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Helen M Jerome reviews
Ashes to Ashes Series One
Distributed by
Contender Home Entertainment
Ashes To Ashes Series 1: 
Life On Mars Series 1 & 2:
Series Producer:
Writers:
Ashley Pharoah, Matthew Graham, Mick Ford, Mark Greig, Julie Rutterford
Executive Producers:
Jane Featherstone, Matthew Graham
Cast:
DCI Gene Hunt: Philip Glenister
DI Alex Drake: Keeley Hawes
DS Ray Carling: Dean Andrews
DC Chris Skelton: Marshall Lancaster
WPC Shaz Granger: Montserrat Lombard
OK. Start with the genius idea that was Life On Mars – time travel, old-fashioned police work, and jeopardy against the clock.
Take the premise out of the seventies and forward into the early eighties. And
voila, you have Ashes To Ashes.
The main changes are bringing in a couple of key new characters: Keeley Hawes
as DI Alex Drake, and Montserrat Lombard as Essex copper Shaz, to add a
hefty dollop of unresolved sexual tension; moving the locations from Manchester
to London, and the car from Ford Cortina to Audi Quattro; altering the fashions
from loud and flared to brash and showy; and changing the music from Bowie and
glam rock to New Romantic and Two Tone.
The ‘Gene Genie’, Philip Glenister’s fantastic creation DCI Gene Hunt
remains the main copper. The constant smoking, drinking, sexism and homophobia
are unchanged. Everything else is turned all the way up to eleven.
A few viewers might be initially alienated by the first episode, which has to
explain the premise, link it to John Simms’ character’s fate in Life On Mars,
and introduce the new plotlines, locations and characters. But once you make the
leap into Episode Two and beyond, it’s fire up the Quattro full throttle, fight
crime, and feature some impressive guest appearances from the likes of Rupert
Graves and Matthew MacFadyen (aka Mr Keeley Hawes), not to mention
cameos from Steve Strange and Shaw Taylor as their eighties selves.
This is one of the most enjoyable series of the new millennium, inducing wide
grins of recognition in viewers of a certain age, plus instant Proustian memories
through the fantastic soundtrack, while entertaining everyone else with its
humour, suspense and politically-incorrect, tongue-in-cheek dialogue.
What about the extras? Well, they all contain spoilers, so you really shouldn’t
watch any of them until you’ve watched the entire series. The commentaries on
the first two episodes, featuring inside information from director Johnny
Campbell, series producer Beth Willis and star Keeley Hawes are chirpy, giggly,
occasionally interesting, but not massively insightful.
Though we do get some neat titbits of trivia, like Alex spending most of her
time getting her hair re-permed and coloured, the difficulties of wearing
worn-out eighties clothing, and finding locations.
The belt and braces ‘making of’ documentary called Life After Mars features
short interviews with producers, writers, directors and actors – with Keeley
Hawes and Monserrat Lombard to the fore – plus the marvellous Philip Glenister, and
his trusty Northern sidekicks Chris and Ray (Marshall Lancaster and Dean Andrews).
There’s also a set tour, with the production designer’s insight into creating
colour palettes for characters, and her explanation of how they hit specific
‘memory buttons’ to help people recal the decade, using everything from choice
of sofa to décor in Luigi’s restaurant to the police stockroom with lots of
eBay-sourced period props!
Thrown in for good measure are some extra deleted scenes, so we get more of
Alex’s creepy nemesis, Layton, plus Shaz in hospital, and Lord Scarman singing
along with Village People hits. And there’s an extra devoted to the finale’s
explosion, explained by special effects and stunts chaps, actors and the odd
stunt double.
FILM
PICTURE
SOUND
EXTRAS
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OVERALL
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Review copyright © Helen M Jerome 2008.
DVDs reviewed by the editor are watched on a Panasonic TXW32R4 32" widescreen TV
connected to either a Creative Dxr2 DVD-ROM player or Microsoft Xbox and
played through a Sony STR-DB930 amplifier.
PC games reviewed by the editor are on:
Since Nov 2005: Intel Pentium D 830 3.0Ghz, 1Gb RAM, 128Mb nVidia GeForce 6700XL, Windows XP
Since Aug 2003: Intel Pentium 4 2.66Ghz, 512Mb RAM, 128Mb GeForce4 MX440 graphics, Windows XP
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