Trivia / The Prisoner E17 "Fall Out"

• Acting for Two: Patrick McGoohan as both Number 6 and (very briefly) Number 1.
• Awesome, Dear Boy: The Beatles licensed one of their songs for the episode, the only time they allowed their music to be used in a TV show, because they were huge fans of the show. At one point, they were working with Patrick McGoohan to make a movie based on the property.
• Creator Backlash: George Markstein hated the finale, feeling it was self-indulgent nonsense.
• Directed by Cast Member/Written by Cast Member: In fact, McGoohan isn't even credited as an actor.
• Real Life Writes the Hairstyle: Number Two is resurrected after apparently dying in the previous episode, a process that also involves cutting his hair and shaving off his beard for no readily apparent reason. This episode was filmed a year after "Once Upon A Time" and Leo McKern had changed his grooming for a different part in the interim.
• Recycled Set:
  • The interior of the rocket, especially the room where Number Six meets "Number One", was used in "The Girl Who Was Death". In fact, a portion of the table used as a plot point in that episode is visible, but covered with globes to obscure its design. ("The Girl Who Was Death" was the episode produced immediately before "Fall Out".)
  • The cave set had previously been used in other Prisoner episodes as well in as the final episode of Danger Man.
• Throw It In!: According to Alexis Kanner, much of the dialogue and action in this episode was improvised during filming.
• Uncredited Role: Technically, Patrick McGoohan as Number Six (and Number One). Although he receives screen credit for writing and directing the episode, at no point is he credited for his role as Number Six (in the ending sequence, following Leo McKern, Alexis Kanner and Angelo Muscat being credited on-screen as they take their final bows, McGoohan is simply identified as "Prisoner". (McGoohan also foregoes his usual executive producer credit.)
• Writing by the Seat of Your Pants: The script was written in a trailer over a weekend. Not surprising that it's one of the most infamous Mind Screws in television history.
• You Look Familiar:
  • Number Forty Eight looks exactly like The Kid from "Living In Harmony" and as a photographer from "The Girl Who Was Death". Unavoidable because the last set of episodes (covering all three) were rushed to production and actor Alexis Kanner was simply on hand to fill needed roles. McGoohan did want Kanner to play the role of Forty Eight. It could be argued that Kanner's character might well be the same man from the other two episodes, except for the fact that the one in "Living in Harmony" dies right in front of No. 6. Then again, so did No. 2 in "Once Upon A Time".
  • Actor Kenneth Griffith was just in "The Girl Who Was Death" as both the mad scientist of Six's children's story and as Number Two. In this episode he's the authoritative President of the secret Council running the Village. Given that the role of No. 2 in the series was shown to be somewhat fluid, there's nothing saying that the President isn't the same man.

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