Eccleston will play Number Six (Remake of 60s TV Show The Prisoner)

The Register ^ | Friday 5th May 2006 | Jane Hoskyn

[nickcarraway]

He may have vanished from your Dr Who screensaver, but Christopher Eccleston isn't done with being a geek hero just yet: Doctor Nine will regenerate as Number Six in Granada's £10m remake of the 60s classic The Prisoner (http://www.retroweb.com/prisoner.html), confirming the El Reg story (http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/05/04/prisoner_remake/) yesterday linking the in-demand thesp with the role.

The six-part remake is slated to air on Sky One in "January 2007" or "spring 2007", depending on whom you believe; our guess is that Sky will bust its arse, and the arses of anyone involved, to get it on screen at exactly the same time as Tennant's second series of Who.

What's almost as certain is that "Sky One's biggest drama commission ever" will have more in common with glossy conspiracy fare like 24, which incidentally goes HD in two weeks time (http://www.hdtvuk.tv/2006/05/skys_first_week.html), and Lost than with the surreal Patrick McGoohan original, famously set in the Butlins-meets-Alcatraz Welsh village of Portmeirion. Purists may take to the streets over the relocation of The Prisoner to "a more exotic setting", but at least the Portmeirion locals won't have to suffer a brand new glut of telly-tourists gawping through their front windows while they’re trying to have a brew in front of Deal or no Deal (http://www.tvscoop.tv/2005/12/review_deal_or_.html)

[higgmeister]

Was that the strange show with giant ball chasing that guy all the time?

The Ball was Rover.

[Billthedrill]

Not sure it's that great an idea either, frankly. The Prisoner had more double entendres and undercurrents than any contemporary show including The Avengers, which I adored. Brilliant stuff, really. I recall a scene in which Number 6 was convincing an art committee that the boat he'd just build to escape The Village was really a piece of primitive modern art. Same sort of profound-sounding BS you still hear in art museums.

The big question remains unanswered but every fan has his or her opinion - was it "You are Number 6" or "You are, Number 6"? One little comma.

Some of the episodes are truly timeless. Others are so painfully dated they'll never make the screen. The one with the computer, for example, that he defeats by typing the single question "Why?" and feeding the paper into the slot...ugh. Now, if he'd fed it a Vista boot disk and it blew up...