The Prisoner

The Prisoner (1967)

194 mistakes in season 1 - chronological order

(3 votes)

Arrival - S1-E1

Continuity mistake: When Number 6 is looking for a map in the Village store, the shopkeeper wears a badge with 19 on it. A few shots later, his number has mysteriously changed itself to 56.

Jean G

Arrival - S1-E1

Continuity mistake: Number 6 is looking out his window as the maid runs down the stairs. As he watches her, two tables in his apartment change places with each other between takes. A large table with a statue/sculpture on it switches positions with a smaller table on which his lamp and telephone rest.

Jean G

Arrival - S1-E1

Continuity mistake: When Number 6 climbs to the top of the bell tower and looks down at the Village, the beach below him changes remarkably between shots. The sequence was obviously shot at different times of day, as the tide is in during much of the scene, but in several intervening shots, the beach sand is completely exposed.

Jean G

Arrival - S1-E1

Visible crew/equipment: Watch the bottom left corner of the screen when Rover turns around and begins pushing Number 6 away from the helicopter. A film crewmember's head (probably that of the technician operating the weather balloon that played Rover) appears briefly in the shot.

Jean G

Arrival - S1-E1

Continuity mistake: When he's trying to escape, Number 6 hides behind a bush with long narrow leaves. But when the camera angle changes to his point of view, the bush now has short broad leaves instead.

Jean G

Arrival - S1-E1

Continuity mistake: During the scene with Number 6 and the young woman in the stone boat, Number 6's jacket changes from one shot to the next. The design of the white piping is distinctively different.

Jean G

The Chimes of Big Ben - S1-E2

Visible crew/equipment: When Number 2 and Number 6 are talking at the beach there is a shot of Nadia getting into the sea. Just before she takes her sunglasses off you can see rows of spotlights reflected in them. This is because the scene was shot in a studio and not a real beach. (00:15:25)

Jack Vaughan

The Chimes of Big Ben - S1-E2

Other mistake: When No.8 has been caught by "Rover" in the sea, she is pulled back unconscious to land by one large Rover and 2 smaller Rovers (one on each arm). Her legs are seen to kick (swimming style) to help them move. (00:17:25)

The Chimes of Big Ben - S1-E2

Continuity mistake: Number 6 chooses a rather thin tree to cut down and fashion into his canoe. Somehow, when he's finished hewing out the wood to form the boat, it's considerably wider than the tree he started with.

Jean G

The Chimes of Big Ben - S1-E2

Revealing mistake: When Nadia and Number 6 are embracing, many of the reverse-angle shots showing them from behind betray the use of a double for Nadia. Nearly every time the camera angle changes, she is noticeably several inches shorter.

Jean G

The Chimes of Big Ben - S1-E2

Factual error: The truck transporting Number 6 and Nadia drives on the left side of the road. Fine for England, where the scene was shot - but they're supposed to be in Poland, where everyone drives on the right.

Jean G

Number Two: I'm the boss.
Number 6: No. One is the boss.

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Living in Harmony - S1-E14

Trivia: This episode was not shown in the initial U.S. airing of "The Prisoner" on CBS. There was speculation that its pacifist, anti-violence moral might have been construed as a Vietnam War protest, but the network's reason for censoring the episode has never been disclosed.

Jean G

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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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