'Gene Hunt' evades speeding tickets

Ashes To Ashes star Philip Glenister has admitted to turning into his iconic character Gene Hunt in order to evade speeding tickets.

Glenister told Virgin Radio about an incident when his chauffeur was recently pulled over for speeding: "This copper is questioning [my driver] about his speed so I wound the window down and just turned into Gene Hunt and said, ‘Is there a problem, officer?'

"This policeman, bless him, just did a double take and went, ‘Oh it’s you'. I said, ‘Go and catch some proper criminals’. Then he just came over and said, ‘I’m terribly sorry about this sir, I’ll let you off this time if you don’t mind.’”

Glenister will next be seen in Van Helsing, an ITV adaptation of Bram Stoker's Dracula legacy.

> Read Digital Spy's review of Ashes series one