Writer: Julie Rutterford
Director: Bille Eltringham
Cast: Philip Glenister (DCI Gene Hunt), Keeley Hawes (DI Alex Drake), Dean Andrews (DS Ray Carling), Marshall Lancaster (DC Chris Skelton), Montserrat Lombard (WPC Sharon "Shaz" Granger), Joseph Long (Luigi), Geff Francis (Viv James), Andrew Clover (The Clown), Amelia Bullmore (Caroline Price), Nicole Charles (Nina Akaboa), Ryan Burns (Leo Bill), Stephen Campbell Moore (Evan White), Grace Vance (Molly Drake), Simon Molloy (Roseberry-Sykes), Callum Dixon (Man One), Lorna Gayle (Mrs Parkes) & Claire Rushbrook (Trixie)
Director: Bille Eltringham
Cast: Philip Glenister (DCI Gene Hunt), Keeley Hawes (DI Alex Drake), Dean Andrews (DS Ray Carling), Marshall Lancaster (DC Chris Skelton), Montserrat Lombard (WPC Sharon "Shaz" Granger), Joseph Long (Luigi), Geff Francis (Viv James), Andrew Clover (The Clown), Amelia Bullmore (Caroline Price), Nicole Charles (Nina Akaboa), Ryan Burns (Leo Bill), Stephen Campbell Moore (Evan White), Grace Vance (Molly Drake), Simon Molloy (Roseberry-Sykes), Callum Dixon (Man One), Lorna Gayle (Mrs Parkes) & Claire Rushbrook (Trixie)
Hunt and Drake investigate a prostitute's claim she was raped, but the case is disadvantaged by an unreliable witness and the claimant's profession...Ashes To Ashes once again finds itself wobbling along a tightrope; trying to spin a police procedural that shows a disparity between '81 and '08 society, but faltering whenever it finds the need to shoehorn in some increasingly tedious moments for Alex Drake (Keeley Hawes) – usually involving phantom daughter Molly (Grace Vance) and The Clown (Andrew Clover).
Those moments aren't the heady delights they were in Life On Mars, solely because the mystery about Alex's whereabouts isn't a mystery. The new opening narration states that Alex's life hangs in the balance (a second away from life or death from a gunshot in '08), and that her fantasy in '81 will somehow decide the outcome – but I really can't see how!
With regard to this week's investigation, Alex again starts the episode treating everything with disdain – like she's an unwilling participant in a candid camera stunt. However, once the investigation into a prostitute's claim she was raped begins, Alex quickly becomes focused and incensed by the prejudiced views of her male colleagues – most of whom don't believe Trixie (Claire Rushbrook) purely because of her "occupation".
It's a perfectly reasonable way to demonstrate differences in policing 27 years ago, but I'd wish the show could conjure up a decent reason for Alex wavering between triviality and seriousness. Her hypothesis (that every case is somehow a piece to a puzzle in getting "back" to 2008), also doesn't hold much water – although this episode once again features a family member, Evan White (Stephen Campbell Moore), as a suspect's lawyer. But I don't think that is relevant to anything; it's merely a way to stretch out the story with another layer.
And that's another problem with the show in general (and something even Life On Mars suffered from) – the 60-minute episodes only really contain 40-minutes of plot, with Alex's hallucinations or brushes with her past filling 10-minutes and the story protracted for a further 10. Did we really need a fancy dress party on a boat? Or Alex sleeping with a fop-haired Thatcherite?
There was also the first proper sign of sexual chemistry between Gene Hunt (Philip Glenister) and Alex, both tipsy at Luigi's with a bottle of wine, which worked better than expected -- but I preferred the scene where Alex punched Gene (twice!) to assert her authority in front of Chris (Marshall Lancaster) and Ray (Dean Andrews).
Nothing Changes certainly had an interesting idea behind it, with Alex having to invoke the memories of the Yorkshire Ripper to make Gene, Ray and Chris take Trixie's rape claim seriously – but Julie Rutterford's story ultimately disappoints when the rapist is revealed as the most obvious person: a socially-awkward young man who's the only white male of a black Gospel choir, and someone who immediately starts spouting religious ramblings about "impure" prostitutes at the slightest provocation!
For awhile, this episode works quite well, particularly because Alex's irritating tendency to flap around looking crazy are reigned in. But I still find it hard to believe a female DI would walk around wearing off-the-shoulder tops. But, Alex's relative normality this week made me notice how clichéd Ray and Chris are: the former constantly making wry quips whenever Alex leaves the room ("it's that time of the month" being his favourite), and the latter confined to doing all the donkey work at CID and grinning goofily.
As usual, you can claim Ashes To Ashes is intentionally a broad pastiche of 1981, full of imagined characterisations of dinosaur detectives – and you'd be right. While the show is fundamentally flawed beyond individual writers' control, I wish more could be done to make me invest in Alex's plight and Gene's team as "real" people. Maybe it would help if we got some sign that the cases Alex helps solve have an effect on her life-or-death reality? But how?
Overall, the core idea behind this story held my attention, there was some nice performances from guest stars Claire Rushbrook and Nicole Charles (as Nina Akaboa), Hawes makes Alex easier to watch, the episode's less blatant with 80s references, and the resolution in the denouement was amusing.
I'm still disappointed in this spin-off, which has highlighted the problems Life On Mars had (but avoided because of its time-travel ambiguity and more palatable Glenister/Simm combo), but this episode at least attempts to provide a decent procedural, minus excessive 80s-ness and Alex's loony act.
21 February 2008
BBC1, 9.00 pm
