The Prisoner: What Does It All Mean

[jack]

If a person sets aside the claimed influence of Georg Hershdorfer on
The Prisoner, the entire series may, it is suggested, actually find
it's major inspirations in two sources.

One would have been the Bridget Boland teleplay The Prisoner in which
Patrick McGoohan played the interrogator:

http://numbersixwasinnocent.blogspot.com/2011_05_01_archive.html

The second influence would have been the ban the bomb marches of 1963
where there was the exposure of the Regional Seat of Government by the
group calling themselves Spies For Peace:

http://www.newyorker.com/archive/1963/05/04/1963_05_04_175_TNY_CARDS_000272470

http://www.bl.uk/learning/histcitizen/21cc/counterculture/civildisobedience/spiesforpeace/spiesforpeace.html

http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=ZREdAAAAIBAJ&sjid=8poEAAAAIBAJ&pg=5698,1918811&dq=spies-for-peace+march&hl=en

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xpHL61itBvE

In the episodes of The Prisoner written by McGoohan we find No.6
caught up in an election (Free For All) that focuses on the 'security
of the community' much as was the case in the 1964 election where the
government was brought down by spy scandals and when Harold Wilson ran
on the 'progress' of science and technology.

There was then the interrogation episode, Once Upon A Time, in which
we find parallels to the Bridget Boland play.

The Prisoner is about the corrupting influences of the security
communities (MI5) on the democratic processes and the rights of the
individual. The Village is a projection of what a Regional Seat of
Government may have been like left to it's own devices.

[Brian Watson]

"jack" <jackfo...@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:b303cd04-0441-4aa5...@uk1g2000pbb.googlegroups.com...

There is one problem with your attempt to link The Prisoner with the RSGs
and Spies For Peace.

That is that they have nothing in common.

As someone who saw what Spies For Peace were distributing at the time and
has visited several actual and proposed RSGs since, I can confirm that the
RSGs were only self-contained office facilities from which the country
"would" (it was proposed) be run following a nuclear attack that effectively
wiped out government in London.

There were no surveillance facilities apart from the telephone lines and
fairly rudimentary radio transceivers, and the living accommodation was
spartan to say the least.

Actually, if a bomb HAD hit Britain, the RSGs would have been next to
useless because of the immediate and persistent effects of radiation. They
were built nowhere near deep enough to be effective.

Also, at the time the revelations about the RSGs came out, they were still
being built, and the proposed network of such centres was never completed. I
know because I looked at several uncompleted sited a few years later.

There was no "Village"-type housing or arrangements for holding prisoners
(or Prisoners), no facilities for sophisticated debriefings, and no
hydroponic facilities for growing food underground.

It is very likely that the Boland play fed into the Prisoner concept as
McGoohan and Markstein initially conceived it.

At the time there were many things going on that were useful as source
material.

Unfortunately, there still are.

--
Brian
"Fight like the Devil, die like a gentleman."

[John Ryerson]

On Nov 24, 1:14 am, "Brian Watson" <Br...@imagebus.co.uk> wrote:
> "jack" <jackforst...@gmail.com> wrote in message

>
> news:b303cd04-0441-4aa5...@uk1g2000pbb.googlegroups.com...
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> > If a person sets aside the claimed influence of Georg Hershdorfer on
> > The Prisoner, the entire series may, it is suggested, actually find
> > it's major inspirations in two sources.
>
> > One would have been the Bridget Boland teleplay The Prisoner in which
> > Patrick McGoohan played the interrogator:
>
> >http://numbersixwasinnocent.blogspot.com/2011_05_01_archive.html
>
> > The second influence would have been the ban the bomb marches of 1963
> > where there was the exposure of the Regional Seat of Government by the
> > group calling themselves Spies For Peace:
>

> >http://www.newyorker.com/archive/1963/05/04/1963_05_04_175_TNY_CARDS_...
>
> >http://www.bl.uk/learning/histcitizen/21cc/counterculture/civildisobe...
>
> >http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=ZREdAAAAIBAJ&sjid=8poEAAAAIBAJ&p...

I am certain that your own adventures into RSG6 were very interesting.

Nothing looks quite like Portmeirion. However the interior of places
such as Warren Row was no mystery at the time as there were many media
photos of Britain's underground factories ( often referred to as
'underground cities').

http://www.monkton-farleigh.co.uk/sc_warrenrow2.htm

http://www.monkton-farleigh.co.uk/sc_warrenrow4.htm

It is in the episode Free For All that the RSG6 influences are most
striking and indeed they have many things in common. Underground
tunnels, the suggestion of 6 months survival capacity, rapid emergency
transport, 'everything you need is here', a secret government with
nuclear capacity, a 'vetting' process to see if someone is worthy to
lead The Village. RSG6 was once referred to as a 'bunker full of
bureaucrats', a rather apt description of The Village.

It is the suggestion in the Regional Seats of Government that there is
a governing force with a hidden agenda that conjures images of The
Village.

On the other hand there were places that looked very much like The
Village complete with hovercraft and planned surveillance through
hidden microphones. TV cameras etc.

An account from the files of MI5 about plans for an internment camp at
the holiday park at Rhyl Wales for Communists:

Post-war British policy on detention camps (KV 4/245)

In 1948, the Home Office began laying emergency plans to intern
Communists in Britain in the event of war or an emergency, and this
file begins with its request to the Director General for assistance.
There are notes of meetings to discuss the plans between the Security
Service, the Home Office and the War Office (which would be
responsible for setting up internment camps). There were initial plans
for six camps, one for each War Office command, plus two interrogation
centres. The Security Service was to furnish a list of people to be
interned, though this list is not on the file. The seriousness of the
plans can be judged from minuted comments such as "It was agreed that
the need should be stressed for action before legislation…" It was
estimated that over 1,000 British and alien Communists or suspects
would be interned in the first 3-4 days. As the plans developed, the
Home Office assumed responsibility for the main camp, which was to be
on the Isle of Man. Other camps were to be established in a holiday
camp in Rhyl, and at Ascot and Epsom racecourses. The plans, however,
got bogged down in red tape and disputes. As late as February 1954,
when the file closes, Sir Frank Newsam is quoted as saying that in his
view "it was very important that we should get the arrangements for
these camps in such a form that they can be put into operation at a
few days' notice." This was five and a half years after the first
emergency meeting.

MI5 role in the General Strike (KV 4/246)

Below is the history of the first commercial hovercraft, used at Rhyl.
Part of that history was the plan to adapt such craft to military use
for it's potential for military transport and it's hoped for capacity
as a pursuit and capture vehicle on land and sea.

The Rhyl 'mechanical Rover' :

http://www.wirralhistory.net/hovercraft.html

Both Rhyl and Portmeirion were in Wales, both were holiday camps, both
had a hovercraft pursuit and capture technology in place (original
Rover) and both were to be made escape proof.

Rhyls was to be, on a full scale, much like The Village, as a self
contained town/village. For comparison here is a picture of the WW2
interment camp on the Isle of Man:

http://www.hansgal.com/photos/isleofman.jpg

Here is a photo of the section of Rhyl that was to to be turned into
an internment center:

http://www.oldukphotos.com/graphics/Wales%20Photos/Flintshire,%20Rhyl,%20The%20Sands%20and%20The%20Parade%201900%27s.JPG

[jack]

On Nov 23, 10:14 pm, "Brian Watson" <Br...@imagebus.co.uk> wrote:
> "jack" <jackforst...@gmail.com> wrote in message

>
> news:b303cd04-0441-4aa5...@uk1g2000pbb.googlegroups.com...
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> > If a person sets aside the claimed influence of Georg Hershdorfer on
> > The Prisoner, the entire series may, it is suggested, actually find
> > it's major inspirations in two sources.
>
> > One would have been the Bridget Boland teleplay The Prisoner in which
> > Patrick McGoohan played the interrogator:
>
> >http://numbersixwasinnocent.blogspot.com/2011_05_01_archive.html
>
> > The second influence would have been the ban the bomb marches of 1963
> > where there was the exposure of the Regional Seat of Government by the
> > group calling themselves Spies For Peace:
>

> >http://www.newyorker.com/archive/1963/05/04/1963_05_04_175_TNY_CARDS_...
>
> >http://www.bl.uk/learning/histcitizen/21cc/counterculture/civildisobe...
>
> >http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=ZREdAAAAIBAJ&sjid=8poEAAAAIBAJ&p...
>

I agree there are many sources in the 1960's

Agreed that the RSG system is most clear in Fall Out. But it can also
be seen in the images of the 'ban the bomb protesters swarming RSG6 at
Warren Row, much like the political rallies seen in Free For All or
The Village band and crowd themes.

There is a very Village like moments in 1963 when the ban the bomb
protesters taunted authorities by 'I have a secret' to the tune of
'Have You Ever Seen a Lassie'.

There is also the reference to the matter of 'Scotland' in Do Not
Forsake Me' as another RSG was exposed in Scotland.


http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-T01dErsq1_A/Te8iAKCv-fI/AAAAAAAAA98/1Us2ZAmylh4/s640/PDVD_001z.BMP

http://www.iarecordings.org/productions/p16.html

http://www.pbase.com/paul_j/bunker

http://www.bbc.co.uk/herefordandworcester/content/image_galleries/drakelow_photo_gallery.shtml?10

http://www.flickr.com/photos/assyntnature/6218313534/

http://farm7.staticflickr.com/6227/6217799585_550141880d.jpg

The symbol of the 1965 Provo Movement would have been interesting.

http://urbania4.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/provos-imagem01.jpg

[Brian Watson]

"John Ryerson" <johnry...@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:6ee668e5-62c5-4988...@qi10g2000pbb.googlegroups.com...

> I am certain that your own adventures into RSG6 were very interesting.

Not just that one.

> Nothing looks quite like Portmeirion. However the interior of places
such as Warren Row was no mystery at the time as there were many media
photos of Britain's underground factories ( often referred to as
'underground cities').

http://www.monkton-farleigh.co.uk/sc_warrenrow2.htm

http://www.monkton-farleigh.co.uk/sc_warrenrow4.htm

The RSGs WERE secret at the time. That's why the Spies For Peace leaflets
caused such a sensation.

That some of them had previously been factories was neither here nor there.

> It is in the episode Free For All that the RSG6 influences are most
striking and indeed they have many things in common. Underground
tunnels, the suggestion of 6 months survival capacity, rapid emergency
transport, 'everything you need is here', a secret government with
nuclear capacity, a 'vetting' process to see if someone is worthy to
lead The Village. RSG6 was once referred to as a 'bunker full of
bureaucrats', a rather apt description of The Village.

> It is the suggestion in the Regional Seats of Government that there is
a governing force with a hidden agenda that conjures images of The
Village.

I suppose so. Certainly, those civil servants who were briefed to go into
them if an attack was imminent knew that they were not to take their
families with them.

It's absolutely typical that those who would most exercise a survival
instinct - and plan for it - is not the elected parliament, but the pen
pushers. They, after all, really hold the levers of power in any country.

> On the other hand there were places that looked very much like The
Village complete with hovercraft and planned surveillance through
hidden microphones. TV cameras etc.

Oh really?

> An account from the files of MI5 about plans for an internment camp at
the holiday park at Rhyl Wales for Communists:

> Post-war British policy on detention camps (KV 4/245)

> In 1948, the Home Office began laying emergency plans to intern

Communists in Britain in the event of war or an emergency, <SNIP> Other

camps were to be established in a holiday

camp in Rhyl...

Indeed. But-litz.

:-)

> Below is the history of the first commercial hovercraft, used at Rhyl.
Part of that history was the plan to adapt such craft to military use
for it's potential for military transport and it's hoped for capacity
as a pursuit and capture vehicle on land and sea.

> The Rhyl 'mechanical Rover' :
> http://www.wirralhistory.net/hovercraft.html

> Both Rhyl and Portmeirion were in Wales, both were holiday camps, both
had a hovercraft pursuit and capture technology in place (original
Rover) and both were to be made escape proof.

I'm not sure that Portmeirion has ever been run on the lines of a holiday
camp, has it?

> Rhyls was to be, on a full scale, much like The Village, as a self
contained town/village. For comparison here is a picture of the WW2
interment camp on the Isle of Man:

> http://www.hansgal.com/photos/isleofman.jpg

Here is a photo of the section of Rhyl that was to to be turned into
an internment center:

http://www.oldukphotos.com/graphics/Wales%20Photos/Flintshire,%20Rhyl,%20The%20Sands%20and%20The%20Parade%201900%27s.JPG

That's VERY interesting. Thanks for posting it.


I'm just wondering, would they have let the internees go on the roundabouts
and other rides?

"If we don't get co-operation from you, there will be no donkey rides for
you this week."

"I'll talk! I'll talk!"

[Brian Watson]

"jack" <jackfo...@gmail.com> wrote in message

news:6b745e0e-2179-4361...@jj5g2000pbc.googlegroups.com...

>
> The symbol of the 1965 Provo Movement would have been interesting.

> http://urbania4.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/provos-imagem01.jpg

The "white bicycle" scheme started in Holland, I believe, and was an
initiative to have a freely-available transport system.

Basically, you picked up a bike from one of a number of pick-up points and
left it at another when you were done with it.

Needless to say, sadly, quite a lot got dumped in the canals and the system
closed.

However, it was immortalised by the band Tomorrow in their minor hit "My
White Bicycle."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=62yWU4ryrgI

They were regulars in the London psychedelic scene around 1966/7.

Keith West of the band went on to sing "Except From A Teenage Opera", Steve
Howe joined Yes, and Twink joined the Pink Fairies.

Their album is a bit of a treat if you can find a copy.

[jack]

On Nov 24, 3:30 pm, "Brian Watson" <Br...@imagebus.co.uk> wrote:
> "John Ryerson" <johnryers...@gmail.com> wrote in message

> http://www.oldukphotos.com/graphics/Wales%20Photos/Flintshire,%20Rhyl...

>
> That's VERY interesting. Thanks for posting it.
>
> I'm just wondering, would they have let the internees go on the roundabouts
> and other rides?
>
> "If we don't get co-operation from you, there will be no donkey rides for
> you this week."
>
> "I'll talk! I'll talk!"
>
> --
> Brian
> "Fight like the Devil, die like a gentleman."

When the Spies For Peace revealed the existence of Warren Row there
were accounts in the papers of the day that let it be known it had
once been one of the underground factory/cities which had been
reported on in the media since WW2. The interiors of RSG6 would have
sparked the imagination as to what a secret government facility may
have been like. Fall Out's interiors do bear a striking resemblence to
the RSGs.

http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=smxAAAAAIBAJ&sjid=kaMMAAAAIBAJ&pg=5247,3434599&dq=spies+for+peace+regional-seat-of-government&hl=en

http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=CFdZAAAAIBAJ&sjid=WkgNAAAAIBAJ&pg=5733,1374239&dq=underground-factories+britain&hl=en

It would certainly be interesting to know which RSGs you visited.

[Brian Watson]

"jack" <jackfo...@gmail.com> wrote in message

news:80b60b7b-c73f-47dd...@u4g2000pbo.googlegroups.com...

> When the Spies For Peace revealed the existence of Warren Row there
were accounts in the papers of the day that let it be known it had
once been one of the underground factory/cities which had been
reported on in the media since WW2. The interiors of RSG6 would have
sparked the imagination as to what a secret government facility may
have been like. Fall Out's interiors do bear a striking resemblence to
the RSGs.

> http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=smxAAAAAIBAJ&sjid=kaMMAAAAIBAJ&pg=5247,3434599&dq=spies+for+peace+regional-seat-of-government&hl=en

> http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=CFdZAAAAIBAJ&sjid=WkgNAAAAIBAJ&pg=5733,1374239&dq=underground-factories+britain&hl=en

> It would certainly be interesting to know which RSGs you visited.

*cough* *splutter* Er, let me just say "several". It was an interesting time
in my life and I had quite a bit of time on my hands.

;-)

The most notorious Spies For Peace leaflet revealed the locations (and the
phone numbers in some cases) of ALL the RSGs that were then open or in
development.

From memory, and I think I know where I could find the full details if I had
to, there were at least a dozen of them.

The number sequence ran from RSG1 up to RSG<whatever the then-top number
was> but some in the sequence were still being built and I THINK at least
one number in the sequence had not had its location decided upon when the
leak was published to Spies For Peace.

[jack]

On Nov 25, 4:20 am, "Brian Watson" <Br...@imagebus.co.uk> wrote:
> "jack" <jackforst...@gmail.com> wrote in message
>

> > It would certainly be interesting to know which RSGs you visited.
>
> *cough* *splutter* Er, let me just say "several". It was an interesting time
> in my life and I had quite a bit of time on my hands.
>
> ;-)
>

Yes there were to be Village like interrogations at the Rhyl
internment camp using hidden microphones, surveillance cameras, and
various 'warders' impersonating persons from the "welfare office". It
was to be set up using a model developed along the lines of an
American model. Some of it may have looked like this dramatization of
FBI tactics:

House on 92nd Street

Still later film surveillance cameras were to be replaced with CCTV
surveillance such as those installed at the Harwell atomic laboratory
after the Klaus Fuchs 'atomic spy' scandal of 1950.

Here is an account from The Guardian as to some of the challenges that
would have been faced in setting up the Rhyl 'Village' like
interrogation center:

MI5 drew up a list of thousands of alleged Communists after the second
world war to be interned in the event of a war with the Soviet Union.
Two holiday camps on the Isle of Man, another at Rhyl, and the Ascot
and Epsom race courses were chosen to hold the men; women, up to 700,
would have been in prison.

When the plan was drawn up in 1948, the security service lamented that
the Geneva convention on prisoners of war (ratified the following
year) might impede interrogation. An officer wrote: "If the Home
Office do in fact apply the convention, the protected person (which
would include all the inmates of the camp) has so many rights, and the
protecting power so many obligations, that any intelligence officer
stationed at the camp would find his work difficult.

"He would be hampered not only by the Home Office but by the
activities of the protecting power and the International Committee of
the Red Cross.

"It would in fact be quite impossible to carry out serious
interrogation under these circumstances."

The file does not say what methods might be precluded, and MI5
proposed its officers mingle in the camps "with the possible title of
welfare office". Before prisoners arrived the camps would be bugged.

The British would have the right to appeal, but not aliens, who would
be held under the Royal Prerogative.

The plan was active for six years. The first meeting at the Home
Office was attended by Sir Percy Sillitoe, head of MI5. The War Office
was asked to identify six sites and MI5 to "prepare a paper for Home
Secretary urging arrest of certain Communists and Trotskyists."

But it was recognised that "grave political embarrassment" might be
caused if the camps were set up in advance.

"It was agreed that the need should be stressed for action before

legislation ..."

The so-called Everest List of names is not on the file, and possible
detainees fluctuated wildly; one estimate put potential Fifth
Columnists at 120,000 east Europeans. More than 1,000 British and
foreign Communists were expected to be picked up in the first three to
four days, most in London.

After processing in mainland camps, those judged subversive would be
sent to the Isle of Man. By 1949 the list stood at about 12,000.

*******************************

The hovercraft at Rhyl was examined for it's potential as a military
transport ship and possible use in taking internees at Rhyl to a final
destination on the Isle of Man. You might think of the hovercraft as
functioning something like the original Rover as the Rhyl hovercraft
was also looked at a possible military pursuit and capture vehicle.

PS About your RSG adventures, could you volunteer at least what the
adventure was like?? No.2 promises to not take away any of your ride
privileges. :-)

[jack]

Apologies , here is the link to The House on 92nd Street that
dramatizes the FBI surveillance tactics:

http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=cV71_xa3Pa0

[Brian Watson]

"jack" <jackfo...@gmail.com> wrote in message

news:07c8a270-3afd-485c...@lg12g2000pbb.googlegroups.com...

> PS About your RSG adventures, could you volunteer at least what the
adventure was like??

I could, but then I'd have to kill you... :-)


More seriously, when the Spies For Peace leaflets started appearing, a copy
found its way into my school.

As the then-editor of an "alternative" school newspaper, it was passed to me
as being newsworthy.

Recognising that I could be in VERY serious trouble for even quoting from
it, "a number of friends" made copies of it and circulated it widely within
the school and beyond.

Meanwhile, having already been to the nearest one to my home, at weekends I
travelled to as many of the sites as I could by rail and bus to verify their
existence.

Even before that, I was phoning the phone numbers quoted and getting
replies.

During these calls, I tried various subterfuges to validate their status as
secure locations and thereby convinced myself that they WERE what Spies For
Peace said they were.

Personal visits confirmed that.

The Spies For Peace leaflets WERE accurate.

[jack]

On Nov 25, 11:21 pm, "Brian Watson" <Br...@imagebus.co.uk> wrote:
> "jack" <jackforst...@gmail.com> wrote in message

This should bring back some memories:

http://www.28dayslater.co.uk/forums/showthread.php/9044-DANGER!-OFFICIAL-SECRET-RSG6-Pamphlet

Thank you for sharing your adventure.

[Brian Watson]

"jack" <jackfo...@gmail.com> wrote in message

news:422147c1-08ff-48d7...@x9g2000pbe.googlegroups.com...

> This should bring back some memories:

> http://www.28dayslater.co.uk/forums/showthread.php/9044-DANGER!-OFFICIAL-SECRET-RSG6-Pamphlet

> Thank you for sharing your adventure.

Crumbs - 1963: I didn't realise it was that early!

I think I could lay my hands on a copy of a document that started "On
<date>, Spies For Peace circulated a document..." or similar.

That is the one that listed all the locations of the RSGs and their phone
numbers and which formed the basis for my weekend "excursions"

If I CAN locate it from the person who probably still has it, I'll scan
upload it.

Heck, jail for breaching the Official Secrets Act can't be THAT bad, can it?

:-)

[John Ryerson]

On Nov 27, 4:39 am, "Brian Watson" <Br...@imagebus.co.uk> wrote:
> "jack" <jackforst...@gmail.com> wrote in message

>
> news:422147c1-08ff-48d7...@x9g2000pbe.googlegroups.com...
>
> > This should bring back some memories:

> >http://www.28dayslater.co.uk/forums/showthread.php/9044-DANGER!-OFFIC...

> > Thank you for sharing your adventure.
>
> Crumbs - 1963: I didn't realise it was that early!
>
> I think I could lay my hands on a copy of a document that started "On
> <date>, Spies For Peace circulated a document..." or similar.
>
> That is the one that listed all the locations of the RSGs and their phone
> numbers and which formed the basis for my weekend "excursions"
>
> If I CAN locate it from the person who probably still has it, I'll scan
> upload it.
>
> Heck, jail for breaching the Official Secrets Act can't be THAT bad, can it?
>
> :-)
> --
> Brian
> "Fight like the Devil, die like a gentleman."

Judging from the news accounts of the times if you violated the
Official Secrets Act in the course of exposing RSG6 you would have
been rounded up by MI5. From there you would have been taken to Rhyl
Interment camp on the local hovercraft for interrogation under
watchful security cameras. You would have been approached by member of
MI5 posing as  a welfare officer trying to solicit information from
you recorded by hidden microphones.

Being a talented young man you would have been put to work on the
local Rhyl version of the Tally Ho with promises that if you co-
operated you could be important to the project known as RSG6.

This would have answered Bernie Williams question as to what all those
young people had done to have been taken to The Village.

You are to congratulated on your adventure.

http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/hwj/summary/v069/69.carroll.html

http://easyweb.easynet.co.uk/~bspooner/Prisoner/FALL-NO48.jpg

Most people just watched TV series called The Prisoner while you got
to live it.

[Brian Watson]

"John Ryerson" <johnry...@gmail.com> wrote in message

news:556552ec-1f5a-4415...@i7g2000pbf.googlegroups.com...

: Most people just watched TV series called The Prisoner while you got
to live it.

Ah, but the thing is ... we all still are.

:-(

Vast areas covered by surveillance in the streets (and apparently the
citizens LIKE it???), a collaboration of political parties because they are
so close together you can't see the gap, talk of national press censorship
in Britain, an education system that puts more importance on facts than
their meaning, wall to wall muzak in many shops and public places, the loss
of small shops until we wind up with just Village Foods because there is
only one shop in an area...

Pick an episode with an "issue" and tell me McGoohan got it wrong. No, he
was VERY right about so much of the 21st century.

"We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars."

"On Wednesday 10 April 1963 a group calling itself the Spies for Peace
mailed out 3,000 copies of a document entitled Danger! Official Secret from
various locations across London. This covertly co-ordinated dissemination
reached the national and southern regional press," <SNIP>

Yes, I remembered that opening pretty well, didn't I? <grin>

[jack]

On Nov 28, 10:27 pm, "Brian Watson" <Br...@imagebus.co.uk> wrote:
> "John Ryerson" <johnryers...@gmail.com> wrote in message

Agreed McGoohan got it right.

[jack]

Another interesting connection of Spies For Peace, RSG6 and The
Village of Portmeirion is that Lord Bertrand Russell, who was a guest
at Portmeirion, was an active supporter of the Spies For Peace. He
even suffered arrest at the time becoming a real life prisoner for his
beliefs.

McGoohan mentioned his admiration of Lord Russell in a news item where
he first revealed the location of Portmeirion to the press as the site
of The Village.

Lord Russell was critical of the secretive nature of the government
policies which would have a civil defense plan that would have the
government ruling over "millions of dead bodies" from secreted
bunkers. Very much a real life Dance of the Dead.

http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=eddUAAAAIBAJ&sjid=SjwNAAAAIBAJ&pg=2136,2648756&dq=lord+russell+spies-for-peace&hl=en

[jack]

McGoohan had insisted at times that No.6 was not John Drake but could
have been just as easily a nuclear scientist.  Why not, after all just
a few years earlier , in 1963, the papers were full of headlines about
the trial of just such a nuclear scientist.

He was lured to a 'Village' where he was spied on through hidden
microphones, surveillance cameras, etc., arrested with his beloved
sports car at an airport, was noted as having a 'brilliant career',
was put on trial and found innocent of all charges, and was noted for
his laudable 'one man war' to maintain his 'life as my own' finally he
was forced to resign.

Finally his story was mentioned in the same spy scandals that had
brought down the government in the 1964 election… the more likely
election that Free For All is based on.

Here are some of those stories:

Brilliant Career

http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=jW5AAAAAIBAJ&sjid=i6MMAAAAIBAJ&pg=4846,2057939&dq=giuseppe-martelli&hl=en

One Man War

http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=im5AAAAAIBAJ&sjid=i6MMAAAAIBAJ&pg=6322,1530388&dq=giuseppe-martelli+official-secrets&hl=en

Whole Story

http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=w3tWAAAAIBAJ&sjid=MeYDAAAAIBAJ&pg=5830,5882682&dq=giuseppe-martelli+vienna&hl=en

Arrest At Airport

http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=Bi9gAAAAIBAJ&sjid=eW8NAAAAIBAJ&pg=6947,2186347&dq=village+atomic+culham&hl=en

Spy Scandals

http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=oEE0AAAAIBAJ&sjid=DeoFAAAAIBAJ&pg=963,313486&dq=martelli+third-man&hl=en

[John Ryerson]

On Dec 7, 3:14 pm, jack <jackforst...@gmail.com> wrote:
> McGoohan had insisted at times that No.6 was not John Drake but could
> have been just as easily a nuclear scientist.  Why not, after all just
> a few years earlier , in 1963, the papers were full of headlines about
> the trial of just such a nuclear scientist.
>

Here is the story of another nuclear scientist that would have made an
excellent model for the experiences we see No. 6 suffer at the hands
of the various No.2s in The Village. It is the story of Dr. Boris
Davison.




Boris Davison was vetted by MI5 in 1950 when the 'Atom Spy' Klaus
Fuchs and
Bruno Pontecorvo spy/defector scandals came to light and shook MI5 to
the core .... Dr. Davison was stripped of his 'top secret' access at
that time (1950) and spent almost 3 years at Harwell in a sort of
security limbo ... only later did "McCarthy' like concerns have him
removed
to the 'non-secret' work and then to Chalk/Deep River Canada
it would appear that Dr Davison was 'Villaged' at Harwell before being
exiled to Deep River in Canada.




Also of note is that according to news items of the day Dr. Fuch's
house at Harwell had been bugged and the bugs were extended to other
suspected scientists homes such as that of Dr. Davison.




Below are some links to the relevant articles and for sake of ease
here is an example of some of the
copy about Dr. Davison and MI5 from news accounts of the day.




M15 security men have found no evidence against Dr. Davison, but they
have rated him a security risk because Communist agents might try to
blackmail him by threaten- ing his relatives.




They fear that pressure may be put on his wife's parents, who are also
in Russia.




So. after 11 years on secret atomic projects. Dr. Davison has been
transferred on a year's compulsory- leave of absence to. Birmingham
University, where he will do non secret research in the labora- tory
of Professor Rudolf Peierls, the former German atomic scientist. '




The Government has agreed to pay Dr. Davison while be is at
Birmingham.




SHOWS LETTERS




It is hoped to find him a university job in Canada. Meanwhile, he has
promised lo continue showing the secu- rity authorities all letters he
writes to his parents and those he receives from them.




M15 chiefs are satisfied 'that the Russians have long known that Dr.
Davison is at Harwell, because all letters to his parents must pass
the Soviet censorship.




Dr. Davison, a brilliant mathematician, joined the British atomic
project in 1942, working at Birmingham.




There he helped to calculate the critical size of the atomic bomb and
the amount of energy likely to be released when it exploded.




He also worked on a project for preparing U235, the explosive form of
uranium.




After Dr. Klaus Fuchs was found to be a Russian spy three years ago,
the security authorities screened Dr. Davison.




They screened him again after Professor Bruno Ponteccorvo, a near
neighbour, fled from Britain.




The authorities decided that Dr. Davison, then senior principal
scientific officer, should no longer be given access to most secret
documents, but should remain on the Harwell staff.




Cabinet later decided that Dr. Davison should be re- moved from
Harwell, although the U.S. atomic authorities did not press for his
dismissal.




However, Cabinet feared that if Dr. Davison kept his job extreme
anti-Communists in America might regard it as proof that British
security was bad, and that might ruin negotiations to widen the
interchange of atomic secrets between Britain and the United States.




I have found a 'non-criminal' scientist who was sent to one of the
'Atomic Villages' after a MI6 vetting to do 'non-secret' work. It is
again Boris Davison who the newspapers of the day went out of the way
to associate him with Klaus Fuchs.




The papers of the day mention a position for him in Canada but do not
give the final location ... his Obituary and his archived papers
however do reveal his Canadian destination ... it was Chalk River or
Deep River .. one of the Canadian 'Atomic Villages'.... below you will
find links




Boris Davison/MI6/Canada




http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=U_NjAAAAIBAJ&sjid=hboDAAAAIBAJ&pg=5040,3986006&dq=atomic+transferred+scientist+canada&hl=en




Deep River 1




http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=St4wAAAAIBAJ&sjid=cN0FAAAAIBAJ&pg=6100,2503503&dq=atomic-village&hl=en




Deep River 2




http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=fypQAAAAIBAJ&sjid=c1YDAAAAIBAJ&pg=2373,5860671&dq=atomic-village&hl=en
















It would seem that here we have a clear case of the circumstances that
McGoohan described as reality ... a real Village that is a model of
'the
future' that is a 'prison' for scientist and former 'agents' who 'are
not criminals' but simply 'know to much', in some accounts involves
'radiation' where
the 'government provides everything' 'except freedom' ... '...we are a
democracy... in someways' and where only by continuing to give
'information' can one make progress to higher positions in The
Village.




This makes a very simple case that nuclear facilities (Chalk/Deep
River Harwell/Windscale) doing 'non-secret' work where security was
provided by former/ retired or demoted MI6/5 agents ( who themselves
knew to much) were held in a type of 'open prison' even though they
were not criminals or had even been cleared. They also had been
'destroyed' by the McCarthyest TV and news items of the day which
would have surely fascinated McGoohan.

[Dick Spanner]