I was a great fan of “Life on Mars”, but gave up on “Ashes to Ashes” very quickly. To my mind, whereas Philip Glenister’s Gene Hunt was an excellent supporting character and foil in LoM, promoting him to co-star altered the balance between drama and comedy for the worse (this is not a comment on Glenister or his acting, but the comic and caricaturic nature of his character).
However, now the final episode of AtA has aired – “which explains it all” – I was a little curious – not enought to watch the show, but sufficient to Google it.
Having done so, I have decided that I was right to pretend that the story ended with Series 2 of LoM, because if what I read is accurate, they just went and spoilt it.
Spoilers follow.