AgentSauvage This story of a time traveller who tries to find his great-great-grandfather in 1980 is superb. The story was so well written it is still enjoyable and eminently watchable nearly 40 years after its production. The casting is fantastic - Patrick Magee plays his very best character as Caleb, repeated in the 1982 sequel "Another flip for Dominick" in what was to be one of his last ever television appearances. These two stories are as near perfect as the BBC has ever managed - Peter Firth, Caroline Langrishe and Pippa Guard deserved award after award for their representations of the main characters. There are some quite lovely moments - the scene in the Magistrates Court in the sequel is without parallel in any other production. Michael Gough is a tour-de-force as the Home Office scientist in the sequel and there are so many soon-to-be famous faces in almost every crowd scene. These two fantastic productions deserve greater recognition and should be repeated at least once every year. I have not smiled so much in years revisiting these timeless classics. Enjoy, then return some months later and enjoy once again.

MrSqwubbsy "Are there somewhere places...?" If you could get past the appalling (and relentlessly repeated) signature song by the deservedly obscure Meal Ticket, you'd be entering a place that truly had travelled in time. This timeslip drama unaccountably has 1980 stamped on the base. You remember 1980? Yep, it was nothing like the society depicted here, of vaguely-political, pint-glugging, chirpy Notting-Hillers. Ferchrissakes, setting it in Portobello says it all.The place was a living museum to the early '70s back then and has only recently dragged itself into the,ooh, early '90s. Dominic Hide's's naif rapidly loses his charm and his stoner persona combined with the look, attitudes and stylings of the supporting cast had me in mind of the early '70s, certainly not the hard-nosed era of Thatcher and 3 million unemployed! Truly just how irksome is Firth and how inexplicable that even 200 years hence such a hippy-dippy twerp could be charged with such an important task as travelling back in time (and potentially upsetting history). Once there he predictably starts messing around and his canoodling with Langrishe whilst happily spliced in his own time (without seemingly much in the way of moral dilemmas) might ring true when seen through the prism of those long-gone late '60s/early '70s mores (free-love, "if it feels good do it" etc) but it should have struck a dull note to a reasonably progressive 1980s audience and by 2007 seems utterly anachronistic. And this feller's from the 22nd century,remember! I'll let you into a secret here - I saw this on telly on its first repeat in the early 1980s and loved it. I was an incurable romantic back then and I guess that on rewatching it today,I was hoping to be swept back to happier times. But I found I just could not buy its sloppy idealism. To compound matters I began watching the 1982 sequel but at the point where the (male) babysitter entered the story, looking like the bloke from The Joy of Sex and with all the patchouli-scented charm of Sher's History Man, nausea overcame me and then when an even sillier time-traveller (Pyrus Bonnington) began flirting with the Spanish au-pair, Alice was duly summoned with the sick-bag. Just how has this tripe acquired the status of a classic?? Or am I simply an old curmudgeon?

waller2 Marvellous piece of entertainment. It would make a great Hollywood movie with perhaps Jim Carey as Dominick? Any other suggestions? It is a well written piece which, although showing signs of age, still holds up as a feel good drama. Peter Firth is now an overweight ageing actor but then again are'nt we all! With some of the dross re makes on the go recently this would make an excellent rom com with a bit of sci fi thrown in; an excellent winning combination surely. It does seem a shame that in this age of crash bang wallop sci fi we do not make thoughtful pieces such as this any more. Play for Today was a great idea but unfortunately todays audience is not willing to invest 90 minutes in watching something that may or may not be good. Is there any way of suggesting movie re makes to Hollywood moguls or do we just have to live in hope?

Timbo-16 When this film was shown as part of the BBC's 'Play for Today' season I had some French homework to do for school the following day.The story which took time travel, a genre which was and always has been popular with science fiction writers, to a new level. Concentrating on the characters in the story (and an excellent story it is), rather than the sci-fi elements themselves made this compelling viewing. It actually made the science fiction elements appear to be more 'real'.I'm sure if I were to see it again it would seem a little dated, but at the time (and a few years later when it was repeated as a prologue to the inferior, but nonetheless interesting and worth watching sequel 'Another Flip for Dominick') it was way ahead of anything else on the screen (small or large).Needless to say, I failed to complete my French homework and received some extra work to do as a punishment - but it was worth it.