The Prisoner
Checkmate
TV Flash files “Checkmate” as a desk essential hour — The Prisoner (1967–1968) on ITV, season 1, episode 9, aired 1967-12-03, 50 min.
From the desk
How this hour is filed
This leaf is S01E09: listed hour 9 of 17 in the The Prisoner guide, hour 9 of 17 in season 1. It aired 1967-12-03 (50 min). The listed hour before it is “Dance of the Dead” (S01E08). Next is “Hammer Into Anvil” (S01E10).
Essential hour: “Checkmate”. Checkmate plays the Village as a board: people as pieces, McGoohan's freeze as craft, hop-friendly and still argumentative.
Catalog log
Broadcast listing — not a TV Flash recap.
Number Six takes the position of Queen's Pawn in a human game of chess. An illegal move by the Rook leads to his withdrawal and he is taken to The Village hospital. Number Two brainwashes the Queen to fall in love with Number Six who discovers the locket the Queen wears around her neck is in fact a radio transmitter to track him. The transmitter is useful to Number Six and he manages to borrow the locket which he intends to use with the Rook in his latest escape bid.
Viewer FAQ
Where does Checkmate sit in the The Prisoner guide?
S01E09 is listed hour 9 of 17 — hour 9 of 17 in season 1, season 1 episode 9.
When did The Prisoner S01E09 air?
Checkmate aired 1967-12-03 and is listed at 50 minutes.
Where should I start?
Episode one is the resignation-and-Village contract. The series is only 17 hours; starting at the beginning is the point, not a sample platter.
In the series
Why this series still plays
A secret agent resigns; a Village claims him. Patrick McGoohan's Number Six spends seventeen episodes demanding identity in a pastel prison of surveillance and untrustworthy faces. Stylish, stubborn, endlessly rewatchable spy-allegory — and a finale that still starts arguments. Be seeing you.
A secret agent resigns; a Village claims him. Patrick McGoohan's Number Six spends **seventeen episodes** (ITV, 1967–1968) demanding identity in a pastel prison of surveillance, mind games, and untrustworthy faces. George Markstein co-shaped the thing with him. Angelo Muscat's Butler and Leo McKern's Number Two orbit the refusal to be numbered. Each escape fails differently. *Arrival* is the capture. *Fall Out* is the closer that still starts fights. On the palate: penny-farthings, Rovers, and a greeting that is…
Filed against
- Patrick McGoohan as Number Six
Patrick McGoohan’s Number Six spends The Prisoner demanding identity in a pastel Village of surveillance — seventeen stylish, stubborn episodes, a finale that still starts arguments — after Danger Man’s John Drake practiced spy craft with…
- Angelo Muscat as The Butler
Angelo Muscat’s Butler haunted The Prisoner in silence — a secret agent resigns, a Village claims him, Patrick McGoohan’s Number Six spends seventeen episodes demanding identity in a pastel prison of surveillance. Stylish, stubborn…
- Leo McKern as Number Two
Leo McKern occupied the Village as Number Two on The Prisoner — not a single villain so much as the job title that kept asking Patrick McGoohan’s Number Six who he was. Pastel prison, untrustworthy faces, a finale still starting…