Life on Mars

Titled after the David Bowie song of the same name, this is a great time travel drama. I've just finished watching the first part, and I think its safe to assume I'm going to be addicted for the next few weeks. The plot revolves around a 2006 policeman who is transported back in time to 1973 when he is run over by a car. He finds himself wearing different clothes in a strange Manchester he has never seen before. As well as coping with the new decade he now inhabits and the sense of displacement he feels, he also is forced to deal with the crimes of 33 years ago, using very primitive methods. A WPC tries to help this fish out of water, but can he ever find his way back home again? And what is with these strange voices in his head..? Sufficed to say, we'll find out the answers soon enough, and I for one can't wait!

Oops sorry I forgot, Celebrity Big Brother and Soapstar Superstar are on the other channels.. and we all know which'll get the most viewers between this and them. "You'll never go broke appealing to the lowest common denominator" etc. But for those who are sick of cheap reality shows clogging up our schedules and want something with a bit more substance, you're in for a treat..

Like some of the reviewers here, I wasn't expecting much of this and started watching almost by accident.

I am a '24' man(!) and I have to say after watching this, 24 (after season 3 anyway) starts to show it's weaknesses. In "Life on Mars" you really start to care about the character and what is happening - it has many surprises. Some are startling, some dawn on you as you watch.

Now I wouldn't be old enough to actually remember the 70's, but it is very atmospheric - and crucially, not in an over-the-top way.

The 'real world'(??!) storyline is handled with a light touch too. You go through it with him as clues (or more questions) pop up unpredictably!

This deserves to be a huge hit!

I've not watched this before as I had got a bit jaded with too many productions with John Simm. Now I want to marry him. This is just brilliant, great concept, terrific characters, plenty of action and it is fall off the sofa funny. Love it!

A couple of days ago I watched the Italian Mafia film 100 Feet, which featured Ballroom Blitz by the Sweet in the soundtrack. The very same song popped up in Life on Mars two days later. I'm now expecting it to hear it in Poldark series 5 which has come to Netflix UK this week and is my next up.

This series harks back to the best of BBC drama, and is cast and designed to perfection - although one or two anachronisms do creep into the script from time to time. As if the accuracy of the Seventies setting wasn't enough of a draw, however, there's also the 'mystery' element, the fascinating question of whether or not the other characters all exist in Tyler's imagination - and, if so, what they represent. It would be easy (and I suspect too glib) to suggest that Gene Hunt is a personification of Tyler's aggressive nature (I mean, as names go *Gene Hunt* seems a bit of a heavy clue - maybe too heavy!) but if that *is* the case then presumably the two of them will have to be reconciled in order for Tyler to recover from his injuries. The most disturbing aspect of this as a theory is that it would make the series concept a finite one and by definition preclude a second series, and I'm already a life member in the Gene Hunt Fan Club - I think he's one of the most delightful new creations to appear on British television in a long time.

With 'New Tricks', 'Jericho' and now 'Life On Mars', the traditional British cop show seems to have received a new lease of life in the last couple of years. This was long overdue, but it's a thrilling prospect that we now have a new generation of heroes to set against the Bergeracs, Taggarts, Regans, Barlows and Dixons of earlier times. And if we *are* heading for a new Golden Age of British TV I would like to go on record, here and now, nominating Gene Hunt as one of its brightest ornaments already!

Stumbled on this series on BBC America and miss it terribly now that the first season is over.

Great over-arching conflict (Is Sam imagining he's from the future? Is he living inside his coma-induced reality? Or did he really travel back in time?) intermingles well within each episodes crime to solve. Loved when promises a witness complete anonymity if the guy will agree to finger the perpetrator in a line up; handled in a way that recognized the humor without diminishing the seriousness.

Plus, even though it's promoted as Sam's story, the series would suffer greatly without the Guv (DCI Gene Hunt). In the US, Philip Glenister's character would too easily be a cardboard-flat, corrupt, irredeemable cop. Here he's written and played with many shades letting you cheer for him at times, loathe him at others, pity his neanderthal ways, respect his desire to be a "good cop" while shaking your head at his twisted definition of a "good cop." He's a smart and unpredictable foil for Sam. They're each a better man for having to deal with the other even as they resent the complication and will never fully agree on their methods. There's a grudging respect building between them.

It's Sam's and Hunt's push me-pull you relationship that makes this must-see for me.