I Am (not) A Number: Decoding The Prisoner

The enormously puzzling TV series The Prisoner has developed a rapt cult following, and has often been described as ‘surreal’ or ‘Kafkaesque’.

Author Alex Cox watched all the episodes on their first broadcast, at the ripe old age of thirteen. In his new book, I Am (Not) A Number, Cox agrees that while the series has surreal elements, he believes it provides the answers to all the questions which have engrossed and confounded viewers: who is Number 6? Who runs The Village? Who - or what - is Number 1? According to Cox, the key to understanding The Prisoner is to view the series in the order in which the episodes were made - not in the re-arranged order of the UK or US television screenings. In this book he does exactly that, and provides an entirely original and controversial ‘explanation’ for what is perhaps the best, the most original, and certainly the most perplexing, TV series of all time.