Number six(Patrick McGoohan) is reading a children's story as this episode begins, which casts him in the familiar role of a secret agent sent to stop the evil plans of a mad scientist called Doctor Schnipps(played by Kenneth Griffith) who plots to fire a rocket at London, aided by his beautiful but deadly daughter called death(played by Justine Lord) who has laid many bombs, poisons, and booby-traps for him, which he successfully evades, as he closes in on them both in order to complete his mission. Enjoyable spoof episode with a neat ending is pretty lightweight stuff overall, but an amusing breather before the serious minded two-part series finale.
16 Reviews
A Break from the Conventional Dramatic
Hitchcoc22 February 2015
I was a bit disappointed because as the series came to an end, it would seem one would deal with a more conventional setting. Number Six substitutes for a cricket batter who was blown up by a ball/bomb. He is about to receive the same fate but catches the ball, throws it in the air, and watches it explode. He is in a sort of gauntlet run, pursued by a girl named Death. She tries every manner of tortuous device, but he one-ups her at every turn. She finally assumes he is dead and returns to her Napoleon complex father. Number Six is at their house and manages to make life miserable for them. Other than the usual smokescreen of deception where anything goes and there seems to be enough money to accomplish it, it makes no sense until the last couple minutes, and even then, it's superfluous.
A few great scenes, but too many flaws ruin what could have been an excellent episode
NellsFlickers29 November 2019
Warning: Spoilers
After watching this episode, I couldn't help but feel an interesting plot could have been executed better, especially for this particular series. The idea of a woman pitting wits with Number 6 while he tries to escape her assassination attempts could have resulted in some very tense scenes. Instead of being infused with drama, it was infused with humor, and that ruins a potentially great episode.
THE BAD: At first, I thought Justine Lord was well cast as "Death", but as the episode went on, I found her rather annoying. She's too proud of herself, when she really isn't all that good at what she is doing. Number 6's various "escapes" vary in quality, some leaving you wishing you were watching Secret Agent instead. Another issue is the blatantly obvious use of doubles and rear-projection, mostly during the amusement park scenes (I think McGoohan was in the US at the time filming "Ice Station Zebra"). How McGoohan allowed such low-budget-looking snippets into his pet-project amazes me. And the last scenes where "Napoleon" is in his lighthouse are just plain silly. (Though the "lighthouse" idea seems to factor into things later in the series...) Six's Irish brogue would have worked better had the dubbing been of better quality.
THE GOOD: The early John Drake-like scenes are the best. We get to see Number 6 basically AS Drake. He is pretty much dressed the same, sounds the same, acts the same, and as a bonus, he is in COLOR! The absolute best assassination escape is the one in the bar. I don't want to spoil it, so all I'll say is the "reveal" is very unique, and at first I didn't understand Number 6's response. Once I did, I had to chuckle! (Oh, and ladies... two words for you: THOSE EYES). As a car nut, I enjoyed seeing Drake... I MEAN Number 6, driving a different Lotus, this one a silver Elan. Then there's Death's Jaguar XKE.
The ending could fit under both of the above headings. In one way, I was confused and a bit let down. Between each scene, we see hands turning pages of some sort of story book. But no voice-over. Odd, but this IS The Prisoner after all. Once we see at the very end that Six has been "reading" (??) a story to some children (I assumed sex wasn't allowed on The Island), and that Number 2 has been hoping to learn something from these stories, well... to me that means Number 2 thinks Six is some sort of braggadocios idiot. Six knows everything he does is monitored, and doesn't need to pretend he was good in his job, so why would he brag and boast and let his guard down with the stories? In that way, the ending is weak.
On the other hand, it is nice to see Six with kids. Though to me, it was more seeing Patrick McGoohan putting a young girl to bed, like he must have done so many times with his own three daughters. In that respect, the scene is almost a fleeting glimpse into a very private man's home life.
THE BAD: At first, I thought Justine Lord was well cast as "Death", but as the episode went on, I found her rather annoying. She's too proud of herself, when she really isn't all that good at what she is doing. Number 6's various "escapes" vary in quality, some leaving you wishing you were watching Secret Agent instead. Another issue is the blatantly obvious use of doubles and rear-projection, mostly during the amusement park scenes (I think McGoohan was in the US at the time filming "Ice Station Zebra"). How McGoohan allowed such low-budget-looking snippets into his pet-project amazes me. And the last scenes where "Napoleon" is in his lighthouse are just plain silly. (Though the "lighthouse" idea seems to factor into things later in the series...) Six's Irish brogue would have worked better had the dubbing been of better quality.
THE GOOD: The early John Drake-like scenes are the best. We get to see Number 6 basically AS Drake. He is pretty much dressed the same, sounds the same, acts the same, and as a bonus, he is in COLOR! The absolute best assassination escape is the one in the bar. I don't want to spoil it, so all I'll say is the "reveal" is very unique, and at first I didn't understand Number 6's response. Once I did, I had to chuckle! (Oh, and ladies... two words for you: THOSE EYES). As a car nut, I enjoyed seeing Drake... I MEAN Number 6, driving a different Lotus, this one a silver Elan. Then there's Death's Jaguar XKE.
The ending could fit under both of the above headings. In one way, I was confused and a bit let down. Between each scene, we see hands turning pages of some sort of story book. But no voice-over. Odd, but this IS The Prisoner after all. Once we see at the very end that Six has been "reading" (??) a story to some children (I assumed sex wasn't allowed on The Island), and that Number 2 has been hoping to learn something from these stories, well... to me that means Number 2 thinks Six is some sort of braggadocios idiot. Six knows everything he does is monitored, and doesn't need to pretend he was good in his job, so why would he brag and boast and let his guard down with the stories? In that way, the ending is weak.
On the other hand, it is nice to see Six with kids. Though to me, it was more seeing Patrick McGoohan putting a young girl to bed, like he must have done so many times with his own three daughters. In that respect, the scene is almost a fleeting glimpse into a very private man's home life.
Sweet Dreams
a_l_i_e_n11 October 2006
Warning: Spoilers
A spy who looks a lot like Number Six (Patrick MaGoohan) is assigned "Mission Impossible"-style to look into the murder of a British scientist. Soon he finds himself the next target of a comely assassin named "Death" (played Justin Lord with a touch too much eye makeup). Among the unkind things she does to him, Lady Death locks the spy in a steam bath, leaves him dangling over a bed of spikes, and traps him in a room full of poison-emitting candles which will explode if he blows them out.
As a framing device, each step in this "trail of Death" is illustrated in a children's storybook with the tale eventually leading to a madman with a Napolean complex plotting to destroy London.
In the final moments of the episode, the mad genius and his daughter, Death, are blown to bits by the heroic spy. Then we discover this has all been an elaborate bedtime story told by Number Six to a roomful of little children. We also see that the would-be Napolean and Lady Death are actually Number 2 and his assistant. As they spy on Number Six from the control room of The Village, the two grumble about the failure of this latest plan, for even among a group of innocent children Number Six will not let his guard down.
This one is considered something of an oddity because it spends so little time within the mysterious Village. It's also far less dramatic in tone than other episodes, and though "The Girl Who Was Death" is essentially played as a spoof, it does feature some very exciting action sequences with MaGoohan cleverly getting himself out of one tight scrape after another.
While it may not be completely in keeping with the approach of most episodes of "The Prisoner", it seems acceptable to have such a change-of-pace entry in what was essentially a very experimental series.
Plus, it also nicely showcases star Patrick MaGoohan's abilities, both as an action star as well as a comedic actor. You can definitely see here why he was the original choice of producers to play James Bond and how tremendous he would have been in that role.
As a framing device, each step in this "trail of Death" is illustrated in a children's storybook with the tale eventually leading to a madman with a Napolean complex plotting to destroy London.
In the final moments of the episode, the mad genius and his daughter, Death, are blown to bits by the heroic spy. Then we discover this has all been an elaborate bedtime story told by Number Six to a roomful of little children. We also see that the would-be Napolean and Lady Death are actually Number 2 and his assistant. As they spy on Number Six from the control room of The Village, the two grumble about the failure of this latest plan, for even among a group of innocent children Number Six will not let his guard down.
This one is considered something of an oddity because it spends so little time within the mysterious Village. It's also far less dramatic in tone than other episodes, and though "The Girl Who Was Death" is essentially played as a spoof, it does feature some very exciting action sequences with MaGoohan cleverly getting himself out of one tight scrape after another.
While it may not be completely in keeping with the approach of most episodes of "The Prisoner", it seems acceptable to have such a change-of-pace entry in what was essentially a very experimental series.
Plus, it also nicely showcases star Patrick MaGoohan's abilities, both as an action star as well as a comedic actor. You can definitely see here why he was the original choice of producers to play James Bond and how tremendous he would have been in that role.
The girl who was death - Superb episode.
irivlin26 March 2010
Justine Lord looks ravishing. Shame she didn't keep on as an actress (she more or less stopped in the mid 1970's) In one scene, she drives away from the fairground (actually filmed in Southend) in a white E-Type Jaguar, hotly pursued by Number 6 in a Lotus Elan. At the time, the E-Type was the quintessential sports supercar and how good they still look. The Lotus Elan would have murdered the E-Type on corners and the Jag would easily have beaten the Lotus in terms of top speed. A gorgeous chick in an E-Type would have been every young man's fantasy (It certainly was mine). Cars aside, I loved this very surreal episode. It had everything and even though it wasn't set in "The Village", so what? - it was exciting, entertaining, coherent, very well directed and produced. - One of the very best of the 17 episodes - if not the best.
Kenneth Griffith does an admirable job of playing a deranged, egotist nut case. Justine Lord takes on the role of a smooth-as-silk psychopathic killer to perfection. Why can't they make programs like this nowadays? IMHO The Prisoner was the best of the best of the best. (Yes, I'm an ardent fan...)
Kenneth Griffith does an admirable job of playing a deranged, egotist nut case. Justine Lord takes on the role of a smooth-as-silk psychopathic killer to perfection. Why can't they make programs like this nowadays? IMHO The Prisoner was the best of the best of the best. (Yes, I'm an ardent fan...)
"I Say, You're Not The Duke Of Wellington, Are You?"
ShadeGrenade20 September 2006
Warning: Spoilers
Chosen ( rather oddly ) to represent 'The Prisoner' as part of I.T.V.'s 'Best Of British' series in 1982, 'Girl' is one of the least representative episodes. Apart from the final scene, there's nothing to link it to the ongoing saga of 'Number 6' and his quest to escape The Village. It opens with an 'Avengers' type teaser in which a British agent is blown up by a cricket ball. McGoohan's unnamed agent ( surely not John Drake? ) replaces him, going off on a wild chase across Merrie England, avoiding death-traps, until he confronts the girl and her Napoleon-obsessed father, who is plotting the destruction of London. 'Girl' is usually thought of as a send-up of 'Danger Man', but Drake never had an adventure as outrageous as this. Justine Lord's glamorous assassin and the late Kenneth Griffith's over-the-top megalomaniac are glorious, while Terence Feely's ingenious script ridicules the conventions of the spy genre more effectively than any of the bigger budgeted movies made at that time.
My favorite episode!
Reviewed27 June 2019
Series filler
Mr-Fusion13 October 2017
'The Girl Who Was Death' has one of the series' best episode titles . . . and is also the episode that feels least like The Prisoner. Fun fact: this was an episode of Secret Agent, repurposed for this series with a twist ending, and it shows. From beginning to (almost) end, McGoohan is playing a spy, fleeing some bizarre woman's elaborate death traps. But with its strange music and drug-induced editing, it feels like another show entirely.
It's long, it's irregular, and it's never been one of my favorites.
5/10
It's long, it's irregular, and it's never been one of my favorites.
5/10
God knows what earlier reviewers are on!
stevenboyle-4456816 August 2020
As part of one of the best series ever made this episode is simply a great knockabout tale which was originally an idea for a Danger Man episode and allows some relief from the Village setting. Some of the tale is laugh out loud funny but the iconic nature of some of the scenes makes this and the series itself more memorable.
A Silly Filler Episode
Samuel-Shovel5 August 2019
Warning: Spoilers
In "The Girl Who Was Death" we follow Number Six around outside of the Village on a mission to stop a mad scientist and his daughter who are creating a missile to attack London. After the last agent was killed in the field, it's up to Number Six to find the missile and stop the duo before it's too late.
I don't have a lot to say about this episode. It's definitely filler that they filmed away from the main batch of episodes as we never really see the Village, only Number Two's room for a brief moment. It contributes nothing to the mythos of The Prisoner. They have a stunt double in a Sherlock outfit during a lot of this. We basically watch a Proto-Saw movie here. It's all quite silly.
The only relation to the show itself is at the end we learn that Number Six made this story up and is reading it to some unidentified kids at bedtime. First off: who are these kids? And why are their parents letting this strange man read to them in bed? Interestingly, I don't remember seeing any other kids in the Village. The poor children will probably be raised and died in the same environment like The Truman Show. I guess that's my main takeaway? Anyways, not a good episode but has a few instances of silly fun that make it not a complete waste of time.
I don't have a lot to say about this episode. It's definitely filler that they filmed away from the main batch of episodes as we never really see the Village, only Number Two's room for a brief moment. It contributes nothing to the mythos of The Prisoner. They have a stunt double in a Sherlock outfit during a lot of this. We basically watch a Proto-Saw movie here. It's all quite silly.
The only relation to the show itself is at the end we learn that Number Six made this story up and is reading it to some unidentified kids at bedtime. First off: who are these kids? And why are their parents letting this strange man read to them in bed? Interestingly, I don't remember seeing any other kids in the Village. The poor children will probably be raised and died in the same environment like The Truman Show. I guess that's my main takeaway? Anyways, not a good episode but has a few instances of silly fun that make it not a complete waste of time.
Breaking Down Walls
Moor-Larkin4 June 2009
Warning: Spoilers
If anything demonstrates the over-weening arrogance of fans of The Prisoner mucking about with the episode order of McGoohan's meisterwerk, it is surely putting this brilliant piece of allegorical theatre into any position other than it's carefully selected placing, just before the two-part denouement of this uniquely inventive series. The piece begins with a sequence of vignettes illustrating that many of the apparent central tenets of the show to that point are merely means to a dramatic end. Hence we have a number of mild parodies of secret agent clichés.
Interestingly however some of these are quite inventive, demonstrating the respect McGoohan retained for the milieu in which he had risen to international prominence in 1967. A number of shows are probably referenced: certainly The Avengers, which was by this time preeminent in the secret agent genre, but a show in which imaginatively silly self-mockery was a large part of its appeal... or should that be a Peel............ The sex appeal, or should that be a Peel that had so far often been absent in The Prisoner comes to the fore, with the delicious legs of Justine Lord mesmerising the viewers as the girl who is death sets about her mission. Mission Impossible is another show mildly mocked as the Holmesian British agent receives his recorded instructions, but rather than self-destruct, the recorded message talks back to our hero. And so the show must go on.......... and on and on it goes through a funfair... a veritable Amusement Park...........
The skillful use of Narrative, often the strongest suit of the noir days of Danger Man in the earlier 1960's, resets the mood as our hero enters the deadly warehouse. Against a background of cleverly circumvented puzzles the deathly girl explains the paradoxes we face.......
You are a born survivor. I am a born killer.
Is your heart pounding? Your hand shaking? That's Love my darling.
Don't let silly pride stand in your way.
One or two Jams (sic) Bond references had been apparent as the hero emerged from the steam bath, dressed in his deerstalker outfit, much as Bond strips off frogmen suits and is dressed in an evening suit underneath. The escape with the bulldozer also preempts many movie tricks as the hero uses the spade to create himself a veritable tank, but perhaps the most telling allegory was the automatic Bren Gun scene. This directly mirrored a closing scene in the final Japanese adventures of John Drake, when a ludicrous machine gun pops out of the uber-villains desk, in Shinda Shima. Clearly gutted by the direction Sidney Cole was taking his beloved show, McGoohan famously walked away from it. Fan legend has it that this whole episode "The Girl Who Was Death", was derived by Everyman co-producer David Tomblin from an unshot episode of the Danger Man series that never was. The bren gun scene is perhaps Mcgoohan's pointed riposte that if the likes of George Markstein (the new script editor on the final two episodes of Danger Man to be filmed) had thought he could turn McGoohan's beloved John Drake into the utterly crass secret agent so favoured after 1965.... well he had had another think coming and it was Goodnight George........
And so into the final scenes, which were vital to McGoohan's story-telling, containing as they did the introduction to the Chamber stylisations that would ultimately host Fall-Out, and indeed the Chaplinesque battle with the Napoleonic forces almost prefigures the more violent Pantomime still to come in the conclusion, not to mention the notion of a Rocket.... So why was this episode so important? Why was this episode so carefully constructed and placed where it was? Any serious viewer will see the significance immediately. This was the theatrical announcement of the classic theatrical actor.......... This was McGoohan's dismantling of the Fourth Wall.
And that is how I saved London from a mad scientist Goodnight Children
and then Number Six looks at us, through the figure of Number Two and adds....
Everywhere
And so, we now know that what we have seen has been a story..... a show..... it was never meant to be real..... There is no Village -pretend or otherwise...........
It was all........... Once Upon A Time.............
Interestingly however some of these are quite inventive, demonstrating the respect McGoohan retained for the milieu in which he had risen to international prominence in 1967. A number of shows are probably referenced: certainly The Avengers, which was by this time preeminent in the secret agent genre, but a show in which imaginatively silly self-mockery was a large part of its appeal... or should that be a Peel............ The sex appeal, or should that be a Peel that had so far often been absent in The Prisoner comes to the fore, with the delicious legs of Justine Lord mesmerising the viewers as the girl who is death sets about her mission. Mission Impossible is another show mildly mocked as the Holmesian British agent receives his recorded instructions, but rather than self-destruct, the recorded message talks back to our hero. And so the show must go on.......... and on and on it goes through a funfair... a veritable Amusement Park...........
The skillful use of Narrative, often the strongest suit of the noir days of Danger Man in the earlier 1960's, resets the mood as our hero enters the deadly warehouse. Against a background of cleverly circumvented puzzles the deathly girl explains the paradoxes we face.......
You are a born survivor. I am a born killer.
Is your heart pounding? Your hand shaking? That's Love my darling.
Don't let silly pride stand in your way.
One or two Jams (sic) Bond references had been apparent as the hero emerged from the steam bath, dressed in his deerstalker outfit, much as Bond strips off frogmen suits and is dressed in an evening suit underneath. The escape with the bulldozer also preempts many movie tricks as the hero uses the spade to create himself a veritable tank, but perhaps the most telling allegory was the automatic Bren Gun scene. This directly mirrored a closing scene in the final Japanese adventures of John Drake, when a ludicrous machine gun pops out of the uber-villains desk, in Shinda Shima. Clearly gutted by the direction Sidney Cole was taking his beloved show, McGoohan famously walked away from it. Fan legend has it that this whole episode "The Girl Who Was Death", was derived by Everyman co-producer David Tomblin from an unshot episode of the Danger Man series that never was. The bren gun scene is perhaps Mcgoohan's pointed riposte that if the likes of George Markstein (the new script editor on the final two episodes of Danger Man to be filmed) had thought he could turn McGoohan's beloved John Drake into the utterly crass secret agent so favoured after 1965.... well he had had another think coming and it was Goodnight George........
And so into the final scenes, which were vital to McGoohan's story-telling, containing as they did the introduction to the Chamber stylisations that would ultimately host Fall-Out, and indeed the Chaplinesque battle with the Napoleonic forces almost prefigures the more violent Pantomime still to come in the conclusion, not to mention the notion of a Rocket.... So why was this episode so important? Why was this episode so carefully constructed and placed where it was? Any serious viewer will see the significance immediately. This was the theatrical announcement of the classic theatrical actor.......... This was McGoohan's dismantling of the Fourth Wall.
And that is how I saved London from a mad scientist Goodnight Children
and then Number Six looks at us, through the figure of Number Two and adds....
Everywhere
And so, we now know that what we have seen has been a story..... a show..... it was never meant to be real..... There is no Village -pretend or otherwise...........
It was all........... Once Upon A Time.............
One of tvs greatest
jon_talbot3 August 2023
I have watched this episode many times ever since it was first aired. This could only have been made in the 1960s when there was the freedom to experiment. When the series first appeared it was prime time as people expected another Danger Man. But it was relegated to late evening showings because the ratings were so poor. People were genuinely baffled by it, especially this episode. By any standards it's completely bonkers and comes as a bit of light relief after the earnestness of most of the series. There is quite a lot of the zaniness of The Avengers in this episode and l for one wish there was more imagination of this kind than in the dreary cop shows we see year after year. I remember watching this the first time and being completely entranced because l had no idea where it was all going. How often does that happen?
Just to prove that the previous episode wasn't a once-off
grantss30 April 2022
Number Six is back as an agent and is sent to investigate the death of Colonel Hawke-Englishe, assassinated at a cricket match. The Colonel was investigating a scientist, Professor Schnipps, who is building a rocket to blow up London. The Professor's daughter is a suspect for the killing and leads Number Six on quite the merry chase.
For the first 12 episodes The Prisoner was great, an intense, intriguing, intelligent battle of wits and wills between Number Six and a variety of Number Twos and their minions. Then came the 13th episode - Do Not Forsake Me Oh My Darling - and the quality of the show took a sharp downturn with a plot that was threadbare and didn't make much sense.
The 14th episode - Living in Harmony - was even worse and was The Prisoner's jumping the shark moment. Anytime a show suddenly is set in a new location and/or time period (especially) you know the writers have run out of ideas and this exactly what happened there. The episode is not really The Prisoner - it's an out-of-place, haphazard story jammed into the show. To crown it all, the episode totally falls apart at the end.
This episode is essentially more of the same: an out-of-place story jammed in to take up space and pad out the series. As with the previous episode the seeming discontinuity is explained away at the end but the whole episode reeks of desperation and lack of good ideas.
For the first 12 episodes The Prisoner was great, an intense, intriguing, intelligent battle of wits and wills between Number Six and a variety of Number Twos and their minions. Then came the 13th episode - Do Not Forsake Me Oh My Darling - and the quality of the show took a sharp downturn with a plot that was threadbare and didn't make much sense.
The 14th episode - Living in Harmony - was even worse and was The Prisoner's jumping the shark moment. Anytime a show suddenly is set in a new location and/or time period (especially) you know the writers have run out of ideas and this exactly what happened there. The episode is not really The Prisoner - it's an out-of-place, haphazard story jammed into the show. To crown it all, the episode totally falls apart at the end.
This episode is essentially more of the same: an out-of-place story jammed in to take up space and pad out the series. As with the previous episode the seeming discontinuity is explained away at the end but the whole episode reeks of desperation and lack of good ideas.
Waste of time watching
briansgate9 April 2020
A moronic romp through a ridiculous story. The idiotic, "Wild Wild West" type stunts and traps were insultingly stupid and tiresome. The writing was so bad it was painful watching this episode. It hurt to see this fine show, which began with such great promise, producing such garbage as this and the previous episode. The people behind this had run out of ideas and they didn't deserve to hold onto their jobs. Embarrassing.
The Girl Who Was Sex
Edmond_Bateman20 November 2006
Warning: Spoilers
My favorite episode is 'Living In Harmony', which is also unrepresentative of the series as a whole. I would have picked 'Many Happy Returns' as the 'Best of...' entry.
***Spoiler Alert!***
But this episode is a close second. Drinking twenty different shots of liquor as an antidote to poisoning...brilliant! Last month I got to see 'Deadlier Than the Male' and I knew I recognized the sexy Justine Lord. When I looked her up here, I knew why. She and Sue Lloyd ('The Ipcress File') are two of the British actresses who wouldn't be considered beautiful, but are nonetheless ravishing. And they have similar last names.
***Spoiler Alert!***
But this episode is a close second. Drinking twenty different shots of liquor as an antidote to poisoning...brilliant! Last month I got to see 'Deadlier Than the Male' and I knew I recognized the sexy Justine Lord. When I looked her up here, I knew why. She and Sue Lloyd ('The Ipcress File') are two of the British actresses who wouldn't be considered beautiful, but are nonetheless ravishing. And they have similar last names.
Not typical of the series
gary_obrien_9928 April 2020
As pointed out by others, this episode is not typical of the series.
And as pointed out by another reviewer, this episode was somehow chosen to be shown in a lone context as part of a theme season by ITV in 1982 - and I was left utterly bewildered! (Channel 4 thankfully re-ran the entire series in 1983 and only then did this episode make sense to me - just!
So don't watch this one early in any run, watch a few others first in order to understand the overall situation.
And as pointed out by another reviewer, this episode was somehow chosen to be shown in a lone context as part of a theme season by ITV in 1982 - and I was left utterly bewildered! (Channel 4 thankfully re-ran the entire series in 1983 and only then did this episode make sense to me - just!
So don't watch this one early in any run, watch a few others first in order to understand the overall situation.
See also
Awards | FAQ | User Ratings | External Reviews | Metacritic Reviews
