Throng

The fab British TV series is out on DVD July 13th, 2009

When the second series of Life on Mars spin-off Ashes to Ashes returned in April, few could have predicted how vital viewing the series would be.

With Philip Glenister returning as the legend that is DCI Gene Hunt and the gorgeous Keeley Hawes as DI Alex Drake, many expected the series to follow Alex piecing together exactly what she had to do to return to 2008.

Instead with little initial regard for Alex’s predicament, Ashes to Ashes sailed into the world of police corruption which gathered pace as the series progressed and still hung around in the background after the suicide of bent Superintendent Macintosh.

The death of a gypsy in a police car chase brings some truly ugly scenes to Ashes to Ashes as a portrayal of local and international prejudice is played out against the backdrop of the Falklands War in this latest instalment of the BBC’s superb cop-show-with-time-travel.

It transpires that the dead man, Jed Bicklow, has been drugged by the unscrupulous Dr Battleford (The Sarah Jane Adventures’ Joseph Millson) who has taken pity on the travellers and provided them with medical care... and a bit more than that for Bicklow’s very young wife.

Typically Alex Drake (Keeley Hawes) doesn’t take long to uncover that the doctor is hiding more than an interest in extramarital activity – yet when she attempts to charge him who should come to his rescue but Superintendent Macintosh?

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.

Ashes to Ashes returns to BBC One at 9pm on Monday April 20th – and DS Alex Drake is still trapped in 1982...

Series one ended with Alex finally finding out ho her parents came to be in a car bomb – series 2 moves on a year, against the background of the Faklands War with Argentina. Corruption is rife in the Metropolitan Police force, but supercop Detective Superintendent “Supermac” Macintosh has been put charge of DCI Gene Hunt’s team, with a view to stopping the rot.
Episode 1 sees Hunt and Drake discovering that a dead man in a Soho strip club is in fact a dead police constable – working with the vice squad.

Foul play is suspected when the dead man’s wife insists that her husband would not have been seduced by the world of vice – leading Alex Drake and Gene Hunt to conclude that the killer was one of their own.

The end is in sight for fans of the BBC One hit Ashes to Ashes following actor Philip Glenister's decision to quit the show after one more series.

The DCI Gene Hunt actor will have played the character for 4 years by the end of the new run due to start in early April, and feels that he's almost reached the end of the road with the semi-mystical old school policeman who has somehow attracted not one but two time travellers in Sam Tyler (John Simm in Life on Mars) and Alex Drake (Keeley Hawes).

Sources report the programme makers are disappointed - but there's plenty left to see in the next series and the final one that will follow...

"Philip has loved playing Gene and knows  a lot of fans would like him to carry on. But he feels he’s taken the role as far as he can.  The makers were obviously disappointed, but they don’t plan to end it quietly. They will use the next two series to tie up all the loose ends – and go out with a bang.”

Keeley Hawes (Spooks) has beaten hundreds of hopefuls to don her leg warmers and play ambitious, psychological profiler, DI Alex Drake who, when finding herself stuck in 1981, takes on the infamous DCI Gene Hunt (Philip Glenister) in Ashes To Ashes, the eagerly-anticipated sequel to Life On Mars, it was announced today.

Alex has rapidly risen through the ranks of the Met in the modern world of 2008.

However, she is ripped from her current world of sexual equality and respect and finds herself faced with the boorish Gene in a two-tone, New Romantic, Eighties London with a soundtrack of Adam Ant, Roxy Music and The Human League ringing in her ears.

Today, Keeley said: "I'm thrilled to be playing Alex. She's a fantastic character and will be a force to be reckoned with as far as Gene Hunt is concerned; the two of them locking horns in the Eighties will certainly be a sight to behold, never mind the shoulder pads."

Jane Featherstone, Executive Producer for Kudos, said: "Keeley will be fantastic as Alex 'posh knickers' Drake. She is sexy, ballsy and very intelligent, exactly like Alex – she's bound to turn Gene's egocentric life upside down!"