The Prisoner

The Prisoner (1967)

194 mistakes in season 1

(3 votes)

Once Upon A Time - S1-E16

Continuity mistake: When No.2 is writing on the blackboard, in Question A. The capital letter "F" changes several times between the long shots and close ups. Also in Question B. The position of the first "T" in the word together also shifts position during the same shots, showing that the scene was filmed twice.

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

Free for All - S1-E4

Continuity mistake: The sequences of Number 6's campaign speech scene were apparently filmed several months apart from each other. The trees behind him change from Springtime bloom to Winter bare and back again continually.

Jean G

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

A. B. and C. - S1-E3

Continuity mistake: During the dance, the bottle of wine on Number 6's table is sitting on the left side. No one touches it, but when he and B come back to the table, the wine has moved itself to the center.

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

Free for All - S1-E4

Revealing mistake: Stock footage puts Number 6 in two places at once when he grabs the bull-horn and starts shouting at the Villagers to go. There's an inserted shot of the plaza from "Arrival" that includes Number 6 walking through it on his first day in the Village.

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

Checkmate - S1-E9

Continuity mistake: At the start of the chess match, a man holding a stick climbs the ladder behind the Queen and settles in to watch. As Number 6 and the Queen converse throughout the game, however, both the ladder and the man have vanished. They both reappear behind the Queen as the game is ending.

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)

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

Fall Out - S1-E17

Continuity mistake: At the end, Number 6 and the Butler catch a bus near Westminster Bridge in London. The bus that drives up and stops for them has no back platform. But when they board, the style of bus suddenly changes to the more common type with an entrance in the back.

Jean G

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)

Fall Out - S1-E17

Visible crew/equipment: Number 6 enters the room with the huge globe, and we "follow" him around a map table. As the camera passes the table, it films its own shadow falling across the map.

Jean G

Number 6: Be seeing you.

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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

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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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