"The Prisoner" The Girl Who Was Death (1968)

Director:

David Tomblin

Writers:

Terence Feely (written by)
David Tomblin (idea)

TV Series:

"The Prisoner" (1967)

Original Air Date:

21 January 1968 (Season 1, Episode 14)

Genre:

Drama | Mystery | Sci-Fi

Plot:

Back in London, Number 6 is trying to track down a crazed scientist who is protected by his homicidal daughter. |

Plot Keywords:

Cyanide | Narrow Escape | Death Trap | Blonde | Cricket

Cast

Patrick McGoohan	...	Number Six
Kenneth Griffith	...	Schnipps / Number Two
Justine Lord	...	Sonia
Christopher Benjamin	...	Potter
Michael Brennan	...	Killer Karminski
Harold Berens	...	Boxing M.C.
Sheena Marshe	...	Barmaid (as Sheena Marsh)
Max Faulkner	...	Scots Napoleon
John Rees	...	Welsh Napoleon
Joe Gladwin	...	Irish Napoleon
John Drake	...	Bowler
Gaynor Steward	...	Little Girl
Graham Steward	...	First Little Boy
Stephen Howe	...	Second Little Boy

Runtime:

USA:60 min

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Filming Locations:

Beachy Head, East Sussex, England, UK

Company:

Everyman Films

Trivia:

The script for "The Girl who was Death" was shorter than any of the other Prisoner episodes at forty two pages, and was twelve pages under the average length of a television script at the time. Even so, some four pages containing a psychedelic scene were deleted from it, in this scene Killer Karminski suggested that No 6 went to a certain sideshow, which was a replica of the Hampton Court maze.

Goofs:

Crew or equipment visible: In the close up of the laughing sailor machine at the fairground, the camera can be seen reflected on the left hand side in the glass at the end.

Quotes:

[first lines]
The Prisoner: Busy, Potter?
Potter: [disguised as a shoeshine boy] It's our form of Siberia.

"I Say, You're Not The Duke Of Wellington, Are You?"

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

Chosen ( rather oddly ) to represent 'The Prisoner' as part of I.T.V.'s 'Best Of British' series in 1982, 'Girl' is one of the least representative episodes. Apart from the final scene, there's nothing to link it to the ongoing saga of 'Number 6' and his quest to escape The Village. It opens with an 'Avengers' type teaser in which a British agent is blown up by a cricket ball. McGoohan's unnamed agent ( surely not John Drake? ) replaces him, going off on a wild chase across Merrie England, avoiding death-traps, until he confronts the girl and her Napoleon-obsessed father, who is plotting the destruction of London. 'Girl' is usually thought of as a send-up of 'Danger Man', but Drake never had an adventure as outrageous as this. Justine Lord's glamorous assassin and the late Kenneth Griffith's over-the-top megalomaniac are glorious, while Terence Feely's ingenious script ridicules the conventions of the spy genre more effectively than any of the bigger budgeted movies made at that time.