I really enjoyed the first episode of this new BBC1 drama from the makers of 'Hustle' and 'Spooks' with a title from a David Bowie song. Some spoilers ahead:
Sam Tyler is a driven, ambitious detective working in current day Manchester. His hunt for a serial killer turns personal when his girlfriend, Maya, is kidnapped by the very man he's been hunting. Then things take a bizarre turn when he has a near fatal road traffic accident and wakes up to find people insisting he is now in Manchester in 1973!
Either he has time travelled back 33 years, is going completely mad, or he is in a coma and his mind has invented everything. But why would his mind invent so much detail?
Lost without his mobile phone, living in a horrible flat, his own office is decked out in old fashioned equipment, and he is a DI starting his first day with a new team. His new boss DCI Gene Hunt uses his gut instincts and his fists to get results and has never heard of the Police and Criminal Evidence Bill. Fingerprints take two weeks to come back and sexism is rife. Hard drinking, old school police, they are straight out of "The Sweeny" with leather jackets, flared trousers and Cuban heels, burning rubber in their Ford Cortinas.
Sam naturally finds it hard to focus on the murder and kidnapping case he is now expected to investigate, until he discovers there is a link with the 2006 case. Could solving this case be the key to getting home and saving his girlfriend?
He is helped by WPc Annie Cartwright, an educated young woman with a BA in Psychology, but who is regarded as a "a bit of skirt" by his colleagues. Using his knowledge of the case in the future they manage to track down the killer before he strikes again.
He is also helped by a West Indian barman who seems to know more than he should, and Annie's ex-boyfriend confuses the issue by pretending to be a hypnotherapist speaking to him while he was in a coma. That leads to a great 'Vanilla Sky'/'Total Recall' moment at the end of the first episode. Unfortunately for him, fortunately for us, he remains in the 1970's for the rest of this six part series.
Confusing, witty and funny, with a great Seventies soundtrack, I haven't seen anything like it on TV. I guess 'Lost', 'The Prisoner' or 'The Matrix' have similar themes. It made me think of 'The Bridg' by Iain Banks too.
Sam Tyler is a driven, ambitious detective working in current day Manchester. His hunt for a serial killer turns personal when his girlfriend, Maya, is kidnapped by the very man he's been hunting. Then things take a bizarre turn when he has a near fatal road traffic accident and wakes up to find people insisting he is now in Manchester in 1973!
Either he has time travelled back 33 years, is going completely mad, or he is in a coma and his mind has invented everything. But why would his mind invent so much detail?
Lost without his mobile phone, living in a horrible flat, his own office is decked out in old fashioned equipment, and he is a DI starting his first day with a new team. His new boss DCI Gene Hunt uses his gut instincts and his fists to get results and has never heard of the Police and Criminal Evidence Bill. Fingerprints take two weeks to come back and sexism is rife. Hard drinking, old school police, they are straight out of "The Sweeny" with leather jackets, flared trousers and Cuban heels, burning rubber in their Ford Cortinas.
Sam naturally finds it hard to focus on the murder and kidnapping case he is now expected to investigate, until he discovers there is a link with the 2006 case. Could solving this case be the key to getting home and saving his girlfriend?
He is helped by WPc Annie Cartwright, an educated young woman with a BA in Psychology, but who is regarded as a "a bit of skirt" by his colleagues. Using his knowledge of the case in the future they manage to track down the killer before he strikes again.
He is also helped by a West Indian barman who seems to know more than he should, and Annie's ex-boyfriend confuses the issue by pretending to be a hypnotherapist speaking to him while he was in a coma. That leads to a great 'Vanilla Sky'/'Total Recall' moment at the end of the first episode. Unfortunately for him, fortunately for us, he remains in the 1970's for the rest of this six part series.
Confusing, witty and funny, with a great Seventies soundtrack, I haven't seen anything like it on TV. I guess 'Lost', 'The Prisoner' or 'The Matrix' have similar themes. It made me think of 'The Bridg' by Iain Banks too.
Last edited:
