Six of One attempt to discredit official magazine.

As has been shown at various points throughout this website, the coordination team of Six of One wrongly believe that they somehow have a monopoly on "Prisoner Appreciation". As has been shown, any merchandise, however official, is ignored or discredited by the coordination team of Six of One unless they have personally played a part in it's production (click HERE to read several examples of this).

It did not therefore surprise anyone that Six of One, the so-called "Prisoner Appreciation Society", decided to practically ignore the initial run of the first ever full colour, available to all, magazine devoted to the series, and when a national launch followed decided to attempt to totally discredit it. In 2014 it is accurate to state that the magazine is regarded as the finest ever produced on the series.

As early as Spring 2004, The Unmutual Website announced exciting news concerning a new and official (sanctioned and supported by copyright holders Granada Ventures) magazine and Video/DVD partwork to be released in the UK by DeAgostini. Each magazine, in full colour, comes with a DVD or video AND a free gift (such as a t-shirt, artwork print etc). The magazines are written by TV historian Marcus Hearn, and Carlton's official Prisoner book writer (and author of the forthcoming Prisoner Script Books) Rob Fairclough (who was a guest at the Prisoner Day 2003, PM2005, PM2006, PM2007, and PM2008 official events).

The fact that Six of One decided to completely ignore this exciting news rather sums up their attitude. The Six of One News section of their website had been updated every day (according to them) since the magazine was launched, and mention of it only arrived when the magazine had been temporarily suspended:

"For members enquiring about ongoing Prisoner part works, Six of One wrote to the UK distributors early this year, before the product was launched. No reply was received, despite our offer to insert a free flyer into the society's April mailing. The lack of response meant that there could only be a brief mention, but more will follow during this year. News circulating about the part works is that they will not continue beyond issue 6, which we have now confirmed."

Why the non-insertion of such a flyer should prevent them from mentioning the magazine, even on their "updated daily" website, remains a mystery.

December 2004 saw the national launch of the magazine, with TV adverts, following the test run of 6 issues earlier in the year, with Six of One only now mentioning it, and only in one sentance with no links or further information, on their main website. Coordinator Larry Hall, however, gave it a fuller review on his own website. However, it was clear that he was bitter about it's existence as he blantantly lied about certain aspects of the partwork to mislead his site's readers:

"The remastering, good though it is, was done in the late nineties and is the same material which was released initially by Carlton in 2000"

Not true. As can be seen by clicking HERE the deagostini DVD (on the left) is vastly superior in quality to the (right) Carlton DVD.

"DeAgostini started to re-release the series earlier in 2004 but aborted it after episode six and now appear to be starting all over again, the format and content of a carded DVD plus magazine being exactly the same with the year 2000 Carlton logo still in place."

Hall seems oblivious to the fact that the previous release (not "re-release" as he incorrectly calls it) was a trial run, common in partwork publishing. He ignores the fact the trial run was only available in selected areas so of course the series is "starting all over again". What would he do? Let most of the UK miss out and just pick up from issue 7? The "year 2000 Carlton logo still in place" is in fact a Granada Ventures logo, - as can be seen from the cover scan on Larry's own website! Carlton are not mentioned anywhere on or within the magazine. Hall later added some very disturbing paragraphs to his "review" of the Official Magazine:

"ALTERNATIVELY: Even allowing for the colour information magazines, the DeAgostini set is going to set you back £130 assuming it goes the full course. As an alternative, you might want to consider the original Carlton DVD box set which is still available at a good price of £29.99 for the full set of episodes plus all the extras. You can also still buy the companion anniversary special DVD with the "Alternative Arrival" episode. Even better value is the HMV DIGIPAK released earlier this year and on sale on line at £39.99. This has absolutely everything - all the standard episodes, the two alternate episodes, documentaries, interviews, stills galleries, cast details, production notes & etc in the six-disc set. Those of you able to receive BBC4 can watch the series for free at the moment of course as it's running right now and in excellent digital quality."

Why is Larry Hall trying to persuade people not to buy the new official magazine? Perhaps he thinks he is saving people money, but Hall's argument is completely misleading. It's not simply a case of comparing a £39.99 digipack to a £130 DeAgostini set. As the latter includes 17 magazines, let's see how much 17 Six of One magazines as of July 2012 and other items would cost on top of the figure he boasted:

£22.50 sub to Six of One (3 mags) times 5 (15 mags) = £112.50
As Six of One mags cost £7.50 each, add another £15 for 16th and 17th mag = £15
Network DVD set (superior to HMV Digipack now out of print) = £39.99
Map of Village (based on Langley produced equivalent) = £2.99
Binder (based on 1990s cost of Six of One binders) = £5.99
Koroshi DVD (based on price of Carlton-released Koroshi Video) = £9.99
Artwork Print (based on price for Six of One produced similar item) = £3.99
Total: £190.45

Meaning a *loss* of £17.96 (not including other Deagostini free gifts such as the DVD storage Box, and Lotus 7 model (which is selling for up to £40 each on ebay as of July 2012)), and not to mention the fact that the De Agostini magazine is devoted to The Prisoner (Six of One's is strewn with self-referential nonsense - click HERE for more on this), and the De Agostini DVDs (as shown above) are of a much higher quality. Not to mention, of course, that by preferring the De Agostini release you do not need to sacrifice any principles, or the core themes of The Prisoner, by joining a shady fan-club.

In March 2005, Six of One announced that they would be covering the official magazine/DVD in their July mailing - conveniently after the run would be finished meaning that the Society's few remaining members wouldn't be able to subscribe.

More details of The Prisoner: The Official Fact Files can be found at The Unmutual Website.

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

This page updated 27/7/12