319 A Traveller In Time

First  viewed  :  5  January  1978

We're  not  quite  done  with  kids  TV  yet.  This   was  a  five  part  serial  about  a  20th  century  girl  Penelope,  played  by  Sophie  "sister  of  Emma"  Thompson , who  goes  to  stay  at  her  uncle's  Elizabethan  farm  and  finds  herself  transported  back  400  years  to  the  time  of  the  Babingtons  who  were  leaders  in  the  final   conspiracy  to  replace  Elizabeth  I  with  Mary  Queen  of  Scots  which  resulted  in  the  latter's  execution.

Penelope  forms  a  friendship  with  younger  brother  Francis  ( Simon  Gipps-Kent  again )   and  knowing  how  the  plot  ended   frets  over  whether  she  can  change  the  course  of  history. I  can't  remember  how  it  was  resolved  but  as  the  real-life  Francis  was  not  implicated  in  the  plot  and  was  allowed  to  succeed  to  his  brother's  estate  I  guess  it  had  a  reasonably  happy  ending.