Well Bob's your Uncle and Fanny's your Aunt, another cult classic is heading back to British screens. ITV have confirmed the return of cult classis 'The Prisoner' which is something of a surprise as Sky One announced a remake of this not too long ago and had completed the scripts for the mini series. Not sure what happened there but obviously Sky have lost the rights and ITV have decided to offer up their own remake. Now all we need is Sapphire and Steel and the 70's/80's cult gems are well and truly back.

ITV1 has confirmed that Sir Ian McKellen and Jim Caviezel will star in the network's reinvention of the 1960s thriller, The Prisoner, to be broadcast next year.

Caviezel, who shot to fame playing the role of the idealist private Witt in The Thin Red Line, has been cast in the Patrick McGoohan role as Number Six, the hero who finds himself trapped in a mysterious and surreal place known as The Village, with no memory of how he arrived.

McKellen, who is best known globally for playing Gandalf in the Lord of the Rings movie trilogy, will take the role of Number Two, the sinister head of The Village.

ITV Productions is co-producing the six-part series with Granada International and AMC, the US cable network behind the critically acclaimed Mad Men, with a worldwide premiere slated for 2009.

Initially, ITV Productions and AMC developed the project for Sky One, but the satellite broadcaster pulled out of the project in early 2006.

The original series debuted in 1967 and was created, written and produced by McGoohan.

ITV today said the remake, which has been written by Bill Gallagher, "will reflect 21st century concerns and anxieties, such as liberty, security and surveillance, yet also showcase the same key elements of paranoia, tense action and socio-political commentary seen in McGoohan's enigmatic original".

Gallagher, who scripted BBC1's Lark Rise to Candleford, said: "I was haunted by The Prisoner when I saw it as a boy on its first broadcast. Here was something that was more than television, something I couldn't quite grasp but couldn't let go of. It's a unique opportunity for a writer to be able to go back to The Village and tell some new stories about that strange place and its surreal menace.

"We have a terrific cast and a wonderful director, so we hope to serve up something as beguiling and disturbing as the original was."

The Prisoner is an AMC and ITV Productions co-production and the deal gives ITV Worldwide all international rights, as well as sales and remake right to the original series. ITV DVD holds home entertainment rights.

Gallagher will also executive produce along with Michele Buck, Damien Timmer and Rebecca Keane for ITV, and AMC's Charlie Collier, Christina Wayne and Vlad Wolynetz.

The series' producer is Trevor Hopkins, who recently worked on the BBC1 Christmas adaptation of Dracula. The director is Jon Jones, whose credits include the ITV1 adaptation of Northanger Abbey and BBC4's The Alan Clark Diaries.