ITC Entertainment

Well, not quite.

We're taking a look at the first novel spin-off from the classic cult 1967 ITC TV series, co-created by star Patrick McGowan, The Prisoner, the self-contained 17 episodes that follow an unnamed protagonist only known as Number Six when he's incarcerated in the mysterious village as he struggles to maintain his individuality and his sanity in the face of structured and sustained psychological torment at the hands of a series of different Number Twos.

It's arguably the most psychedelic, enigmatic and enduring product of television science fiction of all time, although McGowan may have argued the toss over the SF label, or maybe not.

Nevertheless, when American publisher Ace Books commissioned three spin-off novels, which were not straightforward prose adaptations of television episodes, but new stories using The Village and Number Six, early examples of what I suppose we'd now call licensed expanded universe fiction, For the first volume, they picked Thomas M.

The Rocket, number one, and the Doppelganger is their clone of number six still working on the Rocket because he refuses to.

And the bit where he's credited as prisoner at the end is a protest from Patrick McGowan at being a prisoner of Lou Grade.

Look, Red, the ITC head on show, having been stuck with Danger Man and now the prisoner for all this time and wanting to basically break free from it all.

Because during the filming of the series, there's one episode where number six isn't played by Patrick McGowan.

He was starting his own distribution company.

The Muppets was made in England by Lord Grade and was owned by ITC.

We were just about to do Fraggle Rock, Muppet Babies, Labyrinth and the Dark Crystal.

He wanted his own distribution company.