So how do you time travel? Mr Benn walks from his home at 52 Festive Road to the costume shop, Doctor Who relies on his Police Box and Captain Kirk just says 'Beam Me Up Scotty.' But surely the best way to travel through time is when it happens by accident: remember Gary Sparrow in Goodnight Sweetheart? He was just minding his own business one day, asking directions in the East End, and, before you can say Fight Them On The Beaches, our intrepid TV repair man is back in wartime London. Sam Tyler's method should not be tried at home i.e. being totalled by a speeding car - but the outcome was pretty much the same.
However, my favourite was dreamed up by Jack Finney in his 1950 short story The Third Level: Charley gets lost in New York's Grand Central Station and finds himself on a strange third level; somehow he's travelled back to 1894 complete with steam engines and spitoons - think Marty McFly without the DeLorean (or ZZ Top).
So where would you go if time was on your side? Or do I mean when? I'd love to see The Who tear up The Marquee in '64, stand behind the goal at Wembley in '66 (I'd sort the Geoff Hurst was it/wasn't it debate once and for all) and then, after a quick pint with Mick Jagger in The Speakeasy, it'd be time to come home. Scotty, beam me up.
Uriah Heep: Traveller In Time