Joanna Lumley
Sapphire
Series
Sapphire & Steel is a British television science-fiction fantasy series starring David McCallum as Steel and Joanna Lumley as Sapphire. 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. None of the stories had onscreen titles, or any official titles assigned by the writers. The Region 1 Complete Series DVD release gives the titles "Escape Through a Crack in Time", "The Railway Station", "The Creature's Revenge", "The Man Without a Face", "Dr. McDee Must Die" and "The Trap", respectively. These titles have often been cited as having been created by science fiction magazine Time Screen.
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Season guide
6 episodes available
On an ordinary evening, a mother and father sing nursery rhymes to their daughter Helen before bed. Their teenage son Robert becomes alarmed when all the clocks in the house stop working. He hurries upstairs to find that his parents have vanished. Left alone with Helen and no neighbors nearby, Rob calls the police for help. But a pair of strange, time-traveling agents named Sapphire and Steel arrive instead and inform Rob that they are his only hope in getting his parents back.
Sapphire and Steel determine that Helen's bedroom is the location of a time break caused by the recitation of nursery rhymes. After narrowly avoiding a disaster, Steel boards up Helen's door to prevent the creatures inside from breaking loose. Rob begins to distrust the mysterious agents and sees a chance for escape when a policeman finally arrives in the morning. Sapphire is one step ahead of him, however, and traps the policeman in a time loop to prevent interference.
On screen
Sapphire
Steel
Silver
Johnny Jack
More from the vault
Sapphire and Steel investigate the upstairs hallway after Rob sees a pair of ghostly soldiers on the landing. Unbeknownst to them, a living pool of light has escaped from Helen's room and now lies in wait in a portrait at the top of the stairs. Sapphire walks right into the trap and disappears from the house. Only faintly able to communicate with Steel and Rob, Sapphire tells them she is stuck in a freezing cottage with the sensation that something sinister is there with her. Steel and Rob discover that Sapphire is trapped in the portrait and must work quickly to avoid losing her.