5 posts tagged “kudos”

Life on Mars (the US version) has made the news a bit more lately, with a report that David E. Kelley could leave the show if financial arrangements don’t suit.
   Variety reports that October Road executive producers Josh Appelbaum, André Nemec and Scott Rosenberg could join the series as showrunners if Kelley departs.
   The Hollywood Reporter says ABC is close to picking up the US version of the British time-travelling cop show as a series.
   So for those of us without Ashes to Ashes to watch till 2009, this might be the next best thing. And because we know the British ending, there’s always a chance that the US one won’t work out the same way (even if Three’s Company kind of did).

Ashes to Ashes’ final-episode viewing numbers were down, sadly, though the series average was still high enough for the BBC to commission a second series.
   They are logically down on Life on Mars because viewers didn’t expect there to be any surprises on Alex Drake’s predicament this time round. (Boy, did we get a big surprise.)
   I believe as word of the final filters out—that Alex Drake’s situation is different from Sam Tyler’s and raises the possibility that Gene Hunt and his team are real—the second series might do slightly better, especially its final.
   Reports are coming in that Ashes “only” scored 5·4 million viewers, still a healthy 23 per cent share, though it is down from the 7 million of the première.
   Compared with Life on Mars, this isn’t too bad given that people thought (and the producers allowed us to think) that there was less novelty to the premise.
   Some figures may help put this into perspective:

• Life on Mars’ first series average: 6·8 million
• Life on Mars’ first series final: 7·1 million

but:

• Life on Mars’ second series début: 5·7 million—despite heavy promotion and YouTube trailers
• Life on Mars’ second series, third episode: 4·8 million
• Ashes to Ashes’ first series début: 7 million
• Ashes to Ashes’ first series, second episode: 6·1 million
• Ashes to Ashes’ first series, fifth episode: 6·6 million

   While the final’s viewing numbers are poorer than episodes during the preceding seven weeks, the series has averaged well and now that there is an apparent twist, those who watched Life on Mars for a mindbender might just tune in to the second series of Ashes to Ashes. The BBC made the right call to renew.

How could I miss these?

• Life on Mars co-creators Matthew Graham and Ashley Pharoah have a talk in a pub with Gene Hunt and Luigi from Ashes to Ashes, in The Guardian. Or, ‘Bunch of snivelling pinkos and sandal-wearing poofs. We had an outdoor lav when I was a kid and my Dad wouldn’t even let us wipe our arses on it.’
• A complete Life on Mars short story specially written for Christmas by Matthew Graham. A very interesting part sees Annie tell Sam that she felt she was in the ward with him in 2007—again this seems to lend weight to Soozanne’s theory and that it was not as neatly sewn up as Matthew Graham had us think!

There has been some more press about Ashes to Ashes and here’s how the première might be shaping up.

• DI Alex Drake is shot in the head before going to 1981. She needed that like a hole in the head. She has a daughter who remains in the present day.
• She has read Sam Tyler’s files so she has more awareness of what is going on than he did.
• The action takes place in London, not Manchester, providing for a bit of north–south conflict.
• In This Is Scotland: the sexist Gene Hunt and Alex Drake have a bit of romance (as many of us knew—Ian Wylie confirms it’s like Moonlighting, which was what the BBC said). The première episode sees Alex undercover as a prostitute to bust a drugs’ ring when she arrives in July 1981. Philip also does not say that Gene will be killed off, which is what the Murdoch Press has reported—just that he does not think that Gene should go beyond the 1980s, nor would he look good in a trilby.
• Montserrat Lombard plays WPC Shaz Granger, who has a crush on Chris (Marshall Lancaster).
• The makers know that the right-hand-drive Audi Quattro was not available in 1981.
• Steve Strange cameos.
• From The Daily Telegraph: the first day’s filming consists of Gene and Alex nicking a villain in 1981—but he’s also her nemesis in 2008. Sean Harris playes Arthur Layton. Presumably this is for the first episode.
• A speedboat rescue scene comes at the end of the episode. This is filmed at the Royal Docks but it’s to double for the area around Tower Bridge, which will be CGIed in later.
• A story arc (according to the Murdoch Press) is the Scarman Report, which was being compiled in 1981. Geoffrey Palmer (not the former New Zealand prime minister!) plays Lord Scarman.

I really need our UK correspondents to extend their reach into TV so they can get to these premières.

This is much better than the pic I just posted from Ashes to Ashes, starting next year on BBC1.

Ashes to Ashes: Keeley Hawes and Philip Glenister