TIMESLIP: THE AGE OF THE DEATH LOTTERY

Decease the balls

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Despite only clocking up a single run in 1970, ITV’s after-school children’s fantasy, about a pair of teenagers who stumble across a “time barrier” in some Ministry of Defence fencing, continues to be held in great affection by cult TV fans of a certain vintage. Hence this anniversary audio revival by Big Finish, which picks up the story 50 years on.

In 2020, we find Simon Randall and Liz Skinner (original stars Spencer Banks and Cheryl

Burfield) somewhat estranged, until the appearance of two young people from 1982 throws them back together – and forward into a dystopian future Britain ravaged by overpopulation and food blight.

Banks and Burfield do a convincing job of creating older, more careworn versions of their juvenile selves. But this opening salvo (volume two follows next month) seems strangely reluctant to lean into the full tea-time nostalgia hit, preferring to foreground Doctor Who’s Sarah Sutton as a paramilitary leader enforcing the “Death Lottery”. This is a fatal sweepstake that brings a whole new meaning to the phrase “your number’s up” – if you haven’t read Shirley

Jackson’s “The Lottery”, at least.

Who writer Andrew Smith’s script tackles some chewy ethical issues – from climate change to eugenics – in a way that feels true to the spirit of the original; for all its magic door premise, the show generally favoured real, hotbutton science topics. But the plot struggles to sustain six episodes, with much tail-chasing and endless to-ing and fro-ing through the barrier. Then again, maybe that’s part of the appeal for listeners wanting to slip back to a time when television – and life – unfolded at a more sedate pace. Paul Kirkley

The new time barrier is located in Crystal Palace, as a tribute to a 1970 promo shoot for kids’ mag Look-in.