Six of One withhold property from Carlton.

*As of Summer 2004 onwards, The Prisoner was copyright Granada Ventures after the Carlton/Granada merger. For the purposes of this article, however, the Copyright holders will be referred to as Carlton.*

In 2002, Carlton (the copyright holders of The Prisoner TV series) released the alternative version of the opening episode of the series, "Arrival", on DVD. Although Six of One's coordination team often claim some of the praise for this, it is worth bearing in mind that this DVD release nearly did not occur.

Bruce Clark, the USA coordinator for the Society, obtained the alternative version of the episode in the late 1980s, and then sent a copy of the tape to UK coordinator Roger Langley - something which Langley decided not to mention in the infamous yellow document he sent to members in 2001:

For many years, members had asked the Society coordinators for details of this alternative episode, only to be told that it did not exist within the Society. In 1997, 1998, and 2001, however, clips from the Alternative Arrival were shown at the Society's Portmeirion Convention by Roger Langley, as evidenced by this scan of the 1998 Convention Programme:

These clips were shown despite not having copyright approval from Carlton for the showing. In the yellow document Langley denies this.

What Carlton had given permission to show was clips from "broadcast episodes" of The Prisoner. Langley maintained that The Alternative Arrival had been aired on one occasion in New York. This was clearly not what Carlton had meant by "broadcast" episodes.

Jaz Wiseman, a then Society member and Carlton employee, had previously contacted the coordination team, rightly feeling that fans could benefit from a DVD release of this item. Jaz, on behalf of Carlton, requested that the item (which Carlton, of course, owned) be returned to them. This was refused by Langley.

The yellow document then seems to get confused. It states in column 1 of page 3:

It seems Jaz had left Carlton. Yet, in the next paragraph:

How long Jaz had left on his contract is irrelevant. He was, at that time, an employee of the copyright holders of The Prisoner, who wanted property of theirs returned. Roger Langley refused to do this. Only after Carlton exerted pressure on Langley was the item returned to them, and released for the benefit of fans of the TV Series.

In the yellow document, the following statement also appears:

The Prisoner book referred to here is the Official Carlton Prisoner Companion. Rob was entitled to view Carlton material when compiling the Carlton book. The word "admitted" used in the document is also misleading as it implies that, until pressed, Rob had something to hide. This was not the case.

Both the DVD and book can be purchased HERE.

Click HERE to view other aspects of the yellow document.

Click HERE to return to the main page, where details of many other dirty deeds can be found.

This page updated 27/7/12