Life On Mars / Ashes To Ashes (UK) - General Discussion

[kieyra]

The old Life on Mars section didn't see much action, but there's some indication there will be a new (final?) series:

Life on Mars creator confirms third and final series is in the works

Quote

... Seemingly confirming Glenister’s return, he added: “There are bad things and there are monsters. These things are real. But to get to you they have to get through the Guv [Gene Hunt]. And the Guv is putting his driving gloves on.”

Graham said the final series would be set in Manchester and London, “set partially in the 70s, partially in the 80s and mostly in an alternate now”.

He hopes that as many of its previous cast as possible will return, namechecking DC Annie Cartwright (Liz White) and DCI Derek Litton (Lee Ross). “When you wonder who will be coming back for The Final Chapter – think Avengers Assemble,” he said. Comprising four or five episodes, Graham also mentioned a possible show-within-a-show format, featuring a programme called Tyler: Murder Division.

That said, this news came out not far into the pandemic (article is from April 2020). Hopefully it actually makes it into production.

Here's another article from July.

Quote

Life On Mars star Dean Andrews has confirmed that a new series is in the works, after creator Matthew Graham hinted the show could be returning to screens.

Speaking on This Morning the Emmerdale star, 56, revealed the writers are in the midst of scripting of new episodes, and they're 'hopeful' a majority of the cast will be reprising their roles.

 

[Meredith Quill]

I FLOVED Life On Mars, it's one of those shows where I wish I could erase it from my brainbox so I could watch it all over again anew.

Ashes To Ashes was meh for me in comparison - guess I prefer 70's nostalgia to 80's.

[kieyra]

16 minutes ago, SilverStormm said:

Ashes To Ashes was meh for me in comparison - guess I prefer 70's nostalgia to 80's.

Yeah, I think that was the overall reception from most people at the time (aside from the small group of posters I talked with on a very old TWOP thread). I think it might have been received a little better if it aired now, because it seems like 80s nostalgia is super popular at the moment. But maybe not.

My spouse and I are this weird American Ashes to Ashes superfan couple. I bought him this for one of our anniversaries. 

(He has UK coworkers who tell him he's nuts for asserting that Ashes to Ashes was better than Life on Mars.)

At the time Life on Mars (UK) first came out, I was already a fan of UK television, but I had a really hard time with the UK + 70s + police-specific lingo, and I hadn't yet discovered the magic of closed captioning. I was so lost the first time around. I missed a ton of references and colloquialisms in AtA as well. 

I wonder how they're going to do this--it seemed like at the end of AtA, several of the characters being referenced for a reunion had 'moved on'. In other words, if Ray / Dean Andrews comes back, then it seems like Alex / Keeley Hawes could too, but it's hard to know what they have in mind in terms of the show's mythology. (I'm not sure I ever understood what happened to Sam Tyler even after AtA.)

[Meredith Quill]

10 minutes ago, kieyra said:

(He has UK coworkers who tell him he's nuts for asserting that Ashes to Ashes was better than Life on Mars.)

His co-workers know what's up, heh. LoM had much better humour for us Brits, I think that was the clincher here and may be why British fans generally think it's the superior of the two.

Example: "It's dinner time, I'm 'aving Hoops!"

I doubt anyone who isn't British (or fully immersed in our culture) would understand that and why it's funny, lol.

[Ceindreadh]

I much preferred Ashes to Ashes, but that's partly because the 80s music and style was much more familiar to me than the 70s. 

[festivus]

II'm here! I missed having Life on Mars on my homepage. It's a show that is just about perfect imo. Sam Tyler and Gene Hunt are two of my favorite characters ever. I'm about to watch it again, I do every few years but I like to do it in late spring/summer for some reason. Probably because that's when I watched the first time. 

My collectible I bought was "The Rules of Modern Policing" 1973 edition.

 

[kieyra]

2 hours ago, festivus said:

It's a show that is just about perfect imo. Sam Tyler and Gene Hunt are two of my favorite characters ever.

That's how I feel about the three seasons of AtA (obviously Gene Hunt is a GIGANTIC part of that, and I like the other characters that got carried over from LoM (Ray and Christopher, and I know there were a few others who at least had one-off episodes). I know some people didn't care for the wrap-up, or thought it tied things up too neatly, but I loved it. 

... just had a quick look and it doesn't look like Life on Mars is available to stream on the major US platforms, but it's on Britbox. It was on Netflix for a long time. AtA of course isn't anywhere. I don't know if it's because it wasn't as popular, or because of music licensing or something. (I mentioned the soundtrack: everyone drink!)

And out of morbid curosity: Looks Life on Mars US isn't streaming anywhere. I think I made it about two episodes in to that one. I guess that was a classic example of a UK show being absolutely demolished in translation. 

[raven]

Loved Life on Mars (non-US version).  I can't remember how I watched it since I'm in the US.  Maybe BBC America?

I tried for a long time to figure out a way to watch Ashes to Ashes and never could.    I floved Gene Hunt. 

Sorry I don't have anything more constructive to add, LOL.  I'll just pout in the corner.

[Stuffy]

2 hours ago, raven said:

I tried for a long time to figure out a way to watch Ashes to Ashes and never could.    I floved Gene Hunt. 

It’s on dailymotion, but the ads can be ridiculous. Sometimes there’s no ads at all, and sometimes there’s a ton.  It’s not HD but I don’t know if it was back then. 

Edited March 2, 2021 by Stuffy

[Ceindreadh]

Ashes to Ashes and Life on Mars are both available on Netflix in Ireland, so probably on the UK one as well. (Might be time for a rewatch before it’s removed)

[supposebly]

I'm rewatching the UK Life on Mars on Britbox at the moment. 

Sam's room still makes me depressed and nauseous. Interior decoration was just awful. Awful. Awful. Awful.

[ABay]

My impression of 70s England: So much sad wallpaper, and you know everything smells bad.

One of the things that makes LoM better to me is that there's an overarching mystery--is he dead, mad, or in a coma--which is resolved at the end of the series. And then it's done. With AtA, the interesting mystery is solved and then the show keeps going and I couldn't emotionally invest in the story that led to the conclusion, it just didn't interest me.

LoMUS...let us never speak of the abomination again.

[festivus]

14 minutes ago, ABay said:

LoMUS...let us never speak of the abomination again.

Except for it introduced me to Michael Imperioli. No, I didn't watch The Sopranos so did not know him. Also didn't realize till later that he was Spider in Goodfellas. Anyhoo, it was worth it for that. I didn't hate the US one, but it was no UK version. And I hate how they ended it.

[Meredith Quill]

7 hours ago, ABay said:

My impression of 70s England: So much sad wallpaper, and you know everything smells bad.

70's England was really terrible, all wallpaper was very sad indeed, and everything absolutely stank like a farmer's armpit - a very astute observation.

As it happens, I often would ask my parentals why our house, our food, our clothes, and they themselves, stank so much all the time. Many clips around the ear were had. Ah, such fun. Lucky for us, England discovered nosegays, bathing, deodorant, air freshener, mediocre decor, semi-edible food and more... sometime around 1994 I do believe it was. That's when we all stopped being utter miserable gits all of the time (now we're utter miserable gits just some of the time), funny coincidence there. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[dargosmydaddy]

Jumping in on the Life on Mars bandwagon... I remember recording it off BBCAmerica (on the VCR... yikes, that was awhile ago), though I eventually invested in the DVDs as well. I did a rewatch last spring, and it held up well. I still love it.

I remember Ashes to Ashes being on BBC America as well, but Sam and Annie were always the draw for me, so I didn't watch Ashes, a decision that I now regret. I wish someone would stream it.

[kieyra]

1 hour ago, dargosmydaddy said:

I remember Ashes to Ashes being on BBC America as well, but Sam and Annie were always the draw for me, so I didn't watch Ashes, a decision that I now regret. I wish someone would stream it.

@Stuffy mentioned Dailymotion, so I gave it a google:

I’m not too familiar with this site. I think I’ve used it to watch some old Nigella Lawson shows.

[Kromm]

Life on Mars was stupendously great, but it really seemed like a one and done to me. The sequel series just seemed silly.  I'm not sure what unique thing a third leg to a trilogy could bring. 

[Kromm]

A very reliable source says it's being TALKED about (go to about 4:45)

 

Edited March 10, 2021 by Kromm

[supposebly]

Good luck if they want to do it but I don't think this is a good idea. I already failed to see the point of Ashes to Ashes.

[kieyra]

I keep seeing people on reddit refer to the potential third series as "Lazarus", so I dug a little.

It seems like it came from a now-deleted tweet:

Quote

#LifeOnMarsLive God bless you all for watching with us during lockdown. You are the stars that guide our way. We thank you. Us merry band of writers, actors, crew. We thank you and we ask you to come back for one last time.
Come home to #Lazarus
Yes. It IS the title.

This was supposedly tweeted by Matthew Graham in July, but the twitter account literally no longer exists. 

[Stuffy]

For those that were wanting to see it, Ashes to Ashes is coming to Brit Box US on July 20th.  I know the Dailymotion app and website can be annoying with the ridiculous amount of commercials. 

I get the streamer through Prime and immediately turn off auto renew when I want to watch something on Brit Box. I don’t know if the regular Brit Box app is that easy. 
 

https://britishperioddramas.com/news/new-on-britbox-added-july-2021/

Edited June 28, 2021 by Stuffy

[ABay]

Is anyone else watching it on Britbox? I'm about halfway through series 2. It's weird how clearly I remembered the first series and how little I remembered about this one.

[Milburn Stone]

We just (finally) discovered Life on Mars due to a friend's urging, and it was...awesome.

Looking forward to AtA while we wait for Series 3 of LoM.

 

[Milburn Stone]

So, we started in on Ashes to Ashes, and despite our love for Keeley Hawes, we thought the show basically sucked. We got that the premise (in Series 1 at least) was that Drake didn't take anything that was happening around her seriously (except her own mission to save her parents), but the net result of her not taking anything seriously was to give the audience no reason to take the show seriously. In the first four episodes, too much was just effin' ridiculous, too much seemed to violate the logic of the premise. Even if there was going to be a payoff, we just couldn't sit through 20 more episodes waiting for it.

So what we did was, we skipped to the final episode of Series 1, just to see how Drake's plan to save her parents was going to fail, and then mega-skipped to the final episode of Series 3. Which was awesome beyond words, and which we totally understood even while saving ourselves 20 hours of televiewing. And which made the ridiculousness of S1 actually make sense. We didn't feel as if we missed a thing, and ended up admiring the entire series. We felt so satisfied by the revelations in the series finale that we still don't think we need to bother with the 20 episodes in-between. We basically gained a whole day of life. Or whatever this is.

Edited August 14, 2021 by Milburn Stone

[raven]

How did the universe know I needed an Ashes to Ashes version of Uptown Girl????

*rewinds again*

[raven]

I really enjoyed Ashes to Ashes.   Alex was a little hard to take in S1 and 2 (and her S1 wardrobe was atrocious - she looked like she was going to a nightclub, not to work) - her behavior around her parents and then especially around the teen version of Molly's father was eye rolling.   Still, I liked her and did wonder how I would react in such situations.

The casting though is so good and the chemistry is perfect.  All these years later I can forgive any flaws.  All of the squad had character growth that was handled really well and made sense - Ray stands out to me.  Gene was always Gene (and I'm irrational on this subject) but he listened to his team and the connection between Gene and Alex was obvious from the beginning.

As far as the end, I did guess most of it though some was a surprise.  I liked that Gene is always keeping on - it was poignant, not sad or depressing.

Since I'm American, I did a lot of rewinding though 90% of the slang will always be a head scratcher to me.  I do wonder if I could work "posh totty" into conversation, heh.

It's been years since I've seen Life so will probably watch that and maybe rewatch AtA.   I did notice clues in the final season pointing to the ending and now I want to see what other groundwork was laid.

It was wrapped up so well, I don't know what a new series could bring. 

Seriously, one of the greatest minutes of TV I've seen.  The guys are fantastic and Keeley Hawes's expressions are perfect.  Also, she's married to Matthew Macfadyen??  Damn, girl. 

 

[BK1978]

On 3/2/2021 at 8:27 PM, SilverStormm said:

70's England was really terrible, all wallpaper was very sad indeed, and everything absolutely stank like a farmer's armpit - a very astute observation.

As it happens, I often would ask my parentals why our house, our food, our clothes, and they themselves, stank so much all the time. Many clips around the ear were had. Ah, such fun. Lucky for us, England discovered nosegays, bathing, deodorant, air freshener, mediocre decor, semi-edible food and more... sometime around 1994 I do believe it was. That's when we all stopped being utter miserable gits all of the time (now we're utter miserable gits just some of the time), funny coincidence there. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Years ago my sister went the Eiffel Tower with her boyfriend.  There was this strong smell of  b.o. in the elevator (I think that was what it was, I have never been so I don't really know.) and my sister said to her boyfriend, "That b.o. is like the b.o. on Seinfeld, it is so strong that it is beyond b.o."  There was an English guy on the elevator with them and he said, "Don't look at me, we bathe in Britain now.  It is probably the French fellow."  Your above comment made me remember that story.

On 6/28/2021 at 3:35 PM, Stuffy said:

  I know the Dailymotion app and website can be annoying with the ridiculous amount of commercials.

 

Oh the pain of watching anything on Dailymotion.  That was the only way I could watch the Australian version of Survivor and I swear every two minutes I would be sent to commercials.  Now I would not mind if it were not for the fact that it was the same damn commercial over and over again.  No word of a lie, I saw the Eugene Levy commercial with his daughter Sarah so much that I would recite their words.

Now to the topic at hand.  I loved both LOM and ATA.  I am not sure if I liked one more than the other.  Hell I even liked the American version, well besides the horrible ending.  I am looking forward to seeing what they will do with a third series.

 

[Anela]

My mum loved Life on Mars. I have too many things on my list, but I'd like to watch this one day.

[txhorns79]

On 3/1/2021 at 2:53 PM, Ceindreadh said:

I much preferred Ashes to Ashes, but that's partly because the 80s music and style was much more familiar to me than the 70s. 

I watched Life on Mars a long time ago, and finally watched Ashes to Ashes on BritBox.   I liked Life on Mars, but thought Ashes to Ashes went on too long.  It would have been a much stronger show absent the second season, where it felt like everyone was just treading water.  That said, the final two episodes of A to A were great, and the cast really rose to the occasion with the emotional heavy lifting.