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JOANNA LUMLEY’S AND DAVID MCCALLUM’S
SCI-FI CLASSICSAPPHIRE & STEEL
Posted: June 17th, 2002.
Joanna Lumley, the award-winning star ofAbsolutely Fabulous,who recently topped the Maxim poll of the 50 sexiest Brits ever, stars alongsideactor David McCallum in the 1978 cult sci-fi fantasy series SAPPHIRE & STEEL.
Set for release on DVD for the first time on 12th August 2002, Carlton VisualEntertainment will release the first three assignments from the original sixpart series in a three DVD digi-pack format. Each DVD features a separateassignment and the set comprises 20 episodes.
Lumley, who joined the series straight from The New Avengers, and McCallum, whomade his name in The Man From U.N.C.L.E., starred as the enigmatic agentscharged with protecting the world from time-disrupting forces. Not human andnot quite alien, the mysterious couple grapple with Time, shown here as aneerie and frightening force. With uncanny powers, they protect the present frominvading evils of the past and future in a series of unforgettable and mysteriousadventures. Lumley’s Sapphire was the warmer, more empathetic side of the teamwhile Steel, as his name suggests, was cold and logical.
In the first of the three assignments Sapphire and Steel investigate parentaldisappearance in a strange coastal house; the second sees the ghost of a WWIsoldier summon up the spirit of darkness and in the final assignment a couplefrom the future feel the wrath of Time.
Commissioned on the strength of a single episode by writer/creator Peter J Hammond,who was inspired by the time-travel narratives in J.B. Priestley’s An InspectorCalls and The Time Machine by H.G. Wells. The series was made on alow budget, however, the financial restrictions served to enhance the mysterywith empty, shadowy sets and eerie, low-tech special effects. In her memoirs,Lumley described it as “an absorbing and often terrifying show which I was sadto finish.”
SAPPHIRE & STEEL was one of the most fascinating shows produced by ITC, no meanfeat for the stable that also gave us The Prisoner and Thunderbirds. It airedfrom 1978 to 1982 on the ITV network but was never repeated on terrestrialtelevision. When the series was first transmitted, the stories were not titledand the episodes not numbered. Even the TV Times could not work out when astory was in its final episode!
With an rrp of £39.99, the release of SAPPHIRE & STEEL will thrill both fansof the series and of the genre as it has not been available to buy since 1992on VHS.
The three featured Assignments are:
ASSIGNMENT I (6 episodes)
– In a cold and remote house by the sea, a young girl has nursery rhymesread to her by her parents. Downstairs her brother does his homework. One byone the clocks stop and then the grown-ups disappear….
ASSIGNMENT II (8 episodes)
– A ghost hunter, Tully, makes contact with the spirit of a WW1 Soldier andin doing so arouses the wrath of Darkness, an evil forces that feeds off theresentment of people who have died prematurely.
ASSIGNMENT III (6 episodes)
– A couple from the future occupy a time capsule in the present day. Time,resentful and bitter, begins to menace them, transforming their young childinto an adult.
Special features on each DVD include introductions, TV Times article, stills gallery,cast biographies and English H.O.H. subtitles.
News page content input by Dominic Robinson, 2002.
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.