“I am not a number. I am a free man!”
It’s a vintage time for classic series on free-to-air television at the moment. Plenty of beloved cult shows which had become the preserve of fan DVD collections are enjoying a fresh airing.
Forces TV have been doing us proud, following their run of Blake’s 7 with selected highlights of classic Doctor Who. Now it’s the turn of the Horror Channel to come up with the goods: they’ve announced they will be showing The Prisoner, beginning on Thursday, 10th of March.
The Prisoner, starring Patrick McGoohan began in September 1967, running through until January 1968. Just a single series of 17 episodes, but what a series it was!
The story sees a British intelligence agent storming in to resign, before being gassed and abducted. He wakes up in a bizarre remote location, known only as ” the village” where names are replaced by numbers. He is Number Six, although he refuses it. Meanwhile, the village is run by a succession of Number Twos, each desperate to discover why he resigned.
It’s a difficult show to describe. Horror Channel are calling it “a taut psycho-thriller about a secret agent who retires and finds himself thrown into a Kafka-esque world of mindplay and enigma.” To be honest, that’s as good a description as any we can think of!
As well as a barnstorming, idiosyncratic central performance from McGoohan, the show featured a host of impressive guest stars. Leo McKern, Patrick Cargill, Peter Wyngarde and Mary Morris all played Number Two, while Peter Bowles and Nigel Stock were both guest stars. The other star of the show was its stunning location – it was filmed in Portmerion, a unique Italian inspired village in North Wales.
For more on the show, check out this Rewind article from 2017, the show’s 50th Anniversary.
Re-imaginings
While the show has a devout following, there’s only been one attempt to remake it on television. A 2009 mini-series saw Jim Caviezel in the lead role, with Ian McKellen as Number Two. Ruth Wilson, Hayley Atwell and Lennie James starred too, but it failed to capture the imagination in quite the way the original did.
More successful was the 2016 Big Finish audio series, in which writer/director retold the story while retaining its unique tone. The show starred Mark Elstob as Number Six, with guests including Celia Imrie and Michael Cochrane. A mix of adaptations and newly written stories, it ran for three 4-story boxsets and garnered plenty of acclaim. We certainly loved it!
The Prisoner begins 10th March at 6pm on Horror Channel, and will continue on weekdays (with a repeat the following day at 10am.)