Re-watching it atm. It’s an absolute masterpiece, in hindsight. A bit of unecessary language aside i’m not sure it could be bettered. Combines the very best bits of Starsky and Hutch, Goodnight Sweetheart and Cracker for me.
It’s good for several reasons. Firstly, any sort of teatime drama that involves time travel or time loops really seems to hit the mark. Not sure why. Secondly, i love stuff where they play particular interest to sets and filming locations. There are scenes where they’ve filmed car chases where they’ve just gone to modern parts of East Manchester and they pretty much still look like the 1970s, but the interior sets are great as well. Thirdly, Simm’s a genuinely standout TV actor. Been in so mich good stuff, but this, State of Play and The Lakes particularly.
Did you ever read the synopsis of the US TV remake’s final episode?
At the end of the series, it is revealed that Tyler’s 2008 and 1973 realities were both fictitious, created by the onboard computer of a spacecraft that is carrying Tyler, Hunt, Norris, Carling, and Skelton on the first ever manned mission to the planet Mars, in 2035. The crew he worked with in 1973 were just virtual reality versions of his fellow spaceship crewmembers. His room number, “2B”, is his sleeping unit; his old precinct, “Hyde”, and his new precinct, the “125”, are based on the name of the spacecraft — “Hyde 125”; his neighbor, Windy, is the name of the computer A.I.; Frank Morgan, an FBI agent in the series, is the Mission Control flight director; in a reversal from her struggle to be taken seriously as a police officer in 1973, Annie Norris is the ship’s commander. To sustain the crew, their minds were routinely kept active while asleep using virtual reality “neural stimulation” programs of their own choosing, but Sam’s choice of a scenario where he was a police officer c. 2008 was abruptly changed to a 1973 setting by a computer glitch induced by a meteor-storm. The identity of Maya in 2035, however, is left unexplained. In a twist, Gene Hunt in 1973 turns out to be astronaut ‘Major Tom’ Tyler — Sam’s father — in the conclusion. Just as Maria was estranged from Gene in 1973, Sam was estranged from his father until the very end of the series, when he reconciles with his dad before they step out onto the bare ground of the Red Planet. However the final shot shows, not an astronaut boot, but Gene Hunt’s signature white loafer taking the first step onto the martian surface, casting doubt once again onto the ending.
Think it’s my all-time favourite TV show. Something really dark and creepy about it. Didn’t enjoy Ashes to Ashes as much though although the final series was good.