"Many Happy Returns" is an episode of the

allegorical As a literary device or artistic form, an allegory is a narrative or visual representation in which a character, place, or event can be interpreted to represent a meaning with moral or political significance. Authors have used allegory throughou ...

British

science fiction Science fiction (often shortened to sci-fi or abbreviated SF) is a genre of speculative fiction that deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts. These concepts may include information technology and robotics, biological manipulations, space ...

TV series ''

The Prisoner ''The Prisoner'' is a British television series created by Patrick McGoohan. McGoohan portrays Number Six (The Prisoner), Number Six, an unnamed British intelligence agent who is abducted and imprisoned in a The Village (The Prisoner), mysteri ...

''. It was written by Anthony Skene and directed by

Patrick McGoohan Patrick Joseph McGoohan (; March 19, 1928 – January 13, 2009) was an Irish-American actor of film, television, and theatre. Born in New York City to Irish parents, he was raised in Ireland and England. He began his career in England during t ...

(using the pseudonym Joseph Serf). The thirteenth episode produced, it was the seventh episode to be broadcast in the UK on ITV (

ATV Midlands ATV Network Limited, originally Associated TeleVision (ATV), was a British broadcaster, part of the ITV (Independent Television) network. It provided a service to London at weekends from 1955 to 1968, to the Midlands on weekdays from 1956 to ...

and

Grampian Grampian () was one of nine local government regions of Scotland. It was created in 1975 by the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1973 and took its name from the Grampian Mountains. The regional council was based in Aberdeen. The region was abol ...

) on Friday 10 November 1967, and first aired in the United States on

CBS CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS (an abbreviation of its original name, Columbia Broadcasting System), is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainme ...

on Saturday 20 July 1968. The episode stars

as Number Six and features as Number Two

Georgina Cookson Antoinette Georgina Cookson (19 December 1918 – 1 October 2011) was a British film, stage and television actress. She died in Sydney, aged 92, on 1 October 2011. Family Cookson was the daughter of racing driver Roger Cookson and Sybil Tayl ...

. The episode was the last that series co-creator and script editor George Markstein worked on, due to creative differences between him and McGoohan over how the series should end.

Plot summary

Number Six awakens to find the Village completely deserted, along with water and electricity shut off as well. He sees this as an opportunity to escape. He takes numerous photos before assembling a

raft A raft is any flat structure for support or transportation over water. It is usually of basic design, characterized by the absence of a hull. Rafts are usually kept afloat by using any combination of buoyant materials such as wood, sealed barre ...

and taking flight by sea for 25 days. He takes careful notes as to headings and times as best he can, but has an unfriendly encounter with gun-runners who steal his belongings and throw him in the sea. Clambering on board their boat, he takes control of it, but is later overwhelmed and ends up on a deserted beach. Wandering, he encounters a small band of

Romani Romani may refer to: Ethnic groups * Romani people, or Roma, an ethnic group of Indo-Aryan origin ** Romani language, an Indo-Aryan macrolanguage of the Romani communities ** Romanichal, Romani subgroup in the United Kingdom * Romanians (Romanian ...

who speak no English. He sees a British policeman soon after. He eludes what appears to be a police

manhunt Manhunt may refer to: Search processes * Manhunt (law enforcement), a search for a dangerous fugitive * Manhunt (military), a search for a high-value target by special operations forces or intelligence agencies Social organisations * Manhun ...

and stows away on a truck which takes him to what he now recognises as London. A Mrs. Butterworth now occupies his old

townhouse A townhouse, townhome, town house, or town home, is a type of Terraced house, terraced housing. A modern townhouse is often one with a small footprint on multiple floors. In a different British usage, the term originally referred to any type o ...

and drives his

Lotus Seven The Lotus Seven is a sports car produced by the British manufacturer Lotus Cars (initially called Lotus Engineering) between 1957 and 1973. The Seven is an open-wheel car with two seats and an open top. It was designed by Lotus founder Colin Ch ...

. She is unperturbed when he approaches her, seems intrigued by his plight, and feeds and clothes him. He mentions that the next day is his birthday. Receiving Number Six's promises that he will return, Mrs. Butterworth says she might even bake him a birthday cake. He returns to the underground car park/office from the theme sequence, where he presents himself to his old boss. His photographs and other evidence of The Village meet with considerable scepticism. Former colleagues "The Colonel" and "Thorpe" are not entirely convinced that Number Six has not defected and now returned as a

double agent In the field of counterintelligence, a double agent is an employee of a secret intelligence service for one country, whose primary purpose is to spy on a target organization of another country, but who is now spying on their own country's organi ...

, but after verifying all the details of his

escape and evasion Survival, Evasion, Resistance, and Escape (SERE) is a training concept originally developed by the British during World War II. It is best known by its military acronym and prepares a range of Western forces to survive when evading or b ...

story, they seem to be more reassured. With the assistance of some military officers and a map, they determine the general vicinity of the Village ("coast of

Morocco Morocco, officially the Kingdom of Morocco, is a country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It has coastlines on the Mediterranean Sea to the north and the Atlantic Ocean to the west, and has land borders with Algeria to Algeria–Morocc ...

, southwest of Portugal and Spain"; "might be an island"). He leads a jet fighter pilot in a sweep of the area and spots the Village from the air, but it turns out the pilot was switched at the base with an agent of The Village, who causes Number Six to be unceremoniously ejected. Number Six parachutes in, and is greeted in his cottage by the new Number Two: Mrs. Butterworth. She offers him "Many happy returns!" and a birthday cake, while Village residents once again parade outside on the piazza.

Cast

Donald Sinden Sir Donald Alfred Sinden (9 October 1923 – 12 September 2014) was an English actor. Sinden featured in the film ''Mogambo'' (1953), and achieved early fame as a Rank Organisation film star in the 1950s in films including '' The Cruel Sea'' ( ...

as The Colonel *

Patrick Cargill Patrick Cargill (3 June 191823 May 1996) was an English actor remembered for his lead role in the British television sitcom ''Father, Dear Father''. Early life Cargill was born to middle-class parents living in Bexhill-on-Sea, Sussex. After edu ...

as Thorpe *

as Mrs. Butterworth/ Number Two *

Brian Worth Brian Worth (30 July 1914 – 25 August 1978) was an English actor, known for '' Scrooge'' (1951), ''The Man in the White Suit'' (1951) and ''An Inspector Calls'' (1954). He died in Seville, Spain on 25 August 1978 aged 64. Educated in Bri ...

as Group Captain *

Richard Caldicot Richard Caldicot (7 October 1908 – 16 October 1995) was an English actor famed for his role of Commander (later Captain) Povey in the BBC radio series ''The Navy Lark''. He also appeared often on television, memorably as the obstetrician del ...

as Commander *

Dennis Chinnery Dennis Chinnery (14 May 1927 – 29 February 2012) was a British actor, noted for his performances in television. Following National service in the navy, he studied acting at RADA, graduating in 1949. His theatre work included appearances at t ...

as Gunther * Jon Laurimore as Ernst *

Niké Arrighi Princess Niké Arrighi Borghese (born Marcella Arrighi; 9 March 1944 – 12 February 2025), known professionally as Niké Arrighi, was a French visual artist and actress, known for roles in several European horror and art house films in the 19 ...

as Gypsy girl *

Grace Arnold Grace Arnold (19 September 1894 – 26 February 1979) was an England, English actress. Selected filmography * ''Guilt (1931 film), Guilt'' (1931) * ''Men Without Honour'' (1939) - Mrs. Hardy * ''Crimes at the Dark House'' (1940) - Maid (uncred ...

as Maid *

Larry Taylor Samuel Lawrence Taylor (June 26, 1942 – August 19, 2019) was an American bass guitarist, best known for his work as a member of the blues rock band Canned Heat. Before joining Canned Heat, he had been a session musician, session bassist for T ...

as Gypsy man

Production

Although Number Two in this episode is female, the opening credits sequence features the unidentified, "generic" (male) Number Two, voiced by

Robert Rietti Robert Rietti, (born Lucio Herbert Rietti; sometimes Rietty, 8 February 1923 – 3 April 2015) was an English actor, translator, playwright, and Dubbing, dubbing director. With over 200 credits to his name, he had a highly prolific career in t ...

that appears in several other episodes. The sequence also features an additional shot of Rover on the beach where Number Two would have been shown, to maintain her anonymity until the end of the episode. The Number Two in this episode is one of only a few in the entire series to wear a black identity badge. This episode is unusual in that the entire first act, showing Number Six escaping from the Village and making his way to London, features no dialogue, save for some German spoken by the gunrunners on the boat Number Six finds himself aboard. Number Six himself says nothing until over twenty minutes into the episode. The London scenes in this episode are set on 18 March. Number Six mentions the next day is his birthday (19 March was McGoohan's actual birthday). Some of the stock footage used during the aerial search for the Village is the same used to depict Shinda Shima in the eponymous ''

Danger Man ''Danger Man'' (retitled ''Secret Agent'' in the United States for the revived series, and ''Destination Danger'' and ''John Drake'' in other overseas markets) is a British television series that was broadcast between 1960 and 1962, and again ...

'' episode. The airfield (where Number Six boards a

Gloster Meteor The Gloster Meteor was the first British jet fighter and the Allies' only jet aircraft to engage in combat operations during the Second World War. The Meteor's development was heavily reliant on its ground-breaking turbojet engines, pioneere ...

) used in this episode is the former RAF Chalgrove /

Chalgrove Airfield Chalgrove Airfield is a former Second World War airfield in Oxfordshire, England. It is approximately north-northeast of Benson in the heart of South Oxfordshire between Henley and Oxford; about north-northwest of London. Opened in 1943, it ...

in Oxfordshire, now privately owned by

Martin-Baker Martin-Baker Aircraft Company Limited is a British manufacturer of ejection seats and safety-related equipment for aviation. The company was originally an aircraft manufacturer before becoming a pioneer in the field of ejection seats. The comp ...

. The black cat seen in " Dance of the Dead" also appears in this episode. When Number Six asks his former boss "Anyone at home?", the man behind the desk, as in the opening credits, is George Markstein.

Broadcast

The broadcast date of the episode varied in different ITV regions of the UK. The episode was first shown at 7:30pm on Friday 10 November 1967 on

and

Grampian Television Grampian Television was the original name of the Channel 3 service for the north of Scotland founded in 1961 and which, decades later, was merged with the Central Belt channel STV. The northern region's coverage area includes the Northern Isle ...

, on Sunday 12 November on

ATV London ATV Network Limited, originally Associated TeleVision (ATV), was a British broadcaster, part of the ITV (Independent Television) network. It provided a service to London at weekends from 1955 to 1968, to the Midlands on weekdays from 1956 to ...

Southern Television Southern Television was the ITV broadcasting licence holder for the South and South-East of England from 30 August 1958 to 31 December 1981. The company was launched as Southern Television Limited. However, in 1966, during the application pr ...

Westward Television Westward Television was the first ITV franchise-holder for the South West of England. It held the franchise from 29 April 1961 until 31 December 1981. After a difficult start, Westward Television provided a popular, distinctive and highly reg ...

and Tyne-Tees; on Thursday 16 November on

Scottish Television Scottish Television (now legally known as STV Central Limited) is the ITV (TV network), ITV network franchisee for Central Belt, Central Scotland. The channel — the largest of the three ITV franchises in Scotland — has been in operation si ...

, on Friday 17 November on

Anglia Television ITV Anglia, previously known as Anglia Television, is the ITV franchise holder for the East of England. The station is based at Anglia House in Norwich, with regional news bureaux in Cambridge and Northampton. ITV Anglia is owned and operated b ...

, on Thursday 30 November on

Border Television ITV Border, previously Border Television and commonly referred to as simply Border, is the Channel 3 service provided by ITV Broadcasting Limited for the England/Scotland border region, covering most of Cumbria and Dumfries and Galloway, the ...

and on Friday 8 December on

Granada Television ITV Granada, formerly known as Granada Television, is the ITV (TV network), ITV franchisee for the North West of England and Isle of Man. From 1956 to 1968 it broadcast to both the north west and Yorkshire on weekdays only, as ABC Weekend TV, ...

in the North West. The aggregate viewing figures for the ITV regions that debuted the season in 1967 have been estimated at 10.3 million. In Northern Ireland, the episode did not debut until Saturday 17 February 1968, and in Wales, the episode was not broadcast until Wednesday 18 February 1970.

References

Sources

* – script of episode

External links

* {{Subject bar , portal1= Television, portal23=United Kingdom, portal2= 1960s , commons=yes, commons-search=The Prisoner , q=yes, q-search=The Prisoner , d=yes 1967 British television episodes The Prisoner episodes Television episodes directed by Patrick McGoohan