{{infobox Television |
  | show_name = Sapphire & Steel
  | image = 220px
  | caption = "Sapphire and Steel have been assigned."<br/>The final frame of the title sequence.
  | format = Science fiction, drama 
  | picture_format = 
  | runtime = 25 mins
  | country = United Kingdom
  | network = ITV 
  | first_aired = 10 July, 1979
  | last_aired = 31 August, 1982
  | creator = Peter J. Hammond
  | starring = Joanna Lumley, David McCallum
  | num_episodes = 34
  | list_episodes = List of Sapphire & Steel television stories
  | opentheme= 
  | endtheme= 
  | imdb_id= 0078682
|}}
'''''Sapphire & Steel''''' is a British television science-fiction series starring ATV, it ran from 1979 to 1982 on the ITV network, and was primarily ATV's (and its successor, Central's) answer to the BBC's ''Doctor Who''. The series was created by Peter J. Hammond who conceived the programme under the working title ''The Time Menders'',<ref name="dreamwatch"></ref> after a stay in a haunted castle. Hammond also wrote all the stories except for the fifth, which was co-written by Don Houghton and Anthony Read. 

In 2004, Sapphire and Steel returned in a series of audio dramas starring David Warner and Susannah Harker.

==Overview==
thumb|200px|left|[[Joanna Lumley and David McCallum as Sapphire and Steel (from Adventure 3).]]
The programme centres on a pair of interdimensional operatives, the eponymous Sapphire and Steel. Very little is revealed about their purposes or backgrounds in the course of the series but they appear to be engaged in guarding the order, if not the integrity of Time. They are two of several elements that assume human form and are sent to investigate strange events; others include Lead (Val Pringle) who takes the aspect of a jovial, friendly giant, or Silver, a technician who can melt metals in his hands.

In the series, it is explained that Time is like a corridor that surrounds everything, but there are weak spots where Time – implied to be a potentially malignant force – can break into the present and take things. There are also creatures from the beginnings and ends of time that roam the corridor looking for the same weak spots to break through. 

These breaks are most often triggered by the presence of an photograph that mixes period and contemporary elements, or a house decorated to replicate a 1930s setting. Investigators will assess the situation and then, if intervention is warranted, Operators are assigned to deal with the problem by a mysterious unseen authority, to be assisted by Specialists if necessary.

The stories are generally quite cryptic, raising more questions than answers, and have an eerie air to them, being as much ghost stories as they are science fiction. The programme had been allocated a minuscule production budget, which led to the use of simple (but very effective) staging and minimal special effects, ultimately contributing to the uneasy atmosphere of the show. The ambiguous nature of the programme extends to its main characters. While Sapphire is portrayed as more affable and "human" than the no-nonsense, grim Steel, it is clear that their prime concern is to deal with the break in Time, sometimes over the safety of the humans caught in the incidents they investigate.

==Series format==
right|thumb|150px|''Sapphire & Steel'' [[novelization|novelisation of the first adventure]]
Each adventure usually starts with Sapphire and Steel simply showing up, seemingly out of nowhere, although sometimes they are already present when the story begins. They will then investigate and mingle with various humans, although it is nearly always the location the humans are in which is of the most interest: an old house which dates back to the 18th century, an abandoned railway station, a modern-day motorway petrol station, and so on.

Although the series lasted over a period of four years, only six serials consisting of a total of 34 episodes were made, each episode lasting approximately 25 minutes and generally including a reprised précis of the preceding episode. The first and second stories were shown in the summer of 1979, the second story's transmission interrupted by industrial action at the ITV network which led to a repeat of the story in 1979. The third and fourth stories were transmitted in January 1981, and the fifth in August 1981 with a sixth story "in the can" for future transmission. 

By this time, production costs were increasing.  The high profile and limited availability of the principal actors, Lumley and McCallum, meant that shooting was somewhat sporadic, and the programme's producers ATV were in the process of being reorganized into the new Bravo in the mid-1990s.

A new UK DVD release of the complete series, featuring a new documentary and commentaries, was released on 5 November 2007.<ref>[http://www.networkdvd.net/product_info.php?products_id=500 Sapphire and Steel: The Complete Series Special Edition: Network DVD<!-- Bot generated title -->]</ref>

==The operatives==
It is heavily implied that Sapphire and Steel are not human, given their abilities and manner. Steel, for example, often has gaps in his knowledge of human culture and even Sapphire's grace is tempered with a cool detachment from the humans they interact with. In Adventure 5, Steel confirms that they were alien, "in the extraterrestrial sense," but what this qualification means is not clear. The two also refer to being involved in the mystery of the ''Mary Celeste'', and in one case state they will be waiting for a ship to surface in seventy-five years. This could mean they are either exceptionally long-lived or some kind of time travel is involved. P.J. Hammond confirmed the former hypothesis in a 1993 interview.<ref name="Hammond interview">{{cite web
 | year =1993
 | url =http://www.cix.co.uk/~nirvana/TVFilms/SappNSteel/hammond.html
 | title =P.J. Hammond interview
 | author = Rob Stanley
 | accessdate =2006-09-12
}}</ref>

Sapphire and Steel, who are Operators, are occasionally assisted by other beings, including Lead and Silver. Silver is stated in Adventure 6 as being a Specialist rather than an Operator. There are 127 operatives in total, including 12 transuranic elements, which cannot be assigned where life exists. Although they are described as elements, many of the code names are non-elements, such as Jet, although these could be pseudonyms for aesthetics or discretion. Sapphire also has a flirtatious relationship with Silver, contributing to an air of underlying sexual tension on the occasions that Silver is called upon to assist the duo.

Among Sapphire's abilities is the power to manipulate time in small ways as well as divine the age or historical details of an object by touching it (telepathically from some external source. In Adventure 2, it is stated that the age at which a living person will die is not estimated but recorded, that it is a historical fact. Nothing else is revealed in the television series as to the extent or nature of any such records, or to what extent Sapphire uses them in relation to information obtained directly. She can also manipulate people's emotions, and project illusions. When she uses her powers, her irises will usually glow blue or, under some circumstances, turquoise.

Steel, on the other hand, can freeze himself to telekinetic abilities, being able to paralyse people with a look, weld metal with his bare hands or undo deadbolts with a gesture.

The operatives can also communicate telepathically with each other, and in Adventure 5, Sapphire grants this ability to a human being, whom she dubs "Brass" for the duration. Sapphire removes this ability at the end of the story. It is also suggested in Adventure 5 that other powers can be granted. It is hinted in the debate that ensues between Sapphire and Steel after Sapphire gives Brass his abilities that different powers are classed at different levels, with telepathy being considered one of the most basic.

It is not made clear in the series as to what boundaries exist on the skills of operatives. In Adventure 2, Steel cannot perform "spot analysis", as it is not his field, but in Adventure 4, Sapphire and Steel together are specifically able to replicate Silver's ability to transmutate by remembering what he did.

Other operatives that appear also have special powers. Silver (played by allotropes, most gems and semi-precious stones and several compounds.

{{FictionTV
|titoloitaliano= Zaffiro e Acciaio
|tipofiction= serie TV
|titolooriginale= Sapphire & Steel
|nomepaese= Regno Unito
|altripaesi=  <!--nazione/nazioni con produzione minoritaria-->
|annoproduzione=1979 - 1982
|nomegenere= fantascientifica
|durata= 25 min circa
|linguaoriginale= inglese
|tipocolore= colore
|aspectratio= 
|tipoaudio=
|nomeproduttore=
|stagioni=
|episodi=34
|nomeideatore= Peter J. Hammond
|dataavvio-trasmissioneoriginale= 10 luglio 1979
|datafine-trasmissioneoriginale= 31 agosto 1982
|reteoriginale= ITV
|reteitalia=
|nomeattori=
*Joanna Lumley,
*David McCallum
|nomedoppiatoriitaliani=
}}
'''''Zaffiro e Acciaio''''' (''Sapphire & Steel'') è una fantascientifica di produzione britannica incentrata su una coppia di protagonisti: ATV, andò in onda dal fantasmi. Hammond scrisse anche tutte le storie ad eccezione della quinta, che fu scritta a quattro mani da Don Houghton e Anthony Read.

== Trama ==

La trama si incentra su una coppia di "agenti operativi", gli Zaffiro e Acciaio del titolo. Molto poco è rivelato sulla loro missione nel corso della serie, ma apparentemente sono impegnati nel preservare l'ordine e l'integrità del Tempo o dello spaziotempo. Nella serie viene spiegato che il Tempo è come un corridoio che circonda ogni cosa, ma che vi sono punti deboli nel continuum spazio-temporale in cui il Tempo &mdash; una forza potenzialmente malevola &mdash; può irrompere nel presente e sottrarre qualcosa. Vi sono inoltre creature provenienti dall'inizio e dalla fine del tempo che vagano per il corridoio in cerca degli stessi punti deboli, per tentare di fuggire.

Queste intrusioni sono spesso causate dalla presenza di un anacronismo, ad esempio una ninnananna, un fotomontaggio con elementi d'epoca e contemporanei oppure una casa decorata in modo da replicare un ambiente del 1930. Dopo una stima della situazione da parte degli investigatori, se è richiesto un intervento, una misteriosa autorità incarica gli "operativi" della gestione del problema con l'aiuto, ove necessario, degli "specialisti".

== Commento ==
Le storie sono generalmente molto criptiche, sollevando ogni volta nuovi interrogativi, e presentano un'atmosfera soprannaturale, il che le fa rientrare tanto nel genere delle storie di fantasmi quanto nella fantascienza. Al programma fu accordato un ''budget'' minuscolo, che portò all'uso di semplici (ma molto efficaci) scenografie, e di un uso minimo degli effetti speciali, che contribuirono, in fondo, all'atmosfera inquietante del telefilm. Questa natura ambigua del programma si estende ai suoi protagonisti. Anche se Zaffiro è ritratta come più affabile e "umana" del pragmatico, arcigno Acciaio, risulta chiaro che la loro prima preoccupazione è la riparazione del danno del Tempo, a volte a discapito degli esseri umani coinvolti.