January 16th 1967. A secret agent suddenly resigns from MI6, then wakes to find himself imprisoned in ‘The Village’ — a bizarre community with a cheery veneer, but an underbelly of threat and mystery. Re-branded as Number Six, our agent must enter into a battle of wits with the sinister Number Two, whose sworn aim is to discover why Number Six resigned. But Number Six refuses to divulge his secrets and must fight off increasingly outlandish and deadly attempts to break him, as he fights to escape and find out… ‘Who is Number One?’.
Big Finish has announced that that it has entered into a licence agreement with ITV Studios Global Entertainment to produce a series of full-cast audio dramas based on the world renowned cult classic 1967 TV series, The Prisoner. Big Finish are perhaps best known for the full audio Doctor Who drama’s, but their catalogue also includes Blakes 7, Survivors, Sherlock Holmes and The Avengers amongst numerous others.
The new audio series of The Prisoner is to be written and directed by Big Finish’s co-executive producer Nicholas Briggs. Nick has been working with the company since the very beginning (as an actor, writer, sound designer, composer, director and producer). He is also known for his voice work on the Doctor Who TV series as the voice of the Daleks and other monsters. Recently, he wrote and directed the Doctor Who story Dark Eyes, which won the BBC Audio Drama Award for best online drama.
Nick Briggs said, “The Prisoner has been a great love of mine for many years, ever since my late father told me all about it back in the 1960s. It actually premiered on British TV in 1967 on my sixth birthday! I finally got the chance to see it as a teenager when ITV repeated it on Saturday evenings in 1977. I instantly fell in love with the series and have been avidly re-watching it ever since. The chance to re-imagine the 1967 series for audio drama is a great privilege and I can’t wait to get started — actually, I’ve already started.”
The new audio version of The Prisoner will be very much based on the original, which starred the late Patrick McGoohan. “It won’t simply be a slavish retelling of all the original episodes,” explains Nick. “But aficionados of the original series will certainly recognise much of what they loved about it. A lot of the familiar iconography will be there, but my aim is to push the boundaries, all the while pursuing McGoohan’s stated agenda of the fight against rampant progress and dehumanisation.”
At this time no cast members have and the bar for Number 6 has been set high as Nick is looking for somebody. “…who can portray that vital determination and anger, creating a lethal package of dynamite charisma.” He continues with the list of needs, “They need to be compelling and powerful as well as having great enthusiasm for the series.”
The initial release of a lavish, collectors’ edition box set of five CDs (four hour-long episodes and a behind-the-scenes documentary, with full-colour, souvenir booklet) is set for January 2016, with other box sets to follow. You can pre-order it here.
Villordsutch likes his sci-fi and looks like a tubby Viking according to his children. Visit his website and follow him on Twitter.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JoHXAqSnD5g&list=PL18yMRIfoszH_jfuJoo8HCG1-lGjvfH2F
Originally published January 6, 2015. Updated April 13, 2018.
