SAPPHIRE AND STEEL

   UK tv series (1979-82). An ATV Network Production. Written/created by P.J. Hammond (except "Adventure Five" by Ben Houghton and Anthony Reed); executive prod David Reid; prod Shaun O'Riordan. Dir O'Riordan, David Foster. 4 seasons, 34 25min episodes in all; broken into "Adventure One"(6 episodes 1979), "Adventure Two" (8 episodes 1979), "Adventure Three" (6 episodes 1981), "Adventure Four" (4 episodes 1981), "Adventure Five" (6 episodes 1981), "Adventure Six" (4 episodes 1982). Main players Joanna Lumley (Sapphire), David McCallum (Steel) and David Collings(Silver).Possibly the most mystifying and least coherent sf series ever to appear on tv, SAS made a virtue of enigma. Sapphire and Steel are elemental forces in human form, policing the integrity of the corridor of time, which suffers incursions (often appearing as ghosts) from the past or future. Sapphire has paranormal powers, but is not as time-resistant as Steel. Time shifts and stops; people appear and disappear; memoriesdissolve; the atmosphere is theatrical, ardent, brooding; Doppelgangers proliferate; characters become absorbed into pictures and photographs. The audience was deeply divided: many saw it as drivel, some as a triumph of popular Surrealism-Magritte meets The AVENGERS - challenging our PERCEPTIONS of what is real.

   PN