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The Best...cop show

Philip Glenister as DCI Gene Hunt and John Simm as DI Sam Tyler
  • Posted at 5:13am
  • 15 March 2007
  • by LauraPledger-RT
  • 2 comments

I don't know who first had the idea "What TV really needs is a time-travelling cop show!", but millions of discerning viewers are certainly glad they did.

The TV crime-drama landscape is increasingly marred by scriptwriters competing to come up with the goriest case possible to challenge their two-dimensional characters. Against this background, Life on Mars is a breath of fresh air. It has an endearing quirkiness that the creators of its American counterparts - those slick, big-budget, over-produced behemoths - can only dream of.

With its knowing nods to cop shows of the past, Life on Mars is a welcome reminder of a time when men were men, women were birds and the criminal fraternity were just plain villains.

In most of the police dramas crowding our screens today, you fear the leading males would hesitate to wade into a fight lest they spoil their manicures. Meanwhile their female colleagues routinely tackle men twice their size and brush off sexist remarks by turning on their stiletto heels and flicking their lustrous locks in contempt. They somehow manage to accomplish all this while doing nothing whatsoever to put them in danger of being promoted above their second-in-command status.

Traumatised crimefighters regularly sit around and share their fears to the strains of Jeff Buckley's Hallelujah. (That, or some other piece of music that will move the audience to tears without placing too much strain on the pretty-pretty cast's acting ability.) But for the 70s cops in Life on Mars, there can be no room for self-doubt. It would use up valuable space better filled by copious amounts of alcohol, for a start.

If, like me, you were born a little too late to really appreciate the taste-free zone that was the 1970s, it's laid out here for your delectation in all its questionable glory, set to an appropriately long-haired soundtrack. And if you are unfortunate enough to remember that particular decade, you can happily nit-pick where the crew dared to get the period detail wrong by a month or two.

Fans were entranced throughout the first, all-too-short series of eight episodes. Our 21st-century hero Sam (John Simm), transplanted to 1973, embarked on a will-they-won't-they relationship with gutsy but cutesy policewoman Annie. How we cheered as dozy, amiable Chris came out of his shell, and - go on, admit it! - trembled a little in sympathy as nasty Ray got his comeuppance.

And then there was DCI Gene Hunt (Philip Glenister), a man so unreconstructed that his Maker must have got his assembly instructions from MFI. Hunt's no-holds-barred approach is a welcome tonic in these days of overcrowded prisons, early release dates and Asbos. The "Gene Genie" wooed the female demographic with misogyny, violence and a neat line in scathing humour. Forget the knight in shining armour atop a white steed - it seems what we gals really want is a coarse copper in a camel coat careering around in a clapped-out Cortina.

So as the second (and sadly final) series of Life on Mars airs, what viewers most want to know is not whether Sam is mad, in a coma or the police force's answer to Doctor Who. The question we really want answered is: are we ever going to see the long-suffering, saintly Mrs Gene Hunt? And, for some of us lovelorn ladies - do you think he might be persuaded to leave her..?

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  • Posted on 28 October 2007
  • at 2:27pm
  • by ThreeB

I loved this series; got hooked in series 2 and then lucked into repeats of series 1 ....but the final treat was chancing upon a repeat of the final episode of series 2 a few weeks ago. ( digital TV, together with a total lack of planning on my part, makes me feel a bit of a time traveller myself!)..which I thought was worth the wait... no one had been able to explain the twists and turns of this fianl episode to me satisfactorily ( not even a synopsis on the web site) and it was worth the wait....great stuff and how wise to end it at that point, while it was so successful........

  • Posted on 26 March 2007
  • at 9:26pm
  • by Valerie

Oy, the 70s were not that taste-free!

Okay, yes, they were.

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