Although the series often miss-hit during its first run, Ashes to Ashes returned in style for Series 2.
With a good honest cop dead in seedy circumstances, a new boss of dubious motive and DC Chris Skelton falling for WPC Granger, Ashes to Ashes returned this week as strongly as it left us at the end of the first series, as Alex Drake discovered the truth behind her parents’ death.
Of course that mystery has been solved, and the producers of the hit series starring Philip Glenister as the legendary DCI Gene Hunt and Keeley Hawes as DI Alex Drake have given the returning viewers not one but two running themes for Series 2 – themes that could see the series move from the shadow of its John Simm-starring predecessor Life on Mars.
A constant companion throughout Series 1 was Alex’s high-flying lawyer mother. Now dead, there seems to be a gaping hole in Alex’s armoury as she finds herself in the middle of a rotten force of corruption.
It’s a matter that has been referenced barely in Ashes to Ashes, another new element informed by the previous series’ finale. As Drake and Hunt solved the case of the vice squad cop found choked to death in women’s lingerie and discovered that one of their own was involved, Ashes to Ashes suddenly became a new show entirely; and as the credits rolled, breath was regained and a trailer for the next episode was shown, it became apparent that the darkness promised by the stars is apparent already.
Lost in 1982, it seems that Alex has been trapped in a shady world of police corruption, barely able to trust those that she considers friends – and attracting the attention of what appears to be another time traveller...
Lest we forget, Alex Drake experienced a near-death experience in 2008 and woke up in 1981. How then can another individual be there, sharing her own personal psychological construct – unless everything is real?
With messages from 2008 filtering through, and Alex apparently rescued from the decrepit barge in which she was shot at the start of the first series, the return of Ashes to Ashes feels less like a follow up and more like Act 2.
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