Bring The Magic Home!: The Story Of ITC's Carlton Video Home Entertainment

5 - I am not a number - I am a free man!

The Prisoner has been regarded by many to be the greatest television series ever made. It is perhaps the most mind-boggling and thought-provoking series ever created. People today are still asking and debating who is Number 6, where is the Village, did Number 6 ever escape? The Prisoner could also be the cult series of all cult series, thanks to its ambiguity and deep levels the series delves into. Many people have different theories about say who really is Number 1. This was one of the points Patrick McGoohan attempted to make - he aimed at creating a series that everyone could have a different interpretation to, and this is why I think the series has stood up as well as it has. It is not surprising that the first series to be entirely released on DVD by Carlton was The Prisoner - and that the series only had 17 episodes which are shorter than most ITC series meaning it would be quicker and easier to release. As of August, the series, along with Gerry Anderson's Thunderbirds, was available to pre-order. On the 21st of that month, the entire series, a first for an ITC series from Carlton, was released on 9 VHS volumes, 5 DVD releases, and a complete VHS and DVD box set. 

Following the original transmitted order, the prints in mono sound were "digitally remastered", but these could be the same prints that were used on the 1998 release from Vision Video Limited.  The Mail On Sunday commented, "The Most adored series of all time" on the complete VHS box set. Looking at the VHS releases, two episodes were released in tapes at £9.99, tapes featured the ITC Cool Spies and Private Eyes promo. Some Volume 1 covers on the top of the spine had, instead of the Carlton logo at the top, the logo of Patrick McGoohan's The Prisoner. The final tape contained not only the last episode Fall Out (a story that could be the greatest television episode in history, not just the ITC series!) but also The Prisoner Video Companion. This was an American documentary produced back in 1990 from ITC Home Video and Maljack Productions, released in the US on 4th November 1990 and in the UK in 1992. The Companion is a fascinating documentary that delves into the symbolism, meanings, and references of the series, despite one or two inaccurate facts about the Village being an island and Number 6's home being Buckingham Palace. The documentary was part of the Vision Video Limited set before it was featured on the Carlton Video range.

The colour of the VHS was; 1 - blue, 2 - red 3 - purple 4 - darker blue 5 - green 6 - 7 - black 8 - light grey 9 - brown. The entire series box set had the spine of the videos being the cover of Number 6 entering the office in the opening titles. The back featured the episode titles with a cover of McGoohan. The covers of the complete videos and DVDs I always found quite chilling, presented with a black background with the centre being a rather creepy image of McGoohan. The other covers seem to be quite chilling too, with some kind of fadedness around Number 6 adding suspense and intrigue into the series. All were rated PGs, the bottom of the sets featured mainly copyright details, whereas the top featured the logo of the series, and episode titles were at the side of the sets. The DVDs box set featured the same at the top and back, and the same black creepy cover of McGoohan as the VHS sets. The side of the main box featured the list of extras, and the other side gave access to the 5 disc set. With four episodes on one disc, the sets were also released individually. The discs would be the same colour as the design of the set. For the DVDs, and some for VHS, Volume 1 was blue, 2 was purple, 3 was green, 4 was black, and 5 was brown. The inside leaflet would also be the same colour as the volumes, and the front featured the same image of McGoohan on the DVD covers.

The leaflet contained chapter details, covers of the remaining volumes with the background of the old bicycle, details about The Prisoner official appreciation society, Six Of One and "Special thanks to Karen and Roger Langley and Steven Ricks for their help in providing visual material and information for the DVD". The cover of the logo and McGoohan from the opening titles again was at the top of these details. Also contained was a leaflet about the other ITC titles already available on DVD from Carlton. The discs saw the warning copyright screen followed by the Carlton Video logo and then cutting to Prisoner style menus. Scene access and interactive menus were available on each disc, as were the ITC promo from Carlton Video, US trailers for the series narrated by David Healy, and two or three slides of Prisoner facts. These facts include, for example, that the original Rover looked like a cherry-topped layer cake that malfunctioned, and that McGoohan was asked to be James Bond before Sean Connery.

Disc 1 would also feature a Village map, plus Number 2 sections about the actors. Disc 2 would have the same Number 2 features for those episodes, whilst also including 4 slides of publicity brochures. Exclusive to Disc 3 was more Number 2 actor profiles, and 2 slides of original artwork. Meanwhile, Disc 4 saw the Number 2 slides of the actors from those episodes, and a slide of an ITC Postcard. Finally, Disc 5 would see the only Number 2 section in Leo McKern, two original series trailers, a still gallery of 30 photos, The Prisoner Video Companion, and the Alternate Chimes Of Big Ben. This edit would see a different opening and closing titles and several different scenes, presented in a very poor, ropey NTSC copy. Discovered back in 1987 by the head of Six Of One at the time Bruce Clark, and released on video in America shortly after. It was finally released on video in the UK in 1992 - before it was rereleased by Carlton as a "Bonus episode". The bottom of the DVDs would feature copyright material, and a special features section presented in Prisoner Village form as would the extras.

Meanwhile in America in June 2000, A&E Home Videosecured the video rights to Carlton's ITC Library, and hoped to release releasing the series on DVD in the fall of 2000. In October, US volumes 1 and 2 were available. March 27th 2001 saw Volumes 3 and 4 available and in August, In the USA, the final volume was out on September 25th. The Prisoner, Space: 1999, and Thunderbirds were the first three series to have begun having released in America under Carlton, presented in the slower 24 frames per second as opposed to 25 - as these are what the original 35mm would look like. Many of the far more extensive Prisoner features on the US DVD would eventually feature on the 35th Anniversary DVD, released on 30th September 2002. This disc is in a way like a bonus extra disc you'd find on DVDs today. As The Prisoner was the first ITC series fully available on Carlton, and seeing how the Carlton ITC releases would develop, it makes sense here that this disc is more of a catch up to later Carlton releases. 

The 35th Anniversary DVD was released in two formats; one which featured a special booklet that included behind the scenes information, and a later release that did not include it. The menus are once again designed in Prisoner format, and the first episode was included on the set. Included from the American release was the rediscovered from the alternate version from Arrival from the late 1980s (lasting for 50 minutes as opposed to the 2-hour rough cut - this was the best quality Carlton could get from Six Of One even if its only another poor NTSC copy), accompanied by a 250-word guide of slides about the alternate version, Production manager Bernard Williams 30 min interview filmed by A&E, foreign language for the filing cabinet footage, and textless intro and outro sequences. Other features include bumpers, Renault 21 Advert, Patrick McGoohan and George Markstein bios, stills and merch galleries, and a 7-minute featurette about Prisoner memorabilia collectors. Trading cards and the Offical Companion to the Classic TV Series book were also available from Carlton. De'Agostini Weekly releases would commence with re-releases of the videos that contained free maps of the Village, and individual releases of the episodes on their own DVD followed in 2004 and 2005. 

The next ITC series was about to follow after The Prisoner starting in September 2000, in 5... 4... 3... 2... 1!