A battered bumper car tucked behind dusty bins becomes the unlikely vessel for history’s greatest shoplift in Time Travel Is Dangerous, a British sci-fi mockumentary that treats the absurd as routine. In the cramped backroom of ChaChaCha—a Muswell Hill emporium stacked with faded dresses and chipped teacups—best friends Ruth (Ruth Syratt) and Megan (Megan Stevenson) uncover a rickety time machine and embark on a gleeful spree through the Visigoth era, Napoleonic battlefields and even Wild West saloons. The film’s deadpan realism, captured in faux-documentary “interview” segments, renders each improbable caper as banal as choosing tomorrow’s shop display.
Director and co-writer Chris Reading orchestrates this capricious romp with a wink: Stephen Fry’s clipped narration punctuates moments of historical plunder, while thrift-shop interiors and VHS-tinted miniatures conjure an offbeat nostalgia.
Syratt and Stevenson play versions of themselves with perfectly calibrated indifference, their blasé delivery heightening every anachronistic find. As a pulsating vortex—ominously labeled “The Unreason”—begins to form in the storeroom, the stakes shift from clever vintage curation to a collision between small-town whimsy and cosmic recklessness.
Plot & Pacing: From Casual Looting to Wormhole Mayhem
At the outset, ChaChaCha teeters on the brink of closure, its owners eking out sales of faded tea sets and moth-eaten jackets. The discovery of a souped-up bumper car in a municipal dumpster transforms this flailing boutique into a temporal treasure trove: one moment Ruth and Megan muse over a 19th-century corset, the next they return clutching authentic Roman glassware. Their thrill lies in the routine—an assembly-line of epochal theft that feels as pedestrian as stocktaking.
Conflict emerges when Ralph (Brian Bovell), the machine’s restless inventor and former science-show host, warns against unregulated time heists. His pleas echo through the corridors of the Muswell Hill Science Club, where Martin (Guy Henry) presides with officious zeal, determined to reclaim or destroy the device. Spliced into these exchanges are miniature historical vignettes—gleefully crude homages to Time Bandits—and intentionally cheesy vortex graphics that underscore the film’s scrappy ingenuity.
Halfway through, the backroom rumbles as a rippling wormhole dubbed “The Unreason” appears, its shifting hues threatening to swallow more than misplaced relics. This mid-film rupture propels the story into kinetic rescue sequences: Ruth and Megan must navigate an interdimensional waste-land to retrieve a stranded comrade. The filmmakers strike a delicate rhythm, veering from deliberate, mock-serious interviews to breathless chase through swirling light. Moments of genuine peril surface amid the rapid-fire jokes, making the finale feel both madcap and momentous.
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Performances & Character Dynamics: Blasé Bonds and Eccentric Eccentrics
Ruth Syratt and Megan Stevenson anchor the film with impeccable restraint, their blasé delivery turning each interlude into a fresh comedic beat. Whether examining a Roman coin with the interest of taxonomists or dismissing a near-miss with a shrug, they imbue their friendship with quiet warmth. Their real-life camaraderie translates into seamless back-and-forth that never tips into forced banter.
Brian Bovell’s Ralph offers a counterpoint of rueful regret, his weathered gaze suggesting a man who has glimpsed the void and recoils. Guy Henry’s Martin radiates petty authority, his clipped British-club etiquette clashing beautifully with the duo’s laissez-faire ethics. Johnny Vegas appears as Botty, a stiff-jointed android in an homage to retro sci-fi, while Alex Horne and the Horne Section make a fleeting cameo that underlines the film’s delight in playful in-junctions. Stephen Fry’s voice, sparse yet resonant, frames the action, his narration more compass than crutch.
Throughout, characters evolve only as much as the mockumentary allows—Ruth and Megan’s curiosity hardens into concern when history fights back. The occasional tremor in their laughter hints at genuine stakes beneath the comedy. Interview segments—lensed in plain shafts of light against cluttered walls—forge intimacy with these hobbyists, inviting viewers to root for the underdogs even as they flout temporal etiquette.
Directorial Vision, Design & Thematic Resonance
Chris Reading’s direction melds The Office-style deadpan with bursts of Time Bandits whimsy, establishing a rhythm that alternates patient observation with sudden kinetic flourish. When the film lingers on shop shelves, it feels lived-in; when it cuts to miniature battles or swirling vortex effects, it revels in ecstatic looseness. The choice to lean into low-budget aesthetics—practical effects, VHS-style filters, intentionally clunky graphics—becomes an act of stylistic defiance, celebrating resourceful filmmaking over polish.
Production design evokes an England where every chipped teacup holds a story and every shelf is a portal. Props range from meticulously reproduced Victorian eyewear to garish eighties VHS tapes of a long-forgotten children’s science show. The wormhole’s pulsing hues feel part puppet theatre, part scrap-heap spectacle—a visual metaphor for the chaos unleashed when nostalgia becomes a commodity.
Beneath the mock-serious humor lies a meditation on our hunger to possess history: the film skewers collector culture’s petty rivalries while teasing out the ethics of time-theft. Hobbyist territorialism, figured in the science club’s rules committee, mirrors larger questions about gatekeeping and preservation. As ancient artifacts tumble through the air with comic abandon, the viewer confronts the seduction—and dangers—of rewriting the past for profit.
Time Travel Is Dangerous premiered at the Austin Film Festival on October 28, 2024, and was released in UK cinemas on March 28, 2025.
Full Credits
Director: Chris Reading
Writers: Chris Reading, Anna-Elizabeth Shakespeare, Hillary Shakespeare
Producers: Anna-Elizabeth Shakespeare, Hillary Shakespeare, Chris Reading
Cast: Ruth Syratt, Megan Stevenson, Sophie Thompson, Johnny Vegas, Jane Horrocks, Mark Heap, Tony Way, Stephen Fry (Narrator), Laura Aikman, Guy Henry, Brian Bovell, Tom Lenk, Kiell Smith-Bynoe
Director of Photography (Cinematographer): Rich Maskey
Editors: Chris Reading, Anna-Elizabeth Shakespeare, Hillary Shakespeare
Composer: Simon Porter
The Review
Time Travel Is Dangerous
Time Travel Is Dangerous transforms a humble vintage shop into a playground of temporal mischief, marrying deadpan mockumentary wit with bursts of madcap invention. Chris Reading’s scrappy direction and the effortless chemistry of Ruth Syratt and Megan Stevenson deliver a buoyant critique of nostalgia’s allure and the ethics of time theft. The film’s low-budget aesthetics become a joyful feature, lending each anachronistic caper a homespun charm. While the pacing occasionally tilts into chaos, its spirited inventiveness and sly cultural commentary make for an unforgettable romp.
PROS
- Spot-on deadpan performances by Ruth Syratt and Megan Stevenson
- Scrappy, DIY visuals that enhance the film’s charm
- Clever mockumentary format with sharp cultural satire
- Inventive use of miniature vignettes and retro effects
- Underlying questions about nostalgia and ethical time-raiding
CONS
- Pacing sometimes feels frenetic and disjointed
- Certain subplots receive little development
- Vortex and wormhole effects can appear too rough
- Occasional tonal shifts may jar with the mock-serious style
- Stephen Fry’s narration is underused
