Timewasters. Image shows from L to R: Nick (Daniel Lawrence Taylor), Lauren (Adelayo Adedayo), Horace (Samson Kayo), Jason (Kadiff Kirwan). Copyright: Big Talk Productions

Key details

Genre
Sitcom
Broadcast
2017 - 2019
Channel
ITV2
Episodes
12 (2 series)
Creator
Daniel Lawrence Taylor
Stars
Daniel Lawrence Taylor, Kadiff Kirwan, Adelayo Adedayo, Samson Kayo, Liz Kingsman, Anna Chancellor, Kevin Garry, Ellie White and Oliver Wellington
Writers
Daniel Lawrence Taylor, Barunka O'Shaughnessy, Claire Downes, Ian Jarvis and Stuart Lane
Director
George Kane
Producers
Josh Cole, Jim Poyser, Kenton Allen, Saurabh Kakkar, Matthew Justice, Victoria Grew, Katie Kearney and Daniel Lawrence Taylor
Company

Timewasters is a comedy about a struggling four-piece South London jazz band who travel back in time to the 1920s via a urine-sodden lift in a dilapidated block of flats.

Stuck in the past after their 'time machine' is destroyed, our gang decide to explore, before quickly discovering that being young and black in the Jazz Age is a lot less genteel and a lot more shady than Downton Abbey had led them to believe.

Aided and abetted by a pair of oddball twins and some 1920s luminaries, the band are forced to navigate the parties and pitfalls of the Roaring Twenties while searching for a way back home. All the while, not missing the opportunity to introduce the Bright Young Things to some of the twenty-first century's finest tunes.

Having finally managed to return home, Series 2 sees the gang off on another adventure: this time to 1958, when black people in Britain were a far more common, if no less unwelcome in the eyes of many, sight. With the country still in the post-war doldrums, the group have bomb sites and Teddy Boys to contend with - but jazz is finally, truly making its mark on wider popular culture as rock and roll also begins making its presence felt on both sides of the Atlantic.

Additional details

Also known as
  • Black To The Future (Working title)
  • Blackwards (Working title)
Production
Location
Camera set-up
Single camera
Picture
Colour

Website links

Broadcast details

First broadcast
Monday 9th October 2017 at 10pm on ITV2
Most recent repeats

Recording details

  • Liverpool - Series 1 filmed from April 2017. Series 2 from Autumn 2018.
  • Croxteth Hall - Many Series 1 locations.

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