The Prisoner

The Prisoner (1967)

194 mistakes in season 1 - chronological order

(3 votes)

It's Your Funeral - S1-E11

Visible crew/equipment: At the end of the episode when Number 6 gives Number 2 the device and tells him to leave the island immediately you can see the shadow of the boom microphone on the stone wall behind them at the top right of the screen. (00:47:17)

Jack Vaughan

It's Your Funeral - S1-E11

Continuity mistake: Monique's position on the floor reverses while she's unconscious. When she first collapses, her feet point to the corner of the room. When she comes to, her head is toward the corner. When she gets up, her feet are oriented toward the corner once again.

Jean G

It's Your Funeral - S1-E11

Continuity mistake: The towel in Number 6's locker changes colors. When we first see the locker opened, the towel is white. A few shots later, when it's opened again, the folded towel has turned blue.

Jean G

It's Your Funeral - S1-E11

Continuity mistake: A sleeping Number 6 is being observed by the Village girl. While she watches him, his bed clothes mysteriously rearrange themselves. First they're disarrayed, then they're neatly tucked over him and his robe has moved to a different place on the bed. A few shots later, when he wakes up, his pillow disappears.

Jean G

A Change of Mind - S1-E12

Continuity mistake: Watch the Butler standing in the background after the committee exits the meeting room. A very bad edit causes him to jump to a different position (a foot further away than he was before) between shots.

Jean G

A Change of Mind - S1-E12

Revealing mistake: Number 6 sets up exercise equipment in the woods and performs several athletic stunts on a bar. In close-up, he's bare handed. In long shots, however, the stunt double becomes apparent because he's wearing gloves.

Jean G

A Change of Mind - S1-E12

Revealing mistake: The ultra-secret location of The Village is accidentally revealed when Number 6 drinks his tea. While everything in The Village is supposed to bear only its penny farthing logo, the bottom of the tea cup is emblazoned "Portmeirion Pottery." "The Prisoner" was filmed in the Welsh resort village of Portmeirion.

Jean G

Do Not Forsake Me Oh My Darling - S1-E13

Revealing mistake: When No. 6 is putting the 4 slides together to get the location information for Seltzman, as the slides are dropped into the top of the projector, they drop down the screen. However, a projector inverts slides, so they should slide up from the bottom. Also, when the last slide is dropped in, the final letters fade into view and not slide down as would be expected. (00:33:30)

Do Not Forsake Me Oh My Darling - S1-E13

Continuity mistake: When Seltzman is talking to Number 2, there's a chair beside the tea cart with a foot rest, visible in the shots from behind Number 2. But when the camera angle changes to Seltzman's POV, the same chair appears in the shot - without its foot rest.

Jean G

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

More quotes from The Prisoner

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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