Ashes To Ashes - BBC 21:00 hrs Tonight

[Beach Hut]

Excellent news as this superb BBC1 series resumes again tonight.

The series moves on to 1982 and the Red Quattro (I aspired to one of these once) is back along with the delectable Keeley Hawes and all those politically uncorrect males.

Worth the licence fee alone this series.....................

 

[vegster]

I am afraid the joke is wearing a little thin now, Gene Hunt is a brilliant character but his best days were in Life On Mars. John Simm was brilliant as Sam Tyler, the polar opposite of Gene Hunt. I'm afraid Gene can't carry it on his own and so I think that this series will see the end of the concept.

I think John Simm will have his feet up watching with a nice glass of Chablis congratulating himself on getting out at the right time.

 

[Lady Bracknell]

I'll be interested to see what people were doing in 1982 only I was busy with babies.

 

[murraymints4brighton]

Top quality TV show only downside is it is post Eastenders/panorama.

 

[Beach Hut]

I'll be interested to see what people were doing in 1982 only I was busy with babies.

Were my greatest years the '80s, we we all young, free and single.

 

[Bluejuice]

I am afraid the joke is wearing a little thin now, Gene Hunt is a brilliant character but his best days were in Life On Mars. John Simm was brilliant as Sam Tyler, the polar opposite of Gene Hunt. I'm afraid Gene can't carry it on his own and so I think that this series will see the end of the concept.

I think John Simm will have his feet up watching with a nice glass of Chablis congratulating himself on getting out at the right time.

ASBOlutely, I quite agree.

When I first heard of the plan to revitalise the concept in the first series of Ashes to Ashes I was dead excited to learn it would all be delightfully 80's, the decade I was born in, which gave us some of my favourite music.

And sadly I was left disappointed. That stuck up bitch in the lead role does my head in and I cringe at her "just gotta get my daughter back" spiel at the beginning of each episode.

Gene Hunt IS a superb character it's true but as Vegster says he's not enough to carry the series on his own and unfortunately the formula that worked so well with Life on Mars appears to be lacking something in this move to the 80's.

I will give it another try because apart from anything else I enjoy the nostalgia value and they do a good job of mocking up 80's Britain but I can't imagine it's going to hit the heights of Life on Mars sadly

 

[Beach Hut]

Shame on you, superb series

 

[Bluejuice]

I'm hardly ripping it to pieces, merely stating I don't think it's as good as it might have been.

 

[Fred Oliver - Legend]

have been looking forward to tonight for ages, can't wait for it to start,

Fire up the quattro!!

 

[Simster]

To be fair, the bar was set unattainably high with Life on Mars. Nevertheless, this spin-off is quality stuff IMO.

 

[vegster]

I'm hardly ripping it to pieces, merely stating I don't think it's as good as it might have been.

Indeed, LOM was new, innovative and combined nostalgic pop music,cars, telly progs.. almost everything. It also managed to produce a series of well crafted stand alone episodes which still carried the underlying story of what Sam was supposed to be doing in the 70's and how could he get back to "real life". It managed, almost effortlessly, to combine pathos, political incorrectness, duty ,humour and the science fiction aspect beautifully in a well rounded package which appealed to so many viewers.

I think if we are honest, its best days are behind it now and its becoming that well loved family Aunt/Uncle who you used to admire and look forward too seeing ,now declining, to become a feeble old person who can't remember who they are.

 

[Beach Hut]

OMG it's like listening to my I-Touch the music being played...............

 

[footychick]

I've just watched it for the first time and thought it was really good.

 

[El Presidente]

Were my greatest years the '80s, we we all young, free and single.

........and NICKED!

 

[Timbo]

"Don't go in there like a bull in a china shop" - *smash* - "Is this the China Shop?"

Superb.

 

[Fred Oliver - Legend]

enjoyed it, loads of questions to be answered now tho, who was the doctor??

 

[Horton's halftime iceberg]

Good start a lot better than the first six episodes, fire up the photocopier...

 

[brakespear]

Meh. while I'll agree it was better than the first six terrible episodes, simply retracing 'Life on Mars' only with a lead who can't act doesn't make for stellar TV for me.

 

[Gwylan]

It always amazes me how little research is done on this programme: they constantly get minor details wrong.

Tonight they had a character say he was at Stamford Bridge watching Chelsea - with 30,000 witnesses. In 1981/82 season, Chelsea were in Div 2 with an average gate of 13,132 - that would have been easy to check.

And why does Keeley Hawes always look like a drag queen?

 

[jakarta]

Sorry, for me its just not as good as Life on Mars.

It is probably just me, I grew up in the wonderful beige and burnt orange 1970's with three day weeks, power cuts, 8 track cartridges cutting your music to bits, Morris Marinas and Vauxhall Vivas (don't ask), the Black and White Minstrel Show and the whole horrible, all pervading feeling of decline and hopelessness which was living in the UK - Life on Mars captured almost all of that feeling and also had the first drama soundtrack that actually had music of the time that wasn't Chart Fodder Shit - it was the actual stuff I was listening to back then - I never thought I would hear You Shouldn't Do That by Hawkwind on Prime Time BBC TV

Gene Hunt is, as mentioned previously, a truly wonderful invention, but everything surrounding him in this series is sadly a bit of a crock - and that Keeley bloody Hawes cannot act.......

Grumpy Old Man signing off.