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Series two introduction - Radio Times, February 2007 |
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Cast and crew shared their experiences from the set of the hit drama's final series. They talked to Nick Griffiths.
The genesis of the show
"I love The Sweeney, and of course
that was part of the inspiration for
Life on Mars. Years ago we said,
'Wouldn't it be great to do something
like The Sweeney, but there's no way
any cop would behave like that any more', so
eventually we
came up
with the
idea of
going back
in time."
MATTHEW GRAHAM, co-creator
Setting the 70s scene
"What we tried to do
from day one was to make Sam feel like a fish
out of water. We were contrasting
his 1973 environment with what
he'd left behind in 2006. Everything
has a slightly scummy edge."
MATTHEW GANT, production designer
"At
first, [the hairdo] was like wearing a bird's nest
on my head. And I
had
no peripheral vision, so I kept having
to turn my head to see things at the
side."
LIZ WHITE, actor
"The majority
of this stuff is hired
from a prop house in London. There's even a company that
sources original produce wrappers
and reproduces them for film units."
MATTHEW GANT, production designer
"The Cortina's great.
I love those old cars. There were
always new ones turning up on set, to
be in the background, and I'd always
open the door and have a smell - you
know, the leather smell you get in old
cars. I'd just sit there and reminisce
for a minute."
JOHN SIMM, actor
On developments in the second series
"You obviously want to push the
characters forward, to develop
relationships and to find ways
of surprising the audience, but
I'm not going to change the
dynamics. You don't want Gene
to start saying to Sam, 'Actually,
you've got a good point.'"
MATTHEW GRAHAM, co-creator
"Gene's not going
to stop calling women 'birds'. It's
a continuation from where we left
off."
PHILIP GLENISTER, actor
"Sam's sideburns are a little longer, so he's tried to settle a little bit. But he hasn't changed that
much 'cos he still thinks he's getting
out [back to the present] at any point."
JOHN SIMM, actor
Feelings about filming the final series
"I didn't want to do
another series. I was
away from home for six months, away
from my family, and I was in every
single scene. I'd get in at 8pm,
exhausted, learn the next morning's
script the size of Little Dorrit, try to
watch the news, get up and go back
to work again. I just can't do that
intense level of work again."
JOHN SIMM, actor
"We got very excited
about what we wanted to do in series
two and how we wanted to end it. We
loved the story we were telling, but to
maximise it we had to end the show."
MATTHEW GRAHAM, co-creator
Expect the unexpected
"We're throwing some
very unusual new things into the mix
and messing with people's heads all
over again. Towards the end of the
series we'll be subverting the very
tenure of the show, subverting what
people think the show is about. It's
definitely not a good idea to assume
that you understand everything."
MATTHEW GRAHAM, co-creator
**
Read Matthew Graham's series two episode guide - or take a look at our full Life on Mars guide.
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