TV: Crime Traveller

Crime Traveller

Non long-running time travelling series.

A year on from Paul McGann's ill-fated 1996 Doctor Who revival, the BBC presented a new time-travelling series for Saturday nights. Created by Anthony Horowitz, it followed the exploits of detective Jeff Slade (Michael French) and time machine-owning forensic scientist Holly Turner (Chloë Annett). Together the duo ventured back to the recent past to bust crime.

The show's comic approach masked some smart plotting and involved thinking about the mechanics of time travel. Trips to the future were outlawed ("It doesn't exist"), while meeting yourself in the past was prohibited lest it caused a "temporal schism". Most importantly, travellers had to be back in front of the machine at the moment they'd embarked on their journey, or be caught in a "loop of infinity". Cue numerous mad dashes at the climax of each episode.

Despite a cheeky cameo by a police box in episode six, Crime Traveller was lampooned by critics for not being Doctor Who - and cancelled after just one series.

Nominated by GracieLizzie.