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    I guess one might ask oneself how many times have you watched ‘the prisoner’ in the past 50 years? For myself up until 1977 I’d have watched the series about three and a half times. Then again in 1984, however from November 1986 to 88 when the whole series had been released by Channel 5 video, as often as I liked, but caught a terrestrial television channel’s transmissions when I could. In November 1986 I only had the first four episodes because ‘the Prisoner’ was issued periodically two videos at a time, with ‘Fall Out’ on its own. And I watched those first four episodes over, and over, and over, time and time again until the next two videos were released. What’s more those Channel 5 videos play as well today as they did back in 1986. Then of course came the advent of DVD, ‘the Prisoner’ re-mastered, put in high definition, and Blu-ray, and digital television. The digital channel BRAVO screened the series a few times, but I didn’t have digital television at that time. ITV4 was next to screen ‘the Prisoner’ a few times, by that time all of Great Britain had had to go digital and I caught the tail ending of ‘Fall Out’ during its final screening.
   So how many times have I watched ‘the Prisoner?’ About once a year since 1988 to about 2001, then only for special occasions, on video that is, and not counting the numerous single episodes watched frequently. Then there were the more recent screenings on ‘True Entertainment’ earlier this year. And last month I watched ‘The Chimes of Big Ben,’ why? Because the chimes of Big Ben have now fallen silent, so that renovations can be made to the tower.

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