BBC’s ‘Ashes to Ashes’

OPENROAD

Niamho! wrote: »

:eek:

I dont think i could find this forum when Life on Mars was on!
I thought i was in a Massive minority watching it!
Tried to get people to watch it all the way through so if i missed one i could ask about it.

I thought it was Good. Very similar. i se an addiction Starting!

I missed Life on Mars on tv, but got the dvd and watched it all, pure class, Gene is superb, a great actor imo.

John R

V wrote:

I missed it last nite so i was gutted because i thought LOM was fantastic so i was really looking forward to this. Does anyone know if it will be repeated on bbc 3/4 during the week like they with LOM last season?

Episode 1 is repeated on BBC 4 next Thursday immediately after Ep2 on BBC 1.


DRAMA: Ashes To Ashes
On: BBC 4
Date: Thursday 14th February 2008 (starting in 5 days)
Time: 22:00 to 23:00 (1 hour long)

Deja Vue. Series 1, episode 1.
Drama series following the exploits of old-school detective Gene Hunt from the drama series Life on Mars. DI Alex Drake is shot and lands in 1981, coming face-to-face with Gene Hunt, the relic of old-fashioned policing she had read about in Sam Tyler's reports. Thinking that she is in a coma, Alex demands Hunt's help in tracking down the man who shot her in 2008.
(Stereo, Widescreen, Subtitles, Audio Described, 2008)

Director: Jonny Campbell
Starring: Philip Glenister, Keeley Hawes, Dean Andrews, Marshall Lancaster, Montserrat Lombard, Adam James

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Marked By: 'Category: Drama' marker
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Excerpt taken from DigiGuide - the world's best TV guide available from http://www.getdigiguide.com/?p=1&r=629

Copyright (c) GipsyMedia Limited.

"V"

Cheers John R thats super. So the big question is if you had a choice would you choose to live in Manchester 1973 or London 1981 and why?
I would pick 1973 mainly because of the clothes,cars and football.

Stephen

Top stuff.



Miami Vice tribute anyone?

mike65

Not quite, sleeves are down and the wind is bloody freezing!

Mike.

OPENROAD

V wrote:

Cheers John R thats super. So the big question is if you had a choice would you choose to live in Manchester 1973 or London 1981 and why?
I would pick 1973 mainly because of the clothes,cars and football.

Has to be London for me, not just because I'm a Londoner at heart and love everything about the city but for the football and for the music well Madness, 1981 was a big year for them. Clothes wise though :eek:

Basq

I don't know lads. Didn't really enjoy the first episode of 'Ashes To Ashes' at all.

Felt too much like a parody, which wasn't really enjoyable. For example, the scene with Markham and his goons start shooting at Chris and Chris jumps about and avoids all the bullets, and then Gene does a little moonwalk type step while shooting (anyone else notice this shot?). It just looked all very daft!

And I think Keeley Hawes was decent.. but John Simms was much much better. Of the new cast, they all blended in with no real introduction. Except for Chas.. who was just annoying personified!

There was a few nice touches in there.. Zippy and Bungle, the clown from Bowie's 'Ashes to Ashes' cover, nice 80's references (Pong, Pacman cups).

And also no real great (and quotable) Gene Hunt lines in this one (as far as I remember). I'll watch next week but the first episode just didn't do it for me.

EDIT: Was trying to think where I saw Edward Markham from the episode. And from a quick glance on IMDb, now realise he was Andy's agent in the 'Extras - Christmas Special'.

Mr E

Harsh basquille, Harsh. I had it Sky+'ed, and just watched it.

Loved it.

Yeah sure it was silly in places (Chris dodging bullets, Gene managing to just graze Layton with a machine gun at close range), but it was really solid and a nice continuation of the Life on Mars legacy.

You know something else? It looks like we are 99% guaranteed a cameo from Sam Tyler before Alex Drake gets home. They'll probably leave it until the last scene of Episode 8, but its going to happen...

purplegeko

Mr E wrote: »

You know something else? It looks like we are 99% guaranteed a cameo from Sam Tyler before Alex Drake gets home. They'll probably leave it until the last scene of Episode 8, but its going to happen...

How can there be a cameo if Sam Tyler died? Would it be like in one of her visions or something?

Mr E

It was mentioned in Ashes to Ashes that he drove his car into the river and the body was never found. Sounds like an opening to me.

mike65

Quick bump - the first episode is on BBC4 tomorrow night at 10 pm (ie straight after ep 2 on BBC1)

Mike.

iguana

purplegeko wrote:

How can there be a cameo if Sam Tyler died? Would it be like in one of her visions or something?

But it has only been established that Sam is dead in 2008 and Drake is assuming that it is all a hallucination. Perhaps he actually did go back in time and by choosing to stay in the 70's his body in the 21st century died because it was no longer needed. And perhaps Drake has also gone back in time, where Sam is assumed to be dead but his body was not recovered.

I'm assuming we will definitely see Sam at some point and most likely Annie as well.

But I do agree with Basquill's opinion on the 1st episode.

odyssey06

I thought the second episode wasn't great. I'm not sure if the show is worth watching just for Gene Hunt's one-liners, a great soundtrack and two very cute WPCs (Keeley Hawes and whoever plays Shazza)... The plots are predictable, and Alex's habit of talking out loud about how all of this is in her imagination just isn't working. I assume it's meant to be knowing and ironic but it just makes her come off as neurotic. She really doesn't seem like a policewoman, whereas John Simm you felt cared about what it meant.

is_that_so

Missed the first one and only caught up with both last night. So far it is only bedding itself in. Life on Mars took a good few episodes to get going. I like Keeley Hawes as an actress and I think she is doing a decent job here so far. Considering her character is a psychologist, the musings don't bother me much. She's convinced she's going home at any minute. Where Sam spent a lot of time looking confused she knows or thinks she knows what's going on.

I actually like the general silliness of it and there are some very nice touches ; the De Lorean - The A-Team complete with bullets missing everyone and Gene worrying about the Quattro. In that respect I think it is good that it is not just Life on Mars 2.

I have found it pretty enjoyable to date, although I would agree it hasn't the inventiveness of Life on Mars but then again if this was the first series and not the follow-up what would we think?

grumpytrousers

yeah, i hate to say it but i'm gonna have to wade into the 'not convinced' camp. I loved Life on Mars and i dearly dearly want to love Ashes to Ashes in the same way, but it's not happening. Y'see, i think the problem is that Tyler accepted that whilst he might be mad, he was still a cop out to do a job, no matter what the style of clothing was around him. Sure there were double takes a-plenty, but it was still bog standard cops'n'robbers with a bit of 'Sam trying to get back' shoved in as well.

In this, it's all too much about Drake wanting to get back to her time. Now obviously if this show was about Drake, that'd be all fine and dandy, save for the fact that her getting back to 2008 removes the entire raison d'etre of the show in the first place.

Ashes, more than 'Mars' is Gene Hunts show. It's that simple. The contrast between him and a similar 'ranking' cop from 33 years on worked a treat in the earlier show, but the contrast between him and DI Drake just isn't enough.

I have the show sky plussed and series linked. I'll watch all the rest, 'cos it's fun, but it's not doing it for me in the same way...

mike65

I think the best way to view A2A is not to think of it as a sequel to LOM, and watch it for its own virtues (and the chance to see Hawes ass being stamped "for Gods sake just stamp my ass"). As Drake is a police psychologist her musings are in character so I don't have a problem there.

Mike.

Hrududu

I only saw a couple of episode of Life on Mars, but i never really got into it. I think i was put off by the 70'sness of it. I never really liked The Sweeney or any of those shows so I couldnt warm to LOM. But all those 80s shows were right up my street so I'm finding it a lot easier to like A2A. Plus as I can't really compare it to LOM I'm not disappointed by it. I'll definitely be tuning in next week.

purplegeko

iguana wrote: »

But it has only been established that Sam is dead in 2008 and Drake is assuming that it is all a hallucination. Perhaps he actually did go back in time and by choosing to stay in the 70's his body in the 21st century died because it was no longer needed. And perhaps Drake has also gone back in time, where Sam is assumed to be dead but his body was not recovered.

Obv. some people were watching the first episode more carefully than me!!! I can see the possibility of a cameo now.

The 2nd episode was so-so it still had enough humor and storyline to keep it interesting. IE is she there to prevent her parents death? :rolleyes:
I liked the way she referred to them as constructs and they all just ignored her. Best part was her mother walking in on while she was getting stamped.

ixoy

I'm enjoying it - it's got a lot more humour than 'Life on Mars' and the difference in tone is important in identifying it as something other than a carbon copy.
I quite like how Alex knows what's going on but almost to no avail - her exasperation is good. Her interaction with Hunt works well because of it. She doesn't have the quiet intensity that Simms brought to Sam but nor should she have - she's far more aware of the rules of the game than he was.

iguana wrote: »

But it has only been established that Sam is dead in 2008 and Drake is assuming that it is all a hallucination. Perhaps he actually did go back in time and by choosing to stay in the 70's his body in the 21st century died because it was no longer needed. And perhaps Drake has also gone back in time, where Sam is assumed to be dead but his body was not recovered.

Or perhaps, given it's in her head, she can just subconsciously manifest Sam!

I'm assuming we will definitely see Sam at some point and most likely Annie as well.

But I do agree with Basquill's opinion on the 1st episode.[/QUOTE]

Utopia Parkway

It's kinda enjoyable but not a patch on Life on Mars IMO. Sometimes it just feels like an 80's tribute programme. Can you remember than tune from the 80's? Can you remember those clothes from the 80's?

There was a darker edge to Life on Mars too. Ashes just seems a bit too light and frothy.

is_that_so

Bumping this again now that it has passed the halfway mark and I was wondering what people think of it so far. My own feelings is that it has become fairly humdrum and that it is slowly going downhill. I've only seen up to episode 4 but it seems to get weaker as it goes along. There is far too much focus on Alex, her mother, who she thinks she is and her big moral crises (or the writers' version of it).

Perhaps this is where it was always going to fall down as we've already seen Sam travel the same road. Not sure there is much scope for letting it go beyond the current run.

Anyone else still watching?

mike65

I'm still with it - last nights episode was improved on last weeks which was in turn much worse than episode 3 (they end up in the safe, best one so far). I've found the series is at its best with Alex internal world and wanting to connect with her mother, as the police procedurals are pretty basic in terms of plotting. Last night it nearly hit a poetic note at the end complete with Ghosts by Japan on the sountrack. The first few lines being apposite.

Mike.

lostexpectation

its terrible

OPENROAD

I think it has been getting better imo, still Life on Mars was still better.

ixoy

I enjoyed last night and ep 5 but conversely thought episodes 3 (the safe) and 4 were quite weak. Indeed it was those that really made me doubt the whole show. I'm more in favour of it now even if it's not up to the quality of its father series.

Arthur Daley

Really into this series, the first time in years I don't want to miss an episode of something. I know there have been a few weak storylines alright, such as breaking into the intelligence HQ and I didn't much like last night's episode with the charity fundraising bloke.

On the whole it's entertaining, the music is brilliant as is the quattro. Keeley Hawes is gorgeous, and the humour with Ray is great. Lol at his appearance in a gay club, being a hard nut as he is.:D

I'm more into this than Life on Mars, probably because '81 in London is cooler than a downbeat Manchester in '73, and I think you have to watch it as a seperate series entirely from LOM.

It's due another series - hopefully.

iguana

Arthur Daley wrote: »

Keeley Hawes is gorgeous,

Is she? I think she's very plain looking and very aged for 31.

mike65

She looks in her late 30s but frankly that just makes her more attractive to this old geezer!

The final episode is next week so will it be a wrap or the launch pad for another series? Glennister says this is his last go as Hunt. I doubt they'd kill him off and continue on.

Mike.

Lux23

iguana wrote: »

Is she? I think she's very plain looking and very aged for 31.

Plain? If shes plain, im a complete minger.

I found Thursdays episode very disturbing, there has been so much written and talked about in relation to police brutality in Britain (and here) and I always felt that any copper who either beat someone in custody or stood over and watched was scum. But I could really empathise with the charcters the other night, it was very difficult viewing for me.

I will devastated if there isn't another series with Gene Hunt, there are loads more stories to be told about him. I think this series has been as good as Life On Mars, if not better in some ways.

Arthur Daley

Lux23 wrote: »

I will devastated if there isn't another series with Gene Hunt, there are loads more stories to be told about him. I think this series has been as good as Life On Mars, if not better in some ways.

Phillip Glenister was saying that A2A could possibly go to a third series, but that by then he will have had enough of playing Gene. I think it's fairly certain there will be a second A2A, and that would leave only 16 Life on Mars and 16 Ashes to Ashes, which isn't much considering how long some series have run on.