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Contains spoilers up to and including the episode discussed, but is spoiler free for subsequent episodes of Life on Mars and Ashes to Ashes.
“My name is Sam Tyler. I had an accident and woke up in 1973. Am I mad, in a coma or back in time? Whatever’s happened, it’s like I’ve landed on a different planet. Now, maybe if I can work out the reason... I can get home.”
The use of ‘Live and Let Die’; the wee granny hitting Sam with her bag; Sam then reading them the wrong rights; and, most of all, Gene’s hideous, hideous swimming trunks: I think we should all just pause for a second and admire the sheer brilliance of this episode's opening.
Now that we've given that its due respect, onto the rest of the episode. At its heart is the juxtaposition between Sam and Gene: Sam lets a suspect go due to lack of evidence, whereas Gene would have fitted him up to keep him off the streets. The suspect later goes on to commit a robbery and shoot a cleaner who works for CID – so who was right? As fun as the “oh look, the 70s were so different!” moments were in the first episode (and continue to be here), it’s good to see the writers move it on too and actually challenge our ideas of justice against the law.
Matthew Graham’s script does so much here. As well as great jokes (“The wizard’ll sort it out. It’s cause of the wonderful things he does.”), the emotional scenes and central crime story are well developed, as well as having some intriguing developments in the overall mystery, particularly the hospital scene at the end. The early establishment of the feedback between Leonard’s hearing aid and the walky-talkies was a skilful touch, as was the police line-up taking place in the canteen.
Marshall Lancaster is quickly becoming a scene-stealer. I particularly enjoyed Chris’s attempt at a one-liner falling completely flat, although the way he wrote out all of Sam’s instructions in his notepad (“WITNESSES NOT SUSPECTS. There you are, big letters.”) was also a personal highlight. The arrival of Phyllis, the earthy WPC, was also rather welcome, her no-nonsense sarcasm a pleasing contrast to Annie’s idealism.
There were some great Sam and Gene moments here, particularly the fight in the hospital followed by a heart-to-heart, as well as Sam’s attempts to leave being mocked by Gene. The last scene, where Gene asks him if he’s definitely in to play cards with them but is clearly asking so much more than that, is played in a pleasantly understated way by Simm and Glenister. Their chemistry promises magnificent things for the future.
Next time: Murder in a textiles factory!
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