Time travel has been done to death on TV, but every so often a show comes along that proves the genre still has surprises up its sleeve. Timewasters, a British sci-fi comedy that aired on ITV2 from 2017 to 2019, is one of those rare gems. It follows four struggling musicians from South London who accidentally discover a time machine hidden in the elevator of their rundown apartment building. Instead of saving the world or rewriting history, they just try to survive the past—and it's hilarious.
The show's premise is refreshingly low-stakes. Nick, Lauren, Jason, and Horace are a jazz quartet barely making ends meet in modern London. After a mysterious local named Homeless Pete tells them the lift can travel through time, they end up stranded in 1926. Their biggest challenges aren't paradoxes or evil empires—they're finding a place to stay, landing paying gigs, and navigating the absurdities of the Jazz Age. The comedy comes from the clash between modern attitudes and the prejudices of the era, which the show handles with satire rather than preachiness.
Creator Daniel Lawrence Taylor originally got the idea while learning the trumpet. He wanted to explore what it was like for a Black jazz band in the 1920s, and adding time travel made the concept even more unique. The result is a show that feels unlike anything else in the genre. Nobody in Timewasters believes they're destined to save history—they're just trying to get by. Season 2 moves the quartet to the late 1950s cool-jazz scene, keeping the same chaotic energy while exploring a new era. Across just 12 episodes, the series packs a surprising amount of heart and humor.
The cast is a big reason why it works. Taylor plays anxious bandleader Nick, while Adelayo Adedayo's Lauren is the group's voice of reason. Kadiff Kirwan brings swagger as Jason, and Samson Kayo nearly steals the show as the overly enthusiastic Horace. Their chemistry feels natural, and the music—modern hits reimagined as jazz—adds depth to the story. These characters are musicians first, time travelers second, and that grounding makes their adventures feel more relatable.
The show also doesn't shy away from the racism, sexism, and class divisions of the past, but it never lectures. Instead, it uses satire to highlight the absurdity of outdated attitudes. The jokes come from the characters' disbelief and annoyance, and from watching them navigate a world that wasn't built for them. This perspective gives Timewasters something many time-travel stories lack: it asks what history looks like from the margins, not the center.
For a while, it looked like the show might get a second life in the US. In 2021, ABC announced a remake with LL Cool J involved and A Black Lady Sketch Show writer Lauren Ashley Smith as showrunner. The American version would have moved the action to New York and sent the characters back to the Harlem Renaissance. Taylor and original producers Kenton Allen and Matthew Justice were on board, but the pandemic delayed production, and no updates have emerged since. The remake appears to have quietly stalled, which is a shame because the concept had real potential.
Still, the original Timewasters is very much alive and streaming on Amazon Prime Video. Its 12 episodes are a quick, rewarding binge for anyone who loves smart comedy with a sci-fi twist. If you're tired of the same old time-travel tropes, this overlooked British gem is worth rediscovering. For more on shows that almost made it big, check out our list of forgotten thriller shows that came close to perfection. And if you're in the mood for more genre-bending comedy, Widow's Bay offers a similarly fresh take on horror-comedy.
