Prisoner, The (1967)-35th Anniversary Box Set

This review is sponsored by

BUY IT

    This is an well-presented box set of a fascinating television series. The series was made in 1967 and is part psychological thriller, part political statement, and part science fiction. It is like no other television series I have seen. I could not imagine how such a series could be made in today's television environment where the definition of risk-taking seems to be the hard job of choosing where to base the next series of Survivor.

    The box set itself is presented as a cardboard case containing five separately boxed discs, which to my mind is better than one of those cardboard fold out style box sets. It contains many interesting extras including alternate versions of episodes, on set footage from the location, actor profiles, a documentary and various other bits and pieces which would certainly be of interest to fans. An excellent job has been done on restoring the video although as you would expect there are some minor flaws. The audio is also of good quality.

    From a region comparison perspective, in 2002 a new Mega Set of this series was released in Region 1 by A & E. The Region 2 set seems to be the same as ours.

    The Region 4 version of this disc misses out on;

• Alternate running order of episodes in accordance with fans agreement about the order they should be in
• An interview with Bernie Williams
• An interactive Map of the village
• Trivia Quiz
• Alternate Version of Arrival

    The Region 1 version of this disc misses out on;

• Featurette on Collecting the Prisoner.
• Being presented on 5 double layer discs. The Region 1 is spread over 10 single layer discs.

    On this basis the Region 1 version of the set is the winner, however the local product is also of high quality and worth considering.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall

Prisoner, The (1967)-Number 1: Arrival

This review is sponsored by

BUY IT

General		Extras
Category	Science Fiction	Main Menu Introduction Main Menu Audio & Animation Trailer-Original Episode Trailers Credits-Alternative Opening Credits Credits-Textless Opening And Closing Credits Featurette-Original Production Footage Trailer-Series Trailer No. 1 Biographies-Cast-Series Trailer No. 1 Gallery-Photo Booklet
Rating
Year Of Production	1967
Running Time	195:03 (Case: 200)
RSDL / Flipper	RSDL (14:57)	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	1,2,3,4,5,6	Directed By	Don Chaffey Pat Jackson Patrick McGoohan
Studio Distributor	Umbrella Entertainment	Starring	Patrick McGoohan
Case	Amaray-Transparent-Secure Clip
RPI	$29.95	Music	Ron Grainer Wilfred Josephs Albert Elms

'I am not a number, I am a free man!'

    The Prisoner is an English television series made in 1966/67, which over the years has become a cult favourite with many websites and societies devoted to it. It was controversial when it first aired because of its very different and confusing approach and especially because of its strange, surreal ending. I will not be attempting to explain what it all means, because fans have been studying the series for years and have argued constantly about that topic. There are many debates which rage about the series, from who the prisoner is, to whether a particular episode was a comment on the Vietnam War and what the various symbols used mean. For the record, I had not seen any of the series before asking to review it. All I knew about it was that it was a cult favourite and the basic outline of the premise. It has been released here in Region 4 by Umbrella/AV Channel and is available either as a box set of 5 discs or as individual discs. For this reason there will be five single disc reviews followed by a box set review, tying them all together, so bear with me. Each disc contains extras but the major extras are contained on Disc 5.

    The basic premise is that a high ranking government employee in London, obviously somehow involved in international espionage, decides to resign and during the credits which start most episodes, he visits his boss in an underground location to thump the desk and hand over his letter. He returns home to pack and get away from England, however, while he is doing so he is gassed and kidnapped. When he awakes he is in a strange place, called The Village, which is really a prison but without obvious guards, fences, wire or locks. He quickly learns that they want to know why he resigned and he is referred to only as Number 6 (Patrick McGoohan). Not being sure who or which side he is dealing with he refuses to tell them anything. The village accommodates many people, all with different numbers, most of whom have given up the information they held and now live as virtual automatons, following the instructions of the chief administrator, Number 2, on how to behave and react to various situations. The show follows the various attempts of Number 2 (played by various actors) to break Number 6 and get him to answer their questions. It also follows various attempts by Number 6 to escape and work out who Number 1 is. Because of Number 6's importance, Number 2's shadowy superiors will not allow him to use risky or destructive techniques to bring Number 6 to heel.

    One of the other notable features of this series is the various symbols and images used, such as referring to everyone as numbers, the penny farthing bicycles, the mini moke local taxi service, lava lamps, the colourful costumes, the local newspaper 'Tally Ho' and many more including the security guard system. The Village is guarded by Rover, a large rubber air filled balloon, who smothers disobedient prisoners, sometimes just disabling them, sometimes killing them. The village is surrounded by impenetrable mountains and monitored by video and audio surveillance constantly. This surveillance is presided over by The Supervisor (Peter Swanwick), one of the few characters to appear in every episode, as does The Butler (Angelo Muscat), a small man who does not speak. His job is to serve Number 2. Number 2 changes to different people (not just different actors) constantly as one Number 2 fails to get information from Number 6 and is replaced. Only two actors appear in more than one episode as Number 2, Leo McKern (3 episodes) and Colin Gordon (2 episodes).

    Another debate that has raged in the intervening years is what is the correct order for the episodes to be seen in. They were shown in the order on these discs on UK television originally, however, it is obvious that they are in the wrong order as in some later episodes Number 6 is referred to as being new to the village. They were shown in a different order on US television (listed in the notes in the box set), however, this is also not considered to be correct. The Region 1 box set has the episodes in the order which has been agreed by the fans as being the correct order, which is Arrival, Free for All, Dance of the Dead, Checkmate, Chimes of Big Ben, A, B & C, The General, The Schizoid Man, Many Happy Returns, It's Your Funeral, A Change of Mind, Hammer Into Anvil, Do Not Forsake Me Oh My Darling, Living in Harmony, The Girl Who Was Death, Once Upon A Time & Fall Out. I watched them in the order they are in here although obviously the beauty of DVD is that you can easily watch them in whichever order you personally prefer. The episodes on this disc are: (Episode descriptions will be short to avoid spoiling the episode)

1. Arrival - Number 6 arrives at the village and begins to try and understand his surroundings. He meets Number 2 for the first time (played by two actors in this episode, Guy Doleman & George Baker) and then attempts to escape. A woman, Number 9 (Virginia Maskell), is assigned to 'help' him. An excellent episode.
2. The Chimes of Big Ben - A competition involving drawing, painting or sculpting is arranged by the village council. A new inmate, Number 8, teams up with Number 6 and they attempt an escape. Number 2 is played by Leo McKern. Another top quality episode.
3. A, B & C - Number 2 (Colin Gordon) wants to know what secrets Number 6 had to sell and who he was planning to sell them to. A female scientist, Number 14, uses mind controlling drugs to influence his dreams, inserting three different possible people whom Number 2 thinks might have been who the secrets were to be sold to. He refers to them as A , B or C. You may recognise A as he is played by Peter Bowles who later became famous in the series To the Manor Born. Not as strong an episode as the first two but still interesting.
4. Free for All - In order to appear like The Village is a democracy, elections are organised for Number 2's job. Number 2 (Eric Portman) persuades Number 6 to run against him. This is a bit of a strange episode which has a go at the press and the democratic process in general. Definitely still a worthwhile episode though.

    The series which runs for 17 episodes, each of approximately 50 minutes, was originally envisaged by the star, Patrick McGoohan (who even came up with the theme tune), but his original idea only included 7 episodes. The studio wanted to make 26 episodes because they felt this would be easier to syndicate, however, after much negotiation 17 were agreed upon. Patrick McGoohan has steadfastly refused to explain the series during the intervening years, going so far as to say 'I suppose that The Prisoner is the sort of thing where a thousand people might have a different interpretation of it...that was the intention'.

    My overall impression of this series is that the premise is a very different and excellent one, slightly (but only slightly) spoiled by too many episodes being made, some of which really did not add to the story and at least one which is just silly. The series obviously has political overtones and various interpretations include it being a statement about the rights of the individual and how they should be balanced against the rights of society, a reaction to the socialist leanings of the British politics at the time, a comment about the cold war, a show about a person's inner struggle or a combination of all of the above. It does not really matter, as it is certainly fascinating to watch and some of the episodes are brilliantly conceived, such as Once Upon a Time. There is no way that a series like this would be made today as any studio or television network funding it would demand a more obvious and coherent ending, however, this is why the series has been a favourite for so many years and why people are still interested in it today. A group called The Prisoner Appreciation Society still hold annual conferences at the original location used for the village, a hotel at Portmeirion in Wales.

   Highly recommended if you don't mind having to think.

Video

    The video quality is excellent. A wonderful job has been done in restoring the video presentation. It is not without problems, however compared to footage from the series in some of the extras and documentaries, the difference is quite amazing.

    The feature is presented in a 1.29:1 aspect ratio non 16x9 enhanced which is the original aspect ratio.

    The picture was surprisingly clear and sharp throughout considering the age of the material, with no evidence of low level noise. The shadow detail was decent but certainly nothing special.

    The colour was generally very good, however I did notice some chroma noise from time to time.

    Considering the age and television source of the material, artefacts have been kept to an absolute minimum but they are certainly present. From a film artefact perspective, there were occasional specks and lines although all things considered these were quite minimal. There were also occasional jumps in the film but these were not regular and not really badly noticeable. From a film-to-video artefact perspective there was some regular mild aliasing throughout on car grilles, windows (e.g. 4:21 Ep 1), scales (e.g. 6:38 Ep 1) and more. There was also some edge enhancement which occurs regularly. I also noticed some tape tracking errors but these were very irregular. From an MPEG artefact perspective there was also some macro-blocking to be seen such as in the clouds in the credits and here and there during the episodes. None of these artefacts could be considered overly significant and considering the age of the original series, the overall video quality is excellent.

    There are no subtitles which is a shame.

    The layer change occurs at 14:57 in episode 3 and is not very noticeable.
    

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

    The audio quality is good and in the original mono.

    This DVD contains an English Dolby Digital 2.0 mono soundtrack encoded at 192 Kb/s.

    Dialogue was clear and easy to understand throughout. Audio sync was an issue in two episodes but was generally fine.

    The music in the series includes the excellent theme as hummed by Patrick McGoohan to Ron Grainer who then took the original idea and developed it into a full theme. Other incidental music was by Wilfred Josephs & Albert Elms. Generally, the music is excellent, weird, effective, surreal and interesting.

    The surround speakers and subwoofer were not used.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

    The significant extras are on Disc 5 but each disc also contains some other extras.

Menu

    The menu included an intro, stills, music, dialogue and the ability to select scenes and episodes.

Original Episode Trailers

    These are the original television trailers for each of the episodes on this disc including:

• Arrival (0:58)
• The Chimes of Big Ben (0:59)
• A, B & C (0:58)
• Free For All (0:58)

Alternative Opening Credits (2:54)

    A different version of the opening credits with different music and some changes to the images. Video quality is poor.

Textless Opening Credits (2:57)

    The opening credits without the titles or audio.

Textless Closing Credits (0:55)

    The closing credits without text or audio.

Original Production Footage (8:39)

    8mm footage taken behind-the-scenes at Portmeirion during the shooting of Arrival with no audio. Certainly of interest to fans.

Series Trailer No 1 (1:26)

    Original television trailer for the entire series.

Number 2 Profiles

    Text profiles for the five actors who play Number 2 in these episodes; Guy Doleman, George Baker, Leo McKern, Colin Gordon & Eric Portman.

The Tally Ho Photo Gallery

    13 stills from the show, behind-the-scenes and publicity photos.

Booklet and Case Notes

    This disc includes a booklet which has essays on the locations, production, press previews, props and a map of the village.

    There is censorship information available for this title. Click here to read it (a new window will open). WARNING: Often these entries contain MAJOR plot spoilers.

    I will cover the Region 4 vs Region 1 differences in the box set review as the sets are reasonably different. There is no direct comparison for each individual disc as the Region 1 set is spread over 10 discs. Smaller sets were released earlier with two discs each, however, the spread of episodes is quite different.

    The video quality is wonderful considering the source.

    The audio quality is good.

    The disc has a selection of extras which would interest fans of the show.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall

Prisoner, The (1967)-Number 2: The Schizoid Man

This review is sponsored by

BUY IT

General		Extras
Category	Science Fiction	Main Menu Introduction Main Menu Audio & Animation Trailer-Original Episode Trailers Featurette-Original Portmeirion Location Footage Trailer-Series Trailer No. 2 Biographies-Cast Gallery-Photo
Rating
Year Of Production	1967
Running Time	194:35 (Case: 200)
RSDL / Flipper	RSDL (9:40)	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	1,2,3,4,5,6	Directed By	Robert Asher Don Chaffey Pat Jackson Patrick McGoohan
Studio Distributor	Umbrella Entertainment	Starring	Patrick McGoohan
Case	Amaray-Transparent-Secure Clip
RPI	$29.95	Music	Ron Grainer Albert Elms Wilfred Josephs

'Who is Number 1? You are Number 6!'

    The Prisoner is an English television series made in 1966/67 which over the years has become a cult favourite, with many websites and societies devoted to it. It was controversial when it first aired because of its very different and confusing approach and especially because of its strange, surreal ending. It has been released here in Region 4 by Umbrella/AV Channel and is available either as a box set of 5 discs or as individual discs. For this reason there will be five single disc reviews followed by a box set review tying them all together, so bear with me. Each disc contains extras but the major extras are contained on Disc 5.

    The basic premise is that a high ranking government employee in London, obviously somehow involved in international espionage, decides to resign and during the credits which start most episodes, he visits his boss in an underground location to thump the desk and hand over his letter. He returns home to pack and get away from England, however, while he is doing so he is gassed and kidnapped. When he awakes he is in a strange place, called The Village, which is really a prison but without obvious guards, fences, wire or locks. He quickly learns that they want to know why he resigned and he is referred to only as Number 6 (Patrick McGoohan). Not being sure who or which side he is dealing with he refuses to tell them anything. The village accommodates many people, all with different numbers, most of whom have given up the information they held and now live as virtual automatons, following the instructions of the chief administrator, Number 2, on how to behave and react to various situations. The show follows the various attempts of Number 2 (played by various actors) to break Number 6 and get him to answer their questions. It also follows various attempts by Number 6 to escape and work out who Number 1 is. Because of Number 6's importance, Number 2's shadowy superiors will not allow him to use risky or destructive techniques to bring Number 6 to heel.

    The episodes on this disc are: (Episode descriptions will be short to avoid spoiling the episode)

1. The Schizoid Man - An excellent episode where they change Number 6's number to Number 12 in an attempt to confuse him into talking. They bring in someone else who looks like him to play Number 6. I felt this was one of the strongest episodes of the entire series but I know this is probably controversial. Number 2 is played by Anton Rodgers.
2. The General - Another interesting episode which takes a shot at the education system. A new learning method called SPEEDLEARN has been devised by someone called The General and will be run by The Professor. It will enable people to do a 3 year university degree in 3 minutes. Number 2 is played by Colin Gordon.
3. Many Happy Returns - Number 6 awakes one morning to find the village deserted, so he builds a raft and escapes back to England. He finds a woman living in his house and driving his car. He meets up with colleagues that he used to work with. To tell you any more would spoil the episode.
4. Dance of the Dead - Number 6 finds a dead body on the beach and tries to use it as a way to send a message out of The Village. Someone he knows from his old job, Dutton, arrives in The Village. There is a carnival and dance held. A strange episode and not one of the stronger ones. Number 2 is played by Mary Morris.

    Highly recommended if you don't mind having to think.

Video

    The video quality is excellent. A wonderful job has been done in restoring the video presentation. It is not without problems, however, compared to footage from the series in some of the extras and documentaries, the difference is quite amazing.

    The feature is presented in a 1.29:1 aspect ratio non 16x9 enhanced which is the original aspect ratio.

    The picture was surprisingly clear and sharp throughout considering the age of the material, with no evidence of low level noise. The shadow detail was decent but certainly nothing special.

    The colour was generally very good, however, I did notice some chroma noise from time to time.

    Considering the age and television source of the material, artefacts have been kept to an absolute minimum, but they are certainly present. From a film artefact perspective, there were occasional specks and lines, although all things considered these were quite minimal. There were also occasional jumps in the film but these were not regular and not really badly noticeable. From a film-to-video artefact perspective there was some regular mild aliasing throughout on car grilles, windows and more. There was also some edge enhancement which occurs regularly. I also noticed some tape tracking errors but these were very irregular. From an MPEG artefact perspective there was also some macro-blocking to be seen such as in the clouds in the credits and here and there during the episodes. Macro-blocking was worse on this disc than the others but still not terrible. None of these artefacts could be considered overly significant and considering the age of the original series, the overall video quality is excellent.

    There are no subtitles which is a shame.

    The layer change occurs at 9:40 in Episode 3 but is not very noticeable.
    

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

    The audio quality is good and in the original mono.

    This DVD contains an English Dolby Digital 2.0 mono soundtrack encoded at 192 Kb/s.

    Dialogue was clear and easy to understand throughout. Audio sync was an issue in two episodes but was generally fine.

    The music in the series includes the excellent theme as hummed by Patrick McGoohan to Ron Grainer who then took the original idea and developed it into a full theme. Other incidental music was by Wilfred Josephs & Albert Elms. Generally, the music is excellent, weird, effective, surreal and interesting.

    The surround speakers and subwoofer were not used.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

    The significant extras are on Disc 5 but each disc also contains some other extras.

Menu

    The menu included an intro, stills, music, dialogue and the ability to select scenes and episodes.

Original Episode Trailers

    These are the original television trailers for each of the episodes on this disc, including:

• The Schizoid Man (0:59)
• The General (1:00)
• Many Happy Returns (0:59)
• Dance of The Dead (0:57)

Original Portmerion Location Footage (7:32)

    16mm footage shot to convince the studio of the location and its interesting qualities. Definitely of interest to fans.

Series Trailer No 2 (0:52)

    Original television trailer for the entire series.

Number 2 Profiles

    Text profiles for the actors who play Number 2 in these episodes; Anton Rodgers, Georgina Cookson & Mary Morris.

The Tally Ho Photo Gallery

    13 stills from the show, behind-the-scenes and publicity photos.

Case Notes

    The case includes an essay on Danger Man, the series Patrick McGoohan made before this one.

    There is censorship information available for this title. Click here to read it (a new window will open). WARNING: Often these entries contain MAJOR plot spoilers.

    I will cover the Region 4 vs Region 1 differences in the box set review as the sets are reasonably different. There is no direct comparison for each individual disc as the Region 1 set is spread over 10 discs. Smaller sets were released earlier with two discs each, however, the spread of episodes is quite different.

    The video quality is wonderful considering the source.

    The audio quality is good.

    The disc has a selection of extras which would interest fans of the show.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall

Prisoner, The (1967)-Number 3: Checkmate

This review is sponsored by

BUY IT

General		Extras
Category	Science Fiction	Main Menu Introduction Main Menu Audio & Animation Trailer-Original Episode Trailers Featurette-Foreign Filing Cabinet Footage Featurette-Animated Penny Farthing Bumpers Featurette-Original Production Footage Biographies-Cast Gallery-Photo
Rating
Year Of Production	1967
Running Time	193:55 (Case: 200)
RSDL / Flipper	RSDL (12:50)	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	1,2,3,4,5,6	Directed By	Robert Asher Don Chaffey Pat Jackson Patrick McGoohan
Studio Distributor	Umbrella Entertainment	Starring	Patrick McGoohan
Case	Amaray-Transparent-Secure Clip
RPI	$29.95	Music	Ron Grainer Albert Elms Wilfred Josephs

'What do you want? Information'

    The Prisoner is an English television series made in 1966/67 which over the years has become a cult favourite, with many websites and societies devoted to it. It was controversial when it first aired because of its very different and confusing approach and especially because of its strange, surreal ending. It has been released here in Region 4 by Umbrella/AV Channel and is available either as a box set of 5 discs or as individual discs. For this reason there will be five single disc reviews followed by a box set review, tying them all together, so bear with me. Each disc contains extras but the major extras are contained on Disc 5.

    The basic premise is that a high ranking government employee in London, obviously somehow involved in international espionage, decides to resign and during the credits which start most episodes, he visits his boss in an underground location to thump the desk and hand over his letter. He returns home to pack and get away from England, however, while he is doing so he is gassed and kidnapped. When he awakes he is in a strange place, called The Village, which is really a prison but without obvious guards, fences, wire or locks. He quickly learns that they want to know why he resigned and he is referred to only as Number 6 (Patrick McGoohan). Not being sure who or which side he is dealing with he refuses to tell them anything. The village accommodates many people, all with different numbers, most of whom have given up the information they held and now live as virtual automatons, following the instructions of the chief administrator, Number 2, on how to behave and react to various situations. The show follows the various attempts of Number 2 (played by various actors) to break Number 6 and get him to answer their questions. It also follows various attempts by Number 6 to escape and work out who Number 1 is. Because of Number 6's importance, Number 2's shadowy superiors will not allow him to use risky or destructive techniques to bring Number 6 to heel.

    The episodes on this disc are: (Episode descriptions will be short to avoid spoiling the episode)

1. Checkmate - An interesting episode where Number 6 gets pulled into a game of human chess. He tries to work out who is a warden and who is a prisoner in order to get a group together to escape. The human chess scene is very well known. Number 2 is played by Peter Wyngarde.
2. Hammer Into Anvil - An excellent episode featuring a cruel and insecure Number 2 (Patrick Cargill) who causes the suicide of a young girl. Number 6 then launches an elaborate campaign to mess with Number 2's mind. Features a strange duelling sport called Kosho which involves trampolines separated by a water pool. I especially liked the music in this episode.
3. It's Your Funeral - Number 2 (Andre Van Gyseghem) is on leave and the acting Number 2 (Derren Nesbitt) launches a plan to try to get information from Number 6. He gets a young woman to go to Number 6 warning of an assassination plat against Number 2, which she is concerned would just make life worse for the inmates. Includes some more Kosho. A slightly weaker episode than some others.
4. A Change of Mind - An excellent episode which involves Number 6 being accused of disharmony by the rest of the village. He must face the committee and answer for his crimes. They threaten to 'isolate the aggressive frontal lobe of his brain'. Number 2 is played by John Sharp.

    Highly recommended if you don't mind having to think.

Video

    The video quality is excellent. A wonderful job has been done in restoring the video presentation. It is not without problems, however compared to footage from the series in some of the extras and documentaries, the difference is quite amazing.

    The feature is presented in a 1.29:1 aspect ratio non 16x9 enhanced which is the original aspect ratio.

    The picture was surprisingly clear and sharp throughout considering the age of the material, with no evidence of low level noise. The shadow detail was decent but certainly nothing special.

    The colour was generally very good, however I did notice some chroma noise from time to time.

    Considering the age and television source of the material, artefacts have been kept to an absolute minimum but they are certainly present. From a film artefact perspective, there were occasional specks and lines, although all things considered these were quite minimal. There were also occasional jumps in the film but these were not regular and not really very noticeable. From a film-to-video artefact perspective there was some regular mild aliasing throughout on car grilles, windows and more. There was more aliasing than usual in the episode Checkmate. There was also some edge enhancement which occured regularly. I also noticed some tape tracking errors but these were very irregular. From an MPEG artefact perspective there was some macro-blocking to be seen, such as in the clouds in the credits and here and there during the episodes. None of these artefacts could be considered overly significant and considering the age of the original series, the overall video quality is excellent.

    There are no subtitles which is a shame.

    The layer change occurs at 12:50 in Episode 3 but is not very noticeable.
    

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

    The audio quality is good and in the original mono.

    This DVD contains an English Dolby Digital 2.0 mono soundtrack encoded at 192 Kb/s.

    Dialogue was clear and easy to understand throughout. Audio sync was an issue in two episodes but was generally fine. The episode It's Your Funeral had some audio sync issues which were quite noticeable.

    The music in the series includes the excellent theme as hummed by Patrick McGoohan to Ron Grainer who then took the original idea and developed it into a full theme. Other incidental music was by Wilfred Josephs & Albert Elms. Generally, the music is excellent, weird, effective, surreal and interesting.

    The surround speakers and subwoofer were not used.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

    The significant extras are on Disc 5 but each disc also contains some smaller extras.

Menu

    The menu included an intro, stills, music, dialogue and the ability to select scenes and episodes.

Original Episode Trailers

    These are the original television trailers for each of the episodes on this disc including:

• Checkmate (0:57)
• Hammer Into Anvil (0:59)
• It's Your Funeral (0:57)
• A Change of Mind (0:59)

Original Production Footage (7:55)

    16mm footage behind-the-scenes during filming including footage of the original Rover before they decided to go with the ball. Definitely of interest to fans.

Foreign Filing Cabinet Footage (2:26)

    Footage of the filing cabinet in the credits in a wide variety of languages. Fans only.

Animated Penny Farthing Bumpers (0:55)

    Small pieces of animation used when going to or returning from advertisements on television. Fans only.

Number 2 Profiles

    Text profiles for the four actors who play Number 2 in these episodes; Peter Wyngarde, Patrick Cargill, Derren Nesbitt & John Sharp.

The Tally Ho Photo Gallery

    14 stills from the show, behind-the-scenes and publicity photos.

Case Notes

    The case includes an essay on the music used in The Prisoner.

    There is censorship information available for this title. Click here to read it (a new window will open). WARNING: Often these entries contain MAJOR plot spoilers.

    I will cover the Region 4 vs Region 1 differences in the box set review as the sets are reasonably different. There is no direct comparison for each individual disc as the Region 1 set is spread over 10 discs. Smaller sets were released earlier with two discs each, however, the spread of episodes is quite different.

    The video quality is wonderful considering the source.

    The audio quality is good.

    The disc has a selection of extras which would interest fans of the show.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall

Prisoner, The (1967)-Number 4: Do Not Forsake Me, Oh My Darling

This review is sponsored by

BUY IT

General		Extras
Category	Science Fiction	Main Menu Introduction Main Menu Audio & Animation Trailer-Original Episode Trailers Featurette-Original Portmeirion Location Footage Biographies-Cast Gallery-Photo-2 Trailer-Series Trailer No. 2
Rating
Year Of Production	1967
Running Time	195:35 (Case: 200)
RSDL / Flipper	Dual Layered	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	1,2,3,4,5,6	Directed By	Robert Asher Don Chaffey Pat Jackson Patrick McGoohan
Studio Distributor	Umbrella Entertainment	Starring	Patrick McGoohan
Case	Amaray-Transparent-Secure Clip
RPI	$29.95	Music	Ron Grainer Albert Elms Wilfred Josephs

'A still tongue makes a happy life'

    The Prisoner is an English television series made in 1966/67 which over the years has become a cult favourite, with many websites and societies devoted to it. It was controversial when it first aired because of its very different and confusing approach and especially because of its strange, surreal ending. It has been released here in Region 4 by Umbrella/AV Channel and is available either as a box set of 5 discs or as individual discs. For this reason there will be five single disc reviews followed by a box set review, tying them all together, so bear with me. Each disc contains extras but the major extras are contained on Disc 5.

    The basic premise is that a high ranking government employee in London, obviously somehow involved in international espionage, decides to resign and during the credits which start most episodes, he visits his boss in an underground location to thump the desk and hand over his letter. He returns home to pack and get away from England, however, while he is doing so he is gassed and kidnapped. When he awakes he is in a strange place, called The Village, which is really a prison but without obvious guards, fences, wire or locks. He quickly learns that they want to know why he resigned and he is referred to only as Number 6 (Patrick McGoohan). Not being sure who or which side he is dealing with he refuses to tell them anything. The village accommodates many people, all with different numbers, most of whom have given up the information they held and now live as virtual automatons, following the instructions of the chief administrator, Number 2, on how to behave and react to various situations. The show follows the various attempts of Number 2 (played by various actors) to break Number 6 and get him to answer their questions. It also follows various attempts by Number 6 to escape and work out who Number 1 is. Because of Number 6's importance, Number 2's shadowy superiors will not allow him to use risky or destructive techniques to bring Number 6 to heel.

    The episodes on this disc are: (Episode descriptions will be short to avoid spoiling the episode)

1. Do Not Forsake Me, Oh My Darling - This episode does not have the normal credit sequence, including an intro prior to the credits. A Colonel (Nigel Stock) is sent to the village for a secret mission. They transfer Number 6's brain into his body using a technique developed by a man Number 6 had the last contact with. They want Number 6 to track him down. An excellent episode. Number  2 is played by Clifford Evans.
2. Living in Harmony - There is no standard credit sequence and this is not even titled The Prisoner. Number 6 is in the wild west and resigns as sheriff of the town in Harmony. The Judge (David Bauer) sends some thugs to bring him back and tries to force him to be the sheriff. A girl helps him but a local thug called The Kid (Alexis Kanner) loves her and gets jealous. An interesting idea which just doesn't quite work.
3. The Girl Who Was Death - This episode is quite bizarre and does not really fit with the rest of the series at all, having a completely different tone. They try to explain it at the end but it does not work. This episode should have been dropped. The story involves Number 6 in his old job pursuing a scientist who plays to destroy London with a rocket. To do so, he chases the scientist's daughter who tries to kill him in various ways. Number 2 is played by Kenneth Griffith.
4. Once Upon A Time - Probably the most interesting and intriguing episode of the entire series. It involves the final showdown between Number 6 and Number 2 (Leo McKern). They are locked into a room under the village for a week where a battle of wits called Degree Absolute can only result in one of them dying. Probably the best episode in the series.

    Highly recommended if you don't mind having to think.

Video

    The video quality is excellent. A wonderful job has been done in restoring the video presentation. It is not without problems, however compared to footage from the series in some of the extras and documentaries, the difference is quite amazing.

    The feature is presented in a 1.29:1 aspect ratio non 16x9 enhanced which is the original aspect ratio.

    The picture was surprisingly clear and sharp throughout considering the age of the material, with no evidence of low level noise. The shadow detail was decent but certainly nothing special.

    The colour was generally very good, however, I did notice some chroma noise from time to time.

    Considering the age and television source of the material, artefacts have been kept to an absolute minimum but they are certainly present. From a film artefact perspective, there were occasional specks and lines, although all things considered these were quite minimal. There were also occasional jumps in the film but these were not regular and not really badly noticeable. From a film-to-video artefact perspective there was some regular mild aliasing throughout on car grilles, windows and more. There was more aliasing than usual in the episode Living in Harmony. There was also some edge enhancement which occurs regularly. I noticed some tape tracking errors, but these were very irregular. From an MPEG artefact perspective, there was some macro-blocking to be seen, such as in the clouds in the credits, and here and there during the episodes. There was more macro-blocking than usual in Once Upon A Time. None of these artefacts could be considered overly significant, and considering the age of the original series, the overall video quality is excellent.

    There are no subtitles which is a shame.

    The layer change is between episodes.
    

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

    The audio quality is good and in the original mono.

    This DVD contains an English Dolby Digital 2.0 mono soundtrack encoded at 192 Kb/s.

    Dialogue was clear and easy to understand throughout. Audio sync was an issue in two episodes but was generally fine. The episode The Girl Who Was Death had some audio sync issues which were quite noticeable.

    The music in the series includes the excellent theme as hummed by Patrick McGoohan to Ron Grainer who then took the original idea and developed it into a full theme. Other incidental music was by Wilfred Josephs & Albert Elms. Generally, the music is excellent, weird, effective, surreal and interesting.

    The surround speakers and subwoofer were not used.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

    The significant extras are on Disc 5 but each disc also contains some other extras.

Menu

    The menu includes an intro, stills, music, dialogue and the ability to select scenes and episodes.

Original Episode Trailers

    These are the original television trailers for each of the episodes on this disc, including:

• Do Not Forsake Me, Oh My Darling  (0:58)
• Living in Harmony (0:58)
• The Girl Who Was Death (1:00)
• Once Upon a Time (0:57)

Original Portmeirion Location Footage (7:32)

    16mm footage behind-the-scenes during on location shooting. Definitely of interest to fans.

Series Trailer No 2 (0:58)

    Original television trailer for the entire series.

Number 2 Profiles

    Text profiles for the three actors who play Number 2 in these episodes; Clifford Evans, David Bauer, Kenneth Griffith..

ITC Publicity Photo Gallery

    6 photos of various promotional items.

The Tally Ho Photo Gallery

    12 stills from the show, behind-the-scenes and publicity photos.

Case Notes

    The case includes an essay on the vehicles used in The Prisoner.

    There is censorship information available for this title. Click here to read it (a new window will open). WARNING: Often these entries contain MAJOR plot spoilers.

    I will cover the Region 4 vs Region 1 differences in the box set review as the sets are reasonably different. There is no direct comparison for each individual disc as the Region 1 set is spread over 10 discs. Smaller sets were released earlier with two discs each, however, the spread of episodes is quite different.

    The video quality is wonderful considering the source.

    The audio quality is good.

    The disc has a selection of extras which would interest fans of the show.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall

Prisoner, The (1967)-Number 5: Fall Out

This review is sponsored by

BUY IT

General		Extras
Category	Science Fiction	Main Menu Introduction Main Menu Audio & Animation Featurette-Original Fall Out Trailer Featurette-Original Portmeirion Location Footage Biographies-Cast Gallery-Photo-2 Featurette-Collecting The Prisoner Featurette-The Prisoner Companion
Rating
Year Of Production	1967
Running Time	49:17 (Case: 150)
RSDL / Flipper	Dual Layered	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	1,2,3,4,5,6	Directed By	Robert Asher Don Chaffey Pat Jackson Patrick McGoohan
Studio Distributor	Umbrella Entertainment	Starring	Patrick McGoohan
Case	Amaray-Transparent-Secure Clip
RPI	$29.95	Music	Ron Grainer Wilfred Josephs Albert Elms

'Be Seeing You'

    The Prisoner is an English television series made in 1966/67 which over the years has become a cult favourite, with many websites and societies devoted to it. It was controversial when it first aired because of its very different and confusing approach and especially because of its strange, surreal ending. It has been released here in Region 4 by Umbrella/AV Channel and is available either as a box set of 5 discs or as individual discs. For this reason there will be five single disc reviews followed by a box set review, tying them all together, so bear with me. Each disc contains extras but the major extras are contained on Disc 5.

    The basic premise is that a high ranking government employee in London, obviously somehow involved in international espionage, decides to resign and during the credits which start most episodes, he visits his boss in an underground location to thump the desk and hand over his letter. He returns home to pack and get away from England, however, while he is doing so he is gassed and kidnapped. When he awakes he is in a strange place, called The Village, which is really a prison but without obvious guards, fences, wire or locks. He quickly learns that they want to know why he resigned and he is referred to only as Number 6 (Patrick McGoohan). Not being sure who or which side he is dealing with he refuses to tell them anything. The village accommodates many people, all with different numbers, most of whom have given up the information they held and now live as virtual automatons, following the instructions of the chief administrator, Number 2, on how to behave and react to various situations. The show follows the various attempts of Number 2 (played by various actors) to break Number 6 and get him to answer their questions. It also follows various attempts by Number 6 to escape and work out who Number 1 is. Because of Number 6's importance, Number 2's shadowy superiors will not allow him to use risky or destructive techniques to bring Number 6 to heel.

    The only episode on this disc is:

1. Fall Out - This final episode was extremely controversial when originally aired, causing the switchboard at the television network to melt down and Patrick McGoohan to go into hiding. (SPOILER ALERT: highlight with mouse to read) After his defeat of Number 2, Number 6 is taken before The President (Kenneth Griffith) in triumph and he is offered the job of leading the group or returning to normal society with a fortune. What will he choose? Also features Leo McKern as Number 2 & Alexis Kanner as Number 48. This episode is quite confusing but very intriguing and leaves you to decide what you think happened and what it all means. Excellent. A magnificent ending to a great series.

    Highly recommended if you don't mind having to think.

Video

    The video quality is excellent. A wonderful job has been done in restoring the video presentation. It is not without problems, however compared to footage from the series in some of the extras and documentaries, the difference is quite amazing.

    The feature is presented in a 1.29:1 aspect ratio non 16x9 enhanced which is the original aspect ratio.

    The picture was surprisingly clear and sharp throughout considering the age of the material, with no evidence of low level noise. The shadow detail was decent but certainly nothing special.

    The colour was generally very good, however I did notice some chroma noise from time to time.

    Considering the age and television source of the material, artefacts have been kept to an absolute minimum but they are certainly present. From a film artefact perspective, there were occasional specks and lines, although all things considered these were quite minimal. There were also occasional jumps in the film but these were not regular and not really badly noticeable. From a film-to-video artefact perspective there was some regular mild aliasing throughout on car grilles, windows and more. There was also some edge enhancement which occurs regularly. I noticed some tape tracking errors but these were very irregular. From an MPEG artefact perspective there was some macro-blocking to be seen, such as in the clouds in the credits and here and there during the episodes. None of these artefacts could be considered overly significant and considering the age of the original series, the overall video quality is excellent.

    There are no subtitles which is a shame.

    The layer change is between programs.
    

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

    The audio quality is good and in the original mono.

    This DVD contains an English Dolby Digital 2.0 mono soundtrack encoded at 192 Kb/s.

    Dialogue was clear and easy to understand throughout. Audio sync was an issue in two episodes but was generally fine.

    The music in the series includes the excellent theme as hummed by Patrick McGoohan to Ron Grainer who then took the original idea and developed it into a full theme. Other incidental music was by Wilfred Josephs & Albert Elms. Generally, the music is excellent, weird, effective, surreal and interesting.

    The surround speakers and subwoofer were not used.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

    This disc contains mostly extras in addition to the last episode.

Menu

    The menu included an intro, stills, music, dialogue and the ability to select scenes and episodes.

The Chimes of Big Ben - Alternate Version (50:38)

    An alternate and quite different version of this episode which was shown at a press preview and then changed significantly before airing. This version gives some information about The Village which was not consistent with the rest of the series. The music is also different and the video quality is much worse. Fans will love it.

The Prisoner Companion (48:14)

    A US produced documentary about the series which delves into some of the debates, trivia, anecdotes and meaning of the television series. A lot of the running time is taken up by extended scenes from the show itself but there are certainly some interesting stories and quotes included. Discusses the various explanations which have been put forward as to the show's meaning such as apocalypse, science and technology going too far, cold war and others. Interesting and worth having..

Collecting The Prisoner (6:21)

    A short more recent featurette about people that collect memorabilia from the show. Also includes an interview with the man who runs The Prisoner shop at Portmeirion.

Original Episode Trailer

    This is the original television trailers for

• Fall Out (0:58)

Original Portmeirion Production Footage (8:03)

    16mm footage behind-the-scenes captured during on location shooting. Definitely of interest to fans.

Actor Profiles

    Text profiles for the the actors who appeared in multiple episodes; Patrick McGoohan, Angelo Muscat, Peter Swanwick & Alexis Kanner.

Prisoner Memorabilia Photo Gallery

    8 photos of various promotional items.

The Tally Ho Photo Gallery

    8 stills from behind-the-scenes of Fall Out.

Case Notes

    The case includes a selection of trivia and information on the various screening orders.

    There is censorship information available for this title. Click here to read it (a new window will open). WARNING: Often these entries contain MAJOR plot spoilers.

    I will cover the Region 4 vs Region 1 differences in the box set review as the sets are reasonably different. There is no direct comparison for each individual disc as the Region 1 set is spread over 10 discs. Smaller sets were released earlier with two discs each, however, the spread of episodes is quite different.

    The video quality is wonderful considering the source.

    The audio quality is good.

    The disc has the major extras included in the box set.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall