| QUOTE |
| Former Spooks actress Keeley Hawes has announced that she is going to play a lead role in the BBC drama Ashes To Ashes, the sequel to the highly successful Life On Mars. Hawes left the MI5 drama in 2004, where she found fame as the character Zoe Reynolds. Ashes To Ashes is expected to follow a similar story structure to that of Life on Mars, except it will be set in the 1980s, a decade on from the previous series. She will play Alex Drake, an up-and-coming member of the police force in 2008, who finds herself trapped in the '80s alongside Life On Mars character DCI Gene Hunt, played by Philip Glenister. Hawes said of her role: "I'm thrilled to be playing Alex. She's a fantastic character and will be a force to be reckoned with as far as Gene Hunt is concerned; the two of them locking horns in the Eighties will certainly be a sight to behold, never mind the shoulder pads." Ashes To Ashes is being written and created by Matthew Graham and Ashley Pharoah, the pair behind Life On Mars, and will be broadcast on BBC1 in 2008. |
| QUOTE |
| Ashes Flashes Back To '80s Julie Gardner, executive producer of the upcoming BBC spinoff of the hit time-travel series Life on Mars, told SCI FI Wire that Ashes to Ashes will display the fashions of the 1980s in all their Day-Glo glory. "It's kind of Miami Vice in London," Gardner said in an interview at the Television Critics Association press tour in Beverly Hills, Calif. "It's all those things you remember, all those terrible fashion faux pas from the '80s. So it's big puff-ball skirts and bright colors and lipstick and big hair. ... We're gong to do all of that. And, hopefully, the occasional speedboat on the Thames or something." Ashes to Ashes stars Keeley Hawes (MI-5) as deputy inspector Alex Drake, a modern-day police officer who finds herself in a predicament similar to that of Sam Tyler (John Simm) in Life on Mars. But instead of traveling back to the year 1973, Alex arrives in 1981. There she'll encounter unreconstructed detective chief inspector Gene Hunt (Philip Glenister) and the rest of his team of officers. Gardner said that there are hints in the final episode of Life on Mars that will explain how Alex happens to encounter the same characters. "There is a clue there about how you can sustain a format," she said. "Because there are some back-references to Life on Mars, but essentially Ashes to Ashes stands alone. And what's great for us is the central continuation. It's Gene Hunt, the character, and he's brought some of his team with him." Although the central premises of the two shows are similar, the writers have been careful to differentiate Ashes to Ashes from its predecessor. "Matthew Graham and the team, they've just come up with a fantastic way of how that central character, played by Keeley, a character called Alex, gets back into this world," Gardner said. "Looking at a different period, a different decade, looking at the '80s, immediately gives them a lot of new story, and there are huge twists and turns for what happens to Alex. And I'm really not going to reveal them. There's going to be lots of layers. In the same way that Sam had his own journey, lots of kind of layered back stories. Lots of questions about the world and quite what is happening." The actors will gather next week in London for the first time to read through the first script in the series, which was written by creator and executive producer Matthew Graham. Ashes to Ashes will air in the United Kingdom next year |
| QUOTE |
| Glenister defends Ashes to Ashes co-star Philip Glenister has been defending his Ashes to Ashes co-star Keeley Hawes. The former Spooks actress plays DI Alex Drake in the sequel to BBC drama Life on Mars. But there have been press reports saying she cannot act. One national newspaper called the programme "a big mess" with a "muddled" plot. Philip Glenister says that and the bad reviews for Keeley Hawes are rubbish. He said: "I think some of the criticism that Keeley has got from some of the press has been disgraceful, quite frankly. "I think they've been completely misogynistic about it and they should hang their heads in shame. And they're just wrong. "I think a lot of people somehow thought that Life on Mars was some kind of a bloke's show. "It's a hellishly difficult thing to come into and I've seen how hard she works and how brilliant she is. To all those detractors, they're just plain wrong." 'Criticism is unfair' Philip Glenister thinks people will have forgotten about the criticism by the next series of Ashes to Ashes. He said: "It takes time to get to know a new character like that. "Also, because she's middle class, I think some people have a problem with that. "You've just got to allow these things to develop. "You can't get it all right and try to follow up something like Life On Mars and expect it to be an amazing thing. "We all have to learn from it and find out where we went wrong, what we need to improve on and and come up with some great storylines." New Ashes series Ashes to Ashes is set in 1981. Keeley Hawes plays a psychological profiler from the present day who finds herself transported back to the 80s. Philip Glenister plays DCI Gene Hunt, as he did in Life on Mars. He says there is more to look forward to. He said: "We'll start shooting a second series sometime in August. They've got an option for up to a third series. "But you tend to get an instinct about when something should finish. And I certainly wouldn't want to drag it on and on. "The character's too good for that. I care about the character too much." Story from BBC NEWS: |