2 posts tagged “rover sd1”

So what’s the deal with ‘England’s rose’, Princess Diana, and Alex Drake? Have we moved from David Bowie to Elton John this year? Why is there a Lady Di reference in the two series of Ashes to Ashes so far (think back to series 1, episodes 1 and 2)?
   There were some great Life on Mars-esque touches with the new series of Ashes to Ashes: viz. mystery phone calls and glimpses of the present day (2008). But those who liked Alex Drake’s self-awareness about the situation she might be in might not take to the darker tone of the new series; those of us who like an extra mystery thrown in, à la Life, will love it.
   The problem was the relative absence of surprises, especially after the way US Life on Mars ended (can’t get more whack than that) but Alex Drake’s mystery stalker, who taunts her with a red rose and even captures her momentarily, is enough to keep me watching. (Also, what is it with tunnels—both the one where Diana and Dodi were killed and the motif used heavily in Spanish Life on Mars, La chica de ayer?)
   I know there are those little things appearing in the show that couldn’t have existed in April 1982, such as the particular model of Audi Quattro or Roger Allam’s Rover SD1 (it’s a Vanden Plas, launched December that year), and on Twitter someone mentioned the SLR camera wasn’t available.
   But as with Life on Mars, it’s telly. Was it good telly? I say yes, with viewer numbers peaking at 7·2 million in the UK last night—identical to the première.

What fictional character do you relate to most and why?

Let’s see: what Chinese fictional character had to operate in the west, deal to the establishment, drive a rare two-door car, impersonate others, and have his adventures chronicled?
   Simon Templar.
   Pity he was always played by Caucasians on the screen, but I always thought he was Chinese, since his creator was. A new pilot is being made now, which, inter alia, Sir Roger Moore and his son Geoffrey are producing.

   TV trivia buffs might notice John Steed’s Rover SD1 from The New Avengers in the last car chase, reused here. It was also George Cowley’s Rover SD1 in the first season of The Professionals. Stingey British Leyland!