ASHES TO ASHES 1.1 – "Deja Vue"

Writer: Matthew Graham
Director: Johnny Campbell

Cast: Philip Glenister (DCI Gene Hunt), Keeley Hawes (DI Alex Drake), Marshall Lancaster (DC Chris Skelton), Dean Andrews (DS Ray Carling),Montserrat Lombard (WPC Sharon "Shaz" Granger), Stephen Campbell Moore (Evan White), Grace Vance (Molly Drake) & Andrew Clover (The Clown)

In 2008; a tough, female detective is shot in the head by a gunman -- only to find herself waking up in 1981...

"Today, my friend, your diary entry will read: 'took a prozzie
hostage and was shot by three armed bastard'."

-- DCI Gene Hunt (Philip Glenister)

Life On Mars is a little overrated, but the tale of a cop from 2006 thrown back in time to 1974 after a car accident struck a chord with a sizeable audience. Some tuned in for 70s nostalgia, others the thrill of a Sweeney-style cop drama, while many lapped up the sci-fi undercurrent. There was something for everyone. Mars finished last year (on a surreal note), but you can't keep a good idea down for long...

Ashes To Ashes (is David Bowie's oeuvre a "flux-capacitor"?) is a spin-off from Mars; tinkering with the format and learning from past mistakes...

In 2008, DCI Alex Drake (Spooks' Keeley Hawes), a skilled psychologist, is called to the scene of a crime-in-progress -- where a crazed gunman called Arthur Layton is threatening a hostage. Alex puts her negotiating skills to practice, but is confused when Layton begins reciting a lyric from "Ashes To Ashes". Events are made improbably worse when Alex's young daughter Molly (Grace Vance) is taken as a fresh hostage, allowing Layton to escape... leaving Molly behind unharmed.

Cleverly teasing audiences, who are primed for a near-fatal accident to whisk Alex back in time, the moment doesn't arrive for awhile longer – after Alex safely delivers her daughter to godfather Evan. Then, Layton appears in the back of her car and forces her to a barge, where he infers that he knows how her parents (Tim and Caroline Price) really died... before shooting her in the head.

After a surreal sequence involving a red balloon, a white-faced Pierrot clown (from the "Ashes To Ashes" music video), and a weird "rewinding" noise, Alex wakes up aboard boat brothel "The Lady Di" – dressed as a prostitute. Confused, she stumbles through a crowd of revelers sporting 80s-era hairstyles and clothes, to the strains of Ultravox's "Vienna", noticing posters for Adam & The Ants stuck to a wall.

As she tries to get her bearings back on dry land, she's attacked by a slimy creep called Markham, only to be rescued when a bright red Audi Quattro skids up and three police officers step out: DC Chris Skelton (Marshall Lancaster), DS Ray Carling (Dean Andrews) and, of course, a snakeskin-shoed Gene Hunt (Philip Glenister)...

Interestingly, Alex was connected to Sam Tyler's case after he awoke from his coma with stories of Gene Hunt and '73, so she's astounded that she appears to have "assimilated his fantasies" simply by reading his psychiatric reports!

However, unlike everyman Sam, Alex is more knowledgeable about matters of the mind, and immediately starts trying to reason her way out of this hallucination. After being mistaken as a prostitute for awhile, Hunt and his team poke fun at Alex's nutty personality for a bit, until they realize she's the new DI they've been waiting for...

At the police station (a grey-silver glassy contrast to Mars' brown smokiness), Alex refuses to believe she's stuck in 1981 with "real people", making a point to finger-quote Gene's name all the time. Remembering Sam's case, she similarly tries to make contact with the real world by answering ringing office phones, and pleading with Rainbow's Zippy to speak to her through the television...

In another echo of Mars' first episode, Alex starts to believe she can rouse herself from this nightmare by solving a 1981 case with modern-day repercussions for her. Arthur Layton (the gunman who shot her in '08), exists in '81 and might be involved in a drug busts Gene's team are investigating... and surely that can't be a coincidence.

Despite its clear parallels to Mars (not only in premise, but also in general storyline), Deja Vue does well to ensure things aren't too boring. Writer Matthew Graham plays with audience expectations as much as he can, but ultimately Alex's situation echoes Sam's almost exactly, with just a few changes -- like a sinister Pierrot clown replacing Sam's spooky Test Card Girl.

There are mild improvements to Mars' set-up, too; like giving Alex a better reason to want to return home (her daughter), while the mystery of her parents' death (car bomb?) should be more invigorating than Sam's half-remembered dreams about his 70s childhood were. It was also quite strange how Layton recited an "Ashes To Ashes" lyric, said he knew more about how Alex's parents died, and obviously deemed it necessary to shoot her. I'm hoping this is a sign there's a deeper mystery at work... somehow.

Keeley Hawes really impressed me as Alex Drake, although I'm hoping this episode marks the end of her goofy behaviour. I can accept her actions under the bizarre circumstances, but she was too nutty for a supposedly level-headed psychologist. Regardless, Hawes has real spark, impertinence, intelligence and beauty – which was a refreshing change of pace from Sam Tyler's befuddled puppy look.

Philip Glenister is now the undoubted star as Gene Hunt -- given an entrance worthy of a movie legend, which is actually very worrying. The great thing about Gene in Mars was he was a plausible bloke, but Ashes On Ashes treats him like a big hero. Towards the end, he emerges from his office like a cowboy through saloon doors, ready to save the day after growling "let's fire up the Quattro!" It certainly makes you grin... until you realize Gene's not a character now... he's a broad caricature.

The returning double-act of Lancaster and Andrews as Gene's right-hand men are unchanged from Mars, but it was weird to find a blatant "Annie replacement" in the shape of WPC Sharon "Shaz" Granger (Montserrat Lombard, the daughter in Saxondale.) Like Annie, Shaz is pensive and saucer-eyed, although her voice is thankfully free of any floaty warbling...

It remains to be seen if Alex and Gene will become a fitting partnership like Sam and Gene – but there doesn’t seem to be much of a sheriff/deputy vibe between them. Alex is more confident and brash, able to belittle "Gene" without any fear of Gene pushing her into a filing cabinet and punching her in the stomach. At best: they'll develop a wry battle-of-the-sexes partnership. At worse: a Moonlighting-style romance? Please, no...

I found myself equally excited, amused and disappointed throughout Deja Vue. The 80s are a decade it's easier for me to connect with (as I was born in '79), so I could pick up on the vibe of Ashes To Ashes easier. But was 1981 really indicative of "The 80s"? I still think they should have set this series between '84-'86.

There were some fun nods at the culture throughout the episode, too; the excellent soundtrack, old-fashioned computers ("I've got Pong!"), an evidence locker of "outdated" electrical goods ("it's like Tomorrow's World, innit?"), the daft perms, tasteless fashions, Rainbow on the telly, walkmen, etc.

Ultimately though, Ashes To Ashes recycles Life On Mars far too much. There are improvements to Mars' concept, but it's all played for laughs. The climactic shoot-out is a ludicrous imitation of 80s American television – complete with the ridiculous arrival of Gene wielding a sub-machine gun in a speedboat!

Where Mars went for the down-to-earth realism of 70s policing, Ashes To Ashes seems content to jusy go crazy with 80s excess. Is it intentional? Perhaps. But that still doesn't make it a good idea.

And there's still the fundamental flaw of this spin-off: the driving force behind Mars was the uncertainly behind Sam's predicament (was he dead, insane, or back in time?) That central question was answered in Mars' last episode, so the audience (and Drake) know she's in a coma. Or, as this episode suggests, perhaps a second away from death and living out a time-stretched '81 fantasy. But it's not time-travel... so, with that element of mystery gone, can Ashes To Ashes survive on nostalgia, glossy spectacle, and Gene's cult status alone?

I suspect this series will generally be good fun -- but if you thought Sam Tyler's attempts to get back to 2006 became strained after awhile... how irritating are Alex Drake's attempts going to be, minus Mars' ambiguity?

Still, with home-grown British television still swamped by reality shows in 2008, any scripted drama that delivers an hour of escapist entertainment is very welcome. I just hope the show evolves its own identity, and doesn't remain a pointless twist on a played-out idea. Otherwise it'll be ashes to ashes, dust to dust...


7 February 2008
BBC1, 9.00 pm