Terry Gilliam’s 1981 film Time Bandits was an accidental classic. The film he really wanted to make – dystopian dark comedy Brazil – was suffering production delays, so he teamed up with fellow Monty Python member Michael Palin (and got funding from Beatle George Harrison) to write a story about a young boy who joins a crew of time-hopping thieves. Fantastical, funny, and brimming with odd-ball charm, it was a surprise smash at the box office.
Now, Apple has remade the film into an equally enjoyably quirky 10-episode series. It’s co-written by supremely droll New Zealanders film-maker Taika Waititi (Thor: Love and Thunder) and Flight of the Concords’ Jemaine Clement, along with Inbetweeners co-creator Iain Morris, and combines Clement and Waititi’s hallmark dry, wacky humour with Morris’s ear for comedic banter. It’s Horrible Histories on a Hollywood budget.
