Time Lock (Sunday Night Theatre – ITV 1972 with John Carlisle and Robert Beatty)

Thriller Time Lock is a taut tale set over the Easter weekend. Bank accountant Colin Walker and bank manager George Foster have the responsibility  of closing up the Canadian/British bank they work for. Disaster strikes when Colin’s son Mark (who has turned up with his mum to meet Colin out of work) is accidentally locked in the bank’s vault which can’t be opened for another 112 hours.

This was not the first production of Time Lock, it had also been a TV play back in the 1950’s and a movie in 1957 (Robert Beatty, who plays assistant manager Zeeder in this production had played safe expert Dawson in the film version).

Robert Beatty was 62 at the time of production and was nearing the end of his career, his most prominent TV role had been as Inspector Mike Maguire in Dial 999, by this stage in his career he was mostly seen in theatre roles and the occasional big screen outing in movies like Sitting Target.

Some well known faces also crop up in this production for the Sunday Night Theatre strand including the likes of Paul Eddington (of The Good Life and Yes Minister) who plays a police inspector and a young Billy Murray (father of Jaime and star of The Bill) as one of the welders trying to get into the vault.

PRODUCTION DETAILS
UK / ITV – Anglia / 1×60 minute episode / Broadcast Sunday 2 April 1972 at 10.15pm

Series: Sunday Night Theatre

cast
John Carlisle as Colin Walker
Wendy Allnut as Janet Walker
Robert Beatty as Mr Zeeder
Paul Eddington as Police Inspector
Simon Henderson as Mark Walker
Ron Pember as First Welder
Billy Murray as Second Welder
Barbara Ewing as Joan Webb
Roy Hanlon as Jarvis
Warren Stanhope as George Stanhope
Tom Criddle as Dr Foy
Clive Graham as First Journalist
Guy Nicholls as Second Journalist
John Welsh as Dr Hewison
Philip Latham as Peter Dawson
Charles Rea as Foreman
Dick Graham as TV Commentator