When the Bandits land in Ice Age Britain, Kevin has an unexpected encounter.

The sign of a great show, it could be argued, is that even when you hit something of a filler episode, it’s still hugely enjoyable.

The seventh instalment in this Time Bandits reboot is a perfect example. It does have one crucial plot point, finally reuniting Kevin with his younger sister, Saffron (portrayed with deliciously surly bad temper by an excellent Kiera Thompson). Aside from this, however, Ice Age is not much more than an extended joke about Neanderthals and teenagers… but it is a very good joke and certainly funny enough to sustain 35 minutes of high-end of gags-per-minute fantasy telly.

In Home Again (both episodes are expertly written by Jermaine Clement), Kevin and Saffron set off on a quest to warn their parents about their imminent demise into lumps of coal. Widget, in charge of the map, gets the timings wrong (of course) leading to an English suburban variation on Back to the Future. In other hands, this could feel like an over-familiar time loop rehash, but between Clement’s beautifully plotted script, and genuinely touching performances from Kiera Thompson’s Saffron and Kal-El Tuck’s Kevin, the episode is hard to fault.

Verdict: Time Bandits continues to delight on every level, and I’m already excited for the series finales.

Episode 7 – 8/10  Episode 8 – 10/10

Martin Jameson

www.ninjamarmoset.com