animation. Instead, after the bike completely forms, the background fades to a starfield, with the Earth in the place of the smaller wheel and the universe as the big wheel. The canopy of the bike then appears in the sky above the two "wheels".
The final episode, "Fall Out", presents a further variation, i.e., the complete bicycle maintains its visual presence during the closing strains of the theme, instead of being replaced by either the cosmic animation or the live-action footage of Rover.
Regarding actor credits, three variants of note are "Living in Harmony" and "The Girl Who Was Death
The Girl Who Was Death
"The Girl Who Was Death" is a television episode of the British science fiction-allegorical series, The Prisoner. It originally aired in the UK on ITV on 18 January 1968...
", which includes the "Patrick McGoohan as the Prisoner" credit during the closing credits in place of his executive producership, and "Fall Out" which, though crediting McGoohan for writing and directing the episode early on, completely omits any other credit for him, while displaying the names of cast members Leo McKern
Leo McKern
Reginald "Leo" McKern, AO was an Australian-born British actor who appeared in numerous British and Australian television programmes and movies, and more than 200 stage roles.-Early life:...
and Alexis Kanner
Alexis Kanner
Alexis Kanner was a French-born Anglo Canadian actor, most notable for appearing in the ground-breaking TV series The Prisoner....
three times each. Angelo Muscat
Angelo Muscat
Angelo Muscat was a character actor.Muscat was born in Malta. He appeared in 14 of the 17 episodes of the sixties cult television series The Prisoner, in which he played the famously mute Butler...
(The Butler) also gets his name up on screen an extra time, in the closing minutes of the story where the other two actors' names get their additional displays; for McGoohan's turn here, there is an overhead shot of Number Six's car on London streets, so high that the driver is unidentifiable, and the word "Prisoner" (no "The") is superimposed instead of the actor's name as had just happened with Kanner, McKern and Muscat.
Music
The opening and closing credits music, as broadcast, was composed by Ron GrainerRon Grainer
Ronald Erle “Ron” Grainer was an Australian-born composer who worked for most of his professional career in the United Kingdom. He is mostly remembered for his film and television music.- Biography :...
, who is also known for composing the theme music for Doctor Who
Doctor Who
Doctor Who is a British science fiction television programme produced by the BBC. The programme depicts the adventures of a time-travelling humanoid alien known as the Doctor who explores the universe in a sentient time machine called the TARDIS that flies through time and space, whose exterior...
. However, before Grainer's theme was chosen, two other composers created themes: Wilfred Josephs
Wilfred Josephs
-Life:Born in Gosforth, Newcastle upon Tyne, Wilfred Josephs had his first musical studies in Newcastle with Arthur Milner, and showed early promise, but was persuaded by his parents to take up a 'sensible' career. He subsequently became a dentist, qualifying as a Bachelor of Dental Surgery of the...
and Robert Farnon
Robert Farnon
Robert Joseph Farnon was a Canadian-born composer, conductor, musical arranger and trumpet player. As well as being a famous composer of original works , he was recognised as one of the finest arrangers of his generation...
. Farnon's theme, which had strong Western movie overtones, was rejected, while Josephs' discordant theme got as far as being applied to early edits of "Arrival" and "The Chimes of Big Ben". The Josephs version of the theme, aside from being released by Silva Screen records on one of its Prisoner soundtrack CD releases, can be heard on the recovered early edits of the two episodes which have subsequently been released to DVD; elements of the theme also remained in the score of the televised version of "Arrival". Farnon's theme remained unheard until fairly recently when it was unearthed for a DVD featurette "Don't Knock Yourself Out", created for the 2007 DVD reissue of The Prisoner in the UK; the featurette was also included in the 2009 A&E Home Video DVD and Blu-ray release in North America.