The Annotated Prisoner - ‘Dance Of The Dead’ Act 1 Part 1

Shouldn’t you be doing this in the hospital?

Extra! Extra!

I had my notes for the first bit of ‘Dance Of The Dead’ proper all ready to go, and a few nice comments expressing frustration at the wait for the next instalment, so here’s a much earlier than usual Bunker. I’ve got a whole scene in! Though to be fair it is a very significant scene with lots of introductions.

I’ll be moving sequentially through the episode for a close reading, and switching between the script and the finished product as I go. It’s the only way for this one, where the differences between the two are, I think, the key to understanding its strengths and weaknesses. This will include both short bites and meaty digressions.

ACT 1 Part One

The script begins with P drugged fast asleep in bed in the deep night, as in the finished version, but it opens with his speaker playing the ticking sounds of a clock. This is a striking and quite funny idea - the Village piping in ‘normal’ night sounds - but I think it was probably right to cut it. The speaker is some distance from P’s bed through the keyhole arch, so the ticking would have to be very loud for him to hear it. Also, it’s the kind of moment that is hard for an audience to ‘read’, particularly as the first shot, and it might seem hugely significant, when in fact it isn’t. This is a common risk in The Prisoner, which often has to rely only on the facial reactions of its hero to cue how we should react.

The medical staff who enter the cottage are played by William Lyon Brown (the undertaker in the titles, no matter what IMDB says) and Bee Duffell, back from ‘Checkmate’ and looking very gulag wardeness again. In the script, these two are described only as Man and Woman. (There’s a third carrying the interrogation equipment on screen.) It is perhaps slightly unfortunate that Lyon Brown in this appearance looks quite like Duncan Macrae, who we are about to pull out to - white coat, spooky face, glasses. In fact, their hair is dressed so similarly that it’s possibly intentional - pains are usually taken to distinguish actors who look similar. It can make you wonder if this is another case of Village doubling. The pull-out to reveal this is an image on the big Control Room screen isn’t in the script, and is a very nice touch.