Fire up the Quattro! Ashes To Ashes happens

and in case you weren't already sold:

from DS:
Nookie Bear has filmed a guest spot on Life On Mars spin-off Ashes To Ashes.

The puppet and owner Roger De Courcey appear alongside Philip Glenister in the new series, which is set in the 1980s.

Dean Andrews, who plays DS Ray Carling, revealed that the cast was excited by the furry guest, saying: "We were like big kids, having our photos taken with the bear and Roger. He must have thought we were mad, although I think he secretly enjoyed his time with the weird people off the telly."

Geoffrey Palmer is among other stars lined up to appear in the show, which also features Chris Skelton and former Spooks actress Keeley Hawes.

Geoffrey Palmer

okay, this is good news. the rest ... i stand by what i said on the LoM thread, ie i fear this will heave.

still gonna watch it, though, obviously.

i fuckin' love geoffrey palmer, me.

I think I'm going to hate this, but I don't want to hate it. Interesting to see how they deal with the whole did/didn't Sam timetravel, since by having Alex Drake knowing stuff by having read Sam's files in 2007, then they're pretty much taking the mystery out of it and making it a "lol, fingerless gloves and rubik cubes" cheesefest, aren't they?

I think Ashes To Ashes will be better.

-- blueski, Tuesday, 1 May 2007 11:04 (8 months ago)

As long as Gene Hunt continues to be Gene Hunt I will be at least halfway happy with this series.

> Dean Andrews

lol.

in the sense that he is the very opposite of you, yes :-)

would smash keeley hawes

i hope this is as good as torchwood!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

zing!

gimme 5

http://www.defenselink.mil/dodcmsshare/homepagephoto%5C2007-09%5Chires_070905-A-pryor-001a.jpg

lame

^ boring

^^ this

hmph. proved right, sadly.

the one good thing: the soundtrack. god damn, 1981 ruled. if, over the course of the series, i get to hear "labelled with love" or "under your thumb", i will be ... well, a little happier than i'll be with the rest of it, if that first episode is anything to go by.

the whole point about LoM was that it was an intriguingly ambiguous drama that happened to be bolstered by a truly inspired secondary character in the shape of gene hunt, who provided a hitting-and-quipping sideshow when all sam's psychodrama got too much/badly written. this is basically the gene hunt show, with a feeble facsimile of the "trapped in the past" story half-sellotaped on. only -- gah -- they forgot to, you know, actually write any fucking dialogue for him, so the very first line is a retread ("armed bastards") and we end up with "gene hunt on a boat in sunglasses" as dramatic denouement. my. i'm surprised they didn't go the whole hog and have him jump over a shark as he got out.

it would be beneath me to quibble about quattros and yuppies not existing in 1981, so i shan't. i'd let them away with that if there was a shred of half-decent drama underneath it. fuck's sake, i'd let them off if they'd even given gene some better lines.

the next episode looks like it's set on my sixth birthday. i'll give it one more chance.

would smash keeley hawes

-- That one guy that hit it and quit it, Monday, January 21, 2008 5:54 PM (2 weeks ago) Bookmark Link

it would be beneath me to quibble about quattros and yuppies not existing in 1981

yeah one of the real lame things was: yuppies in 1981.

other lame things were the stupid music cues when gene hunt was about to come in.

keeley hawes is very beautiful but awkward at comedy.

but i didn't think 'life on mars' was very good and this was sort of less boring than that.

i think 'LOM' was more boring because it was more 'male' -- 70s retro always felt very lad-mag to me, and simm is such an everybloke... hawes's character's possible attraction to hunt makes that ambivalence more interesting too (though being fair i did not watch a whole lot of 'LOM'; maybe there was more going on).

that said i'd always seen it as kind of spoofy, like 'the sweeney' was the kind of thing knocking around in 2006-simm's head, and that's why he got trapped in it. don't think hawes's character's subconscious is populated by 'miami vice' and yet that's how the show ended.

tellingly, i'm just watching the last 10 minutes or so of the last ep of LoM on BBC4 -- which i thought was terribly weak and disappointing at the time -- but it wipes the floor with AtA. there's a feeling of drama, of suspense, of ... i dunno, of some kind of depth which was sorely missing tonight. now, fine, if that's what they want it to be: hurrah. but ... i dunno, comedy coppering capers were not necessarily what made this idea work.

still. we'll see.

also telling: the voiceover at the end referred to ashes to ashes as "the new spin-off series from life on mars", not as -- say -- "the sequel". perhaps i'm just expecting too much.

they have opened the door to having more series of 'LOM' by having him not die in 1973.

I thought it was okay in places but Keely Hawes' character was kind of annoying. Making her fully aware of Sam's case was a mistake, she's now way too self-aware and focused on why she's there.

On the plus side the campest bits seemed to work well - especially machine guns on the speedboat. And I'm glad Chris is going to get some action.

Also, would smash Keely Hawes.

I just watched it, admittedly slightly pissed, and enjoyed it a lot! Matt, I totally disagree with your point that Alex knowing about Sam's experience is a bad thing - a retread of the 'WTF I'm in the past with some arseholes' thing would've been tedious. I liked the bullets flying everwhere and no one getting hurt scene - just like a real 80s cop show. I'm still undecided about Hawes' acting, but she showed promise.

I will probably get laughed at for asking this, but what was the tune playing over the closing credits?

My god that car!

they have opened the door to having more series of 'LOM' by having him not die in 1973.

Yeah, I thought that! Also, odd that her subconscious added the exact storyline for the end of "LOM"...

Lamest thing: There is too much in her real life for her to want to stay in 1981, i.e. her daughter. Series will end with them being reunited, after lots of 'will she/wont she' ness..

The biggest thing missing from 1981 is 1980. And 1979, 78 etc. Everything, from cars, music, fashions are all exactly of the moment, whereas there really should be more stuff 'hanging on' from the recent past.

it would be beneath me to quibble about quattros and yuppies not existing in 1981

A quick Google finds that Quattro existed from 1980, and surely City boys like that would have existed in 1981?

The shot over the Thames and Docklands where the Dome and Canary Wharf should be was kind of poignant.

.. and pointed! LOOK LOOK WE REMOVED THE WHEEL AND ALL THAT BOBBINF!

I'm hoping that this will follow a completely different trajectory to Life on Mars and her 'I know exactly what this is about' will gradually turn to 'actually I haven't got a clue what the hell is going on'.

Well, that's all it can do.

A quick Google finds that Quattro existed from 1980, and surely City boys like that would have existed in 1981?

1) quattro made its motor-show debut in spring 1980. there's no way that, by july that year, there'd be RHD models on british roads.

especially not ones with 1979 number plates :)

but hey.

2) there'd be city types, yes, and a lot of them might have been wankers -- but they wouldn't be wearing shiny mid-eighties suits and big mid-eighties specs. because, er, it's not the mid-eighties. it's 1981. mark G is right -- look at footage from the time and it still looks very like the late seventies; the colour schemes and angular styles and so on that define what piss-poor TV writers we think of as the UK 1980s didn't just happen overnight.

but hey. these are quibbles of such unimportance as to be throwaway.

The Audi Quatro and the motorboat were throwbacks to Miami Vice, as someone upthread said quite insightfully.

Would any cop have a pursuit vehicle that was bold red and an audi quattro? Probably not.

well, no, of course not. and, upthread, that was what concerned me about it: ie the fact that while LoM followed a vague seventies-cop paradigm, this looked like a hyper-real cartoon where everything had been thrown at the wall and they hoped some of it would stick.

but actually that doesn't matter so much, because the plot and the dialogue are so shit they take your mind off it ;)

by july that year

hang on: it's 1981, isn't it? my mistake. so yeh, okay, i suppose it's feasible. just.

This isn't real actual 1981 people, it's a version of 1981 as going on in the mind of someone too young to really remember it at the time* so of course its going to be full of inappropriately assembled 80s signifiers!

TBH I have no idea to what extent Life On Mars actually resembled 1973 Manchester.

*Or at least we think it is.

xpost ah, no: no RHD till 1982, says the owners' club: http://www.quattroownersclub.com/quattro_file.htm.

i can't believe i care. really. i need to fuck off now.

it's a version of 1981 as going on in the mind of someone too young to really remember it at the time* so of course its going to be full of inappropriately assembled 80s signifiers!

yes, exactly. doesn't make it any good, though :)

Would any cop have a pursuit vehicle that was bold red and an audi quattro? Probably not.

-- Mark G, Friday, 8 February 2008 09:34 (9 minutes ago) Bookmark Link

This doesn't make it wrong, it makes it stylised, in case there is any doubt of my intention here.

This isn't real actual 1981 people, it's a version of 1981 as going on in the mind of someone too young to really remember it at the time* so of course its going to be full of inappropriately assembled 80s signifiers!

well, this is the big question -- and it's hard to do. but the showdown was definitely straight outta a cop show rather than anything british police did. i'm pretty sure gene hunt and his guys would not have been carrying pistols, for example.

when the barrow-boy type city trader 'happened' is one for our boy carmody. they're usually associated with the deregulation of the stock exchange in 1986, but i think they were coming in before then. but in 1981 the uk was in a deep recession, and i think the city would still have been (deeply ruthless but polite) surrey posh dudes.

The Professionals (TV series) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Professionals was a British crime-action television drama series that aired on the ITV network from 1977 to 1983, filmed between 1977 and 1981. ...

Next episide features a DeLorean apparently.

Back to "Back to the Future" next week!

Definitely those city trader types were around 84 onwards. 80/81 were pretty much still the 70's in many ways. Adam James is the consummate yuppie in practically everything these days, it seems.

I cringed through the first 10-15 minutes, but at the end realised that I'd thoroughly enjoyed it.

Mr. Hawes is in the series later on, as is the fantastic Phil Davis.

Would any cop have a pursuit vehicle that was bold red and an audi quattro? Probably not.

It a standard (a trope?) of TV cop shows that the cops are driving cars that are beyond their means....Starsky & Hutch, Bergerac etc. And it is far easier to base your 80s-based show on TV programmes of the 80s than actual events of the 80s, esp if the writer wasn't actually around to experience them at the time as mentioned upthread.

Easier, but not necessarily less accurate - in that memories are faulty too...hmmmm.

Yeah, that's what I was saying.

lol 80s

Also, didn't Hawes' character's parents die in 1981, meaning she'd probably have enough other things going in her little life than assimilating concrete memories for a future coma-induced fantasy?

tellingly, i'm just watching the last 10 minutes or so of the last ep of LoM on BBC4 -- which i thought was terribly weak and disappointing at the time -- but it wipes the floor with AtA

Yes, they'd had 15 and half episodes of character and plot development leading up to that point. We're basically starting again here. Try watching the *first* 10 minutes of so of series 1 ep1 with a clear mind and you might be on to something.

I cringed when Gene Hunt came on referring to himself and Chris/Ray as "armed bastards", but as the premise of the show became clearer - that Alex was in Tylerworld - it made sense. Sadly I think this just gives A2A a licence to be hyperparodic, but I hope to be proved wrong.

Also, y'know, clowns are a bit scary.

I liked it with some reservations, btw. Which I think was my thoughts after the first ep of Life on Mars as well.

Also, didn't Hawes' character's parents die in 1981, meaning she'd probably have enough other things going in her little life than assimilating concrete memories for a future coma-induced fantasy?

Aaah, forgot that!

So, eventually she gets involved with finding out why and how they died, along with psychobloke's involvement (possibly eventually benign), and THAT's the resolution to returning her to the present day.

Gene hands them over to Nelson = God or Keats = The Devil. I can see where you're going with Hades, but I'd argue since they all died while actually working (none of them had a heart attack in their sleep, for example) they all fit the 'state of grace' definition of Purgatory and the default state is for them to do the last big job with Gene (which brings them to terms with their death, and why they died allowing them to pass to the pub). Hades is too neutral a theological option.

Ray wasn't killed in the line of action though, and I can't actually, for shame, remember if Sam was or not - I know he was killed getting out of his car, but was he on duty at the time?

I basically liked it, tbh, but I'm not watching LOST any more, so have no idea what comparison you're drawing. Also glad Alex left and didn't stay with Gene, thereby pissing off all the people on the internetz who wanted some Rose/fuckbuddydoctor-type resolution.

I did call the limbo thing, but for the wrong reasons.

Ray was after a fashion though, it was directly due to something that happened that day (although his description of it involves Gene being there already, ergo unreliable witness). Sam was, he was investigating his girlfriend's disappearance.

Basically, LOST has disappeared up a mystical wazoo that is nothing like the S1/S2 purgatory angle that was popular or the Man Of Science from S4/S5. With the finale impending on Friday, the purgatory aspect would be INFINITELY preferable to whatever it is going to end up being.

Settle this the old-fashioned way: is series writer Catholic? If so, Purgatory beckons. Limbo dancing prohibited.

Don't know whether they're Kaffliks or not, although their production company is called Monastic Productions. Googling that just brings hits for my beloved Bonekickers so I can't even think about looking at A2A when I cvould be reading about that.

It was pretty much the only ending they could pull off, and it was done well enough. Bit Last Battle, bit Sapphire and Steel, bit Twilight Zone, bit Dixon of Dock Green.

I loved the Dixon bit. And it occurred to me that Keats looked a bit Osbornish.

Well there's an argument to be made that the entirety of Dixon Of Dock Green is set in the LoM/A2A universe, as we know George Dixon is dead before it starts (in The Blue Lamp).

Where does Eddie Shoestring fit into all of this?

I like that the gateway to hell is in a lift, and the gateway to heaven IS A PUB

Even I liked it. A lot. Which is saying something.

Favourite moment: Keats in the car suggesting they listen to Club Tropicana on repeat all the way back. What a giveaway.

Really liked it, actually. My theories were pretty close. Didn't pick Keats as Satan, though.

Liked ending a lot. Esp. with new copper wondering where his office is and Gene looking over brochure for new Mercedes.

I like that the gateway to hell is in a lift, and the gateway to heaven IS A PUB

That was excellent, aye.

I had a thought last night. If, as it panned out, they *were* all dead when they got to Geneworld, how did Sam get back to the future (wahey, terrible reference unintentional) to write notes for Alex to read in her role as psychologist before she was shot and transferred to Geneworld?

I know it doesn't pay to overanalyse these things, but I was a little bit confused by Ray/Chris/Shaz seeming to drift in and out of self-awareness. Once they'd seen the videos they realised they were dead, didn't they? But then Shaz said something like 'I need to see my family again' and I wasn't sure if this was meant to show that she either was (or thought she was) in a coma in the real world and she still had the possibility of returning. And then when they were outside the pub their goodbyes, especially Ray's, seemed to indicate that they knew what was going on, but then as they were actually entering the pub they seemed to have forgotten everything and thought they were just going for a pint and the Guv would be joining them shortly.

Yeah, I was mulling over the same thing, Ailsa. For it to work, we have to assume that the ending of Life On Mars was as it seemed (i.e. he really did wake up from his coma, write those notes about the world he'd been in, then decided he didn't want to live any more and killed himself and returned to that world). But when I saw Life On Mars I said at the time that I didn't think he'd really woken up, he had just imagined how empty his life would have been if he had woken up and rejected it, although the script writers didn't agree with me!

Reading back, me and James seem to have pretty much nailed it between us.

. Googling that just brings hits for my beloved Bonekickers so I can't even think about looking at A2A when I cvould be reading about that.

You need help :-) You do realise Matthew Graham wrote the Fear Her ep of Doctor Who as well, which had a couple of nice gags, a decent central idea, and absolutely terrible exposition with complete hamfistedness throughout? I spot a pattern. (though him and Ashley Pharaoh also did some episodes of Hustle back when it wasn't dreadful)

xposts, NB&S, Sam's notes are the only thing he left concrete when he "returned", weren't they? And they are the only thing I can think of which ruins an otherwise decent story arc.

How come they all ended up in 1970s/80s though, the characters we saw? I buy that Sam and Alex ended up in the eras of their formative years, but we saw a very young Shaz killed not so long ago (judging by her Met uniform, which seemed very of the present-ish day). Shouldn't she have ended up in the late 80s/early 90s, soundtracked by EMF and wearing Global Hypercolour? I couldn't date Ray's death at all.

A couple more things:

1) I can't quite remember, but back in Life On Mars, when Sam used to speak to Winston in the pub, did Winstone say some things which seemed to show he was somehow more aware than the others of how things really were?

2) I'm a bit disappointed that John Simm didn't turn up in the final episode, but playing the role of The Master.

1) yes, but iirc I think I thought he was just a wise man/counsellor person. but he's called Nelson, why do loads of people (including me, but possibly just from reading other people calling him that) think he's called Winston?

2) I was waiting for him turning up - I thought he would show outside the Railway Arms, but I'm pretty glad he didn't, really.

1) I can't quite remember, but back in Life On Mars, when Sam used to speak to Winston in the pub, did Winstone say some things which seemed to show he was somehow more aware than the others of how things really were?

He did reveal to Sam that his whole Jamaican thing was put on, and he'd give Sam advice about holding on and being strong--the sort of advice that a benign but not terribly helpful god might give, to be honest.

Also liked the way the end explained why all the other coppers besides the stars were such non-entities: they were just figments of this limbo world, with only enough to them to fill the spaces where cops should be, but without personalities or even voices, really

So Keats made the decision to take Louise (? the bent copper) and Viv because they'd done wrong? I don't quite understand how they got to die in Geneworld though, if they were already dead - I'd noticed before about Gene in the riot seemingly not scared of what could be coming to him, see also Ray's bravery at the fire (and in a hostage situation in LoM, yes?) and Chris when in the house with Matthew off Eastenders. Shaz bottled her moment of bravery when she stood up to the gang, then ran away because helium-voiced "police!" didn't command enough respect. All seems a bit inconsistent, or I'm missing something obvious.

I was actually "NO! DON'T DO IT!" at Keats when he was touching Alex's face, he was a good baddie.

we saw a very young Shaz killed not so long ago (judging by her Met uniform, which seemed very of the present-ish day). Shouldn't she have ended up in the late 80s/early 90s, soundtracked by EMF and wearing Global Hypercolour? I couldn't date Ray's death at all.

I R moron (thanks internet!) - Shaz of course was listening to Oasis so around 1996/7? Was Ray watching the Jubilee - someone elsewhere has dated his death to 1977, I can't remember what his music was. Chris died in the 80s.

HOWEVER, if Shaz died before Sam but after Ray and Chris, why wasn't she doing her purgatory in Life on Mars?

I might be to blame for the Winston stuff, I think I half-remembered his name and it snowballed from there.

I thought Viv was what he had to do for Keats in order to get to go with him. The bent copper from a couple of weeks ago (from Manchester, tries to shoot Ray at the benefit concert) is odd though, because it's Gene who kills him and says something to hm before he goes. Does the fact he's bent mean he's automatically gone to Keats' side? If so, what does that mean about Chris from the end of series 2, when he was taking money from the gold thieves? What about Ray from the start of S2, when he was in the Masons with Supermac? If the man with the roses from S2 is another aspect of Keats, doesn't Alex join him when she kills that copper and hides him in the sewer? This answer only works if you look at S2 of A2A, and very carefully cherry-pick the rest. How was everyone able to end up in the Railway Arms every episode of LoM without it being heaven? If we say only the main characters are important, why didn't Ray and Chris end up in heaven after the train robbery at the end of LoM? In fact, we know Sam explicitly doesn't, because Gene kills him at a different time according to A2A. Where does the guy who claimed to be Sam in S3Ep6 fit into it?

LoM ending that's consistent with the plot from the end of A2A: Sam going back to the modern day is his Keats moment. The weight of suspicion against Gene makes him run into the tunnel and into hell, which for him is the reality of modern policework. Somehow (maybe it's nothing more complicated than, like Ray, Shaz and Chris, getting to the lift doors and changing your mind when you hear the scary noises) he changes his mind and gets back (like they do in the finale). It doesn't explain how Alex has his notes though.

both sam and alex got back to the real world. they're not actually dead the first time - just in a coma - and that special between worlds state is what keeps them remembering reality.

the era of the consensual reality is anchored by Gene's continued existence - both Sam and ALex made him want to progress - but the details (Ben Elton being shot dead) are supplied by the others.

'How was everyone able to end up in the Railway Arms every episode of LoM without it being heaven?'
it's not the same Railway Arms - it's one way Gene imagines cop nirvana. he left it behind when he moved on to the 80s/London, but then brought it back, against world logic, so that his charges could themselves move on.

But Alex was dead and didn't go back to the real world, wasn't that the point about the time on Keats' watch? That bit at the end of the last series when Gene shot her and she thought she'd got home, wasn't that just a trick as well? How long are they in this coma for, Chris and Ray went from 1973 to 1983 with Gene, and Sam got to 1980, even Alex had three years of it.

I think Alex was in a coma initially, as was Sam. Whether either of them ever came back is debatable - I would say Alex didn't (she was actually dead by that point), but Sam might have done. How long they were in a coma for doesn't really matter - there's no reason to think that time in Gene's world matches up with time in the real world.

No, you're right, was just trying to make some sense of Alan's reasoning. So Sam was in a coma, he didn't die, he got better, but in his coma he had the whole Geneworld thing then when he decided to kill himself he got to go back to Geneworld? I think I can live with that. I don't think Alex got back, no.

it's not the same Railway Arms - it's one way Gene imagines cop nirvana. he left it behind when he moved on to the 80s/London, but then brought it back, against world logic, so that his charges could themselves move on.

Except it clearly is, because as somebody else remembers from LoM about Nelson, "He did reveal to Sam that his whole Jamaican thing was put on, and he'd give Sam advice about holding on and being strong--the sort of advice that a benign but not terribly helpful god might give, to be honest.".

Coma victims being in Purgatory would be an... interesting... theological question, no?

But surely he'd be all omnipresent and that. The outside of the pub looked different, it looked like a London pub in A2A, but it was more a redbrick northern pub in LoM, aye?

xpost, oh aye, perhaps Sam was actually clinically dead for a bit then, but was revived, but lived a couple of years with Gene in the 70s in that moment.

Aye, it was a regular red brick pub in LoM. The Italian performs the same function in A2A as we thought the pub did in LoM.

I'd be quite happy with it being Gene's idea of Heaven in A2A, and him just trying to make something familiar for Chris and Ray, if it wasn't for the fact Nelson did what he did in LoM with "I'm not really Jamaican" and knowing what was happening. He's not the same as Luigi.

But why then did he invent Luigi's, it surely wasn't the kind of place they'd be familiar and comfortable with, or was it just somewhere he could flirt with Alex where she'd be happier? He could have found a different Railway Arms type place for them. I remember commenting back at the start of this thread two years and three series ago that Gene really wasn't the wine bar type.

Yeah, I think it's more supposed to be somewhere Alex thinks would exist in the 80s, plus she lives above it, remember? I can't recall where Sam stays in LoM, isn't it somewhere Gene puts him?

Just read this somewhere else, I am not a walking A2A wiki: at the end of series one, it was Gene who picked up little Alex after her dad had killed her mum and she'd escaped. But it CAN'T have been Gene as that was 1981 and he'd been dead since 1953.

That's simple, none of the events in the series actually happen, they're created by God/Gene/The Devil to enable the characters to move on one way or the other. Being simplistic about it, it suited Alex's character development (in terms of working her way through Purgatory) to believe everything was linked together. See also Annie in LoM who was assaulted by Sam's father in Purgatory 1973, but given what we know now was probably killed him in the real 1973.

Ah, OK. Simple...

I might have to watch them all from the start again to see when they decided this was the way it was going to end.

Just re-reading the Life on Mars thread, and Alan wins:

it will end with Sam in a bar talking to the barman who turns out to be god. or something.
― Alan, Thursday, March 29, 2007 10:33 AM Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

Having been pretty much ho-hum & indifferent about the series so far, I thought it was a brilliant, and rather moving, last episode. (& with George Dixon- am I the only ILXer who can remember DoDG actually being shown on Sat Night Telly? Loadsa loose ends, most of which other people have mentioned. Still well confused about fate of Annie in LoM & the bloke who was claiming to be Sam this series, but whatever. Other endings were filmed though - I think just the scenes outside the pub - not sure what they were.

I might have to watch them all from the start again to see when they decided this was the way it was going to end.

I doubt this ending was intended from the start. I wouldn't have thought Ashes To Ashes had been conceived of before Life On Mars was filmed, for one thing. And when I saw the end of the first series of Life On Mars I definitely got the feeling that they'd probably shot two different endings depending on whether a second series was commissioned or not (i.e. if it hadn't been, then it would have ended with Sam waking up having solved the riddle of his Dad's disappearance).

Holy jebus! I was totally thinking of Quantum Leap in that instance mind

am I the only ILXer who can remember DoDG actually being shown on Sat Night Telly?

Nope. Explained that bit to wife who was all "Oh, is That what Dixon of Dock Green was like?"

I didn't really keep up with the show since Life on Mars ended, but it did seem to be the better "revision of The Prisoner style of elliptical storytelling" than the actual revival of "The Prisoner"

As I implied up there, it's almost certainly an attempt to co-opt DoDG into the LoM/A2A universe (given George is dead before the DoDg series starts).

Just reading up on DoDG - Jack Warner was 80 (born 1896!) when the last series ran in 1976. I thought it stopped around 1971-2. 432 episodes, jeez.

Was he still in it then? I got the impression he was a "top 'n tail, and a walkon maybe" by then.

I think he was Desk Sarge but all the action revolved around Sgt Andy Crawford.

As I implied up there, it's almost certainly an attempt to co-opt DoDG into the LoM/A2A universe (given George is dead before the DoDg series starts).

I didn't realise this at the time, but now I've read up on it, I think that's definitely the intention.

See? I'm not just here for arguments.

never finished watching S2, have just stuck on ep 1 of S3; lol :D at Sex On Fire being used to illustrate how dull and dire being back in the present-day "real world" is