Volume 1 of Big Finish’s audio version of The Prisoner is one of the best releases they’ve ever put out. Effortlessly taking the off-kilter, nightmarish visuals of the original series and transferring them to a different medium, it sets up the village in a manner that’s simultaneously absolutely in keeping with the original series and subtly modernised. Volume 2 builds on this and continues to push into new territory. The first three stories here are adapted from episodes of the show. The fourth only takes the name of an episode, an act of identity crime that is nicely in keeping with The Prisoner’s ethos. All four succeed, in surprisingly different ways.

‘I Met A Man Today’, adapted from ‘Many Happy Returns’ sees 6 escaping to London and finding a woman living in his old house. Feral and spiked with rage and paranoia he refuses to believe anything is real; her, the escape, London, his old bosses, the book she seems to want to write about him…

This is a resolutely smart way to both further the plot and provide an on-ramp for new listeners. Almost a second pilot, the episode gives Mark Elstob plenty of opportunities to show 6’s teeth and Lucy Briggs-Owen equal air time as Kate Butterworth. Briggs-Owen is one of the best people Big Finish have on roster and she brings the exact right combination of caution, grief and open mindedness to Kate. That clashes neatly with Elstob’s furious 6 and sends the episode careening towards an ending that’s surprising, earned and disturbing.

‘Project Six’, adapted from ‘A, B and C’ builds on that strong opening and sees 6 back in the village and unable to trust anything, even what he thinks he learned in the previous episode. He opts to go nil by mouth, refusing to eat or drink anything other than dew from the grass and as he begins to hallucinate, he seemingly discovers some colossal truths about his prison. This is where Elstob really comes into his own as 6 pushes himself past breaking point to get his captors to do the same. The closing scenes here are especially great and evoke some classic moments from the show in very new and massively effective ways. The Behind The Scenes documentary, always worth listening to, is especially good on this episode as Briggs makes it clear that this version of The Prisoner is not an adaptation but an evolution and that frees them up to go anywhere, even as 6 is free to go nowhere…

‘Hammer into Anvil’ sees a new Number 1 arrive with a new mission: break 6, forever. The episode boils down to a three-way power play between 6, the sadistic new 2 and number 26. John Heffernan as 2 is fantastic, an intensely proper sadist who flies apart at the seams in a manner that’s both believable and deeply disturbing. But the breakout out here is Helen Goldwyn, who is one of the hardest working cast members on the series. As 26, she’s given a huge amount to do, all of it character focused and far more grounded and honest than the rest of the series. It’s a great role and, along with Heffernan and Elstob’s excellent turns, makes this a highlight of the series to date.

And that brings us to ‘Living in Harmony’. The opening scene here is perhaps the most audacious thing the show has done to date, picking up on the events of the previous episode. We open in space, with 6 en route to a moonbase and accompanied by someone who cannot possibly be there. The show’s recurrent themes of identity subjugation and theft, high end spy technology and 6’s desperate need to be free all combine in the last place you’d expect them to – a relatively conventional science fiction story.

The interaction between 6 and 9 (or is it 90?) with the excellent Sara Powell back on cast, is great, 9 is one of the best characters the show has explored to date, and Powell plays her as the intellectual, and field craft, equal of 6. The ambiguous relationship the two have is one of the show’s best elements and it benefits hugely from the very unusual, and successful, setting. That in turn gives the show a chance to look at the Village from a very different perspective and expand the show’s universe without ever losing the claustrophobic elements that make the show work.

Verdict: This is an escalation and evolution of the show that stands alone but still rewards listeners who paid close attention to the previous season. Endlessly clever and darkly playful, it’s crammed full of excellent performances, glorious turns of phrase and massive ideas. Another standout release for one of Big Finish’s strongest lines. 10/10

Alasdair Stuart