As Two, Ian is first-rate

A man from New York wakes up in the desert, much to his surprise.

Fortunately, a pleasant-looking village is nearby. Unfortunately, he wants to get back to New York and finds he can’t.

“That’s not possible,” the Village elder tells him. “There is no New York. There’s only the Village.”

So goes “The Prisoner,” a six-hour, three-night reimagining of the 1960s classic airing tonight through Tuesday at 8 p.m. on AMC.

Jim Caviezel stars as Michael, the addled detainee who finds that, on his arrival in the Village, he, like all the residents, is designated by a number, not a name. He is now Six.

Ian McKellen is the charismatic, delicately despotic boss, Two. With a suave, creepy-reassuring manner, he lords over this realm with its daunting sinkholes, huge white beach ball and compliant, seemingly contented populace.

“He’s running the Village with the best of motives,” McKellen declares.

But Two embodies, among other things, the drawbacks of capitalism, he says.

“Capitalism offers you freedom, but far from giving people freedom, it enslaves them,” McKellen says. “That’s part of the show’s message.”

At 70, the British-born Sir Ian is deemed one of the greatest actors working today.

In addition to his long stage career, his many films include “The Da Vinci Code,” the “X-Men” movies and the “Lord of the Rings” trilogy (and, ahead for him, a pair of “Hobbit” films in his role as Gandalf).

McKellen says he saw only enough “to get a flavor” of the original “Prisoner” series, which starred Patrick McGoohan as Six while shuttling numerous actors through the role of Two.

Asked how difficult he found the role of Two, he says, “I don’t think I’ve ever played a part that I haven’t really, really worried about, and thought, ‘I shouldn’t be doing this.’ I’m never confident. But, perversely, I’ll only do a part if I think I can’t do it, because that will get the best out of me.”

It was in Swakopmund where McKellen found a tailor who, furnishing Two’s signature white suit, helped him get into character.

That costume, says McKellen, “became my favorite,” but he cautions that the suit’s on-screen spiffiness is oddly missing off-camera. “In life, if you saw it you wouldn’t want to wear it.”

The birthday bunch

“People’s Court” judge Joseph Wapner is 90. Actor Ed Asner is 80. Singer Petula Clark is 77. Actor Yaphet Kotto is 70. Actor Sam Waterston is 69. Singer Anni-Frid Lyngstad (ABBA) is 64. News correspondent John Roberts is 53. Bandleader Kevin Eubanks (“The Jay Leno Show”) is 52. Singer Chad Kroeger (Nickelback) is 35. Actor Sean Murray (“NCIS”) is 32.