BBC America order THE LIVING AND THE DEAD from co-creators of LIFE ON MARS

Writers Ashley Pharoah and Matthew Graham, who co-created Life on Mars and were responsible for its spin-off Ashes to Ashes, have had a paranormal drama picked up by BBC America. THE LIVING AND THE DEAD will concern Nathan Appleby; a "gentleman farmer" living in 1888 who's obsessed with proving the existence of an afterlife. This leads Appleby to investigate various supernatural events in Victorian England. The series will begin filming next year in the West Country of England.

ASHES TO ASHES 3.8

WRITER: Matthew Graham
DIRECTOR: David Drury
GUEST CAST: Thomas Lockyer, David Thomas, Geoffrey Streatfeild, Jon House & Stuart Hall (voice)

[SPOILERS] I'll say this about the Ashes To Ashes grand finale; it answered every question you've probably ever had about the series, and its predecessor Life On Mars. It's just a shame the answers were a combination of what we'd already gleamed from Life On Mars' swansong (that everything's a "limbo" plane of existence), while confirming one of the oldest fan-theories that Gene Hunt's (Philip Glenister) been the "dreamer" all along...

Is it even worth recounting the crime-of-the-week storyline? It's really not worth the effort, as everyone's attention was understandably on the bigger mysteries the show has been toying with these past few years. Or at least these last eight episodes, as almost everything in series 1 and 2 now appears to have been tethered to a mythology the show has chosen to quietly distance itself from, in some respects. So now we know that Ashes To Ashes and Life On Mars were never about comatose modern-day cops fantasizing about the good ol' days of British policing (less red-tape and paperwork), it was really all about a fresh-faced young constable called Gene Hunt who was killed on the day of the Queen's Coronation (2 June 1953) and buried in a shallow grave beside a hilltop scarecrow, whose spirit found a way to create a purgatory in which to fulfil his career ambitions, later joined by other dead lawmen who could participate in a kind of "group therapy."

Sam Tyler and Alex Drake (Keeley Hawes) were just oddities who could remember their lives before death, unlike the others: Ray (Dean Andrews), who was such a disappointment to his soldier father that he hanged himself; Chris (Marshall Lancaster), a naïve beat cop who blindly followed orders and was shot dead; and Shaz (Montserrat Lombard), a policewoman fatally stabbed in the stomach by a carjacker. Gene had become so accustomed to the "limbo" he created that over time he forgot the truth of his own existence and the nature of everything around him.

Quite how a young PC killed in the '50s could have mentally construed an accurate world of the mid-'70s and early-'80s is one of those questions that destroys the finale's explanation in one swoop, but it's probably not wise to mention it for fear of being considered a nitpicking killjoy. What mattered is that the finale worked well emotionally, and it certainly wasn't the disappointment I was prepared for, although the decision to focus so much on Gene continued to bug me. Series 3 as a whole moved away from Alex as its heroine, in a way that almost felt like defeat from the writers because they were struggling to keep her homesickness compelling.

Everyone knows Gene Hunt's been the pop-culture success of both shows, and the common link for a unifying explanation of the mystery, but one thing Ashes' finale lacked was a feeling that Alex's story, as the protagonist, wasn't of particular significance. She's barely mentioned her daughter Molly this year, and the usual undercurrent of Alex's desperation to return home faded away. Alex is just one of many dead cops that are taken under Gene's wing in his metaphysical wonderland (indeed, she gets directly "replaced" in the final scene), and her only unusual quality is that she was a "faulty" spirit who knew of her past, like Sam.

Still, there was enough to enjoy in terms of answers being delivered that covered the important bases, the emotion of the main players discovering they're amnesiac ghosts acting in someone's fantasy was fine (if slightly awkward when unpretentious characters in a "cop show" are suddenly aware they're in a high concept "fantasy show"), and seeing Gene slumped on the floor of CID after receiving a blow to the stomach from Jim Keats (Daniels Mays) was a powerful image. Keats himself was revealed to be an impish "Devil" who, having exposed Gene as a charlatan to his closest friends, marched Chris, Ray and Shaz to elevators that were clearly only going in one direction: down. But in case we missed the subtlety, Mays was allowed to hiss and spit his dialogue towards the end. I'm surprised they resisted gluing red horns onto his temples.

Overall, this series finale was entertaining throughout and actually rather good in places, but I still think the overall mystery could have been fed to us better. Chris only started hearing that freaky police whistle last week, Shaz was creeped out by the screwdriver that killed her in this episode, and most of the other significant clues to this episode's answers were products of series 3 (the ghost policeman, the 6-6-20 numbers, Jim Keats, the stars, etc), which suggest to me that the goal of Ashes To Ashes wasn't decided on until this final year. I know creators Matthew Graham and Ashley Pharoah deny this and claim they knew the ending from day one, but if that's true then I can't fathom why they wouldn't have woven more pertinent clues into the series from the very start.

So what did you think? Was this a worthy finale for the series, or were you disappointed they went for the clichéd "they're all dead" answer? Did it matter that the answers were rather predictable, as long as it all made sense? And was it acceptable that Alex (along with Ray, Chris and Shaz) never made it home to her daughter and instead went straight to Heaven via a glowing pub door? Should the series have found a way to keep Alex more central to the mystery's reveal, instead of a cog in Gene's machine?

21 MAY 2010: BBC1/HD, 9PM

ASHES TO ASHES 3.7

WRITER: Ashley Pharoah
DIRECTOR: David Drury
GUEST CAST: Lucian Msamati, Estella Daniels, Joseph Long, Simon Kunz, Charlie Roe & Gabriel Fleary

[SPOILERS] It can be frustrating being a dissenting voice, but I haven't found series 3 as enthralling as the majority of critics appear to have. I think I just dislike how it's chosen to unravel its mystery, by throwing up lots of new clues in the last eight episodes of its existence (cosmic starfields, Jim Keats, the scarred policeman.) Imagine if Lost had introduced Jacob a dozen episodes before its finale, there would be mass uproar. But for some reason fans are happy for Ashes To Ashes to do approximately that, making me wonder how much better this series would have been if Keats had been a prominent character from day one, the deformed copper had replaced The Clown in series 1, and the stars had been a motif stretching back to Life On Mars...

This week, there was another crime storyline that often felt more like a distraction to the bigger mystery of the show people actually care about. A murder at an illegal drinking establishment frequented by members of the African National Congress (an outlawed organisation back in '83), where suspicion fell on a black man called Tobias (Lucian Msamati.) Of more pressing concern was that Keats (Daniel Mays) is about to complete his audit of CID and preparing curious VHS tapes for Ray (Dean Andrews), Chris (Marshall Lancaster) and Shaz (Montserrat Lombard), while simultaneously pressuring Alex (Keeley Hawes) to get Gene (Philip Glenister) to confess to the murder of Sam Tyler. No change there, then.

Ray and Shaz also heard mysterious voices talking from behind a closed door and witnessed another vista of stars along with Chris towards the end. Chris himself earned the apparent "reward" of a blackout with David Bowie singing, having achieved some much-needed independence by refusing to blindly follow "the guv's" orders and release Tobias from his cell. Generally then, a lot of stuff happened that has been happening nearly every week in different guises, although there were a few welcome breakthroughs: Gene admitted to Alex over dinner at Luigi's (the only London restaurant in the '80s) that he helped Sam fake his own death, lots of portentous dialogue ("do you ever have the feeling that things are falling apart and nothing as you know it will ever be the same?"), and Alex discovering the location of Sam's supposed grave. The scene's set for what will apparently be a low-key finale next week, although I'm certainly interested in seeing what the creators have come up with.

Overall, I just don't find a mystery particularly engrossing if it amounts to recycling the same handful of spooky goings-on every single week, and the overarching storyline hasn't hinged on Alex very well. She's still just standing back and having clues come to her -- ghostly apparitions, desk-scratched numbers, dream imagery, etc. There's been very little sense that she's the one unravelling this mystery -- rather, like the audience, she's sitting back and asking the same questions every week, and only now getting answers because Gene's presumably sick of her whingeing (or thought he stood a chance of getting into bolly's knickers if he 'fessed up.)

14 MAY 2010: BBC1/HD, 9PM

ASHES TO ASHES 3.6

WRITER: James Payne
DIRECTOR: Jamie Payne
GUEST CAST: Joseph Long, Stanley Townsend & Steven Robertson

[SPOILERS] Ashes To Ashes thankfully pulls off a very good episode, if one that didn't strike me as wholly realistic -- what with Gene (Philip Glenister) refusing to wear riot gear in the middle of a prison uprising, yet somehow avoiding being hit by projectiles raining down on everyone else from angry inmates. And would such an occurrence really be tackled by the a six-man team from Fenchurch CID? Forgiving the relaxed grasp of realism with the premise, everything else was solid and flirted with greatness occasionally, if never quite managing to seal the deal...

As mentioned, this week's episode revolved around a prison riot, orchestrated by burly criminal Sacks (Stanley Townsend), who managed to capture Viv (Geff Francis) during the response team's attempt to restore order, prompting a tense hostage negotiation over the copper's life. As usual, Gene's tactics resorted to tough-talking, threats of violence and misguided plan of action, whereas modernist Alex (Keeley Hawes) tried to calm the situation and find a way to bring things to an amicable end. But with Viv's life hanging in the balance, because cop-killer Sacks intends to break his record, time was of the essence. For Alex, matters were also complicated by the arrival at Fenchurch of prison escapee Thordy (Steven Robertson), a con man who tries to convince her that he's actually "dead" Sam Tyler (with an altered appearance and erased fingerprints) who wants to tell her "the answers" to the mysteries of her being in the 1980s. But can she trust Thordy's tall stories, or is he just a fantasist manipulating the situation using her diacritic beliefs?

Episode 6 certainly had some very good moments and keen developments to this series' arc: the reveal that Viv was complicit in the riot and had passed Sacks a handgun, intending spring his cousin out of C Wing during the melee as "payment"; seeing Gene's bullheaded approach bite him in the arse once Chris (Marshall Lancaster) and Ray (Dean Andrews) went in undercover as reporters, only to be exposed and connected to a metal fence that would electrify them if Keats' (Daniel Mays) armed squad stormed the prison; and the general ambiguity about how far Alex can trust Thordy's claim that he's Sam with a new face, given that he doesn't know his pop-trivia circa 1994. Or, as he claims in his defense, do your memories melt away the longer you stay in this "otherworld".

My problems with episode 6 stemmed from a few things: specifics of the situation didn't feel very plausible to me, it would have been nice to have been given more insight into the criminal's intentions and the media storm going on, and most crucially I felt no real connection to Viv as a person. Up until this point, Viv's been little more than a glorified extra, so genuinely fearing for his safety was never an option. Why couldn't Ray have been the one taken hostage? Also, while it was a mild surprise to see Viv killed in the end, it would have been more memorable if the script hadn't lost its courage and had killed Ray or Chris, as threatened. That would have really upset the apple cart as we approach the last two episodes. Regardless, it was fascinating to see Keats was the one at Viv's side as he died from his injuries in the darkened corridor, although it seemed like he was actually draining Viv's life-force from his body, rather than ease his passing as he did Louise in episode 4. The first clear sign that Keats is the villain of the piece, for me, given Viv's expression.

Overall, there was still enough intrigue and gripping moments to keep episode 6 on-track for the duration. It was particularly unexpected to have Alex encounter someone claiming he actually is Sam Tyler, mainly because I can't fathom another explanation about how Thordy (fantasist or not) would know exactly how to push Alex's buttons. And some of Thordy's information did bear fruit, as Alex unlocked Gene's desk drawer and discovered a tin containing a roll of camera film and a photo of the young policeman who's been haunting her, before whatever caused his facial disfigurement. That wasn't totally unexpected (neither was confirmation that the numbers 6-6-20 correspond to the cop's epaulette), but how does he tie-in to Sam Tyler's story...?

Asides

• Since when did people ever call Viv "Skip"? Maybe they have done and I've never picked up on it, but it felt like this episode went to great pains to convince us how important and beloved Viv was, when the truth is he was a very underwritten desk sergeant character of no real importance.
• Some choice dialogue to ruminate on: "I want to float amongst the stars. I want to die. Let me go" says Thordy. "Dots of light, like just before you blackout" says Ray. The latter perhaps a suggestion that everyone seeing stars are, like Alex, experiencing a collective "dream"? Is the fact Chris hasn't seen stars significant? Or will he see them soon?
• The song "I'm Forever Blowing Bubbles" was also sung by Keats throughout this episode, so peruse the lyrics for any significance.
• The scarred policeman. I still think it must be a young Gene Hunt, meaning the Gene we've been following in Life On Mars and Ashes To Ashes is a willing "dreamer" like Sam and Alex, but one who doesn't want to wake up and has found a way not to. I guess we'll find out how close that is to the truth in a few week's time.

7 MAY 2010: BBC1/HD, 9PM

ASHES TO ASHES 3.5

WRITERS: Tom Butterworth & Chris Hurford
DIRECTOR: Jamie Payne
GUEST CAST: Lee Ross, Nicholas Gleaves, Roy Hudd, Camille Coduri, Robert Wilfort, Joseph Long, Jack James & Geff Francis

[SPOILERS] This episode tested my patience with its weak investigation storyline and, despite some layering to the wider mystery of what happened to Sam Tyler, I find myself caring less and less. I just can't shake the feeling Ashes To Ashes is about to take a big dump all over Life On Mars' divisive but resonant finale. I hope the writers' explanation is strong enough to make series 3 look much stronger in retrospect, but we'll just have to wait and see.

This week, Gene's (Philip Glenister) rival from his Manchester days arrived in London, a cocky DCI by the name of Litton (Lee Ross, overacting) who was meant to be a brasher dinosaur than Gene but came across as just an oily caricature with a jutting jaw and comedy moustache. Litton's down south trying to locate end-of-the-pier comedian Frank Hardwick (Roy Hudd), who stole money from a police pension fund. Oh yes, big stakes.

To cut a long a tiresome story short, the presence of Litton and his right-hand man DI Bevan (Nicholas Gleaves) made their equivalents Gene and Ray (Dean Andrews) feel like they've gone soft since leaving Manchester, and there was clear antagonism between Litton and Gene that Keats (Daniel Mays) exploited by cooperating with Litton's investigation just to annoy Hunt. Alex (Keeley Hawes) felt the blunt force of Litton's misogyny, but also came to suspect that Bevan was instrumental in covering up what really happened to Sam Tyler three years ago, acting on behalf of Gene.

The focal storyline with Hardwick was so thin and prosaic that it was a struggle to stay engaged with, especially with Ross and Gleaves giving broad performances that reminded me how daft and pantomime Ashes To Ashes can feel at its worst. This was exacerbated by the fact a backdrop to the whole episode was a very unconvincing charity event, which saw Chris (Marshall Lancaster) body-popping, an uninspired Blue Brothers routine, and a duet for Ray and Shaz (Montserrat Lombard) singing "Danny Boy". All moments best scrubbed from your memory.

Whenever's there's such a tepid storyline, I usually rely on the clues to the overarching mystery to conciliate my disappointment. Here, Gene burned Sam's leather jacket and case-files in a steel drum, Ray saw the same panorama of stars that Shaz and Alex have witnessed recently, and it became clear that Bevan did know something incriminating about what Gene did (or didn't do) that resulted in Sam's death -- so much so that Gene was forced to shoot him dead. A few things to chew on there, certainly, but was it worth the effort? The show will be over with in three weeks, and there's never enough firm evidence to construct fresh theories from. I've had three pet theories in play since series 1 about how Ashes To Ashes can end, and the show has done very little to dissuade me from them.

Overall, I just found this very weak. I appear to be in the minority for disliking series 3 (amongst the online community), but many of my friends are likewise finding Ashes To Ashes difficult to care about now. I hope there's a stunning finale planned, because the show deserves to end on a high -- especially as the creators risk defacing Life On Mars by binding the two shows together for its third act.

Asides

• I'm going to pray that Ray's line about "astronauts" after seeing stars isn't of deeper relevance, and was perhaps just a dig at the atrocious ending of ABC's Life On Mars remake (where the characters were revealed to be futuristic astronauts travelling to the Red Planet on a "gene hunt", ho-ho.)
• Ray's "Danny Boy" performance was perhaps something of an in-joke, as actor Dean Andrews is actually a very good singer.
• I've enjoyed seeing how paperwork and procedures (the bane of Gene's way of life) are slowly creeping into the police system this series. It was fun to see a tape-recorder being used in an interview room to prevent police brutality, which Gene inevitably poured tea over.
• They shot Ben Elton! That has to be one of the strangest moments in Ashes To Ashes history, having an actor play a well-known '80s comedian and have him shot. I guess Tom Butterworth and Chris Hurford didn't like Blackadder or The Young Ones.
• I'm sure Montserrat Lombard's a lovely, sweet person in real life... but the character of Shaz and her insipid voice really makes my eyes roll. She's awful on this show.

30 APRIL 2010: BBC1/HD, 9PM

ASHES TO ASHES 3.4

WRITER: Jack Lothian
DIRECTOR: Alrick Riley
GUEST CAST: Zoe Telford, Peter Guinness, Bryan Dick, Paul Moriarty, Paul Moriarty, Joseph Long, Geff Francis, Ryan Pope & Charlie Roe

[SPOILERS] We're at the halfway point of the final series already, so it was a relief to see a much stronger episode to mark the occasion. And despite the fact I tend to find the sci-fi trimmings more interesting than the show's cop show formula, this episode (written by Jack Lothian) was a great example of Ashes To Ashes getting its balance exactly right. The emphasis was on a down-to-earth plot that was well-told and contained some twists that really worked, while the sci-fi stuff was scaled back and all the better for that.

This week, Gene (Philip Glenister) and Alex (Keeley Hawes) were investigating the murders of local drug-dealers (who've been killed by forced injections), and came to realize that it's the handiwork of Gene's old adversary Terry Stafford (Peter Guinness). Complicating matters is the fact DI6 are operating on Gene's turf under the auspices of DCI Wilson (Paul Moriarty), who has an officer called Louis Gardner (Zoe Telford) working undercover as Terry's lover. After Louise is savagely beaten by Daniel Stafford (Bryan Dick), Terry's rival son who's suspicious of her, both cases collide and it's up to CID to both protect a fellow officer from harm and bring the Stafford's to justice in the process.

To cut to the chase: I really liked this episode. It wasn't quite as emotional, complex and revelatory to make it a classic installment, but it was an hour's procedural that I felt happy satisfied with, blessed with a great performances from Zoe Telford as the incognito 'tec who's become psychologically scarred by the demands of her job, and a nice turn from Bryan Dick as the miscreant who once raped her. It was also nice to see Chris (Marshall Lancaster) given a decent subplot, as he began to develop feelings for Louise's plight, and risked destroying the entire case by beating Daniel in his prison cell after hearing about how he treated her.

The mythos of Ashes To Ashes was also stoked in a way that didn't feel so incongruent and random, especially with Keats (Daniel Mays) now giving is a clearer idea of what his character's all about. He seems to be harvesting souls, and there's the suggestion that this episode's undercover theme in some way relates to Alex when he tells her "you belong here... you look like you're visiting, but you're not, are you... you're staying", which seems to suggest that she's been placed in this world on purpose and has just forgotten her "mission". Later, Alex herself says "you can't just put somebody in undercover and expect them to make sense of things by themselves", which might be a subtle tease that that's exactly what's happened to her.

Overall, episode 4 was the first instalment of this final season that worked on more levels than passing intrigue at its breadcrumb of clues. The story was tight and written effectively, and there was even enough time for some of the comedy that's been underused this year. Indeed, the sequence where it's revealed Gene was responsible for the infamous vandalizing of the Blue Peter garden ranks as one of my favourite ways the show's merged fiction with reality. "It's only a bloody garden!"

Asides

• A new theory: could the disfigured officer with the 6-6-22 epaulette be a young Gene Hunt? If so, would that be a nod to the possibility Gene's in a coma in a hospital somewhere with those injuries, but has lived his entire life in this "mindscape"? Is he only able to exist there because other people are effectively participating in his reverie (chiefly Sam and Alex), and would that explain why Keats is trying to dismantle Genes.
• Interesting to see how Keats handled the moment when Louise was dying in his arms, easing her very calmly into death. In fact, it's now harder to imagine that Keats is around for despicable reasons after that tender moment -- so perhaps we should doubt that Gene's the hero and Keats is wrong to hate him?
• Great sequence of Alex imagining herself trapped in a coffin and about to be buried alive when she was knocked unconscious, but was that purely a visual metaphor of her mental state, or something more relevant to the story's bigger picture?
• Does anyone else find it irritating that every sequence involving the Quattro takes place on totally empty London streets? I know it must be a challenge finding locations where contemporary landmarks, signs and people aren't always lurking in shot, but it makes it look like Ashes To Ashes takes place in a city that's been evacuated!
• Was the final moment taking place in a mannequin factory of significance? Things designed to look like human, but aren't -- like most of Ashes' characters?

23 APRIL 2010: BBC1/HD, 9PM

ASHES TO ASHES 3.3

WRITER: Julie Rutterford
DIRECTOR: Alrick Riley
GUEST CAST: Joseph Long, Geff Francis, Joe Absolom, Henry Garrett, Katie Lyons, Charlie Wernham & Robert Gwilym

[SPOILERS] As usual, the week's investigation of an arsonist targeting polling stations on the eve of the 1983 General Election didn't enthral me, although the story worked well as a way to explore the masculinity of Ray (Dean Andrews), who despite being a regular on the show since Life On Mars, has barely been anything but a cocky caricature.

Julie Rutterford's script gave Ray some belated depth, after a moment of uncharacteristic bravery at the scene of a polling station fire, after which he had to be rescued himself by fireman Andy Smith (Joe Absolom). CID busied themselves trying to predict where the arsonist would strike next, but it was a little obvious Falklands vet Andy Smith would be the prime culprit, or at least closely tied to the outcome, as he was one of only three guest stars in the entire episode and by far the most famous. I've often lamented the way cop shows handle their plots in this regard, as it's so often the most recognisable actor who's exposed as the villain. There were a few moments of doubt thrown our way halfway through, sure, but ultimately things panned out as you expected from the second you saw the ex-EastEnder.

More interesting were all the sci-fi flourishes, of course. Jim Keats (Daniel Mays) is obviously locked in some kind of battle for the "souls" of the main characters, trying to lure them away from the clutches of Gene Hunt (Philip Glenister) whose gravity they're all orbiting. Like last week's episode focusing on Shaz (Montserrat Lombard), Keats again spent half of his screentime feeding Ray encouragement to choose his own path and become less dependent on "the guv". Right now, I'm glad we're not sure if Keats is bad or good, which is just as well, but I'm not sure I like the way the show wants to paint Gene as the despicable shadow that's keeping everyone down. Gene's the larger-than-life character everyone watches the show for, so to keep having it suggested he's actually the series villain (it's now inferred he shot Sam Tyler, too) is a little frustrating. But I suspect Keats' antagonism of Gene is more for Alex's benefit, as he's essentially poisoning her mind against him as part of a longer game.

But this was definitely more of a showcase for Dean Andrews, who put in his best ever performance as Ray and turned the final standoff between himself and Andy into gripping TV. Seeing Ray unburden himself over his "daddy issues" (he always felt his father thought he was a failure for not joining the army) was a really nice moment, very well-played by Andrews. And it was intriguing to see Ray given the peculiar "blackout" visual where David Bowie's "Life On Mars" starts to play, as happened to Shaz last time. These blackouts seem to signify a moment when a character's made something of a psychological breakthrough, but I'm not sure if they symbolize a success for Keats or Gene -- as the Devil/God figures.

Asides

• So now both Alex (Keeley Hawes) and Shaz are doodling stars in their spare time, and Shaz reveals she's also seen a blanket of stars outside her window, similar to those Alex witnessed in the alleyway last week. Is this a hint that the answers behind Ashes To Ashes are cosmic in nature?
• Interesting to note the symbolism of Ray's character starting to change once he'd braved some hellish flames.
• Is Keats' quoting of John Donne's Meditation 17 (.."any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind, and therefore never send to know for whom the bells tolls; it tolls for thee..") of significance? Is Keats trying to diminish Gene by "killing" everyone's reliance on him? Is this in turn suggesting the world of Life On Mars and Ashes To Ashes are of Gene's construction, but he needs people like Sam Tyler and Alex Drake to sustain them?

16 APRIL 2010: BBC1/HD, 9PM

Ashes To Ashes' ratings fall

Will the BBC come to rue their decision to move Ashes To Ashes from Mondays to Fridays? Episode 2 of the timeslip cop show managed 4.86m viewers on BBC1, down 640,000 from the previous week's premiere.

Considering the fact the premiere aired over Easter, when a lot of people might have been away for the weekend, I was expecting ratings to go up in week 2. You can't even add the BBC HD ratings to this figure, because the HD simulcast was bumped to Monday because of the US Open golf. Maybe a lot of HD fans have waited for tonight? Let's see how Episode 3 does this Friday, as there can't be any excuses if ratings slip again.

What do you make of this? 4.86m isn't a total disaster in this day and age, but it's a little odd considering Ashes is an established show in its final year, with a big fanbase behind it. Are Fridays to blame, because a lot of people are out? Are people bored by the show now? I've noticed a lack of comments on my own reviews, in comparison to last year. If you're not watching it, but you did last year, why is that?

ASHES TO ASHES 3.2

WRITER: Ashley Pharoah
DIRECTOR: David Drury
GUEST CAST: Beth Goddard, Joseph Long, Geff Francis, Nick Sidi, Nick Haverson, Rupert Simionian, Flaminia Cinque, Adam Shipway, Dean Nolan, Charlie Roe, Frog Stone & Reece Beaumont

[SPOILERS] The second episode was better than the premiere, mainly because it had more time to do a proper job with the week's investigation. Ashes To Ashes remains an entertaining mosaic of cop drama, ironic '80s comedy and sci-fi fantasy, but at this stage I feel like all its tricks have run their course. I can enjoy seeing Gene (Philip Glenister), Ray (Dean Andrews), Chris (Marshall Lancaster) and Alex (Keeley Hawes) re-enact Billy Joel's "Uptown Girl" as much as the next man, and as a Life On Mars fan I'm hardwired to get a chill whenever someone mentions Sam Tyler's name, but I sometimes find myself growing impatient with Ashes as a police procedural, and the clues we're getting toward the finale's answers are always so deliberately vague or confusing as to be more annoying than compelling. That said, there was at least one clue this week that worked so brilliantly that it overshadowed everything around it.

This week, CID are being sent body parts of women that had been branded with a crescent moon shape. It's not long before they arrive at the conclusion that a serial killer's using the Crescent Moon dating agency, run by Elaine Downing (Beth Goddard), to murder the girls he arranges to meet through them. Alex invents "speed dating" and holds an event at Luigi's pub, intended to find the most suspicious bachelor there, and once they have a prime suspect it's up to Shaz (Montserrat Lombard) to go undercover as his next potential victim. A mission complicated by the fact Shaz is having second thoughts about her career in the police force.

No offence to Montserrat Lombard, but Shaz is by far my least favourite character on the show, partly because her personality's as wishy-washy as her simpering voice. Shaz's sudden hatred for her job came out of nowhere, too, which was a problem for me. Her character has always felt designed to be a typical '80s woman in the workplace, who would look on Alex as something of a mentor/idol, so to see her inexplicably lose her gumption over, well, nothing just saddened me. I guess nothing about Alex has rubbed off on her. Still, it was interesting to note how Keats (Daniel Mays) appeared to nudge Shaz's decision to leve through seemingly kind words ("I think you know exactly what you should do..."), which made me think Keats' intention is to tear apart Gene's "world" by ripping apart his support group of friends/colleagues. After all, who is the mighty "Gene Genie" if he has nobody to boss about, but a lonely ogre?

I wonder if Keats will be dripping poison into Ray or Chris' ears in the weeks to come? Mind you, Shaz eventually didn't go through with her decision to quit the force, so either Keats lost a battle there or making her quit wasn't part of his plan to begin with. I guess one thing the third series is doing well, so far, is making you ponder what Keats' purpose is. Is he going to be of help to Alex, as he's the one pushing her to investigate Sam Tyler's death, which does seem to have some unanswered questions? Or should we trust in Gene and believe Keats is just stirring up trouble? I have a tough time believing Ashes To Ashes would unmask Gene as Sam Tyler's killer, no matter how likely that sometimes feels. It would retroactively spoil both shows if we discovered he's the villain, no matter how often the show plays with with that possibility.

Perhaps the biggest clue towards the finale came via Shaz, whose role in the show might perhaps hold the key to The Answers. When she finally agreed to keep her job, the background around her melted to black, she stared into the camera, and David Bowie's "Life On Mars" started to play eerily. Was that signifying that Shaz, like Sam Tyler, has decided to stay in this world (inferring that she's similarly existing in a mindscape?) She did see The Clown in series 1, remember? Actually, maybe everyone on the show are comatose dreamers, but have since forgotten that fact? Yes, I'm proposing that there were pre-Life On Mars shows we've never seen,o one involving Ray (a no-nonsense cop from the '90s) joining the police force circa 1964. I'd watch that.

And what of the moment when Alex wandered down an alleyway looking for Shaz, only to find herself teetering on the edge of Outer Space? I do hope that wasn't a nod towards an overtly sci-fi ending, a la the Life On Mars USA finale.

Overall, a decent episode, again because there were some good clues to the overall mystery, although I'm not as interested as I used to be. I know Ashes has only been on-air for three years, but if you include the two years of Life On Mars, and the year of the US remake, this basic story of a contemporary cop struggling to make sense of a timeslip has been beaten to death. I'm actually relieved Ashes is coming to an end. I just hope it can do so in a way that feels earned, surprising and emotional. I'd also appreciate some stronger storylines for the cop show element, because the whole "police corruption" angle of series 2 was one of the reasons that year felt like a huge improvement. As fun as the sci-fi stuff is, the cop drama still takes up 95% of every episode's narrative, so it needs to be strong. And so far this series, I'm not that excited by Keats and the Sam Tyler case. Hopefully there'll be a big breakthrough soon.

Asides

• Guest star Beth Goddard, playing the dating agency's owner, is Philip Glenister's wife in real life, which gave her enquiry about Gene Hunt's wife ("poor, poor woman") a meta level of comedy.
• Alex references Jeffrey Dahmer as a serial killer, which Keats acknowledges. But as Dahmer wasn't even arrested until 1991, that seems to suggest that Keats (like Summers last series) isn't from 1983.
• A few questions to ponder: Is Sam Tyler dead? Who scratched 6-6-20 into Alex's desk and what does it mean? What will Alex finds amongst his personal effects, beyond his leather jacket? Did Gene, Ray and Chris fake Sam's death? If so, why? And who is the young phantom policeman with the deformed face, and is he connected to Sam's mystery?

9/12 APRIL 2010: BBC1/HD, 9PM

TV Ratings: Ashes To Ashes & Doctor Who (BBC1)

Two big UK shows returned over the Easter weekend, but how did they fare in the ratings? Well, Ashes To Ashes managed 5.5m, which isn't too bad given its new Friday night timeslot (it was the most watched show that evening), but considering series 1 and 2 both opened to 7m, that's a fair old slip through no fault of its own. Considering the fact this year's its last, have 2 million viewers really lost their appetite for answers? Why did the BBC move it from Mondays, anyway? Anyway, 5.5m is still a good figure for a Friday, and perhaps fans who were out will be catching up on iPlayer or VoD this week.

On Saturday, there was the hyped return of Doctor Who, with Matt Smith debuting as the Time Lord and Steven Moffat in creative control. The first episode managed a decent 7.7m, and response was also very positive from audiences, fans and critics. It feels like the show will avoid a post-Tennant slump in popularity. Doctor Who's always been bigger than its individual stars. The current Doctor always feels better than the last, too. Well, unless it's Colin Baker.

Of course, 7.7m is still the show's lowest-rated opener since Tennant's debut in series 2, which launched with 8m. But, perhaps with word-of-mouth spreading (indeed, lots of people who never liked Who have commented to me that they'll be watching this series now, based on "Eleventh Hour"), maybe series 5 will build on what's a very solid start.

ASHES TO ASHES 3.1

WRITER: Matthew Graham
DIRECTOR: David Drury
GUEST CAST: Danny Mays, Joseph Long, Geff Francis, Simon Merrells, Tanya Franks, Jadie-Rose Hobson, Jane Bertish & Matthew Amroliwala

[SPOILERS] "My name is Alex Drake and, quite frankly, your guess is as good as mine" are the wry words that open Ashes To Ashes' final series – a hint, if one were needed, that the answer to its three-year mystery (five if you count Life On Mars) won't have anything to do with a comatose modern-day detective simply fantasizing of the '80s during brain-death. At least we hope not, because where's the fun in a mystery being exactly what's been alluded to from the start?

Ashes To Ashes is a curious piece of television, in that it's not totally fulfilling when taken purely as either a sci-fi mystery or cop drama, but its two halves feed and sustain each other. If you're getting bored by the week's investigation, it won't be long before Alex (Keeley Hawes) is wittering to static on a TV set; if you're puzzled by the phantoms Alex is haunted by, just wait a few minutes and Gene (Philip Glenister) will be roaring around in his orange Quattro, barking obscenities and punching louts.

This premiere had to answer last year's provocative cliffhanger, where Alex was accidentally shot and woke up in a 2008 hospital room, apparently having snapped out of her coma, only to find Gene's face plastered on various monitors and bellowing for her to wake up. Did Alex make it back home to 2008, but Gene's been revealed as a reality-hopping deity? Or is she still in her coma, now fantasizing about being in a coma? Or neither.

There was a fun opening to return us to the show's status quo, with Alex back in the "present" but wishing she could get back to her figurative Wonderland, because, like Sam Tyler before her, the "fantasy" is more appealing than "reality". That longing to return is despite the fact she's been reunited with her daughter Molly (off-screen, frustratingly), as there's a throwaway line explaining that Mol's staying with her dad while Alex works through her mental problems -- which I didn't really buy. We've spent the past few years watching Alex desperately trying to get back to her daughter, and now we're expected to believe Alex would rather go back to fight crime with a bad perm? It may have been plausible for singleton Sam to embrace the olden days, but Alex? I didn't buy it.

Regardless, it wasn't long before realities started to blur again; with Ray (Dean Andrews), Shaz (Montserrat Lombard), Chris (Marshall Lancaster) and Gene appearing on a video rental shop's TV screens and emblazoned across DVD cases (unfortunately reminding me of the execreable Red Dwarf "Back To Earth"), prompting Alex to wake up back in 1983 thanks to a slap to the face from Gene. In another hard to swallow development, we learned that Gene was fresh back from Spain, having fled the country for three-months out of fear he'd be blamed for hospitalizing Alex.

Funny, my recollection of series 2's finale was that Summers shot Alex before he was killed, so would it really be beyond '80s policing to determine what happened? Would it ever be considered likely that Gene shot Alex, intending to kill her? And why would Gene think fleeing to the continent would help his cause? Purely from a storytelling perspective, why was it even necessary to say Gene had run away for months? The truth surrounding who shot Alex could easily have been dealt with off-screen in the time Alex was unconscious, so she could wake up and get back to work with a clean slate.

You could actually give yourself a headache trying to make sense of Ashes To Ashes sometimes, which has always been its biggest problem regarding its mythology. I've never been totally convinced the writers can or will pull of a satisfying conclusion; it was only the emotional impact of Life On Mars' finale that filled cracks in its logic. The knowledge that series 3 of Ashes is intended to be an unofficial continuation of Mars, with the two show's converging for an ultimate payoff in episode 8, is actually a slight concern. If the big explanation is nonsense it'll tarnish the previous show's shining legacy. Or did the US remake already do that?

Back to the episode, and this week's storyline involved a simple kidnapping and ransom demand for a schoolgirl called Dorothy (Jadie-Rose Hobson) -– a nod to The Wizard Of Oz, and she even had a gingham dress and pigtails in case you missed it. The story wasn't particularly interesting, and fell prey to the cliché that the most recognisable guest-star would be outed as the culprit, and it didn;'t help that the episode was bookended by the more interesting sci-fi trappings. It's not that Ashes is incapable of doing good cop show drama, just that the more interesting mythology sometimes overshadows the crime-of-the-week storyline, particularly in episodes like this where Alex's existential questioning was foremost on our mind.

There was a new character to meet called DCI Jim Keats (Daniel Mays), a representative of the Discipline & Complaints Department, an outfit that will very soon "clean up" British policing so it's less about punching thugs in the guts and threatening people in interview rooms and more about paperwork and speed cameras. Keats was here to investigate Gene's accidental shooting of Alex, and he initially appeared to be an agreeable sort of man, until he showed his true colours to Gene in the final moments -– claming he knows something about Gene's past three years ago. This secret is likely linked to what happened to the late Sam Tyler, whose case file Alex discovered and hid in her desk. Was Gene responsible for killing Sam? Is it possible, as Alex is beginning to suspect, that Gene's somehow at the centre of both her and Sam's experiences in this "world", whatever it is?

I don't know, and I'm not sure I care yet. It just strikes me that Life On Mars had a beautifully simple concept that the writers followed through to a conclusion that may not have made logical sense, but felt appropriate and earned. In Ashes To Ashes, the exact same concept is being used to fuel another show, and to keep our interest they're having to thicken the soup with more vagaries and misdirections. It's possible they have a fantastic conclusion planned that will make sense of both shows and go down as a masterstroke, but I can't help thinking it's going to be a nebulous letdown -- because once you start needlessly overcomplicating a simple premise to sustain an idea five years... any attempt to tie up loose ends and make sense of the mess is going to run into trouble.

Asides

• The biggest mystery here is who restyled Alex's hair while she was in a coma, as she woke up with a completely new 'do!


• Who says "warrant schmarrant"? Is Alex a Jewish New Yorker now?


• I do like the sense of family with the characters: Gene and Alex the parents; Ray, Chris and Shaz their three kids. Ray even spent this episode sulking about not getting daddy's approval.


• Is it standard practice for CID to install a giant countdown clock in their office, when villains give them a deadline to work to?


• It seems that the spectre of a disfigured policeman is going to be this year's "Clown" to haunt Alex's visions, which must in some way be related to the secret Gene's keeping about Sam's death. And is it likely John Simm's going to make a reappearance at some point?


• The company "Dot Matrix"; a nod to both Dorothy in The Wizard Of Oz and The Matrix?


• For all BBC HD viewers, next week's episode isn't going to be simulcast in HD because of the US Open golf, so you'll either have to wait until the following Monday (12 April) or just watch standard-definition on BBC1.

2 APRIL 2010: BBC1/HD, 9PM

Ashes To Ashes: Series 3 Trailer + Sport Relief

The BBC have released a trailer for the third and final series of Ashes To Ashes, which is now confirmed to return on Good Friday (2 April). If you missed it, there was also a ten-minute "episode" in aid of Sport Relief last night, featuring a host of British stars from the '80s, in a story about the theft of the Ryder Cup. It's very strange hearing studio audience laughter, but this was otherwise a pretty decent sketch. Watch it below:

Coming Soon: Ashes To Ashes, series 3

It's nearly time to revisit the '80s again, as timeslip cop show Ashes To Ashes returns for its third series on BBC1. All the regulars are back for this final run, joined by Daniel Mays (The Street, Plus One) as Discipline & Complaints officer Jim Keats. The BBC press release doesn't offer many hints about what's in store (particularly regarding how they'll deal with the fantastic cliffhanger last year), but you do get to see Keeley Hawes' worst hairdo yet (see above). Oh, you gotta love the '80s...

The press release doesn't confirm a timeslot, but I've heard Monday 22 March mentioned on the grapevine. That sounds very plausible, but take it with a pinch of salt. As usual, I'll be reviewing Ashes To Ashes every week as it reaches its conclusion. I'm intrigued by the creators' claim it will answer its own mysteries and demystify Life On Mars' finale, too. Is there a chance John Simm will return as Sam Tyler, as has been rumoured since Ashes first began?

Ashes on Mars

Digital Spy have a good interview with Ashes To Ashes' co-creator Mathew Graham about series 3 of the popular timeslip '80s cop show, promising a definitive end with no possibility of another spin-off, and a finale that binds Mars and Ashes together. I'd be very surprised if John Simm hasn't been persuaded back for the big finale, wouldn't you..?

"Series three unifies Life On Mars and Ashes To Ashes and makes them one show. By the time you get halfway through series three of Ashes To Ashes, you will actually feel like you're watching series five of Life On Mars! In a way what we're saying is that we're going to finally explain the mythology we've created. And in theory, there will be no mystery left." Continue reading...

ASHES TO ASHES 2.8

[SPOILERS] This finale was a fitting end that brought the year's most successful elements together (the police corruption, Martin Summers), then ended on a beautiful brain-flip that will leave everyone counting the days until season 3...

Opening with an amusing fantasy sequence of Gene (Philip Glenister) on kid's TV show Jackanory reading a story about Alex's "love of brains", information is imparted that the doctors in 2008 are injecting Alex (Keeley Hawes) with "super-antibiotics" to fight an infection, giving the episode a countdown element. From there episode 8 plays like a direct continuation of last week's excellent story, with CID investigating police corruption when a snitch called Doyle's (Chris Pollard) body is found dismembered in a fish n' chip shop. The killer turns out to be mechanic Tiny Tim (Aidan Kelly), who is connected to the corruption scandal but unwilling to talk for fear of being killed...

Meanwhile, Alex begins to suspect that Martin Summers (Adrian Dunbar) is a personification of the infection her body's fighting in 2008, but is having difficulty persuading Gene to let her investigate the Summers connection. In one of the episode's best scenes, after Gene listens to an audio tape of Alex badmouthing him and CID (passed to him by Summers in secret), he asks Alex to explain herself and tell the truth. And, finally, Alex comes clean about being a time-traveller, but finds herself being disbelieved and causing a the breakdown of their professional relationship. Gene even begins to suspect that goody two-shoes "Bolly" is part of the corruption scandal, so suspends her from work.

Elsewhere, Chris (Marshall Lancaster) struggles through the day at work, finding himself ignored by colleagues and left behind at the office when the rest of the team go out on busts. Shaz (Montserrat Lombard) seems sympathetic to her fiance's plight, but their relationship is still uncertain given Chris' awful mistake in accepting backhanders. However, Chris gets a chance to put things right when he manages to get insider information from his criminal contact about a gold bullion robbert that appears to be the fabled "Operation Rose" Summers is obsessed with, and DS Supermac mentioned as his dying words.

There's some really good stuff in episode 8, even if the week's investigation was a little flat in places. It was a straightforward story with some excellent diversions and flourishes: like Gene having his head turned by Tiny Tim's sister Jenette (Eva Birthistle), who almost gets her man by proving herself with Western trivia (or was that sequence a dream..?); the frankly hilarious moment Ray (Dean Andrews) unwittingly chomps down on a deep-fried penis, as the scene hard-cuts to him gargling with mouthwash¹; seeing Gene and Alex's rock-solid relationship sour very credibly; and in discovering how Operation Rose and Martin Summers are linked. It turns out that Summers was essentially the Chris character in the real 1982, pressured into corruption, so has been trying to fight his demons and change the imagined-'82. In some ways he's been on a personal crusade just as Alex was in season 1 to save her parents, as it's also confirmed that he's the male hospital patient from episode 1's teaser and has been "linked" to Alex's subconsciousness.

In examining the nitty-gritty, there wasn't much here that we hadn't guessed or suspected for awhile -- it was just a case of getting specifics about Operation Rose and for the series to decide what it wanted Summers to be (friend, foe, real, imaginary, help, hindrance.) But I'm still not sure why Summers needed Alex to embrace corruption to survive in '82 (or why he would want to exist in this faux-world), why he was creepily obsessed with roses like a stalker (beyond the fact it made an intriguing motif), and the earlier Freemasons aspect to the mystery didn't really lead anywhere. It may have helped if we'd at least learned that the young PC Summers was in the brotherhood.

Still, for all its faults, this was broadly a compelling and entertaining finale from writer Matthew Graham that achieved its aims. The real talking point is undoubtedly going to be the wonderful climax, with a Gene/Summers/Alex standoff that sees Summers shot and killed, but not before he shoots Alex dead... and, after an ethereal whitewash, we're transported to the present-day. Awakening in her hospital bed, Alex is swiftly reunited with daughter Molly (Grace Vance) -- a reunion that felt disappointingly lukewarm, sadly. But, hey, I was distracted from that damp squib by this unexpected development! Is this the end? Isn't there another season to go? Well, yes...

With Alex left alone in her bed to recover (noticing the dead body of Martin Summers wheeled past her doorway), the hospital monitors suddenly buzz into life and we see Gene Hunt, apparently talking to the comatose Alex in a POV shot and desperate for her to wake up because he's been blamed for shooting her. Thus, in a mind-bending twist, Alex is finally awake and lucid in 2008 but stuck in a coma back in 1982?!

It's a delicious development and progression of Alex's malady, although I can't quite wrap my head around its logic. I suppose there are only a few possible explanations: (1) 1982 was reality all along, and now Alex is in an impossibly accurate, imaginary 2008. (2) There's a part of Alex's brain that's still fantasizing, so she's in a kind of "waking dream" state and will have to return to imaginary-'82 to absolve Gene of suspicion by putting herself back into a coma.

Whatever the answer, it's a fantastic new development that has me psyched for the third and final season (recently confirmed by the BBC). How long will we spend in 2008 with Alex and Molly next year? Will she have to commit suicide like Sam Tyler to get back to '82? Is there scope to have Gene and the gang arrive in 2008 at some point? If they're all merely figments of her imagination, why not? Or would it be a shark-jumping moment seeing Gene in the 21st-century, as a Harvey rabbit only Alex can see? I think so, too.


8 June 2009
BBC1, 9pm

written by: Matthew Graham directed by: Catherine Morshead starring: Philip Glenister (Gene), Keeley Hawes (Alex), Dean Andrews (Ray), Marshall Lancaster (Chris), Montserrat Lombard (Shaz), Adrian Dunbar (Martin Summers), Eva Birthistle (Jenette), Aidan Kelly (Tiny Tim), David Kennedy (DCI Carnegie), Joseph Long (Luigi), Geff Francis (Viv), Grace Vance (Molly Drake), Ellena Stacey (Carley), Chris Pollard ("Rock Salmon" Doyle), Mark Straker (Doctor), Brett Allen (Blagger), Simon Sherlock (Bent Copper) & Greg Donaldson (Guard)

1. I have to say, it amuses me how the writers toy with Ray's sexuality. While he's often seen ogling big-breasted women, he sometimes makes throwaway comments that hint at his bisexuality -- here, he agrees with Alex that seeing athlete Daley Thompson in a "bluey" would be good.

ASHES TO ASHES 2.7

[SPOILERS] Writer Mark Grieg and director Catherine Morshead appear to have the best grasp of Ashes To Ashes, which makes any episode they're involved with worth taking note of. Episode 7 is a great piece of work (easily one of the show's finest installments), and the fact it calls back to earlier episodes (with the police corruption scandal) and developed the Martin Summers mystery, was icing on the cake...

At heart, it's all about the fracturing of the CID "family" this week. The opening scene finds everything in harmony, staking out a building site to foil a drug deal, with Gene (Philip Glenister), Ray (Dean Andrews), Chris (Marshall Lancaster) and Alex (Keeley Hawes) codenaming themselves after the Three Bears fable, with "Mummy Bear" Alex saving "Daddy Bear" Gene from their knife-wielding leader. The situation leads to them discovering a dead body in a concrete pit, kicking off a murder investigation with site manager Lafferty (Dorian Lough) the prime suspect. Gene also has help from informant PC Martin Summers (Gwilym Lee), the younger version of Alex's rose-obsessed stalker -- meaning the helpful copper is someone Alex refuses to trust, despite his apparent good intentions.

In one of the episode's more intriguing scenes, the middle-aged Summers (Adrian Dunbar) manipulates his '80 self and Alex to the building site at night, and proves to Alex that the past can be rewritten by callously shooting his younger self dead, framing Alex as the killer, and thus forcing her to hide Summers' body in another concrete pit. The paradox of Summers killing himself triggers feelings in Alex that she could perhaps have saved her mother (Amelia Bullmore) from the fateful car bomb that killed her in this dreamworld, despite the fact she's come to believe imagined-'82 is a place to exorcise personal demons and find closure by reliving trauma from a different perspective.

Usually, Ashes To Ashes struggles to turn its weekly investigation into truly compelling drama, but that's definitely not the case this week. It helped that the plot eventually encompassed the police corruption storyline prematurely wrapped-up (or so we thought) in episode 4. Gene realizes that there could be a mole in CID; someone who's been operating on behalf of the late DS Supermac and Lafferty, so he sets a clever trap by telling each member of his staff the whereabouts of vital evidence in the Lafferty case (a safety-deposit box, a different number of which he entrusts to each confidante.)

When the information is passed to Lafferty by the mole, all they need to do is see which deposit box was tampered with to realize which cop has been passing on secrets. Interestingly, the deposit box room's floor had a checkerboard pattern (associated with the ceiling of the CID office), symbolizing the world turning upside down for Gene, as he discovers which of his team has dishonoured the service.

And, despite having very few options regarding who the culprit might be (Ray, Chris, Shaz, Viv), I must confess I opted for Ray... and was proven wrong. No, it was nice-guy Chris -- persuaded to tamper with evidence, "lose" files, and pass on information for money he used to but an engagement ring for fiancé Shaz (Montserrat Lombard). It worked brilliantly as a reveal because of how plausible everything felt, and Lancaster gave a superb performance once he was exposed. You could see the sorrow etched on the face of "Baby Bear" and as viewers his actions made us feel the same sense of disappointment Alex and Gene had. Usually just the goofy comic-relief of the series, Lancaster grabbed this dramatic opportunity and nailed it. Great stuff.

So, where does all this leave us? Gene decides to punish Chris by refusing his resignation and forcing him to work with stunned colleagues that can't stand to be in the same room as him, and his engagement to Shaz is now on shaky ground. For Alex, she knows from Summer's paradoxical shooting that she can influence this "dreamworld" in ways she didn't think possible, and in the final scene discovers Summers' hideout -- filled with the clichéd "villain's wall" of newspaper cuttings and photographs of Alex and her friends.

What is Summers' deal? Is he a constant inhabitant of this '82 with Alex, or does he just drift in and out from his own hospital bed in '08? That must be the case if he knows she's had her bullet removed by doctors, surely. But why does he need Alex to embrace police corruption? Is that a way to keep her in '82 permanently -- as it equals brain-death in the real world? Can't he exist in '82 without her, maybe because he's only a visitor in HER fantasy and perhaps paralyzed in '08? And what exactly is Operation Rose?

I'm still doubtful we'll get good, logical reasons to most of the questions posed, but we'll see how things conclude next week. Regardless, this episode was a well-crafted, heartrending, involving work from Mark Grieg, with a great performance from Lancaster, nice scenes with Glenister (loved his reactions to Alex's skimpy outfit at a party and his silent disappointment over Chris), and featured unexpected surprises that landed their punches.


1 June 2009
BBC1, 9pm

written by: Mark Grieg directed by: Catherine Morshead starring: Philip Glenister (Gene), Keeley Hawes (Alex), Dean Andrews (Ray), Marshall Lancaster (Chris), Montserrat Lombard (Shaz), Adrian Dunbar (Martin Summers), Gwilym Lee (Young Summers), Amelia Bullmore (Caroline), Joseph Long (Luigi), Geff Francis (Viv), Grace Vance (Molly), Dorian Lough (Lafferty), Dragon Micanovic (Tomasz) & Peter Cadwell (Brendan)

ASHES TO ASHES 2.6

[SPOILERS] Why do you watch Ashes To Ashes? It's usually down to one of four things: you like cop shows, you love the '80s, you enjoy the Gene Hunt character, or you're fascinated by the coma/time-travel mystery of Alex Drake. For me, I've never been a fan of the police procedural, and that's usually where Ashes To Ashes falls down anyway. It's a show where the premise is far more interesting than the weekly stories, but not even as interesting as it should be because Life On Mars has covered the same ground...

Episode 6 finds Gene (Philip Glenister) and Alex (Keeley Hawes) investigating why a missing person, Colin (Jason Haigh), was found dead in a nearby canal. Did weasley loan shark Trevor Riley (Sam Spruell) bump him off for not paying his debts? Did his beautiful wife Donna (Daisy Haggard) have him killed? And how dies this all fit in with Colin's kindly father Stanley (Tom Georgeson), leader of a new neighbourhood watch scheme?

As usual, it takes awhile for the story to tighten its grip, but the last fifteen minutes came together quite well and I didn't guess the culprit this week – which is something to be grateful for. Of course, I'm not sure that's a testament to the writing quality, or just the fact my brain never really engages with the weekly mystery. Maybe it was obvious for armchair detectives well-versed in Agatha Christie and paying closer attention. It is true that Ashes tends to have three main guest-stars each week, and it's often the least likely suspect.

Still, there were a few good moments that held my attention and gave us something different to chew on. I particularly liked seeing Gene get beaten up some thugs, and seeing how the ordeal actually shook him up. Sure, he didn't cry and refuse to come into work, but locking himself in a cell for some quiet time spoke volumes for the character. And when he pulled himself together we got retribution in a scene where Gene bundles his prime suspect into a car at a breaker's yard, picks it up using an industrial crane and dangles it above a car-crusher, while bellowing for answers. It was also fun seeing Alex try to teach Ray (Dean Andrews) her psychological profiling techniques, and for her hardwork to payoff in the end when Ray makes a clever deduction.

The coma-moments with Alex are quickly becoming tedious, but there were a few scenes with more imagination than talking televisions this week, with Alex having an "out of body experience" and seeing her 2008 self in a hospital's operating theatre having her bullet extracted. Afterwards, the operation apparently a success, she claims she feels much better and, hopefully, this means we'll see a different attitude from Alex for the remaining episodes to demonstrate that.

The Martin Summers mystery continues, but it's difficult to really care about any of it until we're given some clarity. Her mystery man gives her another call and sends her some dead roses this time, but I'm just irritated about why he's been all cloak-and-dagger about everything, to be honest. I know the show needs to extend its mystery and can't just blurt out all the answers, but Ashes To Ashes just isn't very good at dripfeeding its mystery in a way that's genuinely compelling. A lot of that is because it doesn't feel that the writers can come up with anything that isn't a copy of Life On Mars' reveal, without it feeling incredibly stupid. If Summers is a cop from 2008, why does he need Alex to stay in a coma for him to continue existing in head-'82? None of it really makes sense and, crucially, I don't have faith the writers have sufficiently logical answers. Methinks they just like shoehorning creepy men, mysterious phone calls, and the rose motif into every episode...

Overall, I'm just a little bored right now. The promise of the early episodes has disappeared (not helped by the fact they ditched the attention-grabbing police corruption story so early), and everything feels a bit flat and formulaic. And does anyone really cares about Shaz (Montserrat Lombard) and Chris' (Marshall Lancaster) wedding day plans? As comic relief, both are more irritating and cloying than funny and endearing, as intended. Shaz in particular makes my teeth itch, but the creators of Mars and Ashes are clearly fixated with passive policewomen with wishy-washy voices.


25 May 2009
BBC1, 9pm

Writer: Jack Lothian
Director: Philip John

Cast: Philip Glenister (Gene), Keeley Hawes (Alex), Dean Andrews (Ray), Marshall Lancaster (Chris), Montserrat Lombard (Shaz), Adrian Dunbar (Martin Summers), Sam Spruell (Trevor Riley), Tom Georgeson (Stanley), Daisy Haggard (Donna), Joseph Long (Luigi), Geff Francis (Viv), Grace Vance (Molly), Bill Moody (Bill) & Jason Haigh (Colin)

ASHES TO ASHES 2.5

[SPOILERS] There are two things that bug me about Ashes To Ashes: first, those repetitive scenes of Alex (Keeley Hawes) waking up to find an '80s television personality talking to her through the TV (an overplayed trick that now feels clichéd, not magical); and second, whenever Alex acts like a lunatic in front of ordinary people (claiming she's "not here", or talking to "strangers" as if she knows them intimately), mainly because it's ridiculous to imagine she wouldn't be undergoing a psychological evaluation by now, or at least be the victim of complaints from those she harasses...

Both these bugbears rear their heads in episode 5 -- via Keith Harris and Orville communicating with Alex on television, then when a simple burglary happens to involve the Drake family (Alex's future in-laws.) A thief has stolen £1000 from the Drake residence, deafening Bryan Drake (Rory MacGregor) in the process and causing wife Marjorie (Sophie Stanton) a lot of upset. As Gene (Philip Glenister) assesses the crime scene, it affords Alex some time to talk with her daughter Molly's father -- Peter Drake (Perry Millward), here an awkward 14-year-old boy with a cat also named Molly, weirdly. The Drakes were a hair's breath from their firstborn being called Tiddles, it seems!

Fingerprints found at the scene belong to George Staines, a known criminal who died years earlier, so Gene and the gang investigate how a dead man has apparently returned from beyond the grave to steal cash from an innocent family, first by interviewing his elderly mum Elsie (Rita Davies).

With the police corruption scandal storyline mostly laid to rest, this episode had to sink or swim on the strength of a standalone mystery -- albeit one perked up by the time-travel fun of Alex interacting with her extended family, particularly her future husband in child form. Sadly, this was easily the weakest episode of this much-improved series. Seeing Alex interact with her own family just isn't very interesting, as we don't know these people in the present-day (so there's no fun in seeing these people in their younger days -- compare and contrast with, say, Back To The Future, where Marty's interaction with his family in '55 is more buoyed by knowledge of their '85 counterparts. Here, the Drake's perceive Alex as an oddball (at best), and there's no real sense of magic to the situation. Maybe it would have been better if Peter Drake had been in his late-teens -- old enough for some sexual chemistry with his future-wife.

Usually with sub par episodes, there's at least some movement with the base-level mystery over Alex's trip back in time. That proved true here, with Alex's rose-obsessed admirer finally making his on-screen debut in the shape of retired policeman Martin Summers (Adrian Dunbar), whose presence on the credits list since episode 1 undercut the surprise for me. He arrived in this episode to speak with Alex directly, bestowing us with confirmation that he's similarly trapped in 1982 (only he doesn't want to get back) and tells Alex that she'll have to become corrupt in order to escape (how does that work?)

Really, this is the area that Ashes To Ashes falls down: it tries desperately to give its central mystery the appearance of hidden depths, but I have no faith that any of it will make sense. I could be proved wrong, but rather than be enchanted here... I was bewildered. Why was Summers sending Alex roses like a crazy stalker, if he's a levelheaded guy who only wants to help her get back to 2008? Why does he want her to leave, anyway? I'm still curious to see what "Operation Rose" is all about -- suspecting that it's related to Rosicrucianism (but is that too esoteric for a show like Ashes To Ashes, that can't alienate the traditional BBC primetime audience with "mumbo-jumbo"?) It may just turn out to be a boring codename for an anti-corruption operation, or something.

Overall, this was by far the weakest effort of the series: a humdrum mystery with a silly twist-ending (that George Staines faked his own death and had a sex-change!), stuck to the disappointing backdrop of Alex dealing with her 14-year-old husband (huge potential in theory, dull execution in practice.) Right now, I'm worried this season ditched the police corruption subplot too early, and equally concerned the Summers/Rose mystery is going to fall flat. But we'll see.


18 May 2009
BBC1, 9pm

Writer: Julie Rutterford
Director: Philip John

Cast: Philip Glenister (Gene), Keeley Hawes (Alex), Dean Andrews (Ray), Marshall Lancaster (Chris), Montserrat Lombard (Shaz), Adrian Dunbar (Martin Summers), Sara Stewart (Gaynor Mason), Sophie Stanton (Marjorie Drake), Rita Davies (Elsie Staines), Joseph Long (Luigi), Geff Francis (Viv), Perry Millward (Peter Drake), Neal Barry (Mickey Dillon) & Rory MacGregor (Bryan Drake)

ASHES TO ASHES 2.4

[SPOILERS] The fourth episode adheres to the Ashes To Ashes formula of season 2: a lukewarm police investigation enlivened by its connection to police corruption, finding form in the final third to leave you feeling satisfied...

There's a visitor to CID this week; headstrong reporter Jackie Queen (Ruth Millar), an old girlfriend of Gene's (Philip Glenister) fans may recognize as the Glaswegian hostage in an episode of Life On Mars. She's heavily pregnant, claiming the father is Gene, but more concerned for the safety of her niece, who may be the latest victim of a sex-trafficking ring. It appears that young girls fresh off coaches from the north are being preyed upon by a gang that sell them into sexual slavery, valuing virgins amongst all others.

The scene is set for a dark and gripping hour of crime drama, but Ashes To Ashes isn't really up to the task. Given the subject matter, this was a bland dramatization of a tough topic; so much so that the potential for edginess was rubbed smooth. The girls here just pose for a few risqué photos with a scumbag photographer, or have a "party" at the ringleader's home that doesn't feel much creepier than the average six-year-old's birthday bash.

Life On Mars would have tackled the subject in a more adult way, but Ashes has less teeth than its forbearer. It's more of a fun lark, so the first half is diluted by the comedy of Gene becoming a father and Alex (Keeley Hawes) butting heads with loudmouth know-all Jackie. But then, the episode finally slips into gear after Gene realizes the prime suspect Ralph Jarvis (John Bowe) is another of DS Mackintosh's (Roger Allam) compatriots -- and thus impossible to arrest and make any evidence stick.

Certainly, the show is much better whenever this corruption storyline makes an appearance -- perhaps why it's been a fixture of season 2, so far. Gene and Alex even plant a bug in Supermac's office, realize that the trafficking is in laundering money for their crooked superior, and consider letting Chris (Marshall Lancaster) and Ray (Dean Andrews) into theie circle of trust, before Gene's transferred to Plymouth for good and Supermac extends his influence further.

Alex is still receiving strange phone calls from her "admirer", who continues to send her red roses (even managing to slip one into her pocket at a bus station.) We're also treated to the most overt references to Life On Mars since Ashes began; when Jackie is probed for information about Sam Tyler by an interested Alex and she explains that Sam married Annie and lived a contented life until the day he died. There's no mention of Sam continuing the odd behaviour that characterized his days in '73 during the series, meaning he came to embrace his new existence completely. Alex is glad for him, but realizes there's a crucial difference between her and Sam: she has a daughter who needs her in 2008, so deciding to stay and live in the '80s isn't an option.

The final fifteen minutes were pretty great, too. Supermac frames Alex as a corrupt cop (planting cash and stolen goods at her home) to get her suspended from work and, after Gene reveals to Supermac that he's amassed enough evidence to end his career, Supermac shoots Ralph dead after he evades formal charges, and then turns the gun on himself.

Overall, while Ashes To Ashes has yet to knock me sideways this year, every episode has been well-constructed, amusing, well-paced and entertaining. Compare these episodes to most of season 1 (where I was regularly checking my watch by the 30-minute mark.) The climax to episode 4 was a marvelous surprise, too; I just hope Ashes can maintain this quality sans Roger Allam and the corruption storyline, which have rescued or elevated season 2's first half. Before dying, Supermac tells Alex "Operation Rose... it's coming", which must of course be linked to the mystery of Alex's admirer...

What do you think? Did Supermac check out too early? Did the corruption storyline end well? Will there be a sane answer to the mystery caller and his rose fixation? Are we being prepared for a Sam Tyler return, with recent Life On Mars allusions?


11 May 2009
BBC1, 9pm

Writer: Ashley Pharoah
Director: Ben Bolt

Cast: Philip Glenister (Gene), Keeley Hawes (Alex), Dean Andrews (Ray), Marshall Lancaster (Chris), Montserrat Lombard (Shaz), Roger Allam (DS Mackintosh), Adrian Dunbar (Martin Summers), Ruth Millar (Jackie Queen), John Bowe (Ralph Jarvis), Kirsty-Leigh Porter (Rachel Lessing), Joseph Long (Luigi), Geff Francis (Viv), Grace Vance (Molly), Sophie Bleasdale (Debbie Hall), Gerard Monaco (Gordon Lanegan) & Adrian Schiller (Ralph's Lawyer)