Born to human parents, an apparently normal child might at some point between childhood and late adolescence experience a process called 'breaking out' and develop special paranormal abilities.

The team constantly watches for new Tomorrow People "breaking out" (usually around the age of puberty) to help them through the process as the youngsters endure mental agonies as their minds suddenly change.

They sometimes deal with attention from extraterrestrial species[3] as well as facing more earthbound dangers with military forces across the globe keen to recruit or capture them for their own ends.

This pacifistic element of their make up is referred to as the "prime barrier" and any Tomorrow Person who causes the loss of a human life would be driven insane by the confusion in their brain.

Over its six-year run, the format proved flexible enough to encompass various types of stories including traditional alien invasions adventures as well as espionage thrillers, slapstick comedy, time travel, political satires, space opera and even on occasion more adult concepts than would be normally found in a teatime drama for children.

In 1977 Mike joins a pop band, "The Heart of Sogguth", whose hell-raising music will bring back the Devil when millions of teenagers are watching them on television.

Price saw the lead casting as very important, as he wanted talented and attractive actors who would appeal to the young audience, but also be personable and easy to work with during the long hours envisaged in studio or out on location.

Ruth Boswell wanted Lynne Frederick (later the last wife of Peter Sellers) for Carol, the female lead, but following a meeting with her, Paul Bernard felt she was a bit too upper-class and precious for what he had in mind, as he saw the character as being similar to Doctor Who's Jo Grant.

The role of Kenny, the youngest TP, was given to Stephen Salmon after he had been discovered in a drama workshop while theatre actor Philip Gilbert was selected to provide the paternal tones of biotronic computer TIM.

Making up the team were two Sap friends, a couple of bikers called Ginge (Michael Standing) and Lefty (Derek Crewe) who encounter the Tomorrow People when acting as henchmen for the villainous shape-shifter Jedikiah in the opening adventure.

Also, Nicholas Young banged himself hard into a wall while working on the darkened entrance to the Lab, which was being filmed inside the real disused tube station at Wood Lane (closed in the 1940s).

Look-in provided a great deal of coverage of the series and by July launched its own comic strip version (which ran on and off in its pages for the next five years).

Most directors on the show relied heavily on chroma key to get their desired effects, but, owing to the rushed time on studio days, the results varied greatly.

Off-screen, both Bernard and Finch departed leaving Price to take more control as writer, director and producer, while on-screen Kenny and Carol disappeared (sent to the Galactic Federation's headquarters The Trig to work as ambassadors for Earth).

This was the start of a near-annual event where a new TP was introduced in the first story of each series—a handy way of maintaining interest for returning viewers and a convenient way for Price to re-establish the basic premise of the show for new audiences every year.

In 1975, the third series added Dean Lawrence as gypsy Tyso Boswell, yet another character from a minority as Price was determined that the Tomorrow People could be from any ethnic or society background.

Viewers saw on screen why the youngsters have to maintain their secrecy and constant vigilance from the rest of humanity, as the British Secret Intelligence Service ruthlessly hunt them down for their own purposes in the opening adventure.

A comedy script was attempted in the much-derided "A Man for Emily", which featured Peter Davison in his television debut and his future wife Sandra Dickinson,[9] because Price was keen to get more into humorous writing.

The negative backlash to this experiment resulted in a planned sequel story being quietly dropped; however, such actions added to Price's increasing frustration with the show.

Philip Gilbert also made the first of several on-screen appearances as Timus Irnok Mosta, an ambassador from the Galactic Federation who had a hand in building TIM thus sounding alike.

Mike's arrival swells the ranks of TPs in the Lab to five (Tricia had remained on the Trig, due to Ann Courthoys' departure from the series) which made things look a bit overcrowded, this led to the decision to sack Vaughan-Clarke as Stephen, who ignobly disappears off screen after the season finished and is never even mentioned again.

His late inclusion was only addressed a couple of weeks before filming started when Price discovered from Lawrence that he was still available to appear in the programme (he had been led to believe that he had moved abroad).

In her place came Hsui Tai, played by Japanese actress Misako Koba, whose poor grasp of English made her hard to understand, and Nicholas Young later recalled that he and other actors found this difficult during production.

The 6 episodes were produced sporadically through 1977 (a combination of Price writing scripts as and when it fitted with his other production commitments and a number of strikes at ITV over the year) and finally launched in the Spring of 78.

The story also introduced Jeff Harding as Megabyte's father General Damon, an American officer stationed in the United Kingdom, who became a regular ally to the Tomorrow People.

Her mother, played by Sally Sagoe, had a small role in the remaining stories, initially trying to stop Ami spending time with the Tomorrow People before accepting her need to use her powers to help others.

Instead, Jade Weston, a minor character from "The Culex Experiment" played by Alexandra Milman, was brought back to accompany Adam and Megabyte and broke out as a Tomorrow Person in the last episode.

Nicholas Young and Philip Gilbert reprised their roles as John and TIM, with Helen Goldwyn and James Daniel Wilson appearing as Elena and Paul, the new Tomorrow People.

[15] In November 2012, Deadline Hollywood announced that Julie Plec and Greg Berlanti had obtained the rights to The Tomorrow People and commissioned a pilot written by Phil Klemmer.

The following year, Fantom Films released a second DVD discussing the 1990s series with writers Lee Pressman and Grant Cathro, entitled Re-inventing The Tomorrow People.