Ashes to Ashes
Genre	Time travel Police procedural
Created by	Matthew Graham Ashley Pharoah
Starring	Philip Glenister Keeley Hawes Dean Andrews Marshall Lancaster Montserrat Lombard
Theme music composer	Edmund Butt
Country of origin	United Kingdom
Language(s)	English
No. of series	2
No. of episodes	16 (List of episodes)
Production
Executive producer(s)	Jane Featherstone Simon Crawford-Collins Matthew Graham Ashley Pharoah
Producer(s)	Beth Willis
Running time	60 minutes
Production company(s)	Kudos Film & Television
Broadcast
Original channel	BBC One
Picture format	PAL (576i)
Original airing	7 February 2008 - present
Status	Second series currently being broadcast (20 April 2009[1] )
Chronology
Preceded by	Life on Mars
External links
Official website

Ashes to Ashes is a British television drama series which serves as a sequel to the 2006 series Life on Mars. It is a Kudos Film & Television production for the BBC, which was broadcast on BBC One. It premiered on 7 February 2008.^[2] Philip Glenister, who plays Gene Hunt, has stated in an interview that the programme will run for at least two series. He added that he does not think any show featuring his character should be made afterwards.^[3] Co-creator Matthew Graham has stated that the programme could potentially run to three series.^[4]

The series had its American television premiere on March 7, 2009 on BBC America, an American television network, owned and operated by BBC Worldwide Americas, and available on both cable and satellite. In that broadcast, the first episode of Ashes to Ashes was preceded by the finale episode from Life on Mars. Series 2 will begin broadcasting on BBCAmerica on May 2, 2009.^[5]

Filming for a second series started in Summer 2008, and began broadcasting, in the UK, on 20 April, 2009.^[6][7] It will be set in 1982, during the Falklands War, moving on almost six months after the events of the first series, which was set in July - October 1981.^[8] A trailer for series 2 premiered on BBC One on the 1 April 2009. A new updated official website followed.

[edit] Background

Ashes to Ashes features DCI Gene Hunt (played by Philip Glenister) from Life on Mars. He is joined by an experienced female detective and trained psychologist from the 21st century, DI Alex Drake (Keeley Hawes), who wakes up in 1981 after being shot in 2008. She concludes that she is either a second away from life, or a second away from death, because of the detailed notes she has studied from Sam Tyler, when he found himself back in time in 1973 after a car accident.^[9] Also reappearing are Chris Skelton (Marshall Lancaster) and Ray Carling (Dean Andrews). All have transferred to the Metropolitan Police in London, and Chris and Ray remain loyal to Gene. Augmenting the team is WPC Sharon 'Shaz' Granger, (Montserrat Lombard).

[edit] Continuity with Life on Mars

As with the parent series, the show's name comes from a David Bowie song of the era in which it is set, in this case the 1980 single "Ashes to Ashes".

It is established that DI Alex Drake, a trained police psychologist, has been studying the suicide of DCI Sam Tyler and is familiar with the detailed description he recorded of his experiences of life in 1973 (whilst he was actually in a coma in 2006). Viewers saw Sam send this tape to Alex (referred to only as a police psychologist) via a voice recorder in the final episode of Life On Mars. This was the seed planted for the creation of Ashes to Ashes although Alex wasn't mentioned by name and nor was she seen.

When Drake herself is shot during a hostage situation and finds herself transported back to 1981, it is her familiarity with Tyler's world that leads her to believe she is "hallucinating", and that the people around her are simply fictitious constructs of her own mind, however, at the end of the series it is suggested that they are not fictitious due to Gene Hunt being a part of Drake's past. She also draws upon her knowledge of Tyler's experiences in 1973 to inform her decisions on how to act in the world of 1981. For example, she spends time finding and tuning a powerful radio so that she can receive information from the "real world", because this is how Tyler received information about the progression of his coma in his world of 1973. Alex does eventually receive messages from Rainbow characters Zippy and George, and other signals through a handheld radio and the television set.

Drake is also stalked by a sinister clown in a Pierrot costume which resembles David Bowie's appearance in the "Ashes to Ashes" music video. The clown appears to echo the role of the Test Card F girl (Carole Hersee) in Life on Mars.

Drake learns from DS Ray Carling that Tyler returned to Manchester in 1973 and spent seven years serving faithfully alongside Gene Hunt. In pursuit of robbery suspects, he crashed his car into a river. He is presumed dead, although his body was never recovered

A newspaper clipping paying posthumous tribute to Tyler's achievements hangs in Hunt's office. Hunt subsequently transferred to the Metropolitan Police, taking Carling and Skelton with him.

As in the case of Sam Tyler in Life on Mars, from Hunt's point of view, Drake has asked to be transferred to his division from elsewhere. Unlike Tyler in Life on Mars, Drake is a DI in both the present day and the past.

[edit] Reception

Based on overnight returns, The Guardian reported that audience figures for the 7 February 2008 broadcast of the first episode, in a 9:00 pm slot on the flagship channel, BBC One, were 7 million: about 29% of viewers. The figure was "in line with the final episode of Life on Mars in April last year, though well up on the earlier show's second series debut of 5.7 million two months earlier," but The Guardian noted "the heavy publicity blitz this week for Ashes to Ashes" as a factor in its success against the opposition.^[10]

Critical reception to the first episode of the series was mixed,^[11] with positive reviews from The Daily Telegraph,^[12] The Herald^[13] The Spectator,^[14] and the New Statesman^[15] and negative reviews from The Times,^[16] The Sunday Times,"^[17] Newsnight Review,^[18] The Guardian^[19] and The Observer, which criticised the episode's direction, structure and tone (although it did praise the costumes and art direction).^[20] The national free sheet, Metro, gave the episode four stars as "a vote of faith" on what it described as "a dodgy start".^[21]

The Guardian reported on 15 February 2008 that, with 6.1 million viewers and a 25% audience share, the ratings for the second episode, shown on 14 February, were down by almost one million on the first, comparing overnight returns. It still did well against the Lynda La Plante police procedural Trial & Retribution, which fell to a series low on ITV.^[22]

The fifth episode, broadcast 6 March 2008, attracted 6.6 million viewers according to overnight returns.^[23] With this episode, The Daily Telegraph stated that "Ashes to Ashes stepped out of the shadow of Life on Mars."

After press complaints about the quality of Keeley Hawes' performance, Philip Glenister defended his co-star, stating, "It's a hellishly difficult thing to come into and I've seen how hard she works and how brilliant she is. To all those detractors, they're just plain wrong."^[24]

After the final episode The Daily Mirror stated that although one or two episodes were lacking, in the end it was a satisfying finish to a series which had a lot to live up to and deserves a second series.

[edit] Cast

• Philip Glenister as DCI Gene Hunt
• Keeley Hawes as DI Alex Drake
• Dean Andrews as DS Ray Carling
• Marshall Lancaster as DC Chris Skelton
• Montserrat Lombard as WPC Sharon Granger
• Geff Francis as Sergeant Viv James
• Amelia Bullmore as Caroline Price
• Stephen Campbell Moore as Evan White
• Joseph Long as Luigi

[edit] Episode guide

[edit] Soundtrack

The soundtrack features contemporary songs by British groups of the period such as punk period survivors The Clash and The Stranglers, New Romantics such as Duran Duran and Ultravox, synthpop such as Jon & Vangelis and OMD, as well as the later period Roxy Music and The Passions' sole hit single, "I'm in Love with a German Film Star", from 1981. A scene in the second episode, "The Happy Day", set at The Blitz features Steve Strange playing himself performing "Fade to Grey" by Visage.The last episode in Series 1 ends with "Take The Long Way Home" from Supertramp's "Breakfast In America" 1979 album. Episode 2 also contains the classic Madness song 'The Prince'.

A CD soundtrack from the show was released on 17 March 2008.^[25]

[edit] Depiction of 1981

As with the parent series, there are anachronisms. At least one, however, is intentional: the Audi Quattro was not available in right-hand drive in the United Kingdom in 1981, only in left-hand drive. The car shown in the TV series is the 1983 model, with slight changes to the headlights and other features.^[26] Philip Glenister admitted that the production was aware of this but said, "But who cares? It's a cool car." He has jokingly speculated that Hunt probably got it as a dodgy German import.^[27]

A website was set up to promote the soundtrack to the second series. http://www.thebackintimes.com ^[28]

[edit] Series 2 & beyond

Episode 1 aired 20 April 2009.^[1] The BBC have released a trailer for the new series on the Ashes to Ashes website.^[29]

In an interview with SFX, series co-creator and executive producer Matthew Graham stated that he is considering making a 3D episode for the show's third series. ^[30]

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Ashes to Ashes at BBC Online
• Ashes to Ashes at TV.com
• Ashes to Ashes at the Internet Movie Database
• Ashes to Ashes at Digital Spy