I first caught it as a kid: German television network ZDF premiered it in that country in 1969. My Deutsch was limited enough, even though we lived in a German town, that I did not know what was going on plot-wise, but the visual sense, even when displayed in black & white, carried me through the 50 minutes.
The Rovers did spook me a little as they bubbled from the sea to 'consume' whatever renegade needed arresting. When one is watching a program in a foreign language, one is arrested by the visuals. I would have understood snippets of the dialogue, of course.
When I saw The Prisoner again years later — thank you, CITY-TV — I understood what was being said. And what was being said.
Last week I splurged on the Blu-ray set after stumbling upon it at Toronto's superb video store, Bay Street Video. (A friend of mine had given me the heads up on this Australian release since he knew I was a big fan.) It wasn't cheap, but given what this special series represents to me, and how those extras will, no doubt, please me, it was money well spent.
The Prisoner is more relevant now than it was when it was produced. "Free For All" is chilling.
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Postscript: French television network ORTF premiered The Prisoner in that country in 1968, and since we lived just a mile from the French border, we did get both ORTF networks, but my guess is I watched the series on ZDF, as my French was non-existent... still is.
In the same way that Star Trek was broadcast by ZDF as "Raumschiff Enterprise" ("Spaceship Enterprise"), "Nummer 6" was the German retitling of The Prisoner.
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