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Sunday 18 November 2012

The Therapy Zone

   Do Not Forsake Me Oh My Darling - this is the only episode that has any affectionate embrace between Number Six and a woman {but not Patrick McGoohan}. Number Six's mind is in another body {sadly for Zena Walker}, so Patrick McGoohan was not directly involved in the love scene. It has  been mentioned by at least one co-star that McGoohan had a problem with physical intimacy on the set. Perhaps that's why most love scene's were written out of the scripts, both The Chimes of Big Ben, The Schizoid Man, and Many Happy Returns originally called for at least one "kissing" scene. McGoohan has defended his editing of such scenes to ensure the series be good, wholesome, family entertainment.
   Family entertainment eh! What about the use of drugs in many of the 17 episodes, the use of violence. Perhaps McGoohan's apparent difficulty with "love" scenes on the set was that he couldn't trust himself - has anyone thought about that possibility? The reason why Patrick McGoohan kept his female co-stars at arms length. After all, many of his female co-stars found McGoohan very attractive.

It’s Your Funeral
   You will no doubt recall to mind, that "prognosis report" on No.6, during at which time between eleven-forty and eleven-fifty No.6 arrives at the Gymnasium for his "semi-weekly Kosho practice." Well originally in the script had it that No.6 arrives at the Gymnasium for his "semi-weekly judo practice."
   For some unaccountable reason Patrick McGoohan had this scene altered, long after the ink had dried on the page of the script, and is credited with coming up with the idea for "Kosho."

Many Happy Returns
  At first I was really surprised to see that in Many Happy Returns the Prisoner went back to his old colleagues. I'd have thought he'd learned his lesson with the Colonel and Fotheringay during ‘The Chimes of Big Ben.’ But I suppose that the Prisoner had no-one else who could help him in gaining the answers he requires.
   Mind you, seeing as how ‘The Chimes of Big Ben’ and ‘Many Happy Returns’ were written by different script writers, there could be no continuity between the epsiodes. As it is in Many Happy Returns, it gives the impression that the Prisoner has forgotten his pervious experience with the Colonel and Fotheringay. Had both episodes been written by the same script writer, then there would be the chance of continuity between the episodes, as the Prisoner would have remembered his previous experience, and that in turn would have had an effect upon his running back to he old colleagues. At least he'd have been more wary of them, don't you think? It seems to me that the events of ‘The Chimes of Big Ben’ have been forgotten!

Be seeing you

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