Many Happy Returns (Prisoner episode)

Infobox Television episode
Title = Many Happy Returns
Series = The Prisoner
Season = 1
Episode = 7
Guests = The Colonel (aka "James") - Donald Sinden Thorpe - Patrick Cargill Mrs. Butterworth - Georgina Cooksonepisode credits]
Writer = Anthony Skene
Director = Patrick McGoohan using pseudonym Joseph Serf
Production =
Airdate = November 12, 1967
Episode list = List of The Prisoner episodes


Prev = The General
Next = Dance of the Dead

"Many Happy Returns" is the seventh episode of the television series "The Prisoner".

Additional guest cast

* Group Captain - Brian Worth
* Commander - Richard Caldicot
* Gunther - Dennis Chinnery
* Ernst - Jon Laurimore
* Gypsy girl - Nike Arrighi
* Maid - Grace Arnold
* Gypsy man - Larry Taylor

Plot

In this episode, Number Six awakes to find The Village deserted. Momentarily abandoning his misgivings that the eerily quiet place gives him, he takes a number of pictures before assembling a raft and making his bid for freedom. After spending weeks at sea, he makes it back to London, where a Mrs. Butterworth now occupies his old house and drives his Lotus 7, registration plate KAR 120C. Mrs. Butterworth is intrigued by Number Six's plight, feeds him, and lends him clothes and her car so that he can make contact with his former employer. They are skeptical of his story, but ultimately allow him to demonstrate to them the location of the village. He leads a plane to the Village only to realize the plane was surreptitiously hijacked by a village confederate. Number Six is ejected from the plane and is greeted in the Village by Number Two, who happens to be Mrs. Butterworth.

Trivia

* The camera used by Number Six when taking photos of the deserted Village is a Canon Dial 35 half-frame format 35mm camera. The maker's name was masked out with black tape.
*This episode is the second (in standard screening order) of three in which The Prisoner contacts his former employers, and the latter of just two in which his ex-boss is called "The Colonel." In the end titles' cast credits for the first, "The Chimes of Big Ben", but not within the episode itself, the character is identified as "Colonel J," the letter being the initial of "James."
* Patrick Cargill, who plays Thorpe, later appears as Number Two in "Hammer Into Anvil", who is almost certainly not the same character.
* In this episode the location of The Village is given as an island somewhere in the North Atlantic, in contradiction with "The Chimes of Big Ben" in which it is claimed to be on the Baltic coast of Lithuania, and with "Fall Out" in which it is shown to be within driving distance of London.
* In the 5.1 audio mix on the 2007 DVD release one of Thorpe's lines of dialogue - "Interesting fellow" - is accidentally omitted.
*It is over 20 minutes into the episode until McGoohan actually speaks.
*The name on Number Six's apartment lease is Peter Smith; however, this may be an alias.
*The opening sequence does not show Number Two, nor does the voice match that of Number Two.

Notes