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Ashes To Ashes
01/02/2008 . Source: Jessica Martin 
It's 1981 in the UK: the year of the royal wedding, the Brixton riots, Bucks Fizz winning the Eurovision Song Contest – and the year that Gene Hunt (actor Philip Glenister) takes London's police force by storm in the fab time travelling cop drama Ashes To Ashes. The creators of the BBC's weirdest cop show talk to SFcrowsnest.com about the new series. We're on it, guv. Buy Ashes To Ashes in the USA - or Buy Ashes To Ashes in the UK  Gene Hunt, the politically incorrect, loud-mouthed DCI from the TV drama Life On Mars, was, on the surface, an unlikely cult figure. However, the combination of his personality and somewhat traditional approach to policing helped to establish him in the national consciousness. When the drama bowed out after two series, it did so at the height of its popularity. But, just because the writers and producers deemed that Sam Tyler's story had come to an end, did that also spell the end for his much-loved guv?
Jane Featherstone, joint MD of Kudos Film & Television and executive producer of both Life On Mars and Ashes To Ashes, explains the genesis of the new series, "As Life On Mars was drawing to an end, the BBC approached us and asked if we thought there could be a sequel or follow-up with the character of Gene Hunt, but a few years later," explains Jane. "We sat down and all realised that it could be brilliant to bring Gene into the early-Eighties – a fascinating time of cultural, musical and political transition."
From the start, the production team knew that Ashes To Ashes had to offer viewers a new journey, and say new things about the much-loved Gene Hunt. Life On Mars had offered very little information on Gene's past and personal life, making him something of an enigma. The introduction of a female DI, Alex Drake (Keeley Hawes), meant that a totally new dynamic could be created without garnering comparisons to the good cop/bad cop, buddy relationship experienced by Sam and Gene.
"The relationship between Gene Hunt and Alex Drake is critical to Ashes To Ashes," continues Jane. "It is tumultuous, sexy, intellectual, instinctive and totally different to his relationship with Sam."
With the series set in the early Eighties, the production team recognised a great opportunity to display the change in policing since 1973 – changes which have, perhaps, had an impact on the once supremely cock-sure Gene.
Writer and co-creator Ashley Pharaoh explains: "All the research we did indicated that the police knew the Scarman Report was on its way, and they knew it wasn't going to be good news, so the threat of that hangs over the whole series. A very specific era of policing is coming to an end. I think there's a slight sense of melancholy to Gene at times – he misses the North and the old days, but he's a fighter and refuses to give up."
As the creative process continued, it became clear that the sexual tension between the two characters would be one of the key hooks to the series.
Jane explains: "Gene has never come across a woman like Alex before and she rocks his world. How is it possible to work with someone so incredibly confident and attractive, not to mention posh and from London, and, bloody hell, a woman?! Through Alex's presence at the station, we see a different side to Gene – a more complex, gentler side, a man with dreams, hopes and fears."
Despite a new era and leading lady being added to the mix, it's not all change and Gene Hunt still offers his unique take on the ghost of England's past. Beth Willis, the show's producer, says:
"We thought we'd bring him to London where his northern views would come into sharp conflict with 'the southern ponces' he finds there. And, of course, he should take his A-team of Ray Carling and Chris Skelton with him."
The next challenge was how to take Alex Drake – a police psychologist and thoroughly modern woman of the 21st century – into the world of Gene Hunt, a world she knows about only through her sessions with the now deceased Sam Tyler.
Matthew Graham, co-creator, writer and executive producer for Monastic Productions, realised that the premise would have to be water-tight to work on screen: "Through Sam, Alex has learnt all about Gene Hunt, Ray Carling and Chris Skelton.
"Alex is called to an intense hostage crisis involving a drug dealer who shoots her in the head at point-blank range. Next thing she knows, she's in 1981."
As if waking up dressed as a prostitute in the early Eighties with Ultravox ringing in your ears isn't bad enough, Alex is forced to confront a much larger problem.
Matthew continues: "Alex is horrified to discover that sharing her delusion are the very characters she heard about from Sam Tyler, in particular a certain DCI Gene Hunt! Furthermore, 1981 was the very year her parents were killed in a car bomb – is that somehow connected to her presence there?"
But, in the meantime, Alex must find a way to get on with her new boss, concludes Jane: "Alex finds that Gene is a compassionate man, fighting for justice and what he thinks is right, despite his incredibly dated views of womanhood. The result is funny, electric and surprising."
(re)Making 1981
It's 1981, the year of leg warmers, the Rubik's Cube and the ZX Spectrum. Those with less rose-tinted memories will remember that era for the Brixton and Toxteth riots and the decade that identified the Aids virus. It was also a time when Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher's privatisation of nationalised industries sharply divided political opinions. With those years so fresh in the minds of today's TV-viewing public, the production team were aware of their responsibility to get the look spot on.
"The Eighties was a very colourful decade, so we felt that needed to be reflected in the costumes, make-up and locations in the show," explains producer, Beth Willis. "There was lots of big hair, so DS Ray Carling has a tight perm and DI Alex Drake has big curly hair. Our other characters have moustaches, mullets and there is lots of blue eye shadow and lots of polo necks, bomber jackets, Ray Ban sunglasses and off-the-shoulder tops. Alex wears a fantastic white leather jacket and matching white boots – she looks a million dollars."
Despite the fact that Ashes To Ashes is set in the not-too-distant past, a lot of research was still needed to fine tune each of the characters' looks.
Costume designer Rosie Hackett drew inspiration from a variety of publications and icons of the era, "My first port of call was a library in Westminster where they have all the back issues of magazines like Vogue, the Sunday Times supplements, Woman magazine, TV Times and the Radio Times. We looked at what famous men and women were wearing – for example, Joanna Lumley was really popular then – and we were able to get a flavour of what was going on over a wide cross-section of society."
Once the team had referenced archive material, the wardrobe department had to find clothes that expressed the look they were aiming for. Rosie and her team searched high and low to find the right clothes, "Recreating the Blitz Club in episode two was really fun," smiles Rosie. "The New Romantic scene was all about hand-made clothes; people used to beg and borrow stuff from anyone – even their gran! Often their clothes would be from the local jumble sale, so it certainly wasn't slick. Coincidently, there's a New Romantic revival going on at the moment, so we got a load of people coming down to shoot the Blitz club scenes having styled themselves from their own wardrobes!"
Finding the right locations for the era proved much trickier, however. The past two decades have seen major changes to London's skyline – for example, Lord Foster's award-winning Gherkin and the London Eye are both fairly recent additions.
Even at street level the environment has become a very different place. Everything from shop fronts to street signs have undergone changes without people even noticing, making locations that look like London, circa 1981, almost impossible.
Beth confesses, "Our location department spent hours scouring London for roads which didn't have buildings beyond 1981. We can safely say that there aren't many left out there!"
God is in the detail and so the hard work for Beth and the team didn't stop at just finding a suitable location: "We've had to take down a lot of TV dishes, cover road markings, put up strategically placed greenery, and we also asked lots of people to move their modern vehicles," laughs Beth.
So, once you've uncovered a location and sourced the ideal wardrobe, how do you go about adding those extra details that add authenticity and make the show feel real? Finding necessary tools to bring the set alive was one of the surprise challenges of the series: "Even though the Eighties weren't that long ago, sourcing props was harder than you'd think as technology has moved on so much," continues Beth. "The Ashes To Ashes production team has spent a lot of time on eBay this past year!
"People had just begun to get VCR players, but not slick models like the ones that have only recently been replaced by DVDs. In 1981, the machinery was massive and you loaded the tapes from the top rather than the front – they took for ever to load up."
Although the modern technology that today's police take for granted was not available to their 1981 counterparts, DCI Gene Hunt's office proudly sports a rare treat that should take people back and raise a few smiles, "Gene has the most enormous computer in pride of place on his desk," reveals Beth, "even though it only tells the time and date and he only uses it to play the game Pong."
Gene's new toys don't stop there and, like any self-respecting Eighties man, he now drives a sexy red sports car. Even though the model finally chosen for Gene wouldn't have been for sale in the UK in 1981, the producers wanted to show how the newly-divorced Gene Hunt might have coped with his midlife crisis by importing a flash new motor.
Beth explains: "In 1981, the Audi Quattro was the car to have, although you could only get them in Europe at the time. Gene's wife has left him, he's moved to London and the flash new car reflects his brand-new start in life."
With the car in place, the props department had to make sure it could cope with Gene's somewhat over-enthusiastic driving: "As one of the first four-wheel drives, it clung to the road like no other car," continues Beth. "We had a hydraulic handbrake fitted because, even though he'd die for this car, he still wants to rag it round corners when he's chasing criminals."
Early epsiode synopses
Episode one
DI Alex Drake has risen rapidly through the Metropolitan Police and has an added string to her bow. A trained psychologist, she is writing a book on colleagues who have suffered trauma, and spent several months studying Sam Tyler – the DCI who found himself in 1973 when he was hit by a car and fell into a coma. Brilliant at her job, but at the expense of her home life, she has no relationship save that with her 12-year-old daughter, Molly.
As Alex drives Molly to school on her birthday, she is called to a hostage scenario where drug-addled Arthur Layton holds a gun to the head of a busker. When Alex tries to reason with Layton, he tells Alex that he knew her parents – both of whom were killed when Alex was only eight years old. Layton manages to get Alex away to an abandoned boat where he shoots her in the head.
Alex later opens her eyes to find herself in 1981, dressed in a tiny red skirt with Ultravox ringing in her ears as hedonistic city boys and prostitutes party on a boat. The next surprise in store is that when the police crash in, they are Sam Tyler's creations – DCI Gene Hunt, DS Ray Carling and DC Chris Skelton. Desperate to get back to her daughter, the only clue Alex can find is surveillance footage on Layton. She is convinced that Layton, in 1981 just a down-at-heel junk dealer, is the mastermind behind the case she's just walked into – a major drug bust that Gene has been after for months. Gene believes that the man responsible is Edward Markham, a man whose pastel suits and arrogance typify the Eighties yuppies he hates. For Alex, catching Layton might be the only way to grab control of her destiny and provide the trigger that gets her out of 1981, back to her old life and to her daughter Molly.
Episode two
It's the week of Lady Diana Spencer's wedding, and the streets buzz with excitement. Alex has mixed emotions of the day, and remembers when she was left alone at boarding school to watch the event on television when she was eight years old. Her mother is also on her mind as she appears on the television, embroiled in a high-profile legal case with the Met. Being a fighter and an optimist, Alex is determined not to let her memories get her down, and enters into the spirit of things.
Gene, by contrast, is on edge. He wants to keep the streets quiet for Lady Diana's wedding – so, when a protesting family threaten to disturb the peace, he races onto the scene. The Bonds family are being forced out of their pub, due to the redevelopment of the London Docklands, and have barricaded themselves in as a protest. Gene sympathises with their cause but persuades them to keep quiet until Charles and Diana have tied the knot.
When the family's protest becomes increasingly volatile, and a dog falls victim to an explosion in the same area, Gene is hell bent on keeping a lid on the situation – at least, until Lady Diana walks down the aisle. No sooner has one fire been put out, than another one starts when there's news of a bomb on CID's patch. An unlucky dog has fallen victim to an explosion in the same area, and now a note has been left – promising that the next bomb will target the developer, Danny Moore. Danny is a Thatcherite whose charm provides a pleasant distraction for Alex – for whom the bomb scares have been painful reminders of how her parents were killed. She is desperate to forget everything and Danny provides the perfect escapism. But with a potential bomber on the loose, Gene needs Alex to focus on the task in hand.
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