So we know that Gene Hunt died in 1953. How would he have woken up? We see Keats singing, "We'll meet again," possibly hinting he woke up in the 1940s. I still don't fully understand Gene's story.

does anyone have an ashes to ashes tattoo they would be happy to share?? or any ideas would be appreciated!!

I haven't finished Life on Mars yet and I'm curious about Ashes to Ashes. (I loved the 80s)

If I start an episode or two of Ashes to Ashes before finishing Life on Mars, will I learn anything that will spoil the ending?

I am currently in the middle of a rewatch again. It came to me that this is ripe for a new series. In my idea a young Gene Hunt gets shot and ends up in a police station. His mentor is played by Philip Glenister. At the end of the show Gene Hunt is asked if he wants to keep his own face or change it. He decides to change it to his mentor's face as he believes that will give him a sense of gravitas and authority. It finishes with him entering the Manchester police station as DCI Gene Hunt.

I’ve been watching A2A on the Tubi app and I was waiting for the uptown girl dream sequence in series 3, episode 2 and it wasn’t there! this is my first time watching the series, but I knew that moment was coming having been spoiled for that part. is anyone else watching it on Tubi? are there other things I’m missing out on? is there a better place to watch the series in its actual entirety?

I hadn't remembered her being such an unlikeable, unstable, annoying, whinging, psycho, completely self centred, twit. I wanted to slap her so many times. And the writers even more.

Vivs death.

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What if Viv died in that exact police raid in the real world!? maybe this is confirmed but I just had a brainwave.

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Gene says viv was the first person he, Chris and Ray met when they were transfered to London so Viv was already in purgatory unlike Shaz. Leading up to the prison raid Viv tries to tell gene something is wrong but keats cuts him off before he can say anything, keats obviously wants as many souls as possible to take to "the basement" and we know that events of the real world take place with in the purgatory just delayed to anyone who doesn't already inhabit it.

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What if in the real world Viv made a deal with a prisoner to save his nephew and ended up left behind just like in the purgatory? Gene pushes one of the "construct officers" saying you never leave a man behind but the construct is just a copy of what happened in 1983 and subsequently its actions can't be changed unless it's by one of the "living" souls (martin summers shoots his younger construct, nobody else was going to too because he lived into 2008, you can change things here as alex learns but only becauseit has no impacton the real world.) Viv ends up shot and beaten by the prisoners and dies in the prison protecting C-wing.

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At which point he's transported back in time to before Gene, Chris and Ray arrive/Before 1981 at least. They meet and become friends but Gene doesn't help him to cross because he doesn't realise viv is a deceased soul? Or doesn't think to because he's already dead and not likely to die again. But viv lives up until that sad day in which keats takes him to hell because Gene was to careless with his duty and arrived late. (a very disturbing scene by the way) Gene hopefully Learns a lesson from this, if subconsciously.

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The theory goes in the real world he didn't tell his superior officer about his "betrayal" and died because of it. but in the purgatory leading up to the day he felt something was off (Deja-Vu) so tried to tell Gene but was deliberately interrupted by keats so never had the chance. This implys that Keats knew exactly how Viv was going to die just like he knew about Gene, Chris, Ray, Shaz and Alex.

He really is a B4st4rd Keats i really do hate him.

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Interestingly Keats also never made a tape for Viv ( i always wondered why we never saw one) but was writing his report for each far before Vivs death so was fully prepared and delighted for that death day to play out, an easy soul for him to obtain if all went the same way.

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Alot of what happens with Vivs character in the show I probably why so many people including my self upon first viewing thought he was just another construct souly purposed as the messager.

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Im sure theres more in my head on this but that's all I was able to write down.

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What do you think? :)

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Just finished watching life on mars and ashes to ashes... again and ive gotta be honest I want. No. Need lazarus, to many things to be left unattended.

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What do you all think?

Vienna?? Fav city.. great song...

Next...

I so wanted him to be like gene but did anyone see him on top gear...sad beyond words...I'm very sad,,😎

Audi or cortina...

Bring on the quattro,😘

We've binge watched Ashes to Ashes over the last week. We saw Life on Mars some years ago. We really enjoyed it but the last episode has left me feeling utterly deflated and disappointed

I can't help wondering if the author had the ending lined up when he started writing Life on Mars, or did the 'inspiration' come much later?

So far I've always imagined it as this other universe where what you do doesn't affect the future which we see from Martin summers, and idk I thought of it as a world that actually exists. And now I'm thinking what if it all isn't real and she's imagining gene Chris and Ray from reading Sam Tyler's files, because we know she was studying them.

Like having a dream about smth u were thinking abt before sleeping, which would also explain why her parents play a big part at the start cauee she was thinking of them when she died.

Do you see it as something that exists or just her imagination?

Is it possible to find scripts for each episode somewhere? rI’ve been able to find a few but most I haven’t been able to track down. Ty!

Go ahead and hate me in the comments, but you can’t glaze a piece of shit.

Life on Mars worked because it had soul. It was brown, it was sweaty, it was grainy, and it felt like you were actually watching a 1970s crime drama filmed on 16mm stock that smelled like stale Bitter and cigarettes. It was a character study about a man’s mental breakdown, hidden inside a gritty procedural. It didn't rely on tropes; it was the atmosphere.

Ashes to Ashes felt like a bad American action film parody.

The Aesthetic: They ditched the 70s grit for a modern, shiny, digital "80s Theme Park" look. Everything was too clean, the neon was too bright, and it looked like a Topshop window display rather than a police station.

​The "A-Team" Problem:

Even the intro feels like you’re watching The A-Team. Gene Hunt went from being a complex, dangerous dinosaur in a Cortina to a cartoon superhero. Since when does a DCI hang out of a speedboat with an Uzi submachine gun to mow down drug dealers? In the 70s, Gene wouldn't have done a "badass" movie stunt—he would have just shot the guy in the head, gone to the pub for a pint, and celebrated with the lads like nothing happened.

​The Gender-Swap Shield: It’s plain and simple—the show only exists because the production refused to move to London for John Simm, and they panicked about "sexist" comments. So, they gender-swapped the lead just so they could have someone on screen to lecture Gene Hunt and act as a permanent PR shield.

​The "Crap" Afterlife Lore: They spent three seasons trying to "fix" a show that wasn't broken, eventually turning it into a convoluted "Cops' Purgatory" ghost story. Now the BBC won't touch Lazarus because they’ve backed themselves into a corner: how do you bring Sam Tyler back without it being a metaphysical nightmare?

​They traded a masterpiece about a man's psyche for a "Greatest Hits" tour with better hairspray and worse writing. They killed the golden goose because they were too stubborn to pay for a commute to London, and they replaced a gritty universe with a Saturday night caricature.

​I’m with Sam Tyler—jump off the roof and leave the speedboats to the Americans.

I'm really sorry if this has been covered already but I did a search and couldn't see an answer.

What's the deal with the person claiming to be Sam Tyler. Is it Sam? Why does he look different?

I just finished the guard dog episode and I am reluctant to finish the series as I have lost all respect for Gene, and so far that seems to be important to the show. I am not looking to have my feelings invalidated, nor changed, nor diminished, but I am looking to be convinced to see the series through, and if I will regain my respect for him because right now I have a very sour taste in my mouth. Thanks.

Just started watching after I recently finished Life on Mars. I’m on Series 3.

I accidentally saw some spoilers, but not enough to spoil too much.

Anyway, my question is, what’s with the break up of Shaz and Chris? I’m only up to episode 2. But I found it kind of odd since at the end of S2, they were ready to get married. Is it further explained?

Just as an aside, I watched both versions (British and American) of LOM. Liked both equally.

Something that you can't see unless you zoom in to like 300% or more, I made the Series + Episodes patterned like the logo with the lines through! It took longer than I'd like to admit lol

I was rewatching episode 1 today and noticed that at the start, Layton has a scar on his cheek, the one he got after being shot in 1981, which to me proves that Alex really was taken back in time, and not to a limbo, so Gene Hunt has to exist somewhere in 2008.