The Prisoner

The Prisoner. Patrick McGoohan, creator, star, occasional writer and dir. UK: ITC (Independent Television), 1967. Seventeen episodes.

TV series showing one man (McGoohan) against a bureaucratic spy agency and a prison-camp, "The Village," disguised as a resort. Note for constant surveillance, attempts at mind control through technology, relatively gentle entrapment—and the ultimate threat of a very high-tech (nearly magical) huge beachball that pursues, traps, and smothers its victims. S. F. Ency. cites two novels based on the series: Thomas M. Disch, The Prisoner (1969), and David McDaniel, The Prisoner No. 2 (1969). See under Drama Criticism, M. White and J. Ali, The Official Prisoner Companion. The Prisoner became something of a cult classic on both the political Left and Right and is still selling complete sets and getting uploaded (possibly in violation of copyright) to YouTube.