2010 TV Preview: 'Ashes To Ashes 3'

After three series (or five, if you count the two from predecessor Life On Mars), Ashes To Ashes will finally come to a conclusion next year with a final episode that the creators promise will answer all of the show's many questions. Who is Gene Hunt? What's really going on with Alex Drake? And whatever happened to Sam Tyler? In the next of our 2010 TV Previews, Tube Talk sat down for a chat with exec producer Matthew Graham to find out more about the highly-anticipated swansong.

Where does series three pick up?
"Series two ended on a cliffhanger with Alex in the present day. Or as far as we're aware, the present day! So series three is pretty much a direct pickup from the cliffhanger - obviously we deal with that. I know what the fans are fascinated by, and nervous about, is that we're not going to go back to the '80s, but 1983 is the featured year this time. So although we have this cliffhanger that brings us into the present day, very early on in series three you're going to see what we've been doing and what the twist is. We will find ourselves eventually in 1983."

Where are you at with production at the moment?
"We've finished filming episodes one to four, we're currently filming episodes five and six, then we start filming episodes seven and eight in January. We're doing our last ever read-through on December 14. That's the last time we sit down with the cast and read the scripts, which is obviously quite a momentous occasion for us."

What prompted your decision to end the show after three series? Was it purely creative reasons?
"Yes, it was totally creative. There were no mitigating circumstances. We had always hoped to do a third series of Life On Mars but the workload was too much of a burden on John Simm, so we agreed to bring it to an end. With Ashes, right from the start we always said there would be a three-year plan. The idea was to get darker with each series: series one would be quite frothy and iconically '80s, then series two we would peel back the layers and get a bit darker, then series three we would get right down to the nitty gritty and all the deep stuff we have to go through to get all the revelations we want."

Did you always know from the start of Ashes exactly how you would end it?
"Yes. From the start of Life On Mars, no - we evolved. We knew how Life On Mars would end, but it was never going to end with any revelations about Gene Hunt. It was always going to end with discovering whether Sam was in a coma or not, because that was the journey we focused on. With Ashes, we set out to explore what this world meant, who Gene was and what he represented. Along the way, we have come up with new aspects to that character and the show that we didn't have right at the start, but the basic end point has always been the same."

A few times previously you've hinted that there's a big revelation to come about Gene. What does that mean?
"Well, it is a revelation but it's really about finally drawing a line under Gene as a character and saying 'this is what he is'. If you think of this as a show set in the '80s about a brutish, anachronistic, maverick cop, then you don't need a revelation, that's just who he is. But we've always had this esoteric, supernatural aspect to the show which has been a very strong thread that ran through it. So we don't feel we've ever fully explained that. If you talk to any fan of the show, they still have conflicting theories about where Alex is and who Gene is, so in a way what we're saying is that we're going to finally explain the mythology we've created. And in theory, there will be no mystery left."

The ending of Life On Mars was somewhat ambiguous. So you're saying that Ashes will have a more definite explanation?
"Not only that, but it will also hopefully explain the ending of Life On Mars as well. The idea is to unify the two shows. Series three unifies Life On Mars and Ashes To Ashes and makes them one show. By the time you get halfway through series three of Ashes To Ashes, you will actually feel like you're watching series five of Life On Mars!"

So with that in mind, can we expect Life On Mars characters to come back in Ashes series three?
"Umm... you can!"

How about a specific character...?
"Umm.. no! Hahaha! But you can expect Life On Mars to be bleeding in to Ashes To Ashes. I think that's a better way to explain it."

Old characters aside, are there any big new characters this series?
"We have a fabulous new character played by Daniel Mays, who is just awesome. I can't tell you anything about his character at the moment, but I can tell you he's a big, strong presence in the show - as big as Supermac - but running right through the series to the climax. He's crucial and integral to the mythology of the show, and he's amazing. Daniel has something of the John Simm quality to him, in that every scene he's in, he's magnetic. He roots everything in an amazing emotional truth - very centred, very focused, very real."

As far as you're concerned, will Ashes series three be the absolute end of the franchise? Or could there be another spinoff, in the '90s?
"No. No, no, no. I will go on record now and say there will be no other spinoff. This is it, this is the end, I've written the last ever lines I will ever write for Gene Hunt. The BBC are fine with that too. When we were doing series two of Ashes, they asked if we could carry on after series three, but we said 'please can we just end at series three? We're ready, the cast are ready, everyone is emotionally ready to finish the story.' It's the kind of premise that demands an ending. There's no way we could do another series of Gene Hunt after this. There would be no mystery left. So yep, this is it."

If you could sum up the conclusion in three words, what would they be?
"'A dog's breakfast!' No, how would I sum it up? 'It's very sad'. It is sad!"

Will people cry?
"I hope people will be crying, yes. I cried while we were making it, but that was for budgetary reasons more than anything else! But I hope so - I hope people are moved by it. The ending of Life On Mars turned out to be quite emotional and I hope we deliver something along those lines."

Do you think the time is right to end Ashes To Ashes? What are your theories on the real meaning of the show? Is Gene Hunt a real person? Add your comments to this entry below!