The Prisoner Episodes Paired as Films: Many Happy Returns and A B and C


The introduction to this series of posts can be found here.

This post is about the episodes Many Happy Returns (MHR) and A, B and C, released edited together into a film by Precision Video in July 1982 as Many Happy Returns. It is based on an online paper and video by David Fakrikian (link at the bottom of the page) with further padding by me.

Fakrikian feels (in the video linked below) that the theme which joins the two episodes together is of returning to dreamland repeatedly, and the question of what is real and what isn't. For example is the village really empty, and is my real house real. Ultimately in this view the Village becomes the only reality and the outside world becomes the dream.

He identifies some points of similarity: he compares Number 6 walking around the empty village as if in a dream in MHR and saying 'This is a dreamy party' in A, B and C; he also identifies Mrs Butterworth as a point of connection between the two.

However I was delighted to find, when I came to look at it closer, that the two episodes virtually pair themselves up in structure. Obviously I had to start from the obvious very strong structure of A, B and C; however there is actually also a D, who is the initially unidentified final person who appears in Number 6's dream so I had to fit that four part structure onto Many Happy Returns. I was delighted to find that what I got was this:

A In the empty Village
B At sea on the raft and the ship.
C Back to England, London and back to the place of work he resigned from: subsequent events suggest his employers are not what he thought they were and are actually behind the Village.
D Looks for the Village and back to the Village.
A Number 6 is abducted by A and taken to his embassy/country (= the Village)
B The woman meets Number 6 in the arbour and he's manipulated by Numbers 2 and 14.
C Back to Mme Engadine who appears not to be what she seems. The dreaminess is ramped up suggesting nothing is what it seems.
D Back to the Village i.e. the dream turns the tables on Number 2.

So I found that the A, B, C, D structure did fit across both episodes but I was delighted to find that there are other aspects of the structure which indicates they reflect each other. The C and D parts of both episodes really ramp up the unreality and theme of Number 6 being deceived, for example. Additionally there are other structural similarities that mean the repeat A, B, and C sections are framed and Mrs Butterworth appears at the same point, and also a hinge in between the two stories.

E Number 6 packs his holiday brochures, is drugged and wakes up in the Village.
A In the empty Village
B At sea on the raft and the ship.
C Back to England, London and back to the place of work he resigned from: subsequent events suggest this work was not what he thought it was. (F Mrs Butterworth)
D Looks for the Village and back to the Village.
F Mrs Butterworth.
A Number 6 is abducted by A and taken to his embassy/country (= the Village)
B The woman meets Number 6 in the arbour and he's manipulated by Numbers 2 and 14. (B's dress)
C Back to Mme Engadine who appears not to be what she seems. The dreaminess is ramped up suggesting nothing is what it seems. (F Mrs Butterworth) (B's dress)
D Back to the Village i.e. the dream turns the tables on Number 2.
E Number 6, in his drugged state, dreams walking into the experiment room in the Village and giving his holiday brochures to Number 2.

I'm honestly surprised to find how these two episodes fit together structurally like this, because I really wasn't expecting them to.

Where I do disagree with Fakrikian is that the theme is related to dreams, although I do think it's obviously about reality. The part in A, B and C where Number 2 starts saying that things are dreamy is in the context of the experiment going wrong slightly and of course the plain fact is that they are actually looking into his dreams!

Rather I think the unreality/unreality theme is a better explanation because at the end of watching these two episodes back to back it's not clear what is bet up by the Village to confuse Number 2 and what really happens. This is actually touched on in MHR when he is told that the road block was because of an escaped convict, not him. Number 2 wasn't expecting his former employers just to deliver him back to the Village, so clearly he didn't know the reality of his employers at all. Where this leaves us is not knowing what is real and what set up by the Village, nor what reach the Village authorities have into our every day lives. I think this is the real point here.

So to summarise: Many Happy Returns and A, B and C do have a discernible structure across them both when put together of repeat A, B, C and C, framed at both ends with versions of abduction scene and with Mrs Butterworth also appearing at the same point. I am aware that I have imposed this structure on Many Happy Returns and so wouldn't go to the stake to defend this analysis, but the strong structure of A, B and C clearly had to be the starting point and I was looking to find a way to link them.

I am happier with the reality/unreality and deception theme for the two episodes than for the idea of a dream, but again this isn't a view I'm overly wedded to.

In conclusion: these two episodes work very well put together as a full length film and reveal structural and thematic commonalities.

Sources: I will be making extensive use of the page from David Stimpson's blog with its anonymous comment and the essay and video by David Farkrikian for these posts:
https://www.theunmutual.co.uk/article58.htm
https://david-stimpson.blogspot.com/2011/05/seven-episodes-of-prisoner.html?m=1
https://odysee.com/@DVDvision:7/the-prisoner-1967-lost-items-3-the-2:9
Image credit: https://david-stimpson.blogspot.com/2011/11/prisoner-in-series-of-90-minute-films.html?m=1

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