An eleven-year-old history nerd finds himself adventuring through time with a ragtag bunch of thieves intent on raiding the past for its treasures.

I could feel my hackles rising. Another TV reboot of a classic movie? Do we have to? Really?

My hackleometer was already into the red, but this wasn’t just any classic movie reboot; this was Terry Gilliam’s first proper post-Python fantasy masterpiece Time Bandits that Taika Waititi and chums were meddling with. I’ve lost count of the times I’ve seen it since its release in 1981, enjoying it all over again with my own kids who are now all well into their thirties. In fact, it’s a deal-breaker. If you don’t like this film you cannot be my friend. So, why remake something that worked to perfection first time around? If Waititi puts a foot wrong…!

I am thrilled – and genuinely surprised – to report that somehow they’ve pulled this off. It all moves at a cracking pace, while using the extra screentime to get to know Kevin and his bandit associates in more depth, and to go on a full Horrible Histories style tour of civilisation’s greatest hits.

The show kicks off in similar vein to the movie with Kevin Haddock (Kal-El Tuck), something of a nerdy loner, misunderstood by his oafish Dahl-esque parents, until a time portal opens up in his wardrobe and his adventures begin. The Bandits are still on the run from the Supreme Being (Taika Waititi) and under threat from the Pure Evil of Jermaine Clement but by the end of episode 2 it’s clear that we are going to have far more twists and turns along the way.

Kal-El Tuck makes for a confident, proactive Kevin, driving the story far more than in the movie original, and the twelve-year-old actor happily holds his own in the company of Lisa Kudrow and a host of talented adult co-stars, including a wonderful cameo from comedian Ross Noble as the jobsworth Bronze Age site manager for the original Stonehenge.

I know there has been some discussion about the series’ decision to move away from the idea of the bandits as dwarfs. In the movie, this served to make Kevin the tallest in the gang, a classic children’s inversion, but it would be disingenuous to suggest that the film hadn’t also conformed to a fairytale stereotype of dwarfs as inherently strange, and perhaps not entirely trustworthy. In the TV reboot, Lisa Kudrow’s Penelope replaces David Rappaport’s Kendall, and the reinvented bandits have a bit more space for individual characterisation. They’re certainly a well-defined, and laugh out loud comedy ensemble, but for fans of the original, eschewing dwarf actors altogether feels strangely as if they have now been excluded from the story’s new found 21st century diversity.

It’s a minor quibble in a show that is otherwise successful in respecting cultural differences and challenging stereotypes and historical myths while having swag-bags of fun into the bargain.

Verdict: This TV incarnation manages to respect Gilliam’s beloved original while ploughing its own distinct furrow and making excellent use of its new episodic structure. If the show fulfils the promise of its season openers then Time Bandits is going to be a joyful appointment-to-view as the episodes drop weekly for the rest of the summer. 9/10

Martin Jameson

www.ninjamarmoset.com