on Thursday 28 December on Scottish Television, on Sunday 31 December on ATV London, whose broadcasts were also taken up by Southern Television, Westward Television and Tyne-Tees; this was two weeks after the previous episode "It's Your Funeral" due to The Prisoner not being considered suitable for broadcast on Christmas Eve. The episode was shown on Friday 5 January 1968 on Border Television (in a change from the previous Thursday broadcasts) and on Friday 12 January 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 7.5 million. In Northern Ireland, the episode did not debut until Saturday 16 March 1968, and in Wales, the episode was not broadcast until Wednesday 18 March 1970. Notes In its depiction of attempts at political control, the episode can be seen as referencing both McCarthyism (in which "unmutual" is equivalent to "communist") and the show trials of Stalinist Russia (which often featured coerced confessions). At one point, some of the other prisoners are shown going through a "self-criticism" exercise, which was an enforced practice in China during the Cultural Revolution (1966–76) of that time. The use of psychiatric techniques for political control (a kind of non-invasive lobotomy in this case) is also explored. The latest Number Two, as is typical in The Prisoner, becomes the victim of his own weaknesses and over-confidence in his ability to crack Number Six, a pattern developed almost to its extreme in "Hammer into Anvil" and actually so in "Fall Out". Also typical is Number Two's reliance upon a female technical expert who is subvertible by Number Six's perspicacity, as also seen in "The Girl Who Was Death" and "A. B. and C.". Matthew White points out that this episode has the "most unsympathetic portrayal of the common Villagers" who oppress Number Six and assist the "management" to an unprecedented degree. References Sources – script of episode External links The Prisoner episodes 1967 British television episodes fr:J'ai changé d'avis (Le Prisonnier)