Life on Mars - Complete BBC Series 1-2 (New Packaging) [DVD]

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In trying to crack the murder of a Vietnam War vet, Sam turns his attentions to hippies and then the gay community. I think Life on Mars was the last watercooler show that was made in the UK, the last TV show that felt as if the whole country was talking about it the day after each new episode aired. He is beset by hallucinatory visitations from his TV set and snippets of conversations from the unseen doctors he believes are treating him in 2006. A third series entitled Lazarus (again a David Bowie song) was announced in 2020, but its development was cancelled in 2023.

Life on Mars was special when it was first broadcast, and contrary to my expectations, it’s lost none of its charm even now, given a second watch, and knowing full well its secrets ahead of time.That Sam Tyler is from the twenty-first century is not just some premise gimmick; it lends the show a slight but ever-present science fiction twist. He eventually comes to realise that he has become used to, and enjoys, the 1970s, seeing it as his "real world".

It’s one of those inspired moments in television, a collision of two genres, a police procedural and a supernatural/sci-fi mystery.In the Republic of Ireland RTÉ Two broadcast the series from June 2007 in a late evening slot, following RTÉ News on Two. Ashes to Ashes is set in 1980s London, with DI Alex Drake being transported from the modern day and meeting Gene Hunt and his colleagues. It premiered in October 2008, and was broadcast to minor critical and public acclaim where declining numbers led to cancellation in April 2009 after 17 episodes, though with sufficient lead to allow the storyline to be concluded. Plenty of jokes get cracked when Tyler tries to convince his mates about the wonders of the future to come: databases, cell phones and "multitasking. For example, during Series 1: Episode 6 Sam hears the voice of his mother in 2006, telling him his life-support will be switched off at 2:00 pm.