Hammer Into Anvil
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| The Prisoner episode | |
|---|---|
| “Hammer Into Anvil” | |
| Episode no. | Season 1 Episode 10 |
| Guest star(s) | Number Two: Patrick Cargill |
| Writer(s) | Roger Woddis |
| Director | Pat Jackson |
| Production no. | |
| Original airdate | December 10, 1967 |
| Episode chronology | |
| ← Previous | Next → |
| "Checkmate" | "It's Your Funeral" |
Hammer into Anvil is an episode of the 1960's television program The Prisoner. It is one of the minority of episodes that do not deal with Number Six attempting to escape.
Number Two harasses and interrogates a female prisoner in a hospital in the Village. Hearing her screams through the window, Number 6 rushes to her aid. As he bursts in the door, the momentary commotion gives the girl a chance to leap from her bed and commit suicide by leaping from the window, escaping Number Two's torture.
Number Six vows to destroy Number Two. He (6), already aware that he is being watched by the Village's hidden camera and spies at every turn, begins acting in a highly suspicious manner, as if he were some sort of spy or double agent.
He takes several copies of the same record of Bizet's L'Arlésienne Suites at the music store and plays them, eyeing his watch. Later on, he asks the town band to play the same piece. He sends out a carrier pigeon with a message stating he will send out a visual signal. This pigeon is intercepted by Number Two's forces, who decode the message and wait for the visual signal. The visual signal, in light-flash morse code, is a nursery rhyme that makes no sense.
These and other pointless exercises gradually cause Number Two to suspect everyone working for him because he thinks they're part of a conspiracy. In the end, Number Six confronts Number Two, allowing him to fabricate his own story. Number Two believes that Number Six is a man sent by "X04" to test his security. Feeding on Number Two's paranoia, Number Six charges Number Two with treason for interfering with Number Six's 'tests'. At the very end, Number Two calls the hotline to Number One to report his own failures and ask that a new Number Two be sent in.
[edit] Additional guest cast
- Band Master: Victor Maddern
- Number Fourteen: Basil Hoskins
- Psychiatric director: Derek Smee
- New supervisor: Derek Aylward
- Number Seventy-Three: Hilary Dwyer
- Control room supervisor: Arthur Gross
- Supervisor: Peter Swanwick
- Shop assistant: Victor Woolf
- Laboratory technician: Michael Segal
- Shop kiosk girl: Margo Andrew
- Female code expert: Susan Sheers
- Guardian: Jackie Cooper
- Guardian: Fred Haggerty
- Guardian: Eddie Powell
- Guardian: George Leech
[edit] Notes
- When Number Two calls Number Six to the green dome the first time, he threatens to break him, quoting Goethe: "Du mußt Amboß oder Hammer sein" ("You must be Anvil or Hammer") "And you see me as the anvil?" asks Number Six, to which Number Two answers "Precisely. I am going to hammer you." The interesting thing is that Number Two has the analogy backwards: to quote George Orwell's classic essay Politics and the English Language: "In real life it is always the anvil that breaks the hammer, never the other way about." The writer undoubtedly knew of this common mistake and used it to form the title and the theme of the episode, wherein Number Two hammers desperately away at Number Six, who with anvil-like calm, breaks him: "Hammer Into Anvil".
