User Reviews

When Channel 4 repeated 'The Prisoner' in 1983, it - for reasons best known to itself - screened this as the second episode. Not that it matters too much, of course, but from the dialogue it seems as though some months have transpired since Number 6's arrival in The Village.

It begins with him waking up one morning to find the power to his house turned off, along with the water. Even the loud radio is silent. Outside The Village stands empty, as though no-one had ever lived there. His only company is a small black cat ( which, as we will find out later on in the series, belongs to Number 2 ). Ascertaining that he is completely alone, Number 6 takes a taxi to the Village's outskirts, but escape by road proves impossible because the area is enclosed by mountains. The resourceful ex-secret agent builds a raft and heads out to sea. Twenty days later, he collapses from exhaustion. Two gunrunners, Gunther ( Dennis Chinnery ) and Ernst ( Jon Laurimore ) steal his food, and throw him into the water. A revived Number 6 gets on board, and starts a fire in the galley with a view to taking over the boat. After a fight, he jumps overboard, and swims to shore. When daylight comes, he is at the foot of a steep cliff. So he starts to climb...

One of my favourite 'Prisoner' episodes. Our hero finally escapes from The Village, returns to London, only to find his strange story disbelieved by his superiors - the Colonel ( Donald Sinden ) and Thorpe ( Patrick Cargill ). Unlike 'Colonel J' ( Kevin Stoney ) and Fotheringay ( Richard Wattis ) from 'The Chimes Of Big Ben', they do not seem to be 'in' on the Prisoner's incarceration. Whilst trying to prove The Village's existence, Number 6 is - rather cruelly - parachuted back into the place, which then comes back to life in the blink of an eye. The woman who greets him with a birthday cake ( containing six candles ) is one Mrs.Butterworth ( Georgina Cookson ), whom he met earlier at his London home ( she was the new tenant ).

Originally to have been directed by Michael Truman ( who fell ill ), McGoohan took over directorial duties himself, crediting the result to 'Joseph Serf'. It is a very cinematic piece, with little dialogue for the most of the first half, and some wonderfully symbolic touches; the barbed wire fence Number 6 comes across, for instance, reminds us that, though he is no longer in The Village, he is still not free.

Anthony Skene was one of the show's best writers, being responsible for 'A, B & C', and 'Dance Of The Dead'. It is full of wonderful moments, my favourite being Number 6 driving through the London streets in his hand-built Lotus 7. The firm-jawed McGoohan at the wheel of the car, hair blowing in the breeze, with Ron Grainer's exciting theme pounding away, is an iconic image.

I wonder if Number 6 enjoyed Mrs.Butterworth's birthday cake?

It is my belief that this episode is the Village's birthday present to Number Six. He is granted his dearest wish: to successfully escape from the Village. He is able to visit his flat, drive his car, and talk to his old associates about the Village. He finds where the Village is located, something he has dearly wanted. In return, the Village is able to collect information: what Number Six would say about them and what he finds most interesting. At the end, he is presented with a birthday cake, underlining that this has been a gift.

A personal comment on "Many Happy Returns".

In this episode, Number 6 escapes from the Village, and returns to England.

Near the end of the episode, while trying to locate the Village from a DeHavilland Meteor jet fighter, he gets "ejected" out of the aircraft and parachutes back into the Village. When I saw that the first time, my insides just died. I mean I knew he would end up back in the Village somehow. But if it had been ME descending back into that place I would have *snapped* right then and there.

Just my two cents. Be seeing you...

-Allan, aka RocKiteman, aka Kiteman-4

In "Many Happy Returns" Number Six awakens to find the Village deserted and with no working electricity. After fashioning himself a raft, Six hits the waters in the hopes of escaping. He winds up having his supplies stolen by gun runners and left for dead. After climbing aboard the boat and commandeering it, Number Six is forced to abandon ship and swim to shore. He winds up on the coast of England and finds a way to return to London.

He returns to his old flat where a lady is currently living and has taken over his car as well. Confused, Number Six heads to some old friends and explains his story. At first they don't believe him but he is insistent and the they agree to investigate. Based on his journey, the group sets up a search radius to find the Village via plane. Number Six does locate it and is immediately ejected from his seat on the plane and parachuted back down into the village where the woman from his flat is waiting for him with a welcome back/birthday cake.

The first half of this episode is absolute perfection. It's like watching a silent film as not a discernable word is spoken for the first 20 minutes at least. It plays beautifully and all the shots are gorgeous. There was something unsettling about the empty Village. It reminded me a lot of the pilot for The Twilight Zone.

The second half is pretty good too, although it does bring the show back down to Earth when Number Six visits his old flat.

My main issue with this episode is this: what was the plan exactly? Why did they let Number Six escape? I don't know how this got them any closer to finding out his secrets. For a while there he seemed unsupervised and unwatched. They were taking a mighty risk assuming he's go back to his old stomping grounds. There was always the chance he'd drown or disappear into the unknown where they'd never see him again. Or what if he went to the media and unveiled the whole thing? It just all seems a bit much.

Besides this annoying plot hole, I still had a very fun time with this one. His ocean journey is great and all the shots of the empty Village will stick in my memory for a long time. When something this good happens in an episode, I can look past its downsides a bit.

All in all, this episode was fun. Watching #6 make his escape, deal with the various challenges with the resourcefulness that one would expect from an agent of his apparent importance and caliber, and finally return home to London -- it was a fun ride. The main problems that kept nagging at me are:

1) All indications are that the mysterious Village authorities have a deep respect for #6's abilities. They keep extremely close watch on him and seem to expect him to be a threat and a difficult case. It makes little to no sense that they would hatch a plan like this for no obvious benefit. At no point was he being pumped for, or tricked into giving, the information they so desperately seek from him. And it would seem that an agent of #6's quality would be perfectly capable of zigging where they expected him to zag, especially since he's been shown to be extremely suspicious and contrary. He could have fled almost anywhere and lost himself amongst the billions of humanity, especially in 1967, in a world far less connected than it is now.

2) Also, and to some degree contrariwise, it makes little sense that #6 would return so predictably to his old stomping grounds. He is suspicious to the point of paranoia, after all, and has on more than one occasion explicitly proffered his opinion that it could just as easily been his own side that had done this to him. The moment he saw his vehicle being driven by the new resident of his own home, he should have left. He shouldn't have gone there in the first place, actually, but the coincidence of his home and his vehicle -- both of which were known to his former employers -- belonging to a single person who apparently drove this very distinctive car it freely about should have suggested to him that his old masters were complicit because they would certainly have noticed this situation, and if they weren't the ones responsible, they would have been hunting for him themselves. He trusted everyone with absurd ease and didn't even seem suspicious of the set-up where the entire Village population simply disappeared overnight.

Also, how did he not recognize the cliffs at Dover? He had no need to ask where he was. For that matter, why not assay the mountains back at the Village? He was willing and able to scale the cliffs, after all.

All in all, this was a fun episode that doesn't stand up under serious scrutiny. Personally, I'm willing to just believe the entire escape was just the Village authorities' early birthday present to their prisoner, giving him a few hours back home.

I am not sure what the point of this episode was (I certainly could have missed it!).

Number six awakens one morning to find the village deserted so he, of course, decides it is time to escape again. He fashions a crude raft, fits it out with supplies (food, makeshift compass, etc.) and off he goes! 25 days later and a run-in with some German gun-runners and some Romany Gypsies he arrives back in London somehow. He tells his story to his former compatriots who aren't really sure if they believe him or not but they go ahead and conduct a search for the "Village". Amazingly enough they find it and he is deposited back there!

I am not sure what the point of the episode is because I can't see them pumping him for any information or trying to break his will or anything! Looks like a rather expensive ruse just to put him back where he started. But...it's a pleasure just to watch Patrick McGoohan do his thing!