Any Guesses?

When Keeley Hawes announced at the start of Ashes to Ashes on Friday night with the words “My name is Alex Drake. And quite frankly, your guess is as good as mine”, I couldn’t have agreed with her more. This show, although less so its predecessor, Life On Mars, has always been about what’s happening on the fringes of the story rather than the story itself. In all the furore about Doctor Who at the weekend, I failed to blog about this installment but it does throw up an interesting comparrison. Doctor Who (since 2005) has, on the majority of occasions, been about telling an amazing adventure story set within a little bit of continuity, or “arcs” as we fans like to call them, thrown in to tease the observant. LoM and AtA

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Tags: Alex Drake, Ashes-To-Ashes, Gene-Hunt, Keeley Hawes, Life-On-Mars, Philip-Glenister, Sam-Tyler, Series 3

“A quick word about police brutality… lots of it” – Gene Hunt (1982)

The 80’s vibe that Ashes to Ashes strives to realise continues to be very compelling and convincing, with only the occasional creative camera angles and snappy editing suggesting that this is a thoroughly modern programme. While I am sure that some nitpickers can point out continuity errors, the fact that the series is (supposedly) set in the mind of Alex Drake in the moments between her life and death in

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Tags: A2A, Alex Drake, Ashes-To-Ashes, Gene-Hunt, Keeley Hawes, Phillip Glenister

Looking Back at the 80’s

Life on Mars was one of the most popular British dramas produced in recent years.  It’s main thrust was a delightful conceit: a police officer goes back in time, which results in clash of cultures… cue ample opportunity for dramatic and/or comedic escapades.  If it has been made in the 70’s (and the time travel had been back to the early 50’s) this would have been the extent of the story and nothing much more would have been made of it.  However, viewers in the noughties are somewhat

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Tags: Alex Drake, Ashes-To-Ashes, Audi Quattro, Deja Vu, Gene-Hunt, Keeley Hawes, Life-On-Mars, Nostalgia, Philip-Glenister, Sam-Tyler, The Happy Day