TV over the last few years has been nothing but reality shows, home makeover programmes or recycled murder mysteries, so it's been great to have something worth watching that isn't a repeat!

 

Life On Mars is a time travel cop show about Sam Tyler, a high ranking officer who is run over whilst investigating a spate of bizarre murders in 2006 and mysteriously awakens in 1973. He has to come to terms with her fiery new boss Gene Hunt, a totally different method of policing involving minor corruption, police brutality, sexism and a total lack of respect or need for forensic evidence, issues which have changed wildly in 33 years. The main question of the series is has Sam been thrown back in time, in a coma or is he actually from 1973 and hallucinating? It's a fascinating scenario and one that has captured the imagination of viewers.

 

Life On Mars is the creation of Matthew Graham, Tony Jordan and Ashley Pharoah , who had previously worked on Spooks and Hustle for the BBC. Graham had also created the post-apocalyptic drama The Last Train for ITV, so was no stranger to high concept sci-fi. The three decided they wanted to create a cop show, specifically one modelled after the cult British series, The Sweeney. To give the series a twist, the team wrote in the concept of a time travel/hallucination scenario.

 

Originally called 'Ford Granada' and pitched to Channel 4 in the late 1990's, the idea was quickly dismissed as too far fetched. However, with the resurgence in popularity of The Professionals, The Sweeney and Starsky and Hutch on satellite channels and the large audiences those series were pulling in, the three writers pitched their idea to the BBC, who green-lit the series, and handed production duties to Kudos Film and Television, a subsidiary film company.

 

The 1970's filming requirements meant careful location scouting was needed because as many locations as possible that were virtually unchanged from the period were required, as well as the cars, clothing and other features endemic to the 70's. The episodes were filmed in pairs in five week filming blocks, but were filmed out of order, so scenes from one episode were filmed, sometimes followed by scenes from another ep!

 

John Simm had previously worked with Graham, and was well liked and respected by the crew. He agreed to play Sam, a role which was significantly different to anything he had played before. Finding someone to play the burly and blunt Gene Hunt was more difficult. Ray Winstone was originally considered, but he had other commitments so had to turn the role down. Graham remembered that Simm had played opposite Philip Glenister in the mini series State of Play, and the two had a good on-screen chemistry.Ironically Phil's brother Robert had played a major part in Hustle.  After being approached about the role, Phil agreed after reading a sample script and relishing the character.  

 

Other roles were quickly filled. Dean Andrews was signed to play DS Ray Carling, a character who to begin with despises Sam, Marshall Lancaster as DC Chris Skelton and Liz White as WPC Annie Cartwright.

 

The first series was filmed throughout the summer of 2005 and debuted on 9 January 2006 on BBC1 at 9pm. The series drew strong ratings and a second series was commissioned, which was filmed in late 2006. It was confirmed the second series would be the last, and that two possible endings had been filmed.

 

It's also been confirmed that the crator of Chicago Hope, David E. Kelley was planning his own American version of Life On Mars with a pilot episode due to debut in late 2007.