Opening and closing sequences of The Prisoner

As the theme music begins a runway (believed to be Santa Pod Raceway in Podington in real life)[1] appears and a Lotus Super Seven drives under the camera (driven by stuntman Jack Cooper).

Meanwhile, in an unknown location full of filing cabinets, an automated system types a series of large Xs across the man's photograph and drops it into a drawer marked "RESIGNED".

A white vapour floods the room through the keyhole, rendering the man immobile as he gazes at the large apartment buildings outside his window, and then collapses, unconscious.

He awakens seemingly in exactly the same place, rises, walks straight to a window, looks out and this time, instead of the apartment buildings, he sees the Village.

Credits for guest stars, producer David Tomblin, script editor George Markstein (thirteen episodes only), the writer(s) and director are superimposed over this.

For the remaining episodes (where the dialogue was used) Rietti's voiceover was heard, although a shot of the actor playing Number Two would still be inserted following the line "By hook or by crook, we will."

(The exceptions are "Many Happy Returns" and "The Girl Who Was Death", where an extra shot of Rover was inserted instead, because revealing Number Two's identity at that stage would have ruined the plot.)

In the cases of "Many Happy Returns" and "Free for All", Rietti's voiceover is used despite one of the characters ultimately revealed as Number Two in those episodes being female.

The dialogue sequence does not follow the awakening here, because it is essentially a compressed presentation of the Prisoner's learning about his new surroundings as depicted in detail over the course of this episode.

McGoohan appears as a sheriff turning in his badge, and soon thereafter getting ambushed and beaten into unconsciousness by several men, at which point the episode title is displayed.

"Fall Out" also completely does away with the standard sequences; instead, it opens with a recap of the previous episode, "Once Upon a Time", followed by a series of aerial shots of the Village over which the typical credits are superimposed.

[7][8] Just before the closing credits of each episode (except "Fall Out"), the face of The Prisoner rises up from a bird's-eye view of the Village, to be covered by bars clanging shut.

After the bicycle is fully assembled, the shot changes to one of Rover, the large, white, balloon-like Village guard device, rising up through water and bouncing into the distance.

The final episode, "Fall Out", presents a further variation; the completed bicycle maintains its visual presence during the closing strains of the theme, instead of being replaced by either the cosmic animation or the live-action footage of Rover.