Powys Media is to publish a series of novels based on Patrick McGoohan's 1967 series The Prisoner.

The new books will be released quarterly from late spring 2004.

Jonathan Blum and Rupert Booth are co-writing the first novel, titled The Prisoner's Dilemma, Lance Parkin is writing the second, The Other, and a third title will be written by Robert Sheckley.

The permission from Carlton to produce Prisoner novels follows the company's success with a series of novels based on Space: 1999.

Unlike previous Prisoner spin-offs, these novels are set during the run of the series rather than after the final episode.

"We don't see our role as being to explain the series, so much as to expand on it," editor Mateo Latosa said. "The show isn't just a Sixties period piece - it was consciously timeless, and it's still got plenty of things to say about the world we now live in."

Presumably, writers will now be fighting over the right to pen number six in the series.

Further information can be found on the Powys Media's website, via the link on the right.