History Series / AshesToAshes2008

* GettingCrapPastTheRadar: ''Gene. Hunt.'':
-->'''Chas''': His name's easy. Rhymes with my favorite word. In fact, we used to call him [[CountryMatters Hunt]] [[CurseCutShort the-]]\\
'''Joan''': Yes, thank you, Chas. We still have diners in. (1.06)\\\
'''Gene''' (As Alex walks into office): I didn't say come.\\
'''Alex''': Oh, I'm a modern girl, Guv, I come when I need to. (2.03)\\\
'''Gene''': A foursome! It's all your Christmases come at once. (from the Sports Relief episode)\\\
'''Gene''': You're chirpy, Bolls. Been sitting on the washing machine again? (2.02)

** 3.05 features a northern stand-up comic clearly modelled on Bernard Manning and his ilk.

* {{Flanderization}}: Sexism was an incidental theme in ''Series/{{Life on Mars|2006}}'', but takes a front seat in ''Ashes to Ashes''. Accordingly, the male cops' sexism has been amped up to help make the point, especially in Gene's case.

* HistoricalInJoke: Turns out that Gene chasing a suspect was responsible for the 1983 vandalism of the ''Series/BluePeter'' garden.

* IWantMyMommy: In the finale, Shaz's reaction to [[spoiler:watching a video showing how she died in the real world]]: ""I'm only twenty-six years old. [[TearJerker I want my mum, Chris! I need to see my mum!]]"

* KickThemWhileTheyAreDown: Keats gives Gene a good kicking after headbutting him and throwing him through the doors of CID. [[spoiler:The kicking shows Gene completely reverting back to his 19 year old self for a few seconds, in a moment of total vulnerability and helplessness.]]

* PsychologicalTormentZone: For poor Alex, it is relentless. Fortunately, Alex's psychological training does help her to understand what is going on.
* {{Psychopomp}}: [[spoiler:Gene's role seems to be to shepherd the souls of dead coppers who died with emotional issues to work out, give them time to come to terms with those issues and usher them on to the afterlife. Oh, and protect them from Keats, who may or may not be The Devil (or one of his minions).]]

* RealLifeWritesThePlot: The creators' original intention was to make three series of ''Life on Mars'', the last of which would have revealed the truth about Gene's world. However, John Simm was so burnt-out after two series that he couldn't go on to a third, largely because of the fact that he had to be in every scene because of the possibility the entire world was his coma-induced fantasy. ''Ashes to Ashes'' only happened at all because of this.

* TheConstant: Gene Hunt is Alex's and for good reason...

* ShutUpHannibal: Alex gives one to a particularly nasty [[AmoralAfrikaaner South African cop]] chewing the team out after a bomb goes off at the South African embassy.

* KarmaHoudini: Joshua of the ANC in the penultimate episode, who [[spoiler:Chris allows to flee from custody]] even after hearing that [[spoiler:he killed several South African police officers with a bomb ten years ago.]]

* NothingButHits: Averted. While the music is from the 80's[[note]]with the exception of a few songs from the late 70's, such as Music/KateBush's "The Man With The Child In His Eyes" and Music/{{Kraftwerk}}'s "The Model"[[/note]], lots of it is regular songs from the decade, rather than the biggest hits. Well known hits do come up occasionally, but not every single song is an iconic one.

** 3.05 features a northern stand-up comic clearly modelled on Bernard Manning and the his ilk.

* NothingButHits: Averted. While the music is from the 80's[[note]]with the exception of a few songs from the late 70's, such as Music/KateBush's "The Man With The Child In His Eyes" and Music/{{Kraftwerk}}'s "The Model"[[/note]], lots of it is not the biggest hits from the decade, but regular songs from the decade. Well known hits do come up occasionally, but not every single song is an iconic one from the decade.
* ObstructiveBureaucrat: Snotty, weaselly DCI Jim Keats, who is in charge of "auditing" Fenchurch East CID throughout series 3. Even Gene's arch-enemy DCI Litton refers to Keats as a "pencilneck."

* ThePeterPrinciple: Subverted. Chris never, ever makes it past Detective Constable in either ''Life on Mars'' or ''Ashes to Ashes'', and Gene is extremely reluctant to accept Ray's long-awaited promotion to Detective Inspector in series 3. As is lampshaded several times by Alex and Keats, Gene is happy to ensure that no officer below Alex and himself is ever promoted, or handed a smidgen of individual responsibility.

* SecretTest: Gene entrusts each member of his team with a crucial item in episode 2.07 - each in a different safe deposit box - to smoke out the mole.

** [[spoiler:Chris]] and [[spoiler:Shaz]] are together in heaven

** In episode 1.02, has the the pool cue incident episode and there's also Gene throwing Mr. Bonds — a 60-something war veteran — down the stairs because Bonds thinks his son is innocent and threatens to hit Gene with a baseball bat. Ray contributes by spraying soda water into Mr. Bonds' face when he calls Alex a cow and continues to refuse to cooperate.

** Episode 2.06: Four Words — Gene and the crane. A corrupt businessman's thugs have come after both Gene and Alex, beating Gene with a baseball bat in an alley and intending to do the same to Alex if she hadn't hidden. One does not hurt women around Gene Hunt, especially women for whom he has feelings. Gene goes to find Riley, the businessman, handcuffs him to the inside of a car, and picks the car up with a forklift-crane, interrogating him about the murders they're investigating. Every time Riley denies all knowledge, Gene lowers the car nearer to the crusher. Just in time, Alex, Ray and Chris get to him with new evidence that proves Riley's innocence.

--->'''DC Chris Skelton''': Seems there's more to Gaynor Mason than meets the eye, Guv - about six inches more.

** And as of the finale - [[spoiler:they kiss, but that's going to be it.]]

* YoungerThanTheyLook: [[spoiler:Despite having the appearance of a middle-aged adult, Gene is technically a nineteen-year-old boy (given that he died at that age and still retains much of his teenage mindset). It is implied that whilst in purgatory, he adopted the appearance he imagined he would have had as a seasoned adult cop.]]

** TruthInTelevision for the period, seeing as South Africa was still under apartheid and the ANC, still outlawed, was not above using violent means to achieve its ends; whilst [[UsefulNotes/MargaretThatcher the British PM herself]] was branding the ANC a terrorist organization at the same time as pushing for Mandela's release.

** This also seems to be a homage to the dream sequences in [[https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/TheSingingDetective The Singing Detective]] (not the awful 'Merican adaptation, the Dennis Potter original). The series as a whole shares many similar themes, and The Singing Detective was, of course, made in the 80s!

* WomanInWhite: Some of Alex's outfits, and of course, her leather jacket from S1 and S2.

* DrivesLikeCrazy: Gene Hunt thinks [[CardboardBoxes stacked boxes]] are there to be driven through... or so you'd think. The one time this seeming ChekhovsGun presents itself - fully obstructing the exit from a tunnel, the Gene Genie slams on the brakes, pulls up short, reverses back through the tunnel and takes the long way round.

** The Audi Quattro was not available in right-hand drive in the United Kingdom in 1981, only in left-hand drive. The car shown in the TV series is the 1983 model, with slight changes to the headlights and other features. Philip Glenister admitted that the production was aware of this and said, "But who cares? It's a CoolCar."

* AskAStupidQuestion: Chris asks a South African freedom fighter [[spoiler:who is revealed to have killed several police officers ten years ago in a bomb attack back home]] if he's frightened to be returned to South African custody, even though they both know he will be tortured to death.
--> '''Joshua''': OF COURSE I'm frightened!

-->'''Gene Hunt''': Droppen ze shooters, Ich bin bloody nicked!

* NoCelebritiesWereHarmed: The motormouthed alternative comedian in 3.06 is unnamed but from the hair, the glasses, the suit and the confrontational leftie politics, he's very obviously meant to be the young Creator/BenElton; Alex even disgustedly tells him that he's going to "end up writing soft-rock musicals", a ShoutOut to ''Theatre/WeWillRockYou''. [[spoiler:This becomes a peculiar kind of in-universe FunnyAneurysmMoment when, moments later, he's accidentally shot, and indeed dies in hospital from his wounds.]]

* MisAimedFandom:
** Or is it? Who's the star of this show, anyway? Seems like Drake and Hunt are actively dueling for that right; the narration, all the private introspection scenes are Drake's, but the Gene Genie acts like he's in charge (justified, perhaps, because he ''is,'') so often and so strongly that he often winds up as the dominant character. This wouldn't be confusing if it was ''Series/LawAndOrder'', but Gene's strength of acting is strange considering Alex is supposed to be locked in her own mind. (Although the fact that even in the first season there are scenes where Alex isn't present suggest it might not be as simple as that. [[spoiler:It isn't.]])[[labelnote: Note:]] Justified perhaps in that the changes in character focus through the series parallel Alex's opinion of the "dreamland." Contrast how Sam is in every scene in ''Series/LifeOnMars2006'', while in season 3 of ''Ashes to Ashes'' all the main cast - including Shaz, Chris and Ray - receive independent focus without Alex in the scene.[[/labelnote]]
** Arguably the easiest way to put it is that [[SupportingProtagonist while Alex is the main character]], Gene is the ''central'' character.
** The misaimed fandom now apparently includes the UK's two largest political parties. The Labour party was reported on the morning of 3 April 2010 to have put out an [[http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/8601781.stm advertisement]] claiming that opposition leader David Cameron would 'take Britain back to the 1980s', and showing him Photoshopped on the front of an Audi Quattro a la Hunt. Within the day, [[InsultBackfire the Conservatives responded]] with a re-Shopped [[http://www.flickr.com/photos/conservatives/4486832262/ version]] announcing 'Fire up the Quattro. It's time for change.' (It later turned out that neither party had sought permission from the BBC or the production company for the adverts and were asked to stop using them.) It's not clear why Labour (who are perceived as weak on crime) thought that likening the other guy to everyone's favourite CowboyCop was a smart plan.

[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/ashestoashes_7133.jpg]]

One day, Alex becomes involved in a hostage situation with a man who somehow knows both her and her parents. She is suddenly shot, and finds herself waking up in the same world that Sam Tyler inhabited, only now it's [[TheEighties the year 1981]] and in London instead of Manchester. Alex is initially convinced that her 1981 is a subconscious mental construct pieced together from her sessions with Sam, but there are inconsistencies with Sam's account, certain facts which Alex should have no way of knowing, and she's being stalked by the clown from Music/DavidBowie's "Ashes to Ashes" music video. Not to mention the presence of one [[UsefulNotes/BritishCoppers DCI]] Gene Hunt.