"Life on Mars" (2006) TV series 2006-2007

User Rating:

9.0/10   

Creators:

Mathew Graham
Tony Jordan
Ashley Pharoah

Seasons:

1 | 2

Release Date:

9 January 2006 (UK)

Genre:

Crime | Drama | Mystery | Sci-Fi

Tagline:

Two cops in the same town at the same time... 33 years apart

Plot:

After being involved in a car accident in 2006, DCI Sam Tyler (Simm) wakes up to find himself in 1973, the era of 'Sweeney' type policing, Mark III Cortinas, and flared trousers.

Plot Keywords:

Car Accident | Hospital | British TV | Hallucination | Gender Issues

Awards:

8 wins & 17 nominations

Cast

John Simm	...	Sam Tyler (16 episodes, 2006-2007)
Philip Glenister	...	Gene Hunt (16 episodes, 2006-2007)
Liz White	...	Annie Cartwright (16 episodes, 2006-2007)
Dean Andrews	...	Ray Carling (16 episodes, 2006-2007)
Marshall Lancaster	...	Chris Skelton (16 episodes, 2006-2007)
Noreen Kershaw	...	Phyllis Dobbs (16 episodes, 2006-2007)
Tony Marshall	...	Nelson (12 episodes, 2006-2007)

Also Known As:

Ford Granada (UK) (working title)

Runtime:

USA:42 min (16 episodes) (cut) | 60 min (16 episodes)

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Colour:

Colour

Aspect Ratio:

1.78 : 1

Sound Mix:

Stereo

Certification:

Australia:MA (some episodes) | USA:TV-14 (most episodes) | Netherlands:12 | UK:12 (most episodes) | UK:15 (some episode) | Australia:M (some episodes)

Filming Locations:

Bolton, Greater Manchester, England, UK

Company:

Kudos Film and Television

Trivia:

Sam is given messages by the girl off Test Card F, who comes out of the television with her clown doll. At the end of the series, she can also be seen running down the street and switching off the television from the inside. ("Ashes to Ashes" also refers to her with the clown motif.) The real life Test Card girl, Carole Hersee is estimated to have been on British television for 70,000 hours, equivalent to nearly eight years, and so is in the "Guinness Book of World Records" for the longest television appearance in history.

Quotes:

Gene Hunt: He has more fingers in pies than a leper cooking pies

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Ed's Thing: The Music of 'Life on Mars' (2006) (V)

A novel approach to scifi crime

I'm giving a vote of 9 out of 10 to Life on Mars, even though I know BBC America must be butchering the episodes they are screening in the US. IMDb says the runtime is 58 minutes. After you take out the commercials and endless promos BBC America runs each hour (at least 8 or 9 minutes must be for that worthless trash, Footballers Wives), I'm guessing we in the US are viewing about 44 minutes out of the 58. So good is Life on Mars, however, I'm willing to put up with it--and hope for the full version DVDs later.

What makes this show tick? Perhaps it's the ever present dreamscape quality--made possible by the slight sepia tint seemingly applied on most setups, which combine with the bright incandescent interior lighting of the institutional quality police stations, bar rooms, and housing projects to give a greenish, otherworldly haze to many scenes.

Combine this with the fun look back into a time without computers, fax machines and those damnable cell phones and you have poor Sam Tyler facing off with an English version of Dirty Harry. Combustible. Not to mention that Sam's holier than thou attitude is beginning to lose out to the realists on the beat. All of it makes for a very interesting hour--or 44 minutes.