Post containing spoilers...

 

The other day I decided to watch a bit of Life on Mars on Netflix.  Netflix then told me that it was taking it off.  So I felt I had to finish the series.  So I forced myself through it.  Then I watched all of Ashes to Ashes as well.  Didn’t have to actually it’s all still there and on the BBC website too.  Aren’t I a fool?

The hour long episodes are quite a slog sometimes particularly when one has to stop for a good cringe regularly.  It really is awkard when the characters meet their former selves.  But I managed it.  One of the reasons was I’d read somewhere that all the loose ends about the mysterious world of the serieses? is “properly tied up” …and it is.  I have to admit the ending is genuinely clever.

If you drank as much single malt whisky as Gene Hunt you would, of course be dead, and at the risk of giving away a massive spoiler it seems that Gene and everyone in his world were indeed already dead and this is some kind of purgatory world.  “That’s about as likely as me being Saint Peter,” says Hunt early in Ashes to Ashes only for it to turn out that he kind of is.   

There are hints all along, of course, that this isn’t the real past.  Historical events seem to be slightly reordered etc but the general unravelling of the characters’ worlds in series 3 of Ashes to Ashes is done so the audience both can and can't kind of see it coming.   

After all, we do know that in the real world you couldn’t go around telling people you’re from the future all the time because you would end up in a padded cell – particularly in a responsible job like the police … even in the 80s.  We know you couldn’t really bring Shaz back to life like that after she’s stabbed.  We do know Chris and Shaz must have had a reason to split up.  We do know 1980s DCIs don’t really wear snakeskin shoes. 

Up to the end of Series 2 we only ever really see things from Tyler/Drake’s perspective as if to insinuate the whole thing is in their heads.  When Daniel Mays joins in series 3 as Jim Keats suddenly we’re increasingly not in Alex’s head all the time and slowly the story opens up…  All the characters have a story arc – even the seemingly one dimensional Ray Carling (Dean Andrews). 

The episode where someone who doesn’t look like Sam Tyler claims to be and futher explains that everyone forgets here is particularly moving and reminded me of the creepy third act of Thornton Wilder’s memorable play “Our Town” when one of the deceased characters (Emily) can walk into any day or time but cannot interact with any of the living people.  She realises then why the other dead people go nowhere in time – it’s too painful.  They just try to forget.  The play ends with her asking the stage manager if anyone appreciates life.  He replies: "No. The saints and poets, maybe – they do some."  Of course Sam Tyler who doesn’t look like Sam isn’t Sam …or is he? …when it turns out that old Gene doesn’t look like young Gene?

On the surface meanwhile both series are nostalgia fests…  The Quattro, the old TV programmes, the Blitz nightcub (with Boy George - couldn't see who was playing Brian's brother Rusty), the testcard girl, references to the trashing of the Blue Peter garden … even Gwyneth Powell is dragged out of semi-retirement to re-voice Mrs McCluskey from Grange Hill.   

And of course the kind of racist comments that have now been cut from old episodes of the Sweeny and Minder (which Philip Glenister was old enough to be in) …one wonders if the writers would get them under the wire in 2021.  However, it kind of passes as satire as the premise of Life on Mars is quite near to the Comic Strip Present Episode “Detectives on the Edge of a Nervous Breakdown" in which Keith Allen portrays "Shouting George from The Weeny" who is Jack Regan from the Sweeny who is pretty much Gene hunt who is …. A dead plod it seems.

One of the best thing about the series is the sets– both the Manchester Police station and the London station are beautiful pieces of design.  Everything in the Manchester station is at an angle to everything else whereas the London one is all modern symmetry.  There are so many nice touches like how Gene has a cassette recorder in his office after having mocked Sam Tyler for using one through most of the 1970s.  Everything looks both real and somehow unreal.  Fantastic detail in every shot.