3 posts tagged “edmund butt”

The opening title to Ashes to Ashes (BBC1, Thursday, 9 p.m.) has made it on to the internet and makes an interesting study.
   The comparisons to Life on Mars are obvious. Star Keeley Hawes narrates an introduction, as John Simm did with the original parent series. It’s taken from a line of dialogue that she delivered to herself in the mirror in the first episode—I think most of us saw that coming.
   Edmund Butt’s music is obviously a homage to his original theme for Life on Mars but with a more energetic electric guitar.
   The typeface chosen is interesting: the 1983-released Neue Helvetica. It’s not exactly what I would have chosen for the 1981 theme. However, this was also expected from the pilot’s opening, as well as the way the words Ashes to Ashes appear on screen, playing on a 1980s computer program.
   It’s clear that this is a related show even if you never saw the first episode and the designers have conveyed its feeling pretty well. Essentially, this is Life on Venus.

A good start to Ashes to Ashes—but not as good as that of Life on Mars. Aside from the self-referential aspect, I miss the Sam–Gene interplay, even though Keeley Hawes’s Alex Drake is excellent. And that was a good première—just not a great one. OK, it was a very, very good première. But was it really, name change aside, a première, or the third series of Life on Mars? You know, is putting in Alex Drake kind of like putting in Charlie Sheen to Spin City? Or James Franciscus into the Planet of the Apes series? Apart from the sex change here.
   The glitches are there for the car geeks to see. The real Audi Quattro has already been discussed by Audi fans out there as being the wrong year with the wrong grille and the steering wheel on the wrong side, as far as 1981 is concerned; but did toy car collectors notice the Quattro on Gene’s desk? One from Matchbox, one from Majorette—the earliest the former was made was 1982. The Cortinas are a bit too fancy for the Met—one’s a Ghia. Bit plush in the back for a collar, innit?
   However, the present-day scenes are interesting and as this is a British TV show, Alex drives a Toyota in 2008. I mean a Lexus. The Japanese automaker is doing quite a lot of product placement these days. The days of goodies driving UK-made cars in UK TV series are long gone.
   Now on to the stuff that normal human beings noticed. The story is good, but as I said in earlier blog posts, we begin Ashes to Ashes knowing what has happened to Alex. With Life on Mars, we did ponder: is Sam mad, in a coma or really back in time?
   This is why Ashes to Ashes needs something extra, and “sexual tension” is not going to do it. I watched the first one not necessarily comparing the two series, but I didn’t have a decent brainf*** trying to figure out time paradoxes and parallel universes. I did for 16 episodes of the earlier Life on Mars. Unless Matthew Graham, Ashley Pharoah and co. decide to inject an additional aspect to the story on just why Gene Hunt and his team appear, I won’t this time around.
   Last year, people floated ideas of Sam being in Purgatory, while another viewer believed there was a bit of Quantum Leaping going on in that Sam Tyler did jump into the body of a DI Sam Williams from Hyde. They both were involved in accidents and their consciousnesses transferred. If we began seeing some sign of that, then there could be a very fun additional element to Ashes to Ashes.
   Matthew Graham was wise in the first episode to not replicate Life on Mars’ techniques: we don’t hear life-support machines, for instance. We do have a spooky clown and I have to say that the clown from Test Card F did freak me out as a child. An evil clown from the David Bowie ‘Ashes to Ashes’ video makes sense.
   Now to the theories, which is part of the British national pastime. If we take the most obvious theory, which is what my friend Doug cottoned on to when he first watched Life on Mars (he is one of the few people who said very early on, ‘I thought it was obvious that Sam was in a coma’), then Alex hasn’t even made it into the hospital ward. She is living all of 1981 within a split-second and if she does wake at the end of the series, it will be exactly where she was shot.
   Notice the similarities between these lines at the beginning and end of the episode which are clues to the fact that this is all in Alex’s head:

Alex Drake: It’s a hard, screwed-up world, but if you trust me, I can try to help you get through. 

and:

Gene Hunt: Listen, Bolly Knickers. You were seconds away from death just now. It’s a nasty, vicious, messed-up world but if you listen to me, you just might get through it.

plus all the references to Arthur Layton about being trapped at the beginning, and being trapped herself. Notice, too, the quote ‘seconds away from death’. Shaz’s comments about between life and death were also spooky.
   Matthew Graham knows we are being very pedantic and I think he has fashioned some great clues for us.
   But I didn’t think the last 95 seconds—which “Lifer” and Manchester journalist Ian Wylie told us to take extra note of as they were the best on telly—were that fab. Gene has mellowed, but that’s the 1980s’ cop show for you. Those shows were more mellow. Out with The Sweeney and The Professionals and in with Dempsey and Makepeace. John Thaw went from Regan to Inspector Morse.
   Great touch with Zippy and George, but they have aged. Come on, admit it: they looked way more colourful in Geoffrey’s set.
   Edmund Butt’s score is spot on with enough period touches, though the strings leading up to a crescendo each time we see a hero shot of Gene Hunt is a bit much.
   The end credits were really the worst bit: they were blimmin’ hard to see.
   Questions to ponder with the story arc: are the Prices (Alex’s parents) really dead? Notice that Arthur Layton never provides an answer to that. What if Alex’s Dad is still around, staying away from his daughter because he feared reprisals? That we might not know till 2009.
   Regardless of the relatively few misgivings, this is still the best show on telly—and I’ll be pre-ordering that DVD set on the strength of this première.

They’ve cast two Irish blokes in the leads for American Life on Mars. Jason O’Mara (Monarch of the Glen, Band of Brothers, The Bill) plays Sam Tyler and Colm Meaney (Die Hard 2, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Layer Cake) is in the Gene Hunt role. And Mr Meaney reports that the script is excellent.
   While actors always say nice things about their current projects, I believe it is reasonable to trust Mr Meaney’s trans-Atlantic judgement. His sensibilities bridge both sides of the Pond.
   Normally I would not have rated Mr Meaney as Gene Hunt but after Layer Cake, I think the guy can pull it off, albeit with an American accent.
   IMDB says the pilot is in post right now, confirming what Ceji learned. Another interesting factoid from IMDB is that Edmund Butt, who scored the original series, is listed as the composer for the remake.