BOOK AND SAMPLE CHAPTERS
SAMPLE CHAPTER - THE GENERAL
Posing the Ultimate Insoluble Question. Can a Cabbage Defeat Technology?
“I keep six honest serving-men (They taught me all I knew); their names are What and Why and When and How and Where and Who.” Rudyard Kipling
“Imagination is more important than knowledge.” Albert Einstein.
“Education, education, education.” Tony Blair.
“I thought it was superficial, but it was anything but superficial.” Director Peter Graham Scott.
“You see things; you say, ‘Why?’ But I dream things that never were; and I say ‘Why not?’” George Bernard Shaw.
“I wish I could act like Patrick can write.” Lewis Griefer.
Are you familiar with the magician’s trick? You know, the one where they pull the white rabbit out of the hat? It’s clever. Well, the point about life is that we are the rabbit. Dragged out by the ears. And what do we do? We look for the next piece of lettuce. Now, a philosopher, a rare creature, has sensitive ears. They say, “Good trick. How’s it done?” Looking the magician straight in the eye they seek to prise the secrets of life. Sooner or later, a path that each of us will take.
Why?
“Pat loved ‘The General’, it was just what he wanted to do.” Writer Lewis Griefer.
‘The General’ is both one of the more accessible and very satisfying of ‘Prisoner’ episodes. Ideal to showcase to someone unfamiliar with the series. The writer was Lewis Griefer, a personal friend of McGoohan’s. In essence, this offering is about social concerns. To the fore, the serious ‘message’, a barbed critique of the then current rote focussed UK education system is apparent, takes centre stage, not buried, as a number of targets were. Perhaps not quite so obvious but certainly no less important the nature of trust is weighed and considered. Additionally, another then concern, the implanting of subliminal ideas upon an unwitting audience, is the driving plot device. Plus, for good measure, the socially conscious scriptwriter, Lewis Griefer, also lobbed in some wry comments regarding modern art. Entertaining, with an unforeseen double twist ending, providing both a clever and rewarding denouement. So, in all, this was an episode that fulfilled McGoohan’s stated remit in spades. It dared the audience to question, to think!
Griefer was born into a poor, London East End Jewish family in 1915. This background instilled in him an acute sense of identity, difference, and social injustice. As a teenager he joined the Young Communist League and was active in the anti-fascist struggle that took place in the 1930s. He became a journalist, and a prolific television, radio, and film scriptwriter in the mid 1950s, often concerning the theme of social realism. His first documentary programme was a radiobiography of the American singer, political and social activist, Paul Robeson, for which the writer won an international radio award.
When the appreciation movement for ‘The Prisoner’ took flight in the latter half of the 1970s, Griefer was sought out. He was a gentleman, always ready to give of his time to discuss ‘The Prisoner’, whether it was for the 1984 documentary, ‘Six into One’, ‘The Prisoner File’, then welcoming an individual into his home to be filmed, or giving a ‘phone interview to a keen fan of the series based in Canada, who wished to write an article! This writer obviously concludes that Griefer was socially conscious, believed in individual rights, and had a strong sense of fair play. As Roger Parkes, writer of, ‘A Change of Mind’, was to reflect, “We were all very concerned with social freedom and manipulation… Lewis Griefer very much so, he was a very political guy.”
As I have discussed in the ‘The Genesis of ‘The Prisoner” chapter, it was Griefer who, being friends with both McGoohan and Markstein, brought them together. This scriptwriter said McGoohan and he were, “boozing buddies”, whilst Markstein and he met when, “I started out working on the same paper. He was a reporter on the ‘Marylebone Record’ in those days and we became great personal friends.” When asked McGoohan’s view of the script, Greifer replied, “He said, ‘nice script’ and liked it. You know, we were personal friends. Our working relationship was that of actor/producer and scriptwriter… In this case he liked it a lot and he rang me up.” Referring to McGoohan’s friendship, he added, “He hated pretensions. And we used to go round to the meat market, which was open all night. We used to go round there at three or four in the morning and mix in with the market porters, that was his sort of scene.” “Pat was going through a very complex phase at that time in his career, and was very interested in social observation.”
In correspondence with Six of One, in the very early days of the Society, George Markstein explained to Roger Goodman: “Joshua Adam is a pen-name of an old friend of mine, Lewis Griefer, who is a veteran writer going back to the early days of ITV, and whose off-beat thinking made him a candidate to write for the series. As you can imagine, I had a very difficult job finding the right kind of writers, for ‘The Prisoner’, and since Lewis was on the right wave-length, and had an idea which fitted perfectly, he was pulled in to write this one episode.” Griefer takes up the story, explaining; “This was an opportunity to present a more off-beat idea. I’d had this idea about what was happening in education; that it is becoming a rote thing… It did represent an aspect of the sixties which is not so popular, the paranoia… people were realising they were becoming alienated… there was a certain schizoid aspect which this series put its finger right on.” He reflected, “Pat loved ‘The General’, it was just what he wanted to do, it was exactly his cup of tea. George less so.” As McGoohan is referenced, here’s what he had to say. “The right sort of education enables one to think original thoughts. There are people who know something about every subject under the sun. But they are just a reference library. Learning too much stuff, that is closing your mind. You will find all the great inventors – Edison, Bell – I can’t think of one who was highly educated. The exploration of their mind wasn’t surrounded by too much education. The mind is set free. The innate power of creation was there.” The reader will remember in the ‘A, B, and C’ chapter we discussed some examples of the many inventions and inspirations that were revealed in dreams.
As we embark upon our exploration and consideration of ‘The General’, we should reflect upon a few facts. This episode was the eleventh to be filmed, transmitted sixth, and, as with, ‘It’s Your Funeral’, was crafted around stock footage as a cost saving measure. The necessary location filming was kept to a minimum and largely employed body doubles sourced from the local extras. As a studio-based episode much was made of the hidden Village underworld, the corridors, the rooms, the American Military Police style security guards who were to reappear, notably in ‘Fall Out’. The several ‘undertaker’ figures. Described by Griefer as, “City people, not academics, but in that particular context financiers, bureaucrats.” After completion of ‘A B And C’, Colin Gordon was retained as director Scott thought he possessed a ‘suave and sinister quality’. Number 12 actor John Castle offered, “Both Colin Gordon and Patrick McGoohan were a delight to work with. Acting with McGoohan was really very easy because he was so good!” Adding, “When Scott wanted to film Patrick, he said, ‘No, the audience has seen enough of me – film John’” According to one respected author, known for his diligent research, in the original storyline it would have been Number 2 not Number 12, who would have been electrocuted. Apart from that, it is accepted that ‘The General’ is the least altered of all the scripts. Given Griefer’s social conscience, he leapt at the chance to write of his concerns rather than pen a comparatively shallow formulaic escape oriented script. ‘The General’ possessed ‘bite’. Considering this was written under the pseudonym of ‘Joshua Adam’, the names of his two sons, and that it was about the rote education both were finding frustrating, the choice of theme was remarkably apt. In 1996 Griefer explained, “At about the time I sat down to write the episode I had two children regarded by their headmaster as so-called ‘high flyers’. It appeared to me (but not to their teachers) that the amount of rote information being squeezed into their heads did very little for their imaginations and even less for their intelligence.” Adding, “I cannot recall having read any other ‘Prisoner’ script at the time.”
Griefer continued, “I recently intended to buy my six-year-old grandson a CD-Rom, including a section on British History. When I asked him why he looked so disappointed, he said, ‘I don’t want to know the names and ages of Henry the Eighth’s wives, grandpa.’ Come to think of it, neither do I.”
This was to be the sole episode that Scott directed. He was summoned by McGoohan at short notice, whilst contracted to the BBC. The actor rang him on a Friday, Scott responding he was not available. McGoohan rang Sydney Newman, Head of BBC drama, the script arrived on Saturday, and Scott was on the set Monday. Initially he thought the script was a joke, “I read it and felt, either this man is mad or there is something here that I’ve missed. Then I had another look at it and I said, ‘Oh, I see, yes, very clever.’” Markstein told him, “This show is about a man whose head it so full of terrible secrets and things he’s encountered that he’s trying not to go mad. So, he was trying to escape from the Village because he’s really trying to escape his past and forget his past”. To my knowledge this was the only time that this reason for the P’s resignation has ever been suggested, whether by Markstein or McGoohan. The P himself makes clear it was, “A matter of conscience”. Speaking in Portmeirion, Scott added, “I thought it was superficial, but it was anything but superficial.”
“A university degree in three minutes.” Number 12
This format of this script marks a departure from those presented in the previous five episodes. Until now the storylines have all revolved around the P as the central character as the Village has sought to access his secrets. Now, in this social allegory, the focus shifts to a somewhat dubious and suspicious Village experiment, where, initially, the P is observer, then becomes a participant. The professor, unusually, and his wife, appear to enjoy certain privileges, including neither being allocated a number and allowed to wear non-Village attire. The professor, (whose name is never mentioned), has created ‘The General’, and devised a revolutionary teaching method, a subliminally transmitted teaching course to implant three years of knowledge in a mere three minutes. This satire of the rote driven education system, also utilised another then concern, that of subliminal brainwashing. It is through the initiative of Number 12, that the P employs his unique abilities to expose and ensure that ultimately the experiment fails.
Before considering the plot chronologically, given the number of protagonists, we should understand a little about each and their motivations. Their characters are well drawn. Number 12, who works in administration and reports directly to Number 2. In time we will learn he has a high degree or responsibility within this experiment, as he will be called upon to explain the process to the board members who convene for the Speed Learn lecture approval session. He has a conscience and is uncomfortable with the malign possibilities of the project. In our society we might describe him as a covert ‘whistleblower’. He has clearly researched the files on the P, and recognises here is a man that has the capabilities, principles, and the stomach to ensure the project will not succeed. This Number 2 is only concerned with success at any cost. Quite ruthless, austere, and enthralled by technology. There is some ambiguity regarding both the professor and his wife. Number 2 clearly knows him well as the ‘General’ is revealed. “All the professor’s own work. He gave birth to it. He loves it with a passionate love, but probably hates it even more,” is an example of the striking and imaginative well-crafted lines he is given.
It becomes evident that in some way the Village is tampering with the professor’s mind. It would appear a combination of his wife and Number 2 ensure he is kept ‘sedated’. Only when the effect of whatever is administered abates and his mind is clear, can he attempt to expose the abomination he has created. He cuts a sad figure. Ensuring he is under Village control, always ready to perform is the steely doctor. One wonders how aware the smooth-talking persuasive announcer is of what is required.