Joe Dunne . . . 1st Tower guard Romo Gorrara . . . 2nd Tower guard Production "Checkmate" was the third episode to be produced, following on from "Free for All" the second. As in the prior episode Number Six states he intends to find out "who are the prisoners and who are the warders", it could be inferred that in "Checkmate" he is belatedly putting this plan into action. As this was an early episode in production, there is a reference in "Checkmate" to Number Six being "new" in The Village. The episode's original title was to be "The Queen's Pawn", a play on the fact that Number Six had recently been in "Her Majesty's service". At the beginning of the episode, the lawn is seen uncovered by chessboard squares; a few moments later, it is shown as the chessboard. The chessboard remained in place for a week during September 1966 during filming of this episode; when it was removed, the grass had been lightened and the pattern is clearly visible in prior episodes. The chess game is recreated annually by enthusiasts of the programme at their annual convention, held at Portmeirion. 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 24 November 1967 on ATV Midlands and Grampian Television, on Friday 1 December on Anglia Television, on Sunday 3 December on ATV London, whose broadcasts were also taken up by Southern Television, Westward Television and Tyne-Tees; on Thursday 7 December on Scottish Television, on Thursday 14 December on Border Television and on Friday 22 December on Granada Television in the North West. The aggregate viewing figures for the ITV regions that debuted the season in 1967 have been estimated at 9.1 million. In Northern Ireland, the episode did not debut until Saturday 2 March 1968, and in Wales, the episode was not broadcast until Wednesday 4 March 1970. Context Apart from the obvious metaphor that life is a game of chess, the episode deals with conformity and pressures to conform, particularly peer pressure. Parallels have been drawn with the Milgram experiment, Asch conformity experiments and the Stanford prison experiment. Similar techniques are used to make Number Six conform, hoping he will reveal the secret of his resignation. However, Number Six discovers, as usual, that his trust is misplaced and the distinction between prisoner