Fire Up The Quattro!: DCI Gene Hunt And Crew Return As Life On Mars Sequel Ashes To Ashes Premieres On BBC One In The UK

When we last saw Detective Chief Inspector (DCI) Gene Hunt (Philip Glenister), he was patrolling the streets of 1973 Manchester in Life on Mars on the BBC and BBC America. In the sequel, Ashes to Ashes, set to premiere on Thursday, February 7th on BBC One in the UK, it is now 1981 and Hunt is now working for the Metropolitan Police in London. Hunt has brought his Manchester colleagues Detective Sergeant (DS) Ray Carling (Dean Andrews) and Detective Constable (DC) Chris Skelton (Marshall Lancaster) with him. Detective Inspector (DI) Alex Drake (Keeley Hawes) is shot in 2008 and when she comes to, she finds herself in 1981 and in the company of Hunt, Carling, and Skelton. She is familiar with all three because in her role as a police psychologist, she had read the notes of interviews with DI Sam Tyler, a Manchester cop who, in a comatose state, had “worked” with Hunt, Carling, and Skelton in Life on Mars. Got that?

The preview clips of the show look great. Like its predecessor Life on Mars, Ashes to Ashes is named after a David Bowie song. There is a great bit in the preview clip below in which the clown from Bowie’s “Ashes to Ashes” video is chasing after Hawes’ Alex Drake character.

So the question is, has Alex Drake gone mad or has she really been transported back to 1981? I hope that Ashes to Ashes turns up on BBC America so that we can find out.

Ashes to Ashes apparently features a great soundtrack full of period hits, like “Vienna” by Ultravox and The Clash’s cover of the Bobby Fuller Four’s “I Fought The Law.” The fashions are also pretty wild.

For further information on Ashes to Ashes, see:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/drama/ashestoashes/

For more on Life on Mars, go to:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/lifeonmars/

To watch a preview clip of Ashes to Ashes, click below: