Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #30293 in DVD
• Released on: 2004-10-04
• Rating: Parental Guidance
• Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
• Format: PAL
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 6
• Running time: 960 minutes

Customer Reviews

The most intelligent T.V. ever produced
Contrary to the perceived wisdom of The Prisoner, the meaning of the series is entirely intelligible if viewed as allegorical as well as literal. The overt storyline is well-known - a mysterious secret agent is imprisoned in a surreal holiday village governed by mysterious rulers, and during the subsequent 17 episodes he learns, adapts, and subtly turns the tables. Seen as such The Prisoner is an exciting, strange and intriguing television series of its time. But the subplot is shrouded in symbolic imagery, intended to disguise its inherent vicious attacks on the establishment - which remain as pertinent today as they were in the 60s.
The Village is a democracy, the inmates vote for each new No.2. But the establishment is corrupt and the inmates are conditioned to believe they are free. Each episode is an allegorical demonstration of the way 'authority' imposes its will on the unsuspecting citizen. No.6, ever rebellious, transparently anti-establishment, represents the individual determined to remain individual, striving to think independently, defying the conformity society expects. He is routinely overcome, but due to his superhuman resistance refuses to be broken. When he finally triumphs, by defeating the authorities in an apparently ludicrous and violent fashion, the emotionally reserved persona created by Patrick McGoohan does so, paradoxically, to the music of The Beatles' All You Need Is Love. But does he ultimately succeed?
These final scenes brilliantly encapsulate the entire point of the series - the danger we are all in if we allow our individual freedoms to be curtailed by fear, conformity and deference, rather than celebrated by compassion, understanding and humanity - peace and love. A hippy spy series unique in its time and ever after.
The Prisoner deserves to be ranked alongside 1984, Brave New World, Kafka and One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest in its message of free individual expression and resistance to all oppressive authority.

Back to the village
I will not make any deals with you. I've resigned. I will not be pushed, filed, stamped, indexed, briefed, debriefed or numbered.
My life is my own.

Number 6: Where am I?
Number 2: In the Village.
Number 6: What do you want?
Number 2: We want information.
Number 6: Whose side are you on?
Number 2: That would be telling. We want information... information... information.
Number 6: You won't get it.
Number 2: By hook or by crook, we will.
Number 6: Who are you?
Number 2: The new Number 2.
Number 6: Who is Number 1?
Number 2: You are Number 6.
Number 6: I am not a number, I am a free man.
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No show had a more dynamic start (In dialogue terms), then The Prisoner's verbal parrying exchange between number 6 and number 2 at the start of the show every week.
The show may have it's roots in the Sci-fi and the Philosophical camps, with a dollop of 1984 thrown in.(Substitute Big Brother for Number 2 "Is watching you.")But by a combination of good visuals,intelligently written storylines and concise editing, it rises above all three to become something more then the sum of it's parts.
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McGoohan always claimed that the Prisoner was not Danger Man's John Drake but script editor George Markstein, (The bald chap McGoohan hands his resignation letter to then bangs down on the desk at the start of the show.)said he was.
So because of this personality clash one of them had to go and because of the "Star Power" McGoohan had it was Markstein.
(McGoohan at this time was the highest paid actor in British television.
Markstein went on to help create the more down to Earth secret agent "Callan".)
I'll not comment on the ending as it would spoil the plot for the people who haven't seen it yet,but one thing I will say is, if you like the simple straight forward plots of James Bond you will probably end up scratching your head and feeling a little baffled.
Apparently there was a "village" in the Scottish Highlands for retired British Spies during and after WW2.
(No Rover though)
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This show influenced other shows for many years to come.The Avengers got even more zany,even Doctor Who was affected with stories like The Mind Robber.In the US many years later shows like Nowhere Man betray it's roots as a Prisoner derivative.It's even been spoofed on The Simpsons,and I can't think of a better compliment then that.
This will keep you watching right up until the last episode's credits.
Perhaps the overall meaning behind this programme is, it's an anti-conformist rant on the part of the Individualistic Mr McGoohan.But that to me seems to cheapen it slightly.
One aspect that can't be denied,it's a show that doesn't let you forget it in a hurry.
Overall comment on the show is, Brilliant in every regard.
For me stand out episodes are "Many Happy Returns" and "The Girl Who Was Death", as in one episode he finally gets away, but it turns out to be another breaking tactic used by the Village to show it can get him back anytime they like.
(Count the number of candles on the happy returns cake)
And the other is so surreal, it out-does a Salvador Dali painting.
Trivia:~ The bowler in the village Cricket match in,"The Girl who was Death" was really called........JOHN DRAKE.
Mr McGoohan's humour perhaps?

(I've visited Portmeirion twice in the past 10 years and I can vouch it's a lot easier getting into then out of.)
Be Seeing You.

the one and only.
a unique programme in the history of british t.v.
there has never been anything like "the prisoner" since its original broadcast in 1967.
everything from the concept to the final execution, is just mind-boggling to say the least.
a secret agent resigns from his job, gets captured and sent to a mysterious village on an island, where he is subjected to interrogations by someone called "number 2." the agent is named "number 6," hence one of the most famous lines in the programme's history; "i am not a number, i am a free man."
each episode had a different number 2 trying to discover why number 6 resigned. that is precisely the point of the whole thing.
i won't spoil what happens, but even today, fan clubs still discuss the series.
the star and creator of the programme, patrick mcgoohan is well cast if slightly over the top sometimes.
i still don't quite follow "the prisoner," but this is still highly original and will never be repeated. this one stands alone.