The enormously puzzling TV series The Prisoner has developed a rapt cult following, and has often been described as 'surreal' or 'Kafkaesque.'

Alex Cox watched all the episodes of The Prisoner on their first broadcast, at the ripe old age of thirteen. In I Am (Not) a Number, Cox believes he provides the answers to all the questions which have engrossed and confounded viewers including:

- Who is Number 6?
- Who runs The Village?
- Who - or what - is Number 1?

According to Cox, the key to understanding The Prisoner is to view the series in the order in which the episodes were made - and not in the re-arranged order of the UK or US television screenings. In this book he provides an innovative and controversial 'explanation' for what is perhaps the best, the most original, and certainly the most perplexing, TV series of all time.