Tying up time
Let’s untangle Clare and Henry’s timeline in the romantic drama series The Time Traveler’s Wife.
Steven Moffat is one of the executive producers behind the new drama series The Time Traveler’s Wife, Mondays on M-Net (*101) at 21:30 (read more on p51). The romantic fantasy series is based on Audrey Niffenegger’s 2003 novel about a life-long love complicated by time travel, and Steven worked on the show with his own lifelong love, his wife of 20 years Sue Vertue, whose projects include the Sherlock series, romantic comedy series Coupling, and comedy series Mr Bean.
Steven is an old hand at mucking about with time – which was his job as a writer on long-running BBC sci-fi series Doctor Who. Audrey’s book even inspired one of his Doctor Who storylines. “I read the book and loved it. But all I’d done in Doctor Who was use the wonderful, fantastical element of an out-of-sequence relationship (in The Girl In The Fireplace episode during the 2010 Eleventh Doctor storyline),” he says. What attracted Steven to this story again wasn’t so much the time twists as the opportunity to write about a happy relationship. “Audrey was taking the details of a happy, successful, absolutely monogamous, absolutely mutually nourishing relationship and made it interesting by just adding time travel. It’s extraordinary how seldom anyone writes about that,” he explains.
With the story told out of sequence, it helps to know where in time our lovebirds Clare Abshire (Rose Leslie, Ygritte in fantasy series Game Of Thrones) and time-travelling Henry de Tamble (Theo James, Sidney Parker in period drama series Sanditon) might meet.
THE TIME WARP
The series juggles timeline of events and about-ages at which things happen just to limit the number of performers needed to play Henry and Clare. Most importantly, Rose (35) plays Clare at ages 16-35, while Theo (37) plays Henry at ages 26-43.
“I’m 37 and I play Henry as an impulsive, young, full-of-himself, mid-20s and late-20s man. And then I play an early-40s, mid-40s version of him. It’s great that I’m in-between, because I’m young enough to remember my stupid self and the mistakes I made, and the cockiness, and the dumb, impulsive decisions.
And I’m old enough to imagine a more settled sense of self, hopefully a little bit longer in the tooth and a little more thoughtful with my actions,” says Theo
CHEAT SHEET
Henry time travels at ages 5, 6, 8, 15, 19, 24, 27, 28, 30, 31, 32, 33, 35, 36, 38, 39, 40, 41, and 43.
Henry and Clare meet each other at the following ages before officially getting together Clare 6-Henry 36; Clare 6-Henry 35; Clare 10-Henry 41; Clare 12-Henry 36; Clare 13-Henry 35; Clare 15-Henry 38; Clare 16-Henry 32; Clare 17-Henry 36; Clare 17-Henry 40; Clare 18-Henry 41.
Clare and Henry’s timelines converge when he’s 26 years old and she is 20.
MEET “THE KIDS” HENRY, 5-9 YEARS OLD Jason David (young Daniel Stevens in sci-fi series For All Mankind, see more on p9) plays Henry aged 8.
Henry first travels through time on his fifth birthday. During that trip, he unknowingly meets his 24-year-old self for the
first time. He is nine years old when meets the 27-year-old version of himself. For the first time, the older Henry introduces himself properly and admits who he is.
HENRY, 15-19 YEARS OLD Brian Altemus (Luke in drama series Grand Army) plays Henry aged 15-24.
A 15-year-old Henry travels back a few months to tell his slightly younger (but still 15-yearold) self that they can’t change time. Then 19-year-old Henry is nearly caught housebreaking. He needs to develop criminal skills because while he can travel through time physically, he can’t take anything with him that’s not part of his body.
CLARE, 6 YEARS OLD Everleigh McDonnell (Jane Boland in dramedy series Good Girls) plays Clare at age 6-8.
Clare is six years old when she meets Henry (then aged 36 and 35) for the first time in her favourite meadow and he proves to her that he can travel through time.
CLARE, 10-13 YEARS OLD Newcomer Caitlin Shorey plays Clare around ages 9-14.
10-year-old Clare has a fun day at the beach with 41-year-old Henry, and 12-year-old Clare meets 36-year-old Henry in her meadow and he explains that multiple versions of himself are inhabiting the same timeline. Then 13-year-old Clare and 35-year-old Henry enjoy a philosophical discussion about free will. And the year she is 13, Clare unwittingly witnesses a tragic event in Henry’s life.
CLARE, 16-18 YEARS OLD
A 32-year-old Henry tells 16-year-old Clare that he loves her and that they are married in the future. Then 32-year-old Henry helps 16-year-old Clare to deal with a boy who tried to sexually assault her. And 40-year-old Henry tells 17-yearold Clare that he has revisited his mother’s death many times. On her 18th birthday, Clare meets 41-year-old Henry for the final time and they have sex.
CLARE & HENRY: TOGETHER CLARE, 20-24 YEARS OLD HENRY, 25-32 YEARS OLD
• At age 26, Henry gets a message from a stranger that Clare says hello. He doesn’t recognise the name.
• Real-time 28-year-old Henry and 20-year-old Clare meet for the first time within their shared timeline.
• And 36-year-old Henry wakes up 28-year-year old Henry to warn him to stop being such a dirtbag and become the Henry that Clare loves.
28-YEAR-OLD HENRY PROPOSES TO CLARE
• A 30-year-old Henry tries to get hold of pills to prevent him from time travelling. He accidentally time travels on his and Clare’s wedding day, but 38-year-old Henry shows up and takes his place.
• A 31-year-old Henry finds himself bleeding on the kitchen floor (also aged 31).
• Being visited by 8-year-old Henry starts Clare (aged 24) thinking about having children. And maybe they can, with help from 33-year-old time-hopping Henry.
• And 32-year-old Henry’s doctor reveals a possible cause and cure for his time travelling.
CLARE, 34-35 YEARS OLD HENRY, 41-43 YEARS OLD
We see into the future, when it turns out that time travel really is a genetic condition. People like Henry are well-known and they’re referred to as CDPs – Chrono-Displaced People. And while there’s tragic news that has to do with why we never see Henry aged past 43, with so many Henrys hopping about the timeline, things are not as bleak as they might have been.