68 posts tagged “philip glenister”

There will be a third series of Ashes to Ashes, the BBC has confirmed, and with Philip Glenister—putting to rest once and for all that an English tabloid’s published “facts” to the contrary earlier this year were total bollocks. For now, I will say that I predict that the DVD of this second series will have very good sales.

I think the BBC may have been premature uploading photographs from next week’s Ashes to Ashes. Do not scroll down if you don’t want a spoiler. I’ve tried to put the most revealing pic at the bottom of this bunch.

The second series (or season to our US friends) finalé to Ashes to Ashes looks very good indeed.

Next week’s Ashes to Ashes in the UK:

   Nothing much stands out in this clip. I was hoping to see Morph (who makes an appearance). I still like the fact that Spanish Ray in La chica de ayer is called Raimundo.

Last week, actor Philip Glenister joined Twitter—and began conversing with the Tweeter called GeneHunt. Their dialogue makes for good reading, in a very weird way:

philipglenister: @GeneHunt Have a breath Mr Hunt. I'm not here to try and take over your manor, besides, I'm a lover, not a fighter.

A slightly odd Ashes to Ashes on Monday night. There are clues that Alex has been found by the emergency services and that a crash crew is two minutes away, furthering her first-series theory that she could literally be living seconds of her life while days whiz by in 1982.
   Last night, Matthew Graham’s script was good for some of the Gene Hunt lines, and the freemasonry parts were suitably spooky, but there was relatively little from the stalker that we saw in Ashley Pharoah’s first episode last week. I don’t have too much to add, other than the use of a Leyland Princess for the opening car chase, to which Gene utters, ‘Death of a Princess’—again tying in with the Lady Di boat in the first episode last year, and the many Princess Diana references last week (Pont de l’Alma, England’s rose, and 1982 TV footage). And why does Alex keep hearing a helicopter?

   Alex’s body in 2008 must be somewhere connected with Diana—maybe the pier is named for her? Anyone a bit more familiar with the Greenwich–Milwall area?
   Next week, the preview indicates that Morph will appear, in the same manner as the Camberwick Green parody in Life on Mars and Zippy and George last year. Roland the Rat is also scheduled for an appearance in this second series.
   The cast of Ashes to Ashes has been told the entire plot and Marshall Lancaster (whose role has been expanded this year—and I like this direction) has been quoted as saying it is far more complicated than we expect. I think we can presume that it’s “real” and not just in her head—Alex has somehow done a Quantum Leap into someone in 1982. Unlike Life on Mars, there are scenes without her, indicating that the characters have lives outside of her mind. But is there any spiritual meaning behind Gene Hunt?

I posted this last week but didn’t do a blog entry: a promo for the second series of Ashes to Ashes, which begins on the 21st at 9 p.m. on BBC One. It’s rather well made (it’s not from clips of the show, but especially filmed), and I didn’t recognize Chris (Marshall Lancaster) with his new hairdo!

Finally! Tanya posted this eight hours ago to my Facebook page.

   One question: where’s Chris?

Found via Angie Blue Moon’s Vox, this is hilarious! Dawn French, Jennifer Saunders, Joanna Lumley, Sienna Miller, Philip Glenister and Alan Carr star in a spoof of Mamma Mia! for Comic Relief 2009.

Three episodes of Ashes to Ashes have aired in the US—we were really lucky in New Zealand to have got the first series on Prime in the same year as the UK—and I read that Gene Hunt needs subtitles. Subtitles?
   One American viewer thinks it’s ridiculous and wonders:

It’s not even used for every line … How do they decide which lines to text? Is there some sort of focus group consisting of dimwitted Americans sitting in a room, raising their hands whenever they hear a phrase that frightens or confuses them?

   I have to agree. Surely most people who tune in to BBC America are predisposed toward British TV series and that many who watch Ashes to Ashes were quite capable of following DCI Gene Hunt in Life on Mars—not to mention the first two episodes of Ashes to Ashes that were shown there without subtitles.
   I don’t know a single American who wouldn’t have understood the dialogue.
   Taggart I can understand needing subtitles—my late mother, who was a fan, said she had trouble following all the utterances of Mark McManus as DCI Jim Taggart. But surely a Mancunian accent is not that difficult and if that needs subtitles, then I would have demanded them here for The Sopranos.