The Bandits are on a quest to find the missing part of the map in order to rescue Kevin’s parents, held prisoner in the Fortress of Darkness.

The penultimate episode of Time Bandits is called Pell-Mell for a reason. After stopping off back at Troy to consult Cassandra as to where they might find the crucial lost corner of the map, she advises them to go to where they last saw it, which was on the day that one of the gang, Susan, fell to her death from the top of a cliff. However, when they get there, a surprise encounter takes them on a manic chase through multiple historical eras, only stopping for some great Great Wall jokes in Qin Dynasty China, and a delicious sideswipe at Covid deniers in 14th Century plague-ridden Caffa.

Eventually they find their way to the Land of Legends where Penelope and the other Bandits have some unfinished business to resolve before tipping into the season finale, where Kevin, Saffron and the rest of the gang, caught between Pure Evil and the Supreme Being, have to make some fateful choices about what their priorities really are.

It’s cracking action-packed stuff with more than a few teasers for a second season should the Apple+ gods feel so inclined.

At times, the avalanche of resolutions and set-ups gets slightly too busy, crashing into each other, leaving me wishing that the season was just focused on telling its own story in the most economical way possible, but it’s such good fun it still makes for a hugely satisfying watch. Although having said that, one strand is left completely unresolved, and I can only imagine there simply wasn’t space to cram it in to such a busy finale.

Verdict: Time Bandits has been a joy throughout and if we don’t get a second season then I might have to write a sternly worded letter or two – or just sulk. So, finally, in the mathematically illiterate spirit of the whole being greater than the sum of its parts…

Episodes 9 & 10 – 8/10  Overall series rating – 10/10

Martin Jameson

www.ninjamarmoset.com