Categories
Audio Series Prisoner, The

Departure and Arrival

The PrisonerAn agent of the British Foreign Office unexpectedly submits his resignation, setting off a panic among his superiors, who discovered that he is planning to flee the country and go to the Bahamas. Armed agents break into his home and abduct him, and when he awakens, he is in the Village, a gaily-colored, self-contained community whose residents seem to know nothing beyond its boundaries. No one seems to know who he is, and no one knows his name. A man identifying himself as Number Two introduces himself, and welcomes the newly-christened “Number Six” to his surveillance and control center, the Green Dome. The tools at his disposal for watching every moment of every life within the Village unfold is mind-boggling, with cameras, mobile phones, ubiquitous and even portable screens, and a kind of interconnected network tying it all together at Number Two’s fingertips. Number Two makes it clear that no one leaves the Village – and Number Six suspects that the penalty for doing so would be fatal. A former intelligence colleague of Number Six, Cobb, is also on the island, and mounts a valiant escape attempt, but he is captured by a deadly security device called Rover and taken to the Village’s hospital; not long afterward, Cobb is reported to have committed suicide, though Number Six immediately suspects something far more sinister. A chance meeting with a woman named Number Nine leads to another escape plan, but is Nine truly an ally and a fellow victim of the Village…or is she a trap?

written by Nicholas Briggs
directed by Nicholas Briggs
music by Jamie Robertson

Cast: Mark Elstob (Number Six), John Standing (Number Two), Celia Imrie (Number Two), Sara Powell (Number Nine), Helen Goldwyn (Village Voice), Sarah Mowat (ZERO-SIX-TWO), Jim Barclay (Control/Old Captain/Cobb), Barnaby Edwards (Number 34/Danvers/Butler)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Categories
Audio Series Prisoner, The

Your Beautiful Village

The PrisonerNumber Six awakens to find his quarters in the Village – and indeed the entire Village itself – plunged into darkness. Phones and loudspeakers also seem to be on the fritz, and his attempts to contact Number Nine to check on her well-being are beset by blasts of radio frequency interference, dropped calls, and occasionally an almost unfathomable silence. Occasionally Number Two breaks through and claims that the entire Village is experiencing these problems and they need Number Six’s help. Refusing to give up, Number Six leaves his quarters in pitch blackness and tries to reach Number Nine, but is unable to do so. In addition to the darkness, Number Six finds that his memory of the Village’s layout isn’t as accurate as he thought. Number Two naturally wants to help Number Six reach his goal…and to help Number Six appreciate the beauty of the Village.

written by Nicholas Briggs
directed by Nicholas Briggs
music by Jamie Robertson

Cast: Mark Elstob (Number Six), Michael Cochrane (Number Two), Sara Powell (Number Nine), Helen Goldwyn (Village Voice), Sarah Mowat (ZERO-SIX-TWO)

Notes: Unlike the other three stories in the first Prisoner audio box set, Your Beautiful Village is a story original to Big Finish and not based on a previously filmed episode of the television series. The story deals with sensory deprivation torture, a subject that has been explored in such works as George Orwell’s “Nineteen Eighty-Four”.

LogBook entry by Earl Green