Sorry it’s been so long. It’s not a lack of desire to prattle on about my (second
) favourite series, but rather a lack of free time.
Series 1 Episode 2
Episode 2 opens panning from the test card girl (watch out!) across Sam’s floor at the flat; discarded mug, alcohol (I’m not much cop with that; is it whiskey, maybe?), watch, jacket, shoes etc – we know how unlike Sam this carnage is, so he’s clearly suffering still. The TV remains on as it’s the link to the “real world”. Flashbacks of lines from the previous episode are heard in his dreams, highlighting the nurses in the hospital ... and then Annie, telling him to stay, and then he’s awake with a start. We cut to him shaving in the ... beautiful ... surroundings of his 1973 bedsit. The mirror is broken and he gazes at his reflection “real” then shifts so that his face is in the broken bit “unreal” – we’re a long way from sure and so is he then, as if to throw further doubt into his mind, he cuts his finger on the razor. And it hurt! (We’ll come back to that at the very end of Life on Mars. Under previous circumstances I would say it could potentially have been thought through by this point but the weekly watch-alongs on Twitter with the creators has suggested that very little was decided at the start, so perhaps not!).
And bam, “Live and Let Die” kicks in and, suddenly, we’re watching Gene, Ray, Chris and Sam tearing out of a swimming pool, hot on the heels of one Kim Trent. Dressed in nothing but shoes and swimming trunks (with the exception of Sam who, fittingly, has donned a life guard vest) – presumably these are the kind of skills that 21st century policemen are expected to or take the time to acquire, and their 1970s counterparts, less so. That or it is just befitting his need for control and order. I can actually hear Gene calling him a Jessie for it. I digress ...
Also true to form, Sam is the only one who stops to help an old lady whose trolley is knocked down the steps by the onslaught – “sorry, love” – he’s thanked with a wallop! Oh yes, ladies and gentlemen, just in case you’d forgotten in the week between episodes, this is most definitely 1973! Sam can’t remember the ‘70s version of the arrest warning so Gene kindly steps in with “you’re nicked!”. A few lewd comments from the Guv about the contents of his swimming trunks and Sam falls back onto the grass, laughing at the ridiculousness of the situation in which he finds himself ... roll opening credits!
Trent is hauled into reception as a drunk is being dragged the other way singing “The Mighty Quinn”. Weirdly this song comes back to us later with Trent whistling in. I have no real idea if there’s any reason for that; it wasn’t even a new song at the time, it was 5 years old so, I have no idea other than a bit of continuity. Ever the modern voice of justice and rights, Sam protests the decision to have the man they’ve arrested put into a cell that contains “2 pints of vomit” but no one else feels that there’s a problem with this action so in he goes! A nice thought.
We are then immediately in lost property (or, “the interview room”, if you will) with Sam’s pens neatly laid out ready, harking back to what we know was omitted from the first episode. I’m pretty sure that Sam doesn’t write anything in any of the interviews in this entire series, but I am prepared to stand corrected. There’s also a brass ash tray on the desk, so commonplace is smoking on both sides of this desk. It’s green in the middle exactly like the one at my parent’s house from when my grandmother lived there (and smoked like a chimney, so I’m told!). Presumably a relic even in 1973 – back when we didn’t throw things out just because we fancied a more aesthetically pleasing change. Trent is a cocky so-and-so during this exchange, so it is perhaps unsurprising that it isn’t long before Gene gets physical. But not before we get the wonderful line “you know, if you were Pinocchio, you’d have just poked my eye out!”. Gene knows Trent and what they do every time they come to Manchester, so in his eyes it’s worth fitting him up with anything they can to prevent them from carrying out their intended crimes. Sam doesn’t of course know this and, even when it’s explained to him, is from a time where that sort of behaviour earns you a suspension, and not a commendation. Sam sees two cleaning ladies and asks them to clean out the cell that Trent is in – one of them is June who is recently engaged and on her way to the jewellers to get her ring resized because she can’t tell her fiancé that it’s too big. Despite initially telling Sam that they do not clean the cells (that’s the WPCs’ job ... another example of equality in the 70s’ workplace!), June’s kind nature leads to her offering to do so anyway, to help him out.
One of my absolute favourite scenes next, which I did mention in an earlier post:
I absolutely love that scene - and you were pretty spot on with your quote (just missing "give over!"). I also love that Gene's outraged not because the team are kicking a ball about in the office, but that it nearly dislodged Gary Cooper from the wall. "If you want to kick a ball about, go and do it in the corridor" not "do some bloody work!" or "do it in your own time". I'm sure there's another great line in that office - I have them in my notes somewhere. Oh yes! Sam "Where I come from?" Gene "Hyde; your old division, you brain donor" . Then Sam says "Well, in Hyde we don't usually keep acid and knocked off bling in our offices just so we can get home earlier" which I also quite enjoy.
Sam let’s Trent go, much to Gene’s distaste. "Are they all like you in Hyde? Must be a bloody dangerous place". That's a line which sticks with me for some reason, and the manner in which it is delivered. Until that point I think we (through Sam) don't really know what it's like to be in the Guv's bad books but oh boy ...
it's that steely tone, much more serious than being chucked about the office like a rag doll. Weirdly, as I said, Trent is whistling “The Mighty Quinn” as he leaves. Sam then tries to get them on proper grounds, whilst enjoying what looks like school dinners (with addition of tapioca pudding on his beef burger “I thought it was horseradish”) but before he can eat much of it ... “Tyler, blag in progress!”.
It’s the jewellers and who was there but the lovely June. THIS was the moment that I was the most shocked by in the entirety of my Life On Mars Teaches Us About Life In The 1970s crash course when I first watched it. Sam tells the medics that her BP is plummeting and she needs saline only to be told “I’m just an ambulance driver” as they bundle her into the back of the van with blood pouring out of the side of her mouth. I remember turning around to mum and dad in absolute horror. Surely not?! But evidently so ... doesn’t bear thinking about. How many lives must have been lost on the way to the hospital? Hendrix was probably one of them.
John Simm certainly does outrage, doesn't he? When the whole team blame him for June being shot and Gene lays into him, telling him to clean up her "precious blood" Sam goes all out hitting the wall and using his jacket on the tarmac (I note he conveniently didn't have his leather jacket on for that scene!". What is it with DIs and leather jackets? “This entire place is cracked! You can’t blame me, you lunatic bastard!”
We cut to The Railway Arms and Nelson in his almost gaudy attire against the drab brown and grey of 1973 interior design ... and fashion, come to that! Perhaps Sam sees Nelson as a semi-outsider himself, as he bursts in asking why he couldn’t have 1988 instead of 1973 – colour television, central heating ... weirdly he actually gets some kind of power surge from the lighting at this point, but Nelson explains it away as the power cuts. He reverts to his real, Manchester voice as he does when trying to really get through to Sam. Annie appears and quickly forces him to leave the pub as Gene and the others are on their way and will not make him welcome. This is almost the first appearance of Annie in this episode and we’re 1/3 of the way through. Sporting some lovely lime green and yellow fashions of the day (!), she tells Sam to prove he’s not real and “throw [him]self under a bus ... DON’T!” suddenly thinking better of it, and proving that whilst she thinks he’s a nutcase, she also genuinely cares for the DI. Everyone is blaming Sam for June being hurt, which is completely unjust in Sam’s mind but he also obviously wishes that he had saved her ... which is not a good place to be and, apparently, sitting on your fold up bed drinking warm wine out of a mug is the best idea Sam can muster the energy to perform.
... and cue the creepy test card girl, just in case things were getting a little to normal! I’m not truly sure I understand the relevance of her. At least with my clown, it was actually my dad ... there’s a sentence for you. But Sam seems very afraid of her, considering she’s a little girl. Has anyone any clever thoughts on her? Or is she purely there to keep things a bit bloody weird?
The punch up in June’s coma ward is most rewarding to watch, too. I love how they pause to show their warrant cards and then carry on. I don’t think being a police officer would be enough to allow that to continue, now! Gene then talks about Manchester almost poetically, much to Sam’s distain. He cares about this city and he polices it the best way he knows how. We feel safe, knowing that he’s out there and on our side.
Just (?!) to highlight another attitude of 1973, we bring in a female witness described only as “tits in a jumper” and every line directed to her has a pun “get it off your chest” etc. While Gene tells Chris to start threatening people with obstruction, Sam gets a lead from the lady in the jumper – and off they go in search of fingerprints which ... unfortunately comes to nothing as forensics are “tied up” and Chris adds dozens of his own prints to the object in question. We then get the immortal line from the Guv “I’ve never fitted anyone up who doesn’t deserve it” and there we have it, really. Any means necessary to lock up the bad folk. Sam of course thinks that this is obscene but really, you’ve got to question, especially after this episode, which is safer for the innocent folk out there. OUR Guv mentioned this location which I think I’m right in saying is used multiple times under slightly different guises and angles – here’s the relevant thread:
Series 1 Episode 2 LocationsAt this point we are introduced to Leonard – a chap pushing a dustcart and using a hearing aid. This impediment puts him in the firing line of Gene’s insults (from hero to zero in 2 lines, perhaps, but you get used to his ways and it’s this kind of completely politically incorrect attitude that put Gene Hunt so fondly in the public consciousness when this series first aired. Yes it’s wrong, but we’re so utterly sick of being told that everything we do and say could be offensive to someone, that hearing it caused quite a stir. Leonard witnessed the crime and was scared into silence by a warning knock from the getaway car. Sam’s sympathetic to his fear, Gene treats him like a “brain donor” so it’s business as usual. Another enjoyable exchange as he is brought into the station. “Treat him like a person, Phyllis. You remember people? You used to be one”.
A little light relief - the musical highlights:
This episode both starts and finishes with Live and Let Die
I think I read a little too much into this, but this song is nonetheless, linked to this episode in my mind:
I initially thought this was actually incidental music! But here we have Pink Floyd with the bit of music that plays through the most tense part of the episode:
Three words. White dog shit. Genuinely perplexed as to why, now it’s brought to our attention, that we don’t see this any more. Is it because people have grown more embarrassed by allowing their dogs to soil public places or are the streets more widely cleaned? (I doubt it).
We get another excellent example of how things have come on in leaps and bounds when Sam promises that Leonard won’t be visible at the identity parade, because he will be behind special glass. We then cut to the real identity parade which takes place in the staff canteen of all places, with people milling around in the background and those lined up for scrutiny able to see and hear everything that the witness says and does. Unsurprisingly, Leonard bottles it and we are left with a rather bewildered DCI muttering “special glass?” That didn’t even come into play in Ashes to Ashes, 8-10 years later so goodness knows when Sam’s “special glass” was introduced.
I’m aware that I’m essentially just narrating the whole episode at this point. Room for improvement!
Not one of Gene’s finer moments, next, at a location which I suspect is long gone (again from Gene’s thread on the subject, it is still standing in street view 2015 but I just wouldn’t hold my breath that it’s still there now!). Gene and Sam hide Leonard in an ice cream van, looking for Trent for a positive ID. Naturally, when they stop, children flock and Gene’s spontaneous way of dealing with this awkward situation is to stick two fingers up at the kids, whilst eating an ice cream. Still. Give him a female DI and you’ll make a gentleman of him yet ...
Sam decides that Leonard needs police protection overnight and suggests Annie as she is at least human. Not satisfied with that, though, he asks that Chris and Ray are stationed outside in the car all night. However, Gene’s complete lack of belief that this is necessary leads him to sneakily allow Ray and Chris to join him in the pub for a darts match as soon as he thinks Sam isn’t watching. The criminals do indeed go after him and thanks to this attitude, Annie is left on her own with no back up in the middle of a rabbit warren and very soon without a radio because the battery died. Does this happen now, do we suppose? Are police radios run on AAs?? Thankfully Sam finds them both safely, their location given away by the interference on Sam’s radio from Leonard’s hearing aid.
In an action-packed finale, the Guv saves the day (we’re back to hero again, aren’t we) with a well-timed appearance and punch to the gob. There is a significant exchange of relieved smiles/laughs, the likes of which we haven’t really seen before between Sam and Gene. Are they starting to understand that, between them, their skills can make them un-bloody-breakable? Probably not! But it’s a start. The Good, The Bad and The Ugly poster in Gene’s office prompts Sam to ask the question “which one are you?” to which the response is “all three”. Much like the comment in another episode “do not watch me work because it is not for the faint hearted”. I think Sam is beginning to see that there is merit in Gene’s methods. They can learn from one another and make a very solid team.
“You were transferred here at your own request. I didn’t ask for you, you wanted to come”. Just to remind us that we have absolutely no idea what’s going on of course! And if that wasn’t enough weirdness for the end of this episode, Sam goes back to visit June and all the lights go off, one by one before he is trapped in the room, in the dark and unable to open the door while modern warning sounds and nurses voices deafen him as they quickly work to save him. Then, just like that, it’s as though nothing happened. I remember seeing it the first time and thinking it was all getting a bit weird. But not bad weird. Never bad weird!
So overall I think this episode very clever, because it has us questioning who is in the right – Gene’s methods seem crass and brutish to our modern eyes but Sam’s approach actually caused more harm than good. A middle ground could work, and perhaps that’s where we’re headed. But it certainly keeps us guessing on what’s happening to Sam – a lot to suggest he is in a coma in this episode (rather than mad or back in time) but that doesn’t explain his presence in 1973 ...
another
4/5
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not "do some bloody work!" or "do it in your own time". I'm sure there's another great line in that office - I have them in my notes somewhere. Oh yes! Sam "Where I come from?" Gene "Hyde; your old division, you brain donor" 
it's that steely tone, much more serious than being chucked about the office like a rag doll.
) favourite series, but rather a lack of free time. 
it's that steely tone, much more serious than being chucked about the office like a rag doll. Weirdly, as I said, Trent is whistling “The Mighty Quinn” as he leaves. Sam then tries to get them on proper grounds, whilst enjoying what looks like school dinners (with addition of tapioca pudding on his beef burger “I thought it was horseradish”) but before he can eat much of it ... “Tyler, blag in progress!”.
