A Hitch in Time

A mixture of Doctor Who and Catweazle in this Children's Film Foundation production.

It was written by the legendary TEB Clarke who wrote some of the Ealing classic comedies including an Oscar for The Lavender Hill Mob.

The centrepiece is former Doctor Who Patrick Troughton. He plays eccentric Professor Adam Wagstaff (Patrick Troughton) who has created a haphazard time machine that he operates from an ancient castle.

Just in time to help him out are two local schoolkids Paul (Michael McVey) and Fiona (Pheona McLellan) who respond to his cries for help when the professor finds himself trapped.

As the kids weigh less they are ideal for his time travel experiments. Paul ends up back to his class earlier in the morning when he was late for his history lesson. He is chastised for his tardiness by history teacher Sniffy Kemp (Jeff Rawle.)

They later bounce around in time, and each occasion their nemesis is some ancestor of Sniffy Kemp.

Fun and amusing, it is a light knockabout squarely aimed at kids. It might have helped if the story had a bit more depth but it gave me more of a Catweazle vibe.

A Hitch In Time (1978) -

This was a typically terrible children's film of the seventies. Like one of the after school specials that so many people take the p!ss out of. It reminded me of an old advert that was about Electric Pylons and a frisbee that had become stuck in one. It was supposed to show the dangers of going near them and this film was about as interesting as that and far less exciting.

Obviously the kids (Michael McVey & Pheona McLellan) were terrible actors and Jeff Rawle as the teacher, Sniffy Kemp, was dire. Thank God for Patrick Troughton, playing the nutty Professor Wagstaff, but even he couldn't save this one.

I tried to bare with it as I'd already turned off two other bad films, but I just couldn't watch it all the way through. Once the boy started fighting his teacher in the past it was too much to endure, which was a shame, because there could have been potential in the concept, but the delivery was astoundingly poor.

Unscored as Unfinished.

I loved this film as a kid and was amazed to find it on DVD recently as it is the kind of film that you expect to be gathering dust in the film vaults of some dusty British studio, but no, it has been released for all to enjoy on DVD in England. The plot is simple enough, an inventor (played by Pat "Dr Who" Troughton) invents a time machine but can never get it to work right. Enter two kids who happen to discover his hiding place and end up going through time while encountering a bullying teacher, and, while going further back in time, even the teacher's ancestors. This is a classic kids film, the sort mom and dad can leave any child with and know that he or she is going to be entertained and not need ten years of therapy. So track it down, it is worth a watch, and if you get the DVD, you also have Go Kart Go, an early Dennis Waterman film with rival Go-Kart teams!

Excellent childrens film, simple fun adventure but with exception of Patrick Troughton (my favourite Doctor) it's not Dr Who. The similarity to the early Dr Who stories is little more than superficial Patrick Troughton is excellent as always as was Jeff Rawle as Sniffy.

This is worry free TV, no children were harmed in the making or watching of this film.

Clarke wrote many Ealing Classics. Here he is using his talents to pen this wry and entertaining spoof of Dr Who. All the more knowing because Patrick Troughton had played Dr. Who.