Underplayed Gems

The Sparticle Mystery (2011)

The Sparticle Mystery poster
Genre
science fiction television series
Country
United Kingdom
Length
3 seasons, 36 episodes
Rated
NR
Rating
7.8 of 10 from 13 voters
Elsewhere
IMDb
The 3D catalogue: film cases on wooden shelves, with the cat sitting at the counter next to its greeting.

The catalogue in 3D

The film shelves have a room of their own that you can walk around in. The cat behind the counter is the AI Catbot, and they pick real films from the same catalogue when you tell them what you feel like watching. Nothing is for sale, here or in there. Go in from here and this series is already out on the counter, with more like it waiting on the shelf next to it.

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How it feels

Ten children in Britain must figure out how to bring back all adults who vanished during a science experiment gone wrong. They travel to the particle accelerator facility to try to fix the accident and reunite the two dimensions.

mysteriousadventuroushopefulquirkyfast-pacedlightheartedsuspensefulsci-fi feel

What happens

The Sparticle Mystery is a British science fiction television series written and created by Alison Hume and produced by Sparticles Productions for CBBC. The series follows a group of ten children in modern Britain, where an experiment at a Large Hadron Collider-like facility, the Sparticle Project, goes wrong, sending anybody aged 15 and over into a parallel dimension at exactly 11:11 am. The children travel to the Sparticle Project in an attempt to bring back the adults and re-align the two dimensions. The series, which had a budget of £3 million, was filmed in and around Bristol, with the final episode filmed at the ISIS neutron source particle accelerators, near Didcot. Series 2 was extremely popular, with over 2 million hits on BBC iPlayer. Series 3 regularly topped the BARB top ten children's shows during transmission. In general, the series has received mixed to positive reception, with a score of 7.3 on IMDb. The programme, which stars Annette Badland as Doomsday Dora/Holodora, has similar themes to both the 1975 TV series The Changes and the Gone series, and has many similarities to The Tribe; however, it is noted for its difference in that the children desire to bring back the adults. The second series of The Sparticle Mystery was filmed across Yorkshire in July- September 2012 and broadcast in 2013. A third series was filmed in 2014 in and around Belfast, Northern Ireland with the support of Northern Ireland Screen, and the first episode was broadcast on 5 January 2015. The third and final series ended on 30 March 2015. Video-on-demand rights to The Sparticle Mystery were acquired by Amazon UK Prime in 2015 and Series 1 & 2 were available to watch until 2017. In the US, Seasons 1 and 2 are available from Netflix. Series 3 is available on the BBC Store. In 2019, The Sparticle Mystery Series 1 was available to watch on BBC iPlayer in the UK, but as of 2025, it is no longer available. (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

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