Tag Archives: Gene Hunt

Ashes to Ashes, Life on Mars, Movies & TV

Who is Gene Hunt?

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Back during the pre-publicity for Ashes to Ashes, Matthew Graham and Ashley Pharoah started dropping hints that the apparently clear cut (or so they said) conclusion to Life on Mars, might not be as clear cut as it had seemed. Back then they were pretty adamant that everything had been going on inside Sam’s head – however now, in particular in an interview in SFX magazine, there were hints that Gene Hunt might be rather more than just an imagined character.

The running theme throughout the whole of Life on Mars was very much Sam’s uncertainty about what was happening. The big difference with Ashes to Ashes is that right from the start Alex Drake is certain that she is imagining everything, to the point that she will quite often refer to other characters as her constructs, or imply that they are imagined.

Then we had the final episode of series one, and much as with Life on Mars, it revolved around a key, life changing moment in the life of the main character, in this case the death of Alex Drake’s parents in a car bomb.

During the preceding episodes we’ve been seeing apparent splinters of the events of that day, however the big change between the splinters and what happens in the episode is that rather than her Godfather taking the hand of the young Alex, it is instead Gene Hunt who rescues the girl, and in clear parallels with the first episode brings the girl into the police station. Throughout the rest of the episode clues throughout the rest of the series have been connected, as, or so it seems Alex resolves the splintered memories of her childhood together, but the involvement of Gene Hunt, particularly when taken along with his comment to the young Alex that whenever she needs help she only needs to call on the Gene Genie, perhaps starts to answer the question as to why the adult Alex put Gene Hunt into her world – maybe the identical scenes from the first episode as Gene carries her into the police station are coming from her memories of childhood… Certainly with the pre-publicity hints, I wouldn’t be surprised if the next series is Alex starting to realise that Gene is somewhat more than just a construct. Having said that, Ashes to Ashes heading down that route will certainly start to throw a new light on Life on Mars…

Ashes to Ashes, Movies & TV

Ashes to Ashes

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Ashes to Ashes was born out of the nightmare of TV producers everywhere, the unexpected commission. Probably the most famous example of that is the fourth series of Blakes 7, where the production team had believed that the third series was to be the last, blown up the Liberator, tied up loose ends, and the production office had closed. The first most of them knew about a fourth series was when the continuity voice-over over the closing credits announced that the series would return the next year. Other examples include the rushed conclusion of season four and slow pace of season five of Babylon 5 as a result of a very late renewal for the fifth season. The key problem in all those situations is that the writers and producers generally aren’t prepared, or at least their plans tend to have to be changed at short notice – more often than not the result is regarded as not nearly so good – Blakes 7 built new sets, new props and a slightly changed concept, and was axed after only another season. Babylon 5 always was going to end after season five, but the final season is regarded by many as a disappointment.

With Ashes to Ashes, during the closing weeks of production on Life on Mars, after the news that John Simm wanted to stop, and with the final story written and in production, the BBC requested that the producers find some way to reuse the characters. At a late stage the scene in the final Life on Mars where Sam produces a report of his experiences was inserted, and the idea of having another police officer end up in a similar world was created.

Certainly, it is fair to say that I wasn’t keen on the idea – whilst the final episode of Life on Mars, which although I thought was left fairly open clearly pointed to it being something related to Sam, I really couldn’t see how you could drop another person in to that. If the characters were to be the same people that Sam had met you were starting to stray into more sci-fi territory.

Having said that, the situation was largely as a result of trying to find a vehicle for the characters, and the unwillingness of people like John Simm to continue. Whilst the linking of the series might be a bit of a problem, I certainly was still going to watch Ashes to Ashes.

So at the end of last week, we sat down to watch Ashes to Ashes. I have to say that my comment that it is nothing more than a rehash of Life on Mars is pretty well spot on. There may be a bit of a changed dynamic in having a woman in the Sam role, and some changes in that she knows about Sam’s experiences and strongly believes she is in a coma, essentially this is the same basic plot, even down to having links between present day events and the era in which Alex Drake arrives.

However, don’t conclude that because it’s a clone, it’s not any good. Even though you can draw clear parallels with Life on Mars, it was still a fairly entertaining watch. True it doesn’t have the originality, and not the same level of mystery as to what is going on that you had before, but with the much loved trio of Gene Hunt, Ray Carling and Chris Skelton, and a different selection of nostalgic pop culture references, you felt right at home.

It certainly goes to show that you don’t necessarily need originality to produce entertaining TV – it just remains to see if stripped of the originality and the mystery elements of the original series there will be enough to keep the interest of the audience longer term, and take it beyond being a shadowy clone of Life on Mars.

Life on Mars, Movies & TV

Ashes to Ashes – Nothing More than a Life on Mars Clone?

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Is anyone else as amazed as I am about the un-originality of the Life on Mars follow up? Not only is there going to be a US remake but it looks like the British team are doing the same. According to the article on the BBC news website the new series focuses on a 21st century police officer who has an accident and wakes up in the past, working with DCI Gene Hunt. The key differences is that the 21st century police officer is a woman, and this time it’s London in the eighties rather than Manchester in 1973. Is there going to be some sort of underlying plot linking Sam Tyler’s 1973 experience to this new characters 1981 experience, or was the production team just caught out by John Simm wanting to leave after two series and don’t have any new ideas?

Life on Mars, Movies & TV

Life on Mars Finale – Sam Who?

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So Life on Mars has come to a close, and in perhaps not the most surprising of endings it left it open, with the ambiguity over what has actually happened to Sam still intact.

As the episode opens, Sam is listening to the radio, where he again hears voices from outside his apparent coma, saying that it has been discovered that he has a brain tumour, and that they are going to operate to remove it. In 1973, Frank Morgan is pushing Sam to collect further evidence in order to remove Gene Hunt for misconduct.

Sam obtains evidence during an investigation into a planned train robbery. Gene is proposing to go undercover, without proper back-up to catch the criminals in the act, and it seems that he will stop at nothing to get it. Sam secretly tapes interviews and documents the plans, thinking he can stop the operation. Having collected the evidence, Sam meets Frank Morgan by a church yard, and is told that to finish the job off he has to allow Gene to go through with the plan, jeopardising his friends along with Gene. He will also have to testify against Gene in court. At this point Sam tells Frank that he thinks that this is all in his imagination, and that Frank Morgan is really his surgeon, trying to remove the tumour. Frank then says that the team in Hyde had had concerns about Sam’s mental state but thought he was okay, but that it seemed that he has amnesia, and was living his assumed identity. Sam is really part of a programme to uncover corruption, and Frank takes him into the graveyard and shows him his parents grave – Sam is really Sam Williams, and is part of the Metropolitan Accountability and Reconciliation Strategy – MARS… Sam doesn’t believe Frank, but then Frank tells how they had come up with Sam’s assumed identity in this graveyard, and takes him to a group of Tyler graves, including one for a Sam Tyler, who died in the 19th century.

Sam rushes back to the police station and retrieves his file, finding that it was Frank Morgan who had transferred him from Hyde to DCI Hunt’s team. Frank then assures him that this is all he has to do, and hands him a radio over which to call for backup during the train robbery when he needs it. He then goes to the pub, where his colleagues are putting together the final plans for the undercover job. He asks the barman what he should do, and is told that he should go wherever he feels truly alive. Sam leaves the pub and spends the night thinking things over, and trying to find a message on the radio. When nothing comes, Sam then tells Annie, Ray and Chris that he is really working undercover – they of course are shocked and feel betrayed, but as there is nobody else, they can’t exclude him from the train job.

The train job goes ahead, and needless to say goes wrong – Sam’s radio crackles and is revealed in front of the train robbers, and a gun fight ensues. Sam tries to call for backup but there is no reply from Frank. Thinking there is a problem, he goes for help, promising Annie that he will come back for her. He meets Frank in a tunnel ahead of the train, and Frank tells him that there is no backup, that he thinks it will be better if DCI Hunt goes down after getting fellow officers injured. Annie, Ray, Chris and Gene have followed Sam out, and one by one are shot. Annie screams out for Sam to help, but behind him in the tunnel there is a bright white light, and Sam can hear Frank’s voice calling him to make one more step. He takes the step, and wakes up in hospital – in Hyde Ward, room 2612 – the phone number in Hyde he had called to talk with Frank Morgan – and with his mother looking on.

But the story doesn’t end there. Sam recovers and leaves the hospital, going back to his police work. He tells his mother something of what has happened, and she says to Sam that he always keeps his promises. Then during a meeting he cuts himself but doesn’t feel it. He goes up onto the roof of the building and looks around – and then throws himself off, waking up at the point he left, in the tunnel with his colleagues under fire. He shoots the lead train robber, saving them all.

With his friends in the pub, they celebrate having escaped, and Phyllis, the desk sergeant tells Sam to go find Annie. Meeting her outside, Sam asks Annie what he should do, she tells him he should stay. Gene drives up, and they all get into the car. Voices of doctors saying they are loosing him crackle over the radio, but Sam turns it off, and they drive off – then the credits roll.

Was Sam mad, in a coma, or back in time? After the final episode it really isn’t any clearer, and I suspect that is the intention.

On the one hand you could argue that he was in the coma, and was brought out, and couldn’t face his life back in 2006, and chooses to end it all. Equally, there is a very noticeable greyness and other worldliness about 2006 as compared to the vibrant colours of his 1973 life – maybe Frank was right, and Sam’s mind had constructed an elaborate future life to explain his amnesia. But then when he comes back, Frank Morgan is gone, and he opts to stay with Gene Hunt and the rest of his friends, with apparently no comeback, and of course the radio crackles into life with voices of doctors again, could it be that he is really in a coma and didn’t wake up, or that these are doctors trying to save him after him having leapt off the roof? Who knows, but I’m sure like one or two other enigmatic final episodes, people will be debating this one for years, especially as Gene Hunt – who is possibly a figment of Sam’s imagination is due to appear in his own series next year!

Interestingly, alongside the Wizard of Oz association with Frank Morgan that I’ve mentioned previously, the episode took cues from the film in other ways, for example the almost black and white elements of Sam’s apparent ‘real life’ as compared to the colour of 1973. We even get a version of Over the Rainbow playing as Sam decides what to do. But then in the Wizard of Oz Dorothy decides that there really is no place like home, whilst in Sam’s 2006 he has been left pretty well alone. Maya, his girlfriend in 2006 stopped visiting, and there is certainly no great welcome back, just the greyness, and as the barman advises he returns to what seems most real – Annie and the others in 1973.

Enigmatic to the end. I’m certainly going to have to watch the whole series through again to try and fathom out what was really going on! However, can the proposed plot for the spin off show, with another 21st Century detective back in time give us any clues?

Series 1 is available on DVD already, with Series 2 out on Monday. If you haven’t got the first series, there is also a box set of both to buy that will be out in time for Christmas. If you’ve got a bit of nostalgia for the music on the soundtrack, check out the soundtrack CD, that also includes the title music of the show.