Timeslip
(1970-1971)

TV Series

Country: UK

Genre: Children's, Sci-Fi

Synopsis

When two kids, Simon (Spencer Banks) and Liz, cross a Time Barrier they find themselves trapped in various periods of the 20th century, where they have all sorts of adventures, many of them involving the sinister Commander Traynor, who is also travelling through time.

Notes

• Comprising 26 episodes, each just under 30 minutes in length. The episodes are organised in four successive serials, entitled "The Wrong End of Time" (6 episodes), "The Time of the Ice Box" (6 episodes), "The Year of the Burn Up" (8 episodes), and "The Day of the Clone" (6 episodes).
• The series was originally recorded on colour videotape, except for episodes 23 and 24, which had to be recorded in black and white due to the so-called 'colour strike' (November 1970-February 1971), an industrial action by technicians working for ITV companies who, due to a pay dispute with their management, refused to work with colour television equipment. A scene for episode 25 had to be recorded during this period as well, which meant that episode 25 had also to be transmitted in black and white. Sometime in the early 1980s the original videotapes of this series were either wiped or disposed of. Only episode 12 survives in its original colour videotape format. The remaining episodes exist only as black and white telerecordings.
• A novelisation of the first two serials - "The Wrong End of Time" and "The Time of the Ice Box" - was published by Pan Books to coincide with the broadcast of the series in 1970. The book is visible on-screen on a rack of books in episode 6 of the 1972 TV series "Tightrope", which also starred Spencer Banks in a lead role.

Reviews and Other Resources

• Watch a Clip on YouTube
• Complete Episode 1 on YouTube