The Girl Who Was Death

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For the Devil Doll album, see The Girl Who Was... Death.
“The Girl Who Was Death”
The Prisoner episode
Episode no. Season 1
Episode 15
Written by Terence Feely
Directed by David Tomblin
Guest stars Schnipps: Kenneth Griffith
Sonia: Justine Lord
Original airdate January 21, 1968
Episode chronology
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"Living in Harmony" "Once Upon a Time"

"The Girl Who Was Death" is a television episode of the British science fiction-allegorical series, The Prisoner. It originally aired in the UK on ITV on January 21, 1968. According to several sources including The Prisoner by Robert Fairclough, this episode was adapted from an unused, two-part script originally commissioned for Danger Man.

[edit] Plot summary

The basic plot appears to be Number Six on a past assignment, before he went to The Village. He has to track down Professor Schnipps, a mad scientist who wants to destroy London. Number Six dresses up as an army Colonel, with moustache and attitude, and tracks down a seductive woman called Sonia, alias "Death", who sets a series of deadly traps for him.

Eventually, after faking his death, Number Six tracks Sonia to a lighthouse where Schnipps and his associates are based. The villains all appear to have a Napoleon complex, dressing up as the Emperor himself. Captured, Number Six is tied up and left inside the rocket as it is about to launch, but he escapes and the rocket blows up killing the villains.

In the end it turns out that Number Six was telling some children a bedtime story in the Village nursery. Number Two (who looks like Schnipps) and his assistant (who looks like Sonia) were hoping that he would drop some clue as to why he resigned. But Number Six, after putting the children to bed, turns to the camera and cheekily wishes: "Good night, children...everywhere".

[edit] Additional guest cast

  • Potter: Christopher Benjamin
  • Killer Karminski: Michael Brennan
  • Boxing M.C.: Harold Berens
  • Barmaid: Sheena Marsh
  • Scots Napoleon: Max Faulkner
  • Welsh Napoleon: John Rees
  • Yorkshire Napoleon: Joe Gladwin
  • Bowler: John Drake
  • Little girl: Gaynor Steward
  • Little boy: Graham Steward
  • Little boy: Stephen Howe

[edit] Trivia

  • As noted above, it has been suggested that the basic storyline of this episode was originally written for Danger Man. Christopher Benjamin appears as Potter in this episode, a very similar, and identically named, character to one he played in the Danger Man episode "Koroshi" -- the first episode of the season McGoohan aborted in order to produce The Prisoner. This evidence is used by fans who support the theory that The Prisoner is a continuation of Danger Man (a theory that McGoohan himself has always vehemently denounced).
  • Near the start of the episode Number Six is directed to a record store where he is given his mission orders from an LP - although the record appears to be capable of answering back when he makes a sarcastic remark. This is an obvious parody of Mission: Impossible and its self-destructing tapes.
  • One of the actors who appears in this episode is also called 'John Drake'. McGoohan reportedly hired the actor because the coincidence amused him.
  • This is the only episode in which children are shown to be inmates of the Village, the reason for which is never given. Presumably, they are the offspring of long-term inmates who have grown reconciled to their fate and have decided to settle down.
  • Number 6 drives a Lotus Elan in this episode (instead of his usual Lotus Seven), which may be a reference to The Avengers, as Emma Peel drove a Lotus Elan in most episodes of that series.
  • The phrase "Goodnight children, everywhere," the last words spoken by Number 6 in this episode, was a catchphrase used to end each episode of the BBC's long-running children's radio and television program, Children's Hour. It may be Number 6's way of condescending to his Village keepers, who he knows are watching him. This caption can also be heard at the end of the Goldfinger cover of the song "99 Red Balloons"
  • Number Six is lured to a strange town which is called "Witch Wood", which is the name of a John Buchan novel.