Ashes to Ashes

I love Ashes to Ashes.


I’ll admit, when I first heard about it, I was sceptical. I liked Life on Mars. I liked it a lot in fact. So a remake should have been a good thing right?
“They’re making a sequel to Life on Mars.”
“Really?”
“Yeah. Except without Sam.”
“Ok.”
“Instead there’s this chick who gets shot and goes back in time.”
“You’re kidding.”
“Except instead of the 70’s she ends up in the 80’s”
There is absolutely no way that could have gone wrong.

Remarkably though it didn’t. Apparently Mars was such a success that the BBC begged Ashley Pharoah and Matthew Graham to make a follow up. John Simm said he wouldn’t do it. Problem.

I think there are two things which mark a great script writer. The first is being able to surprise. One of the most satisfying things, as a viewer, is to go into an episode or a series with that intense nagging doubt, and to be proven wrong.

The second is unpredictability. When the bad guy is pointing a gun at our protagonist’s temple, there are five words I do not want to cross my mind.
“But they wouldn’t do that.”
I want, in every moment, to believe that the writer would pull that trigger.
So its just occured to me that my two things are really just one thing. We'll ignore that.

Ashes worked on both these levels. It surprised me at every turn for pulling off story lines and character arcs that should have been impossible. Like Gene and Alex. Ashes to Ashes- the best sexual tension on television, and some of the best hair.

Its been observed that the main problem with Sam Tyler was that he was a man. According to Ashley Pharoah, Mars was essentially a love story. A platonic love story between Sam and Gene. Which is all well and good, but it’s so much more electric when you throw a woman in instead. The usual problem with maintaining sexual tension is it involves asking the viewer to suspend disbelief.
“Well can we just pretend that them almost but not kissing for the seventh time this series is plausible? Thanks.”
The things which kept Alex and Gene apart are always, always flawlessly believable.

And Alex has so much more lust for life than Sam showed. She really has more reason to want to go home than he did. She has Molly, her daughter. But while you’re stuck in the 80’s and there’s pretty much nothing you can do about it, you may as well wear outrageous skirts and play the music loudly right? Hear hear Alex. Hear hear.

I suppose you’re wondering why I’m having this rant aren’t you? Almost exactly a year ago I flew to Rome, and in doing so missed the final two episodes of series two. They’re being repeated at the moment and so I have finally, finally seen the complete series. The ending of series two will blow your mind. It has unpredictable and surprising in spades.

I’m now kind of desperate to see series three. Like really desperate. Thing is I want to do it right. I love Ashes too much to watch in a grainy Youtube window. I want to sit down religiously every week. I want to have to wait between cliff hangers. I want to draw every last minute of enjoyment from it.

So I’m going to wait.

The final of series 2 will be repeated this Saturday at 11:05PM on ABC1. I’ll email the ABC about series 3 and report back. No promises though, I think they have me on a blacklist. In the meantime, if you’d like to look more like Alex Drake, here’s a handy article from WikiHow.