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Did you spot the clues? - Radio Times, April 2007 |
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Now that this year's most tantalising TV mystery has been solved, Life on Mars co-creator Matthew Graham reveals to Nick Griffiths the clues viewers should have picked up on along the way.
Mancunian Way
Series one, episode one
When Sam regains consciousness,
instead of finding himself on the
slip road where he was knocked
down, he's on waste ground looking
up at a poster announcing the
motorway's about to be built.
"We knew that this road was
built in the late 1960s, but we
took a bit of artistic licence.
The structure of the Mancunian Way
in the poster is supposed to be
a subtle manifestation of the
two-way timeline of Sam's
existence. And the 'Coming Soon!'
logo suggests the time-shift
element of Sam's journey is quickly
going to reveal itself to him."
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Hyde 2612
Series two, episode one
Hyde is the police station that Sam says he's
been transferred from. He receives
mysterious calls from an anonymous male
voice, and traces it to Hyde 2612.
"The telephone number Hyde 2612 has a cosmic
significance. The numbers, and the name Hyde,
mean something. I came up with Hyde in the
first place as a little joke to myself, because
I've always seen Gene as the dark alter ego
of Sam. He's the Mr Hyde to Sam's Dr Jekyll.
"Also, it's worth remembering the voice at
the end of the phone, as it will eventually
reveal the truth of Sam's situation."
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Test card girl
Series one and two, throughout
Whenever Sam falls asleep with the TV on, he's
wakened by the Test Card girl who has come to
life to constantly torment him.
"The Test Card girl represents the devil in
Sam Tyler, teasing and torturing him. But there
is another factor to consider. In 1973, when
television transmission had ceased for the
night, when the story is done and the
characters have vanished into nothing, the
BBC would switch to the Test Card girl. So she,
if you want to be melodramatic,
represents the apocalypse, the end."
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Basil Brush
Series one, episode four
Sam receives updates from his future
through his TV set. But a scene involving
Basil Brush has more sinister overtones.
"There was something subliminal put into
Ashley Pharoah's episode four of the last
series, when the television in Sam's room
starts to flash very quickly through lots of
different channels. You see soldiers next
to Basil Brush. Originally, Basil Brush
revealed something subliminally.
"Ash wanted something like those satanic
messages you supposedly heard if a certain
record was played backwards. He wanted
Basil Brush to say something like, 'Sam
Tyler's not in a coma; he's living on
Mars', very quickly, and you had to run it
at a certain speed to hear it. We tried
it but it didn't work very well. So we had
to cut it right down. But I think there's
still something there."
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Wild card club
Series two, episode one
A murder investigation leads Sam
and his colleagues to a casino,
where nothing is what it seems.
"The casino that Sam visits was
originally called the Joker Club,
though we changed it to the Wild
Card Club, but the "joker" logo
remains - suggesting that Sam is
actually the butt of a cosmic joke."
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Sweeney motor
Series two, episode one
Subliminal messages hidden in TV footage
aren't confined to Sam's bedsit in 1973.
"In the opening scene The Sweeney was
playing on a TV set in Sam's hospital. It's
a blurred picture - very brief. But the
clip chosen has a particular car in it, of
a particular colour. The question being: is
this what's informing his dreams? And, hang on,
doesn't the car in that episode of The Sweeney
look oddly familiar?"
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Gene Hunt
"Of all the wacky theories I've
heard, the one that impressed me
was the idea that the name should
be taken literally. Gene hunt -
that Sam is searching for his
father; or that Gene is his
father. I thought that was very
clever. But it wasn't something
we had constructed. Or was it?"
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Frank Morgan
Series two, episode seven
The senior police officer introduced in episode seven is
called Frank Morgan.
"He shares his name with the actor who poses as the
Wizard of Oz in the Judy Garland movie." The Wizard wasn't
quite who he seemed. Could the same be said of Frank Morgan?
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The Hyde Bus
Series two, episode one
During series two, Hyde takes on more significance.
"A body is found on a bus, and if you look behind Sam
when he walks around the front of the bus, you'll
see the destination board says 'Hyde'. Another hint of
the name's growing significance."
**
Now take a look at our full Life on Mars guide.
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