The Chimes of Big Ben

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“The Chimes of Big Ben”
The Prisoner episode
Episode no. Season 1
Episode 2
Written by Vincent Tilsley
Directed by Don Chaffey
Guest stars Number Two - Leo McKern
Nadia - Nadia Gray
Original airdate October 8, 1967
Episode chronology
← Previous Next →
"Arrival" "A. B. and C."

"The Chimes of Big Ben" is the title of the second episode of the British science fiction-allegorical series, The Prisoner. It originally aired in the UK on ITV on October 8, 1967 and was first broadcast in the United States on CBS in the summer of 1968.

The episode starred Patrick McGoohan in the character of Number Six and introduced perhaps the most popular of the many characters who would bear the title of "Number Two" in the series, that of Leo McKern. McKern's Number Two would return for the last two episodes of the series.

[edit] Plot summary

The episode opens with the relentlessly cheerful voice of the radio announcer encouraging every Villager to participate in an upcoming crafts show. Number Six is playing chess near the beach when Number Two (Leo McKern) joins him. During their conversation, a helicopter lands and an unconscious woman (Nadia Gray) is taken out on a stretcher.

Later, Number Six is invited to The Green Dome where he and Number Two watch the woman wake up on the main viewing screen. Number Two says that she is Number Eight and that she will be Number Six's new neighbour.

When Number Six returns to his cottage, Number Eight emerges, confused, and asks for directions to The Green Dome. When she returns later, she reveals to him that her name is Nadia, but she is suspicious that he is a Village spy. The day after, Nadia tries to escape by swimming out to sea but is brought back by Rover and interrogated in the hospital. In response, Number Six makes a deal, agreeing to participate more in Village life — for instance, by entering the craft show — if this puts an end to her torture.

Number Six and Nadia become closer and eventually plan to escape. She tells him that she knows the location of The Village: On the Baltic coast of Lithuania about 30 miles from the Polish border.

At the craft show (where every entry except Number Six's is a depiction of Number Two in some medium), Number Six presents his work, a multi-piece abstract sculpture called "Escape". He is then awarded first prize and uses the "work units" he has won to purchase a tapestry, the entry of one of the other prize winners. At night, he and Nadia escape in his exhibit, which is really a carved boat, using the tapestry as a sail.

When they reach land, they meet Nadia's contact. Number Six borrows the contact's watch since his own has stopped. Number Six and Nadia then hide in a packing case as they travel to London. They end up in Number Six's old office and meet his former bosses. When they suspect him of being a double agent, Number Six agrees to tell them why he resigned if Nadia is given protection.

However, as he is about to talk, Number Six hears the familiar chimes of Big Ben. He looks at his watch and finds that it shows the same time — not the hour's difference of the time in Poland. Realizing that he has been tricked, he begins a search of the office and discovers a tape recorder recreating the background sounds of London. He exits the building, finding himself back in The Village, with Nadia standing with Number Two — thus revealing she was an operative all along.

[edit] Additional guest cast

[edit] Trivia

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The article could be improved by integrating relevant items and removing inappropriate ones.
  • If Number Six and Nadia are trying to reach Poland from Lithuania they should be sailing westward. However, they are seen sailing from right to left with the coast behind them, which would place them on an eastward heading. To reach Poland they would also have had to sail past Kaliningrad and somehow avoid patrols from its Soviet naval base.
  • When Number Six and Nadia are encased in the box, with the wood divider between them, McGoohan ruins the illusion that they are separated by sticking his hand over the edge of the wood divider.
  • An alternate version of this episode exists. A pre-release edit never meant to be shown, it was accidentally included in a batch of episodes sent to CBC in Canada and promptly broadcast. It was eventually released on video several years later. Most of the differences are minor, except for an alternate scene of Number Six trying to discover The Village's location using a home-made navigational device called a triquetrum. As with the pre-release cut of the series pilot 'Arrival', this alternate version employs theme and incidental music tracks composed by Wilfred Joseph. In addition, the 'Alternate Chimes' also features a unique end sequence to the end titles, with the word POP erupting from a globe of the Earth. A different iteration of this device is used on the pre-release edit of 'Arrival'.
    • The closing credits contain the biggest difference to the released series. When the credits conclude, the bicycle frame fades away (the part is seen in some episodes featuring a large guest cast) to leave only the wheels. The wheels spin with the Big Wheel coming to represent the Universe and the Little Wheel coming to represent the Earth).
  • This episode contains a much-quoted dialogue often regarded as a high point of the series by Prisoner fans. The exchange happens while Number Two and Number Six are on the beach, watching Nadia start her swim:
Number Two: I am definitely an optimist. That's why it doesn't matter who Number One is. It doesn't matter which "side" runs the Village.
Number Six: It's run by one side or the other.
Number Two: Oh certainly, but both sides are becoming identical. What in fact has been created is an international community — perfect blueprint for world order. When the sides facing each other suddenly realize that they're looking into a mirror, they will see that this is the pattern for the future.
Number Six: The whole Earth as the Village?
Number Two: That is my hope. What's yours?
Number Six: I'd like to be the first man on the moon.
  • It is sometimes reported about this episode that Nadia "strangely has no number". This claim is even repeated on the back of some video boxes, but it is based on a misreading of the episode; Nadia is clearly and openly assigned the number 8, and even though she later angrily declares "I'm no Number Eight, or Number anything else!" it's a statement meant to mirror Six's declaration "I am not a number, I am a free man!"
  • This is the first of three episodes (in standard viewing order) in which The Prisoner contacts his former employers (played by different actors each time). Here, the cast list in the closing credits identifies the former superior as "Colonel J," although the letter is not used within the episode itself. In the second, Many Happy Returns, that ex-boss is also called "The Colonel," but in one exchange, The Prisoner addresses him as "James," the initial matching the letter in the other's code name.
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