DVD
Timeslip

Starring: Spencer Banks, Cheryl Burfield and Dennis Quilley
Carlton Visual Entertainment
RRP: £29.99
3711506243
Certificate: U
Available 19 July 2004


When a young girl vanishes near a derelict naval station a fantastic series of events is set in motion which sends teenagers Simon Randall and Liz Skinner back in time to 1940 and the very night when the base was invaded by a group of German marines...

"Have you ever had the feeling that you've been here before and yet everyone tells you that you can't have been? Or perhaps you've felt 'this has all happened to me before and I know what's going to happen next'? Well, a lot of people do get these sensations and nobody can yet explain them. They seem, somehow, to involve the mind travelling forwards or backwards in time. And that's what this new series Timeslip is all about - children projecting themselves forwards and backwards in time. It's fiction, of course, but it's very close to a new theory scientists are now working on to explain the universe, and time. Today's science fiction so often becomes tomorrow's science fact."

ITV's science correspondent Peter Fairley's contemporary introduction to the first episode of Timeslip opens up the first disc of this long-awaited DVD set about the time travelling adventures of two 15-year olds, Liz and Simon. The 26 episode run followed their 'slips' into the past and future, through an invisible time barrier, where they encountered a world of problems - a longevity drug that may not be all it's claimed to be, global warming, enhanced telepathy and cloning. Time travel, as always, leads to dark places.

Spencer Banks (Simon Randall) and Cheryl Burfield (Liz Skinner) were both older than they looked which resulted in better acting than you might expect from your average 'teenager' on children's TV in 1970. The casting of Dennis Quilley and John Barron helped up the quality feel of the show still further and even some very small sets and dodgy special effects can't detract from the air of quality that's stamped on the production.

Sadly only one episode of Timeslip survives in colour and the black and white film prints that remain in the archive could have done with a little bit of sprucing up. However, there's nothing terribly wrong with their presentation and the odd blob or scratch is not enough to mar your enjoyment or what remains a very good programme. Even the lack of extras is forgivable as there simply wasn't enough budget or material available to cobble much together beyond a photo gallery.

This is an essential purchase for any serious telefantasy fan.

Anthony Clark

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All prices correct at time of going to press.