Type Episode
Date 1967-10-06

The Chimes of Big Ben

The Prisoner 1x02

Number Six gets a new neighbor--Number Eight, a woman named Nadia. She tells him that The Village is in Lithuania and they hatch an escape plan: Number Six carves a boat and they sail for the nearby Polish border, where Nadia has a contact that will help them.

The two are packed away in crates and apparently shipped and flown to London, where Number Six's former superiors question him about why he left. He is about to start answering when he realizes that he has heard Big Ben chime eight times--and his watch, which he borrowed from a man in Poland, also reads eight o'clock. Searching the room, he finds a tape recording of the sounds of London playing. Leaving the building, he sees that he is back in The Village--Nadia had been working against him the whole time, and the plan nearly succeeded in getting him to talk.

It's very obvious how things will go from quite early on in the episode--Nadia is too obviously meant to be sympathetic to Number Six, and it's made clear from the beginning that he's carving a boat--but it's still well put together and entertaining enough seeing it played out.

Character TypeName
Nadia MainNadia Gray
Number Six MainPatrick McGoohan
Number Two MainLeo McKern
Name RoleCharacter
Don Chaffey Director
    Leo McKern Actor
    Nadia Gray Actor
    Patrick McGoohan Actor
    Vincent Tilsley Author