I have to start by trying to describe the 1960s British television show, ‘The Prisoner,’ and that in itself is a challenge. The show began when actor Patrick McGoohan decided to leave his successful spy thriller tv show in the 1960s. As an alternative, he pitched a show to the network in which he would play a spy who resigned from his job. Thus, we get the backstory of a mysterious agent in the opening credits of the show. However, before the end of the credits, our mysterious agent has been kidnapped by unknown forces.
This is where the show begins. McGoohan awakes in a somewhat quaint, somewhat creepy, seaside resort town, which we later come to learn is a place where people with too much information are often taken. Someone, possibly an enemy or possibly his own side, wants to know why he resigned. Until he gives up his reason, he will live by the name ‘Number 6’ and undergo whatever tortures those running the Village choose to inflict.
If you want to get into it, you can find episodes for free online. But be warned, once you break this surrealist bubble, it can be a long way down
That’s because the show becomes one of the most surreal meta-commentaries on reality ever filmed. If you consider its air date (1967), it’s not hard to argue that the 17-episode series is the progenitor of much of the surrealist and meta-media of today. As such an influential work, it has been revisited in comic book form, inspired podcasts, and been novelized a handful of times.
This particular novelization was published in 2005, coming nearly 40 years after the original series aired. Spectacularly, Blum and Booth take us right back to the Village in a tonally perfect continuation of Number 6’s imprisonment.
If anything, the format of the written word allows for bigger set pieces and more misdirection than was possible on the original show, and with the benefit of 40 years of technological hindsight, we get to see some fun interweaving of the Village’s advanced technology with real tools that we’d recognize today.
If you’re new to ‘The Prisoner,’ I recommend starting with the show. If you soon find yourself racing through the narrow streets of the Village, desperate for an answer and trying to uncover who’s really in charge, then this book should be next on your list.
Be seeing you…