Big Finish Productions has released a third and possibly final set of full-cast audio dramas based on the classic, head-scratching late-1960s sci-fi series The Prisoner.
Starring Mark Elstob as Number Six, a role played in the original series by Patrick McGoohan, Volume Three of Big Finish’s reimagined version of The Prisoner is available as a collectible box set or as a digital download.
This third series of four hourlong episodes stars Elstob), Lucy Briggs-Owen (Kate Butterworth), Jim Barclay (Control), Genevieve Gaunt (Number 43), Alicia Ambrose-Bayly (Number 999) and Lorelei King (Number Two).
I’ve been fighting for so long. That’s all I’ve become. The fight itself. The fight for freedom. And if that fight is over. Who am I? What’s left of me?
Big Finish promises an ending very different from the original TV series.
“It’s been absolutely lovely and such a relief that people like what we’ve done,” said Big Finish’s Nicholas Briggs. “I knew I was entering controversial territory so there was a big danger that our version would be seen as terrible, sacrilege, or at the very least an irritating irrelevance. So many people have been really generous and encouraging.”
The Prisoner Volume Three contains four new stories:
- “Free For All”: Time for an election in the Village. The regime seems to want Six to stand as a candidate to be Number Two. But when Two’s manifesto seems to be based on the notion of freedom, what platform will Six decide to stand upon? And can there ever be freedom in the Village?
- “The Girl Who Was Death”: Six finds himself free again, back in London. But how did he get here? An explosion rocks the city and Six must work out who he can trust. Will it be Control, Danvers, Number 43, Kate, Number Two or Potter?
- “The Seltzman Connection”: Potter and ZM-73 think that if they go back to the beginning of it all, they’ll be able to solve the mystery of the Village. But can Professor Jacob Seltzman really provide all the answers?
- “No One Will Know”: From London, to Kandersfeld to the Village… will an end to it all ever be possible?
Based on the classic ITV series originally created by and starring McGoohan, The Prisoner is the story of a man known only as Number Six. He has committed no crime but is being held against his will in “The Village” – a location from which there is no escape.
Number Six can trust no one and is under constant supervision by his ever-changing adversary Number Two – the leader of the Village. Number Six attempts to trace the real identity of his captors, and the mystery of the ever-elusive Number One, but is forever thwarted. A mysterious large white orb known as “Rover” helps to maintain order, and will engulf any who attempt to escape (which is probably the element you remember best, if you’re like me at all).
