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While decorating the tree the other day, I was reminded of a 60s tv program, The Prisoner. I was hanging a bauble with a penny-farthing on it, one of the many icons used in the show's distinctive style. The main character is a spy who resigns, but is drugged and abducted before he can put his feet up. He wakes up in a strange village; he has been provided with a cottage, and the villagers are friendly enough, but there is a sinister undertone. There is constant surveillance, the "villagers" are only referred to by numbers and there is an impenetrable perimeter – it is in fact a prison. Some of the older inmates have accepted their fate, but not our man – he causes trouble every week by trying to escape or embarrassing the "governor", who is using increasingly bizarre methods of interrogation. Now this situation could be in any prison drama except there is an extra dimension this time; his captors may not be "the Enemy" but could actually be his former employers who have decided he knows too many of their secrets. This is one of those tv programs that makes you think – how much privacy should be sacrificed for security? Can information be extracted humanely? How can we guarantee lives that are free? And most importantly it teaches us to question the motives of the people who tell us to do things... even if they appear to be on our side.