The Prisoner

The Prisoner (1967)

199 mistakes - chronological order

(3 votes)

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

The General - S1-E6

Continuity mistake: Number 6 is quite a quick-change artist. In the projection room, after the countdown reaches 2 minutes, he manages to: strip the unconscious technician; take off his own black suit, tie, hat and glasses; get into the white lab outfit, and finally, don all the communications gear in time for the 1-minute countdown announcement.

Jean G

Many Happy Returns - S1-E7

Continuity mistake: When Number 6 jumps from the gunrunners' boat, he's on the starboard (right) side. In the next shot, though, the bad guy shoots at him from the boat's port (left) side. (00:20:30)

Jean G

Many Happy Returns - S1-E7

Other mistake: They search for the location of the Village by using map co-ordinates, which are checked out using a military aircraft. The Village is eventually discovered and found to be on an island somewhere in the Mediterranean sea. Number 6 is ejected from the aircraft back to the Village. However, in the final episode, i.e. 'Fall Out,' the Village is found to be in somewhere in the UK. They escape in a truck and end up traveling to London.

Many Happy Returns - S1-E7

Factual error: Number 6 wakes up to find the Village deserted, but the central plaza fountain is still running - until he looks at it from the bell tower, when it's suddenly off. The Village fountains never appeared to be on timers (they were always on, day and night), and no one is there to turn the water off, yet it's somehow still off when Number 6 returns at the end.

Jean G

Many Happy Returns - S1-E7

Continuity mistake: While the gunrunner is untying the raft, he's holding a half-eaten green apple in one hand that wasn't there in the previous shot. It disappears again as the raft floats away. Then it comes back - but it has now become a red apple instead of a green one.

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

Many Happy Returns - S1-E7

Continuity mistake: Mrs. Butterworth has a sandwich plate in her left hand and her cigarette in her right - until the shot cuts, at which point the cigarette and the sandwiches have instantly changed to the opposite hands.

Jean G

Dance of the Dead - S1-E8

Continuity mistake: At the end, the computer produces a print-out with two lines of type at the bottom, then pauses. In the next shot, when it starts printing again, the two lines have disappeared.

Jean G

Checkmate - S1-E9

Visible crew/equipment: When Number 6 and Number 2 are observing the fate of "the rebel rook", who is being subjected to Pavlovian mind control treatment, there is a moment when the shadow of the boom microphone can be seen cast on the wall at the top-centre of the screen and bobs around for a while. When Number 6 says "you must be proud of yourself." (00:14:36)

Jack Vaughan

Checkmate - S1-E9

Continuity mistake: Number 6 gets into the buggy with the hypnotised woman (Number 8, I think) however, when seen from behind, as the vehicle drives away, there is now only one person in the buggy. (00:29:47)

Jack Vaughan

Checkmate - S1-E9

Continuity mistake: On the beach, the Queen is sitting on a large rock and conversing with Number 6. Then she's seen standing down near the water. After an abrupt cut, she's back on the rock without enough time to have moved there.

Jean G

Number 6: Be seeing you.

More quotes from The Prisoner

Fall Out - S1-E17

Trivia: The bizarrely existential ending of the series, which answered none of the questions posed by earlier episodes (but rather seemed to say, "The answer is there is no answer!") upset viewers so much that Patrick McGoohan says he was forced to go into hiding. His phone had been ringing constantly and people who'd found his address were banging on his door to complain.

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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