The Village (The Prisoner)
The Village is the fictional setting of the 1960s UK television series The Prisoner where the main character, Number Six, is held with other former spies and operatives from various countries. The theme of the series is his captors' attempts to find out why Number Six resigned from his job and his attempts to escape from the Village and learn the identity of Number One. Ostensibly, those running the Villagethought by many to be countries around the worldbelieve that once Number Six is coerced into explaining the behind his resignation, all the state secrets he knows will come tumbling out. However, the ultimate use of these secrets is only intimated, but not overtly explored. Beyond its explicit physical setting, the Village is also viewed as an allegory for humanity and society during the Cold War era. Patrick McGoohan notes in various post-show interviews that the Village is "within all of us... we all live in a little Village... Your village may be different from other people's villages but we are all prisoners."
Description
The location of the Village is unknown until the end of the series; clues to its whereabouts are contradictory until the final episode. In "Many Happy Returns," it is said to be on the coast of Morocco or southern Portugal, possibly an island, and is located by Number Six in this area while making reconnaissance passes in an aircraft. Prior to this, in "The Chimes of Big Ben," it is claimed to be located in the Soviet Union on the Baltic Sea, though it is later revealed that this was a Village disinformation plot. In the alternative version of the episode "The Chimes of Big Ben," Number Six constructs a device that allows him to work out the Village's location; this scene was cut – presumably to remove the reference to navigation by stars, which would have allowed an estimation at the least of the Village's general position, thereby undermining the story line of the episode. The un-cut version of the episode is not considered part of the series' "canon".The series final episode, "Fall Out," reveals that the Village is actually located in Great Britain, as Number Six and other characters are able to drive from the Village to central London. Although a line of dialogue in "Many Happy Returns" has a character speculating that the Village is on an island, this is never confirmed in the series, and in fact all given locations should be considered unreliable evidence given the fact they are mentioned as part of a deception aimed at getting Number Six to reveal why he resigned from his secret British government job.
The Italianate architecture of the Village is somewhat deceptive as the interiors of the buildings are frequently Georgian, 1960s 'mod', or in a number of instances, an oddly sparse kind of 'ultra modern' design. Throughout the Village, music plays in the background, nearly all of it alternating between rousing marching band music and lullabies, periodically interrupted by public announcements. The media and signage consistently incorporate sailing and resort themes.
Exactly who operates the Village is unclear. Ostensibly, the Village is run by a democratically elected council, with a popularly elected executive officer known as "Number Two" presiding over it and the Village itself, although internal dialogue indicates that the entire process is rigged. "Work units" or "credits" serve as currency in its shops, and are kept track of with a hole-punched credit card. Although various members of the community in the Village are shown to hold down jobs or even own businesses, most, including Number Six do not seem to work, though they are nevertheless given a comfortable lifestyle.
The exact size of the environs of the Village is never established on screen. Besides the main Village setting, which is known to include a hospital building, there are woods, mountains and coastal areas. The Village is large enough that one episode established that an entire Old West town and environs was built somewhere in the vicinity. In "Arrival", "Many Happy Returns" and other episodes, Number Six actually views the Village from the air, yet is apparently unable to spot any surrounding towns or cities. In other episodes, buildings can clearly be seen on the far side of the bay. Nevertheless, all maps of the Village seen in the series display little beyond the central village, indicating that it is surrounded on three sides by mountains and sea on the fourth, though the map does show a road leading off the map which may connect to the other areas, such as the Village hospital which is depicted as being in a field-like area away from the core Village.
Identification badges
For official identification purposes, all residents and staff of the Village are assigned numbers in lieu of names, and with very few exceptions the use of proper names is discouraged, if not outright forbidden. A few characters are referred to by their former military rank such as general or admiral. Numbers are reused and reassigned, presumably as and when the current holder leaves the Village. The actual population of the Village is unknown – other than that there are some residents whose numbers are in the low triple digits Save for Number Two, the numbering appears to have no bearing on one's authority or rank within the Village. Most identification badges are white, but occasionally black. The only character never seen wearing a number badge is the unnamed butler who serves Number Two; his number is never revealed.There are a very small number of Villagers consistently identified by a proper name, and not by number. These include Cobb in "Arrival", Alison in "The Schizoid Man", Monique in "It's Your Funeral" and Roland Walter Dutton in "Dance Of The Dead". Each is seen only in one episode.
Penny farthing logo
Many items in the Village are branded with its logo, a canopied penny-farthing bicycle. It appears on the masthead of the daily newspaper, which is called the Tally Ho.Almost all signs and objects are labelled in the same typeface, a modified version of the font Albertus.
Filming locations
Scenes of the Village were filmed in the grounds of Portmeirion, an Italianate resort built by Clough Williams-Ellis in north Wales. Principal location shooting took place over four weeks in September 1966, with a return visit for additional, second unit-style shots for later episodes in March 1967. Sections of the resort were sets at MGM Borehamwood Studios in England. Later episodes were shot almost entirely on the sets on MGM's sound stages and backlot and locations within easy reach of the studio at Borehamwood,, and by reusing Portmeirion footage from earlier episodes the production company was able to save the expense that further principal photography at Portmeirion would have led to.Portmeirion had previously been used as a background in early episodes of Danger Man to show a foreign location – the episodes were "View From The Villa", "Under the Lake", "The Honeymooners", "Find and Return", "The Journey Ends Halfway" and "Bury the Dead".
Infrastructure
There is an extensive network of tunnels and caverns under the Village, connecting many of the public buildings, and a number of secret facilities and support services. These are generally off-limits to all prisoners above, but they appear to be extensively utilised, given the amount of motorcycle traffic observed in them in the final episode. There appears to be a large liquid-filled underground chamber that resembles a lava lamp, probably a short distance off the coast, in which Rover – the Village's security guardian – resides when it is not being used. The normal background display of the large monitor in Number Two's office is a view of this chamber, and lava lamps are visible in virtually every public building in the Village.The Village is a self-contained society, and appears to be mostly self-sufficient as well, although no farming areas are ever seen, so it appears that food and supplies are shipped in from outside. It is sprawling enough to contain several hundred prisoners, in a comfort level similar to that of a hotel or a resort. As seen in "The Girl Who Was Death", the population includes several children, implying that some prisoners are so resigned to their fates that they have married and started families.
The Village has its own daily newspaper, a cinema, a peripheral statue garden, a retirement home, a gymnasium, a fully equipped hospital, taxi service, a radio station, a television studio, a restaurant, a music shop, several other stores, and its own graveyard. In addition, there are extensive recreation facilities. Although alcohol is officially outlawed in the Village, in one episode Number Six stumbles onto a hidden bar located in a cave on the beach, run by a single bartender and a home-made distillery that serves real alcohol. An old acquaintance he meets there informs him that the Village authorities tolerate its presence partially to mollify harder cases with alcohol, and because the proprietor is an eccentric genius who doodles groundbreaking equations when not serving customers, which the authorities periodically steal. The local economy functions on a credit chit system. The final episode also revealed that the Village conceals a missile launch facility deep underground.
The exact dimensions of the Village are never explicitly defined. Although a map of the Village is shown on screen on several occasions, it only seems to show the core residential and business area of the village, which is shown as being surrounded on three sides by mountain ranges and the fourth by "the sea". The episode "Living in Harmony" reveals that the Village is large enough to house a complete western town mock-up. Other episodes also indicate that the Village includes an expanse of beach and seaside cliffs. The jurisdiction of the Village over water is said to extend for several miles, or otherwise the range of Rover, the Village guardian system.
There is visual evidence in many episodes that the Village also includes large areas of countryside as these are often visible in the distance in aerial shots and views looking out to sea.
The small Jeep-like vehicles used as taxis in the Village are Mini Mokes.