"I am not a number!"
If you recognize that quotation, then chances are good that you spent 16 Saturday nights during the summer of 1968 watching The Prisoner on TV, waiting with anticipation for each new episode of what was seen by CBS merely as a summer replacement.
Now 41 years old, this British import remains one of the most unique, original and best series in TV history. Patrick McGoohan (the first choice to play James Bond before Sean Connery, but who turned down the role because he thought it was demeaning to women) created the concept, wrote and directed several episodes, and starred as a British secret agent who resigns from the service and, with travel brochures in hand, is immediately rendered unconscious and kidnapped. He awakens in The Village, remote, isolated and possibly an island, bounded by mountains on one side and ocean on the other. Various people, all known as Number Two, interrogate him about why he left the service, but he refuses to cooperate with them unless they tell him why they want to know and who they work for -- which, of course, they refuse to do.
This brief summary can't really do justice to the enigmatic and surreal nature of each episode. One critic called it the "ultimate puzzle without a solution." The common thread was that McGoohan's unnamed character, referred to by everyone in The Village as Number Six (and to which his response was always "I am not a number, I am a free man!"), plotted to escape whenever he could, only to be captured by a giant, opaque white balloon/ball known as the Rover.
Recently we added the entire series on DVD to our collection, and the set includes lots of extra features, including an episode that was only aired in England. For a truly unique viewing experience, check out The Prisoner, one of the most unusual espionage thrillers ever created.