There is due to be a spin-off of Life on Mars called "Ashes to Ashes". Instead of a character called Sam having an accident and going back in time from 2007 to the 1970s, a woman police officer will have an accident in 2008, and be transported back to the 1980s to work with DCI Gene Hunt (played by Philip Glenister).

Will fans of Life on Mars be watching this then? I'm very much looking forward to it as a huge fan of Life on Mars... it looks like Hunt's other colleagues will be there too (with the exception of Sam). The only difference to Life on Mars is of course the lack of Sam - as well as the fact it's set in the 1980s and it'll be set in London. I hope it'll be just as good as Life on Mars, but with the fabulous Philip Glenister at the helm, I don't see how it will fail.

I think it's due to be shown in a month or so, and I thought I saw a "snippet" type trailer shown on BBC 1 earlier which reminded me about it... does anyone know exactly when it's due to be shown?

I'm looking forward to this and dreading it all at the same time!! I so loved Life On Mars that I don't see how this can live up to expectations but with Philip Glenister and the other two main members of the force still in it then I'm hoping there will still be some of the magic!

John Simm will create a massive gap to fill and Gene Hunt can't be his normal obnoxious self as it's set in a different decade but I seem to have faith that it won't matter to Philip Glenister!

I did read somewhere that it's due to start airing next month but that was on the Digital Spy forums so not sure how reliable that is...

It will be interesting to see how this one pans out!

According to http://www.ashestoashestv.blogspot.com/ it's due to commence week commencing Feb 2 2008

Yay! This starts on Thursday 7th February at 9pm on BBC 1 - I can't wait! I hope it lives up to its expectations, although I do have the same fears Cazzie shares here...

Well I thought the first episode tonight was brilliant! I was expecting it to be a bit odd as at first she seemed to know all about it and how to get back. But it soon became clear that the usual "mysterious man at the end of the phone line" and "strange voices on the radio" that Life on Mars had was not going to be carried through to this series... which begs the question - how will she know what to do to get back?

It's left me wanting more as it has all the great elements of Life on Mars - the fabulous Gene Hunt and all his one-liners, the mysterious voices on the TV, the strange haunting clown figure... and this time there's a daughter involved which makes it all the more complicated!

Roll on next Thursday.

Love, love, loved it! Made me giggle, freaked me out (I really don't like clowns! ) and kept me intrigued. So far, so good... think I might be hooked!

One question, what was the significance of all the red. Keeley Hawes was wearing red, all the accessories on the desks in the police station were red and Gene Hunt and a red stripe on his tie and there were other things.. or am I reading too much into it!!!?

Shame to hear Sam had died but then they gave a little hope by saying his body was never found! Will they mention Annie in forthcoming episodes. Eek I'm getting all excited.. hehee!

I loved it, if you couldn't tell!

That was amazing! It for soem reson really wreaks of the 80's which is brilliant. When they came round on the speedboat under tower bridge I know this series is going to be genius!

Loved it!

(Also they didnt kill off Sam Tyler completely... they never found the body )

I also found it amusing when Gene Hunt's watch beeped and he said "It's precisely 12 o'clock" and everyone else's watches beeped. I did read that this series reflected the 1980s fads of digital watches and Walkmans... and in the very first few minutes we get references to both!

So Sam Tyler commited suicide in 2007 according to that file that the camera briefly showed at the start of the episode. I assume this moment of suicide was at the end of Life on Mars? When he cut himself, realised that he didn't have proper feelings in 2007, and he threw himself off the office building to go back to 1973? As far as I could gather, he died in 1980 by crashing his car into the river... but what happened to him when he "died" in 1980? Assuming that this 1970s world was just some sort of elaborate illusion, does that mean he's not dead? If that's the case, he should surely be back in 2007... but he committed suicide there - so is he somewhere else?

Also, I noticed Gene Hunt had a newspaper article about Sam stuck up on his noticeboard - why have that there? It must mean a lot to him if he cut it out and kept it whilst they transferred to London.

Does anyone know if this is going to get repeated before next thursday?

Have had a look at the listings and can't see it repeated anywhere but someone on DS said that it was repeated on BBC4 on Thurs 14th at 10pm which makes it straight AFTER the second episode!!

But it's also on the BBCs new iplayer so you should be able to catch up with it on that if nowhere else.

not rearly got into this

It's episode 6 out of 8 on Thursday, and judging from the "next week" clip at the end of last week's episode, it looks like it'll be one which focusses a lot on Alex and her link with 2008.

Apparently episodes 7 and 8 are going to be "darker" than the rest (whatever that means). I've also read that they're about to start filming series 2, and there may even be a third series of it... not sure how a third (or even second) series would work really...

I have read some whacky theories about Alex - including one that Gene Hunt is in a coma and he is the one dreaming everything, and also one theory that Sam Tyler is in another coma after throwing himself off the top of the building and everything set in 1981 is a dream in Sam's head!!

There are strong hints though that all of this is more than just "in Alex's head" - and there also seem to be fewer links to 2008 - Sam often got calls back to 2007, but I don't think Alex has had any contact with 2008... except a few visions.

Interesting stuff!

It's the series finale next week.

I couldn't possibly even begin to guess how this series is going to end!

Anyone else looking forward to the return of Gene Hunt? This series looks as good as ever although Chris with blonde hair does look a bit odd


Still they had better come up with a good ending to this series... they cant copy Life on Mars surely?


Monday 20th it's back...

It's good to see they've set a date for its return at last! I knew it was coming back, but didn't know when. It'll be interesting to see how the story pans out...

It's been a good month in the papers online saying 'Coming soon' so it is good for it to finally appear in the listings.... the adverts do look very good though.



(I did look for this old thread but couldnt find it )

I wonder if the strange bloke on the phone and the white-faced bloke who appear briefly during the trailer are of any significance?!

I need to study this advert a bit more carefully

Here they are...





You can see them at 0:37 and 0:40 in the video of it here - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XJzsmkbuFSc Perhaps the one who seems to be on the phone is actually the banker.

Ooooh not long now until it's back!! It's worth it just to have Phil Glenister doing all the promos...