A DEGREE ABSOLUTE! episode sixteen — The Girl Who Was Death

Number Six must elude the tender embrace of a lady who probably uses pseudonyms at least as often as he does in a late-in-the-run-but-lavish filler episode that sends up the spy genre circa ’67 & burns plenty of Sir Lew Grade’s money. (He refused to finance a floated 90-minute version.)

Justine Lord and Kenneth Griffiths are your magnificent guest stars, and Patty McG appears to be having a grand old time in the relatively few scenes where he's onscreen. Apparently he was called back to Los Angeles for a few more weeks of shooting on Ice Station Zebra late in 1967, resulting in an episode that relies heavily on doubles, particularly in the location footage shot at the Kursaal Fun Fair at Southend.

"The Girl Who Was Death"

Written by Vincent Feeley from an idea by David Tomblin

Directed by David Tomblin 

Original airdate January 18, 1968

A DEGREE ABSOLUTE! episode thirteen — A Change of Mind

Number Six's Public Enemy Number Six act is getting tired — and what is alternately referred to within a single scene as The Committee, The Council, and The Commission will tolerate it for only so long before they decree that their prize captive must undergo Instant Social Conversion. It's a procedure so chilling that Number Eighty-Six (the marvelous Angela Browne) must narrate it step-by-step, and very, very slowly, so as not to induce panic. John Sharpe is our unctuous, openly misogynistic Number Two. Happily, we get to see Six's homebuilt crossfit gym in the woods once again.

"A Change of Mind"

Written by Roger Parkes

Directed by Joseph Serf (Patty McG)

Original airdate December 15, 1967

A DEGREE ABSOLUTE! episode fourteen — Do Not Forsake Me, Oh My Darling

It seems Patty McG had softened his "don't call it television because television cuts corners and we'll never ever do that" position by the time of The Prisoner's much-abbreviated second and final season, because for most of the production of this week's episode he decided his time would be better spent in Los Angeles co-starring in John Sturges' unmemorable 1968 thriller Ice Station Zebra with Rock Hudson, Ernest "Resistance Is Futile" Borgnine, and Jim Brown.

"Chimes of Big Ben" screenwriter Vincent Tilsey got the unenviable job of coming up with a Prisoner story that would require neither the show's star nor its key location, Portmerion in North Wales. He came up with a brain-swapping scenario that would allow hardworking actor Nigel Stock to play Number Six. Upon his return from the States, McGoohan demanded extensive changes to the show that had been made in his absence. But he did not demand that Stock un-kiss Six's left-behind fiancee Janet (Zena Walker), who was never mentioned prior to this episode and shall never be again. Also, the head of MI6 was going to be SIx's father-in-law, apparently. Script editor George Markstein was long gone by this point and no one was minding the store.

The mailbag overfloweth this week, so we moved the listener mail segment to the back half of the episode. Thank you for your correspondence.

"Do Not Forsake Me, Oh My Darling"

Written by Vincent Tilsley

Directed by Pat Jackson

Original airdate December 22, 1967

A DEGREE ABSOLUTE! episode twelve — It's Your Funeral

There's an assassination plot afoot in The Village, and Number Six must protect his oppressor to spare his fellow Villagers. Derren Nesbitt is our Number Two and Annette Andre is our Girl Friday. Neither one of them could stand their scene partner an (uncredited) director, Patty McG. Pink-blazered henchman Mark Eden didn't hate him, but he did resent his attempt to strangle him on camera.

This creative tension results in one of The Prisoner's most rewarding episodes, replete with crossfit and and Kosho and lots more. Plus, listener mail!

Pop Culture Happy Hour: "Those Who Wish Me Dead" and What's Making Us Happy

Finn Little and Angelina Jolie are on the run and in the woods. (Warner Bros.)

I’m back on PCHH this week with cofounding hosts Linda Holmes and Stephen Thompson plus Walter Chaw, a Denver-based writer and critic whose work I’ve long admired, to chew over Those Who Wish Me Dead. The flick is an Angelina Jolie-headlined rural adventure thriller that will disappoint you only if you happen to know that its writer-director, Taylor Sheridan, wrote Sicario and Hell or High Water — two films that are leagues above this one in every regard. The panel is fairly unanimous in their mild enthusiasm for this so-so movie, but it’s a fun discussion all the same. But in the What’s Making Me Happy segment, I get to praise once again one of the most unique blockbusters of the 90s, or ever.

A DEGREE ABSOLUTE! episode eleven — Hammer into Anvil

Pride Goethe before a fall. To boldy Goethe where no one has gone before.

Just how well do you know your Johann Wolfgang von Goethe? 

Patrick Cargill is back from "Many Happy Returns" and in Number Six's crosshairs after he drives a woman to suicide two minutes into the episode. And so begins Six's campaign of vengeance via psychological warfare.

Featuring Basil Hoskins as Number Fourteen, the man who challenges Six to an ostensibly (per the script) dirty, not-according-to-Hoyle game of... Kosho.

A DEGREE ABSOLUTE! episode ten — Checkmate

We are all of us pawns, my dear, in this quintessential Prisoner episode that some observers believe should've aired third in the run but didn't surface until much later. Wherever it belongs, what is undisputed is that it combines an underdeveloped chess metaphor with another conspiracy to escape The Village and an important life lesson for Number Six about how one should treat one's fellows. You might say the real jailbreak was the friends he utterly failed to make along the way. 

But on the plus side, Peter Wyngarde is this episode's Number Two, and his scarf is longer than that worn by any prior runner-up. This is a post-The Avengers, pre-Department S, pre-Jason King Wyngarde performance, and certainly worthy of further study. Which is why Glen briefs (debriefs?) us on his arrest record.

Also starring Ronald Radd as Brian Cox, Rosalie Crutchley as Phoebe Waller-Bridge, Patricia Jessel as Bea Arthur, and Basil Dignam as Luke Wilson.

Written by Gerald Kelsey

Directed by Don Chaffey

Initial airdate: November 24, 1967

PLUS: A mildly embarrassing correction! A deeply embarrassing confession! Listener mail! A discussion of Wyngarde's brief career as a recording artist, and a possibly triggering play-through of his 1970 single "Hippie & the Skinhead." Plus an unexpected detour into one of the darker corners the career of Mr. Tom Hanks, America's Reasonable Dad!

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Our song: "A Degree Absolute!"

Music and Lyrics by Chris Klimek

Arranged by Casey Erin Clark and Jonathan Clark

Vocals and Keyboards by Casey Erin Clark

Guitar, Percussion, Mixing by Jonathan Clark

Bass by Marcus Newstead