2 posts tagged “story arc”

Ian Wylie at the Manchester Evening News, a big Ashes to Ashes fan, has info on the second series—and there may even be a third.
   Highlights from his blog:

ASHES To Ashes is set to get slightly darker in series two, on the road to unveiling greater mysteries. …

2) Matthew: “Then we started talking about what we call our three year plan, which is if, all things being equal, we can run Ashes To Ashes – if we have a series two – if we can run it beyond series two to series three, as is our hope, we can actually unveil a bigger mystery, a bigger plan. And ultimately reveal a lot more about the characters.”

3) Matthew: “The first series of Ashes To Ashes was more about laying the ground rules again, and just kind of having fun and getting people into the ’81 groove. And then we’ll start playing out the bigger mysteries.” …

14) Matthew: “We changed the mystery in Ashes To Ashes for series one, in that we made it about what the clown represented and what the clown was, and we played a twist with the clown. Because what we wanted to do was play with the idea of someone who thought they knew exactly what was going on, and establish all of that, because we thought that the audience knew exactly what was going on. So we thought, ‘Let’s have a character who is the audience, who has seen Life On Mars and knows what’s happening.’ And then, as I say, refer to the three year plan. The next phase of the three year plan is to undermine that, so that you realise you don’t know what’s going on, and nor does Alex. So it was a bit of a gamble, but we kind of thought we’d get away with that a little bit in the first series because we wanted it to be fun. And we wanted to establish a different tone. And if we’d put a big esoteric mystery into Ashes To Ashes – I mean, I think we’ve got a fairly big mystery. She’s pursued by death, who turns out to be her father. That’s pretty esoteric. But if we’d gone even further with that, I think it would have felt that we were just replaying Life On Mars.” …

28) The American version of Life On Mars. Ashley: “It’s being re-made by a guy called David E Kelley, who is a hero of both of ours – so we went out to Los Angeles to meet him. He was very charming. And, no, we’re having nothing to do with it. We’ve seen a script and it’s…interesting.” …

   So: I am excited about Ashes in 2009 and a little worried about the new Life on Mars in the US—though still hopeful that the two Irish lads who are the new Sam Tyler and Gene Hunt will give it a bit of gravitas.

Keeley Hawes gave an excellent performance in the final of Ashes to Ashes last night—best I’ve ever seen her in anything. And the story—wow (spoiler alert).
   I know some fans are dismissing it as “not as good as Life on Mars” but I say the series was redeemed in that one episode, penned by co-creator Ashley Pharoah.
   Because Ashes finally gave a good mindf*** that makes you now wonder if it’s all inside Alex’s head as ‘constructs’—or is it now her memory?
   That finalé, where it was Gene, not Evan, who takes young Alex’s hand, was a total surprise to me. Her Dad turning into the evil Pierrot clown—amazing. It is better than Sam finding out that his Dad could have killed Annie. It also becomes very apparent why the première’s director, Jonny Campbell, was called back to do this episode.
   Geoffrey Palmer’s guest role as the real-life Lord Scarman, the comic turn of Alex in the tank, the two sides of Gene, the two ages of Alex in the police station—all these were brilliant elements in an episode that finally sees all eight outings of Ashes to Ashes come together. Talk about nicely tied together in a story arc.
   I can now say, ‘I told you so,’ when I said that Alex’s predicament is different from Sam Tyler’s and that Gene, Ray and Chris exist in another timeline—which brings back the validity of Soozanne’s theory penned this time last year.
   We were promised more of the ‘Gene Hunt mythology’ from Matthew Graham and Ashley Pharoah—and we got it. Fantastic! Best episode ever.
   The scene is now well set for the second series, which, after this, should do incredibly well.