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Sapphire & Steel
Sapphire & Steel is a British fantasy television series starring David McCallum and Joanna Lumley. Produced by ATV, it ran from 1979 to 1982 on the ITV network. The series was created by Peter J. Hammond who conceived the programme under the working title The Time Menders, after a stay in an allegedly haunted castle. Hammond also wrote all the stories except for the fifth, which was co-written by Don Houghton and Anthony Read.
From 2005 to 2008, Sapphire & Steel returned in a series of audio dramas produced by Big Finish Productions, starring Susannah Harker and David Warner as the main characters.
The opening credits include the narration:
All irregularities will be handled by the forces controlling each dimension. Transuranic heavy elements may not be used where there is life. Medium atomic weights are available: Gold, Lead, Copper, Jet, Diamond, Radium, Sapphire, Silver and Steel. Sapphire and Steel have been assigned.
In the sixth and final assignment, Lead was replaced with Mercury in the opening credits.
The programme centres on a pair of interdimensional operatives named Sapphire and Steel. Very little is revealed about their purposes or backgrounds in the course of the series but they appear to be engaged in guarding the continuing flow of time. They are two of a number of elements that assume human form and are sent to investigate strange events; others include Lead (Val Pringle), who takes the aspect of a jovial, friendly giant, and Silver (David Collings), a technician who can melt metals in his hands.
In the series, it is explained that Time is like a progressing corridor that surrounds everything, but there are weak spots where Time—implied to be a malignant force—can break into the present and take things. There are also creatures from the beginnings and ends of time that roam the corridor looking for the same weak spots to break through.
These breaks are most often triggered by the presence of something old in a modern situation, for example a traditional nursery rhyme, an old photograph, or a house decorated with antiques. Holding onto something of the past opposes progress and allows 'Time' to break into the present – the more old things present, the easier it is for this to occur (such as is seen in episode 1 where the two-century-old house, in which a traditional nursery rhyme has been read hundreds of times as a bedtime story, is full of clocks and other antiques). When this breaking-in of 'Time' occurs, Investigators will be sent to assess the situation and then, if intervention is warranted, Operators are assigned to deal with the problem by a mysterious unseen authority, to be assisted by Specialists if necessary.
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Sapphire & Steel
Sapphire & Steel is a British fantasy television series starring David McCallum and Joanna Lumley. Produced by ATV, it ran from 1979 to 1982 on the ITV network. The series was created by Peter J. Hammond who conceived the programme under the working title The Time Menders, after a stay in an allegedly haunted castle. Hammond also wrote all the stories except for the fifth, which was co-written by Don Houghton and Anthony Read.
From 2005 to 2008, Sapphire & Steel returned in a series of audio dramas produced by Big Finish Productions, starring Susannah Harker and David Warner as the main characters.
The opening credits include the narration:
All irregularities will be handled by the forces controlling each dimension. Transuranic heavy elements may not be used where there is life. Medium atomic weights are available: Gold, Lead, Copper, Jet, Diamond, Radium, Sapphire, Silver and Steel. Sapphire and Steel have been assigned.
In the sixth and final assignment, Lead was replaced with Mercury in the opening credits.
The programme centres on a pair of interdimensional operatives named Sapphire and Steel. Very little is revealed about their purposes or backgrounds in the course of the series but they appear to be engaged in guarding the continuing flow of time. They are two of a number of elements that assume human form and are sent to investigate strange events; others include Lead (Val Pringle), who takes the aspect of a jovial, friendly giant, and Silver (David Collings), a technician who can melt metals in his hands.
In the series, it is explained that Time is like a progressing corridor that surrounds everything, but there are weak spots where Time—implied to be a malignant force—can break into the present and take things. There are also creatures from the beginnings and ends of time that roam the corridor looking for the same weak spots to break through.
These breaks are most often triggered by the presence of something old in a modern situation, for example a traditional nursery rhyme, an old photograph, or a house decorated with antiques. Holding onto something of the past opposes progress and allows 'Time' to break into the present – the more old things present, the easier it is for this to occur (such as is seen in episode 1 where the two-century-old house, in which a traditional nursery rhyme has been read hundreds of times as a bedtime story, is full of clocks and other antiques). When this breaking-in of 'Time' occurs, Investigators will be sent to assess the situation and then, if intervention is warranted, Operators are assigned to deal with the problem by a mysterious unseen authority, to be assisted by Specialists if necessary.