Product Details

• Actors: Fenella Fielding, George Markstein, Patrick McGoohan, Angelo Muscat, Peter Swanwick
• Directors: Patrick McGoohan, Robert Asher, Don Chaffey, Pat Jackson, David Tomblin
• Format: Box set, Closed-captioned, Color, DVD, Full Screen, NTSC
• Language: English (Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono)
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
• Number of discs: 2
• Rating: NR (Not Rated)
• Studio: A&E Home Video
• DVD Release Date: October 31, 2000
• Run Time: 208 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars See all reviews (28 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B00004Y7E1
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #55,578 in Movies & TV (See Bestsellers in Movies & TV)

  Popular in these categories: (What's this?)

  #5 in	Movies & TV > Mystery & Suspense > Television > The Prisoner
  #63 in	Movies & TV > Television > A&E Home Video > Series
  #78 in	Movies & TV > Television > British Television > British Cult Television

• For more information about "The Prisoner - Set 2: Checkmate/ The Chimes of Big Ben/ A, B and C/ The General (Bonus)" visit the Internet Movie Database (IMDb)

• This is item 2 in The Prisoner Series.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com
Where am I? In the Village. What do you want? Information. Whose side are you on? That would be telling. We want information...information...information. You won't get it. By hook or by crook, we will. Who are you? The new Number 2. Who is Number 1? You are Number 6. I am not a number, I am a free man!

The groundbreaking 1960s TV series The Prisoner continues with four more episodes of Number 6's struggle to escape the bizarre, picturesque confines of the Village. In "The Chimes of Big Ben," a Village art competition provides the perfect smokescreen for Number 6 (Patrick McGoohan) to hatch a daring escape plan with the help of another new arrival in the Village. Can she be trusted? In a brilliant and memorable performance, Leo McKern invests a humanity--alternately menacing, jolly, and paternal--to the role of Number 2, a quality lacking in many of his successors.

Colin Gordon plays Number 2 as a slightly insecure authoritarian in "A, B, and C," which concerns an attempt to break into and manipulate Number 6's dreams in order to discover why he resigned. Was he indeed "selling out" to the other side? Lively dialogue and a satisfying conclusion bail out what's otherwise a rather far-fetched episode. Gordon returns to the role in "The General," another one that's no slouch in the strained-credulity department: Can an entire university-level history course be delivered to people, via hypnotic TV, in 15 seconds? That's what the Village is experimenting with, but Number 6 smells a rat when he realizes that everyone seems to be reciting the same chunks of history--verbatim. It's a Twilight Zone-esque warning about the dangers of automated mass education, but it falls a bit flat in the end.

"Checkmate" fares much better, exploring the psychology of imprisonment and the difficulty Number 6 has figuring out who among his fellow Villagers works for his captors, and who against. One of the most visually stunning episodes, it opens with a magnificently staged chess match on the Village green, with humans as the pieces, "moved" by two Villagers using megaphones. And Number 6? A pawn, naturally. --Steve Landau

Product Description
"Checkmate"--A giant outdoor chessboard features unique pawns, human chess pieces. Number Six joins the game, and starts a game of his own. "The Chimes of Big Ben" (broadcast version)--A mysterious new resisdent offers a tantalizing clue as to where they are imprisoned. Together with Number Six, a plan for escape develops. "A, B and C"--Cruel, dream-invading drug experiments on Number Six attempt to reveal why he resigned. "The General"--A powerful, subliminal "educational" technique, Speed Learn, is made mandatory for all Villagers. How will it ultimately be used?

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

60 of 62 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The original cult Television series is at last Digital!, August 24, 2000

By	"raneymatt" (THE WOODLANDS, TEXAS USA) - See all my reviews

In 1967, The Jackie Gleason Show (live, from Miami Beach) received a summer replacement like no television program before or since. Patrick McGoohan and The Prisoner have become cult talismen... from the saying "Be seeing you", the Lotus Super Seven (KAR 120C), the Highwheeler logo, The Village typeface on "The Tally Ho" to the village of Portmeirion, Wales, itself. Of the seventeen episodes, though, this second set, including "The Chimes of Big Ben," "The General" et.al., is both brilliant in its scope and indicative of the series in its depth of characters. Second only to McGoohan himself is the greatest No. 2, Leo McKern (more recently famous as John Mortimer's "Rumpole of the Bailey") His falstaffian portrayal as No. 6's nemesis in "The Chimes of Big Ben" brings the series to an early, tangible terror of truly Kafkaeque proportions. That episode alone (usually ranked as first, even in comparison with the initial "The Arrival" and surrealistic conculsion "Fall Out") makes the price, and the wait for DVD, worthwhile. Long relegated to the local editors' butchery in syndication, or the caprices of Public television station managers' pledge drives at two a.m., we can now all enjoy the series that made true television history. The golden age was not just one of kinescope and black and white. The roaring guard (weather balloon) 'Rover' and the sandy stretches of northern Wales call again. Follow the "Secret Agent" into his early retirement, trials, and escape. "Be seeing YOU."

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars "A, B, and C" is one of the most brilliant episodes of TV, April 24, 2001

By	Kenneth Stuart (Northern California) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

"The Prisoner" is one of the handful of all-time great television series (one of the others - "I, Claudius" - is also now on DVD).

After seeing the series originally on a 9-inch B&W TV and then later on a very snowy UHF PBS channel, it's great to see it now in DVD quality.

Unlike one of the other reviewers, I find this particular set to be possibly the best of the lot (although certainly Set One is the best starting point).

The episode "A, B, and C" has many levels, and is an excellent spy story, an outstanding "dream" story, and would be appreciated by fans of Dr. Who, Forbidden Planet or the Twilight Zone, as well. Amongst the other colorful elements is a posh 1960s party for the upper crust of society.

While not wanting to reveal any spoilers, I can say that the scene where Number Two and his accomplice both turn to look at the door is one of the great moments in TV drama.

Enjoy!

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars If you only get one Prisoner set, get this one, July 11, 2001

By	Andrew McCaffrey "The Grumpy Young Man" (Satellite of Love, Maryland) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

If you plan on purchasing only a single set of The Prisoner DVDs, then this would probably be the one because the episodes here are some of the finest that the series produced. Each one highlights a different method used of breaking down the individual, each with its own degree of success or failure.

One of the standouts of this set is Leo McKern's portrayal of one of the villainous Number Twos. His character is a delight to watch -- unpredictable, amusing and dangerous. The other Number Twos on this DVD are certainly passable. Colin Gordon appears twice and his character isn't nearly as strong as McKern's, yet the episodes featuring him reflect this, letting Patrick McGoohan's Prisoner subtlety undermine his authority.

The whole series of The Prisoner comes highly recommended, but this particular set would be an excellent choice to show someone unfamiliar with the show. The four episodes contained ("Checkmate", "The Chimes of Big Ben", "A, B and C" and "The General") exemplify the best of 60's style paranoia and individualism-over-conformity that is still important today.