TIMESLIP MEMORIES

 I've always enjoyed the cult TV series from the sixties and seventies, and recently I've been reacquainting myself with a children's sci-fi classic from 1970 - TIMESLIP!

The simple title sequence showing a shadow revolving around the raised lettering which was meant to represent the passage of time. For some reason the 'i' changed orientation from time to time.

Watching it again, I'd forgotten just how intelligent and well written it is.  Science and mankind's use, or should that be misuse of technology is the core theme, and the four interwoven stories which make up the 26 episode series, deal with subjects ranging from WWII secret projects to futuristic ecological and environmental issues. Along the way we meet German Invaders, and clones;  witness the results of life extending experiments, and meddling with nature, not to mention getting the low down on theoretical ideas about time travel!

 TIMESLIP centres around two school children, 15 year old Liz Skinner (played by 17 year old Cheryl Burfield) and  16 year old Simon Randall (played by 15 year old Spencer Banks) who are on holiday with Liz's parents,  Frank (played by  Derek Benfield) and Jean (played by Iris Russell). In the opening story, they are all staying at The Bull Inn in the small fictional Midlands village of St Oswalds, some twenty miles inland from the coast. 

The adventure begins following the disappearance of a local youngster, Sarah Tilley who had apparently vanished by the concrete gate posts of a nearby derelict naval station. Liz and Simon go playing near the station, themselves and soon discover they both have the ability to experience 'hallucinations' of the past, and 'projections' of the future by means of a mysterious anomaly christened the 'Time Barrier'

The Bull Inn has another guest; the somewhat sinister Commander Charles Trayner (played by Denis Quilley), a physicist , and former naval officer who, it's revealed, was Frank Skinner's commanding officer at the nearby naval base during the War. It also becomes clear he has his own theories about the time anomaly, and how he, and his government department, the Ministry of Forward Development can exploit it.

TIMESLIP was created by ATV writer, publisher and TV producer, Ruth Boswell, and her  husband, James, who wanted a sci-fi  series to be more grounded in everyday life, rather than what she considered the more outlandish,  BBC's Doctor Who.

As the story progresses we find that the Time Barrier is a natural phenomenon that is triggered using children's' supposed psychic abilities, and opens 'time bubbles' for them to experience . Liz and Simon meet past incarnations of Comr. Trayner and Liz's father during WWII, and encounter  alternative future versions of themselves in  1990. It's revealed that the time travellers can't be fatally harmed as they are simply witnessing a sort of hallucination of preserved pockets of time. They are like physical manifestations from the past or the future. 

The time travel concepts were based on the book, An Experiment in Time, by J.W. Dunne, while the series used science-fiction writer Geoffrey Hoyle, the son of astronomer, Sir Fred Hoyle, as 'scientific advisor'. The opening episodes of the first two serials were introduced by ITN science correspondent, Peter Fairley.

The story outline was expanded by script writer, Bruce Stewart who worked on the first three serials: The Wrong End Of Time; The Time Of The Ice Box; and The Year Of The Burn Up. Victor Pemberton was brought in the finish the episodes of ..Burn Up, and wrote the final story, The Day Of The Clone.

Filming took place at ATV Elstree, while the location of the Time Barrier was actually a derelict military barracks originally used as an anti aircraft battery called Burnt Farm Camp, near Goffs Oak in Hertfordshire. The area was sold for development in 2001. The location was also used for an episode of Gerry Anderson's The Protectors.

Some of the instrumentation supplied by Century 21.

Liz's father, Frank, experimentally frozen in 'The Time Of The Ice Box'.

All the episodes survive. The series which was originally made for  broadcast in colour apart from several  episodes which were filmed in black & white due to a technicians strike. The strike also lead to  some of the already colour recorded episodes being transmitted in monochrome. 

Liz meets one of her future selves in 'The Time of the Ice Box'. 

The colour episodes were transmitted when the series was repeated in 1973. 

A young Commander Trayner quizzes Simon as to how he and Liz got into the Naval Base in 'The Wrong End of Time'.

Sadly, during the eighties as a cost cutting exercise  the original colour masters were wiped, although the final episode of, The Time of the Ice Box still survives in colour. Thankfully, monochrome copies still existed for use overseas in countries which didn't transmit in colour at the time. 

The series originally aired on ITV between September, 1970 until March , 1971

A  paperback book featuring adaptations of the first two stories was released in December, 1970 by Pan, and a reissue the following year by Piccolo, written by Bruce Stewart and James Boswell.  Note the cover photos are rehearsal shots in which Simon is missing his spectacles.

A TIMESLIP comic strip appeared in the pages of the first issue of Look In magazine, dated 9th January, 1971. The double page colour spread was written by Angus P. Allen and illustrated by Mike Noble, although remarkably there was no mention of the strip on the front cover!

Mike Noble continued to illustrate the strip until issue 26. dated 3rd July, 1971, finishing a story set in 1666. A new, as yet unidentified artist took over the following week, drawing the strip in black and white. 

Mike did return to the TIMESLIP strip briefly in issue 47, dated 27th Nov, 1971 to illustrate a black and white story about the mythical Spring heel Jack. 

Another artist took over the TIMESLIP picture strip which  would continue in black and white until issue No. 50, dated 9th December 1972.

The 1974 Look In Summer Special reprinted an abridged version of one of Mike Noble's colour comic strips in black and white following TIMESLIP's repeat showing on TV  in 1973.

The strip proved very popular for Look In.

Art: Mike Noble

Art: Angus McBride

An photo article from Look In issue 9, dated 6th March 1971.

Photo: Andy Kerr

TIMESLIP has remained a cult TV favourite over the years. I got to see the two main stars, Cheryl Burfield and Spencer Banks a couple of times. First at the Action '93 Convention at Shepperton, and later at one of the Birmingham Memorabilia events. 

Network released a TIMESLIP boxed set in 2016, which had as one of the extras a fan video from a 2007 TIMESLIP convention, and some footage showing attendees and members of the cast visiting  what's left of the gateposts at Goffs Oak.