Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #112493 in DVD
• Released on: 2006-07-25
• Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
• Formats: Box set, Collector's Edition, Colour, DVD-Video, Limited Edition, Original recording remastered, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 10
• Dimensions: 2.35 pounds
• Running time: 884 minutes

Customer Reviews

A series that changed television forever....
How to begin? So much has been written or spoken about The Prisoner that it makes yet another review, especially here, seem rather unnecessary, but allow me to shed some new light on this wonderfully crafted and thought-provoking series that has inspired a slew of criticism, documentaries, and a franchise that sponsors fan-inspired annual pilgrimages and symposiums to Portmerion (Wales) where the series was filmed in 1967.

To this day, the series has managed to inspire debate and defy interpretation--are the episodes merely the dreams and nightmares of a British secret agent who has resigned, or is No. 6's fight against the dystopia that is the Village analogous to our own fight for individualism, privacy and personal freedom? And now, perhaps even more relevant today than in 1967 when the series made its initial broadcast run--incidentally as a summer replacement for the "Jackie Gleason Show".

So many of the episodes are as thought-provoking as McGoohans's own inspiration for the series. Despite what McGoohan may insist and what the critics say, I strongly believe that No. 6 is John Drake of "Secret Agent Man." (Co-creator and writer George Markstein always insisted that No. 6 was Drake.) To appreciate this you must view the series back-to-back to see why; the latter episodes of "Secret Agent" show Drake often bucking horns with his superiors at virtually every opportunity and clearly a few episodes of "Secret Agent" would help you to see my point: specifically "Colony Three" and "The Ubiquitous Mr. Lovegrove"--two perplexing and puzzling installments in a rather straightforward, weekly prime-time spy drama. Be sure to check them out.

We all know the wonderful English guest stars who appeared as No. 2, so I don't need to go into detail here--Leo McKern ("Chimes of Big Ben," "Once Upon a Time," and "Fall Out") and Colin Gordon ("A, B, & C") are two of my favorites. As to the quality of the DVDs themselves, A&E has done a superb job with this set--super clean transfers and excellent Dolby sound.

Also included are some alternate title sequences, the alternate "Chimes of Big Ben," and an interview/documentary with director David Tomblin--I am not surprised McGoohan did not offer an interview or a commentary--he wants to keep us guessing and that, of course, is half the fun to this enigma which is "The Prisoner."

The additional booklet and map added to this new slimline set is a nice additional touch, but I think Prisoner devotees deserve much more from A&E since much of this type of merchandise is already available from other sources.

We should all get together...
and start a class-action lawsuit against A&E-this came out in 2006-thus its the 39th Anniversary edition-their rights must have expired so they try to wring a few more dollars out of unsuspecting fans
Though they claim 40th Anniversary! REMASTERED! RESTORED! These are in fact the same crappy transfers from 2000/1-you can look at the VOB file dates by opening the disc on your desktop. (VOB=Video OBject)- with a date created on it. It cannot ve denied or covered up--its all on the discs files
In the booklet included-you can even tell they have a guilty conscience with a sentence that reads something like 'carefully remastered and restored and taken from literally hundreds of canisters of film-they are now here for you to enjoy-on sparkling tiny discs!' Notice they avoided the word "TEN". In the UK a truly marvelous RESTORED edition did come out-in 2007. 1967-2007=40 years. The new deluxe crammed with extras UK 40th version is on 7 discs-plus a 200 page book
Lets see-you sell a 10 disc set that could easily fit on 6-7 (as in the UK)with room to spare, call it a "40th ANN' from 33rd Anniversary transfers, and then try and pull a con-job implying that we should think "WOW! hundreds a cans of film -ON ONLY 10 DISCS! What a bargain!!!" any lawyers want to sue the pants off A&E-theres plenty of evidence around
BTW the TRUE restored UK discs look as if they were filmed yesterday-fantastic