Throwback cop rises up from the ashes
Life on Mars is one of the most talked about television shows in recent memory. Managing to satisfy both TV critics and millions of viewers, it achieved what few other programmes ever do.
It ended after only two series leaving fans begging for more, but John Simm, who played main character DI Sam Tyler, was reluctant to carry on.
Thankfully, the creative minds behind the award-winning formula came up with a new twist in the tale to keep the format going.
The resulting programme is Ashes to Ashes, which sees former Spooks star Keeley Hawes take on the vacant fish-out-of-water role, plus the return of the regulars we grew to love during Life on Mars, most notably DCI Gene Hunt.
“Ashes to Ashes is very much of its own making, it has a completely different feel to Life on Mars,” said Philip Glenister, who plays the outspoken copper.
“We didn’t want to remake Life on Mars, there’d be no point, so the writers were adamant about making it its own show, and having seen the DVDs of the final show, they were totally right. I was blown over.”
It’s little wonder he was so impressed. The first episode sees DCI Hunt and trusty sidekicks Chris and Ray tearing along the River Thames in a speedboat, armed with machine guns.
“That’s a bit over-the-top, but it was our Miami Vice moment,” he said. “The guy driving the boat was a loon. You just can’t let stuntmen loose in speedboats. The director said, ‘Come round at a bit of a lick’ so he took that to mean going as fast as he could and throwing us about.”
If you’re familiar with Life on Mars, the premise of this new series is quite simple.
While Sam Tyler’s escapades took place in the Manchester of 1973, Ashes to Ashes transports us to 1981 London, an important year in Glenister’s life.
“I’d just finished college and was looking for work. I didn’t know what, just that I didn’t want a nine-to-five thing.” The actor added: “So I went for a job where you work 8am till 8pm six days a week!”
DI Alex Drake (Hawes) is a high-ranking profiler for the Met, and single mother to Molly. After a tense encounter with a criminal who seemingly knows everything about her, Alex wakes up to find herself 27 years in the past.
Drake has also spent a lot of time in the present reading Sam Tyler’s detailed psychiatric report, so she knows all about Gene Hunt and his old-fashioned, hard-drinking ways. Never in a million years did she think she’d come face to face with him, let alone end up working alongside him.
But what’s happened to Gene in the seven or eight years since we last saw him keeping Manchester’s streets clean in his super-powered Ford Cortina?
“Well, he’s not the big honcho of Manchester any more. Gene’s now fairly small fry in the world of the London Met,” said Philip. “He’s become more institutionalised I suppose. Gene’s journey throughout the series will be interesting. We see a man trying to keep a grip on his old-fashioned style of policing, which is being moved on. He’s being left behind a little.”
“There’s much more of a melancholic feel about him in this series. There are hints about his home life which Alex drags out of him, so we learn about his state of mind and where he’s at from their conversations.”
“The big thing about Gene is that he’s an enigma, so the less you know about him the better and it’s important to keep that, otherwise he’s blown as a character.”
It’s always a worry with our favourite TV shows that they’ll go on too long. Ricky Gervais knew when to call it a day with The Office and Extras, just as John Cleese famously did with Fawlty Towers years previously.
As a viewer, two runs of Life on Mars felt short, but ultimately satisfying. The thirst for more is always more rewarding than being bombarded with series after series of the same, rehashed storylines. Philip was more than aware of this when talk of Ashes to Ashes first began. “I definitely needed persuading to do it, in terms of where they were going to go with the story. I had no qualms about resurrecting that character, though,” he said.
“Gene’s such a fun, great, great character to play. John had understandably had his fill of playing Sam, but that’s John, he likes to move on. His boredom threshold is quite low and he felt he’d done all he could do.”
“We all felt Life on Mars had run its natural course, we didn’t want to start repeating ourselves. But for Gene, he’s become a bit of an iconic character and I was happy to carry on playing him for a bit longer.”
If things had worked out slightly differently, Philip might have ended up playing DCI Hunt in the American version of Life on Mars too.
“They were having problems casting both Sam and Gene in the American version. My agent got an email asking if I’d be interested in playing Gene, but by this time I’d signed for Ashes,” said Philip. “I said I’d do it if they could fit in with certain dates, but because of their pilot season they couldn’t.”
When watching Glenister on screen, he’s so convincing that it’s very easy to imagine him being exactly the same in everyday life. That’s not the case, and thankfully casting agents don’t get him confused with his alter-ego either.
“I was in Cranford last year,” he said, “playing a forward-thinking character very different to Gene. I knew I was going to do Ashes to Ashes, so I was adamant I should find something very different before that.”
Ashes to Ashes is on BBC One on Thursday, February 7 at 9pm.
For Express & Echo (Exeter).
(Source: highbeam.com)