AshesToAshes.TV is a fan-blog dedicated to all things, Ashes To Ashes. The site covers the original BBC series Ashes To Ashes, spin-off of the cult series Life On Mars. It also covers general news about casting, merchandise, fanclubs, websites and other related news.
Showing posts with label General. Show all posts
Showing posts with label General. Show all posts

Sunday, March 30, 2008

Series Two Here We Come . . . .

With Series One now over, and official confirmation from the BBC of the second series fans have many questions. Rightly so too. Alex was unable to stop her parents dying, the true identity of "The Clown" was revealed and Gene (thankfully) averted losing his job from Lord Scarman. Speaking of Lord Scarman played by Geoffrey Palmer, fans of Doctor Who would have instantly recognised him as being Captain Hardaker from last years Christmas Special "Voyage Of The Damned". Life On Mars had connections to Doctor Who through its cast, now I guess its its Ashes turn.

The questions episode eight promted me to ask are:

1. Will we see The Clown in Series 2, now that his true identity has been revealed or will he be replaced with a new character? After all for a while there he was considered to be Ashes version of the channel girl from Life On Mars.

2. Will Alex and Gene, finally get together or will the tension just simply keep continuing to build between them?

3. Will we ever get to see the now ex-Mrs Hunt, or will she just be spoken about and not seen?

4. Have we seen the last of that Delorean and Danny Moore?

5. Will we ever see Sam Tyler again? His body was never found, this could be deliberate in the hope that John Simm will make a cameo at some stage.

6. Now that Layton is out of jail, thanks to Alex's Dad will he pursue Alex in Series 2?

I'm sure many of you out there have similar questions. Another one of mine is, when can we expect some more mechandise? We have the soundtrack already out, the Series 1 DVD Boxset coming soon and a tshirt from DJTees. Surely there is more to come? I'm hoping so, anyway. What are your thoughts, can you bear the wait until next year? Please feel free to comment.

'Til next time Martians / Burn Victims / Ash-heads, whatever you would like to call yourselves and be careful not to have any accidents. You never know where you may end up, 1973, 1981, 1995?



Cyberman

Tuesday, March 25, 2008

40 X 40 = Ashes To Ashes.tv

Greetings all, strange title for post but with good reason. This is the fortieth post on the site, and at the same time the site is approaching its 40,000th visitor. By the time you read this, it may very well have passed that. Well that's my trumpet blowing for the day, you want the the news though and here it is.

Over the past 7 weeks, we have all been treated to Ashes To Ashes series one. The show has unfortunately had its critics, some even piping up after or even before the first episode aired. Not really giving it chance, were they? The Deano agrees, and has written so over at his official site. Next to all the knockers (and I'm not talking about breasts here), the show has also had many positive reviews as well. A large amount of these coming from the famous Ian Wylie, over at the Manchester Evening News. Good on you Ian.

With that said this Thursday the 27th of March, Ashes sees the final episode of series one airing. What a ride its been and the show is finally starting to exhibit some increased tension, between our two main characters. I guess the writers probably did that deliberately, and at a guess will probably leave it to develop further in series two. While we are on the topic of series two, no official announcement has been made yet by the BBC in respect to a second series being picked up. Phil and Keeley have apparently confirmed a second series recently on the Jonathan Ross Show, but did not let on any more than that. I guess we will all find out soon enough though.

On the merchandise front, DJTees have released their second Gene Tshirt at the highly affordable price of £17.99. To sweeten the deal, they also offer free delivery worldwide. Will you be getting one? I know I will. In addition to this, I previously spoke about the fourth coming dvd set. The cover artwork has now been released for it, and in no real surprise at all mirrors the soundtrack artwork as expected. The artwork you can find below.


(Ashes To Ashes Series 1 DVD Artwork)


Well that is about it for this update, the episode breakdowns will return shortly. Sorry for the delay. 'Til next time Martians peace, and will Alex save her parents? I don't think so, changing the past effects the present and could very well hurt Alex in the process. Well just have to wait and see, not long now.....




Cyberman

Friday, March 7, 2008

Take Away A2A . . . .

Greetings all. Just a quick update, before I continue with the episode breakdowns. As you all would be aware, the Series 1 boxset has already been given a release date of May 5th 2008. The set is currently available for pre-order at Amazon (UK), Sendit.com, BBCShop and several other outlets online. If you pre-order the set, all outlets are offering a substantial discount which varies from site to site. So anyone ordering now is et to save themselves, big bucks!!!

Well before the boxset hits our shelves, the official soundtrack cd is set to be released on the 17th of March. This can also be pre-ordered from Amazon. The disc has a RRP of £8.98, and offers free delivery in the UK for all orders over £15.00. So why not do your friends a favour and pre-order 2 copies, that way the delivery is free. The disc contains the following tracks . . .

1. Introduction - Dialogue: Alex Drake
2. David Bowie - Ashes To Ashes
3. Visage - Fade To Grey
4. The Human League- Love Action
5. Duran Duran - Girls On Film
6. Dexys Midnight Runners - Geno
7. OMD - Souvenir
8. The Stranglers - No More Heroes
9. The Clash - I Fought The Law
10. Heaven 17 - (We Don't Need This) Fascist Groove Thing
11. Interlude - Dialogue: You're Nicked
12. Edmund Butt - Gene Genie (Gene Hunt's theme from `Ashes To Ashes')
13. The Passions - In Love With A German Film Star
14. Altered Images - Happy Birthday
15. Joe Jackson - It's Different For Girls
16. Flying Lizards - Money
17. The Beat - Doors Of Your Heart
18. The Ruts - Staring At The Rude Boys
19. The Teardrop Explodes - Reward
20. Tenpole Tudor - Swords Of A Thousand Men
21. Bryan Ferry - Let's Stick Together
22. Ultravox - Vienna
23. Edmund Butt - Title Music from `Ashes To Ashes'
24. Epilogue: Dialogue: Fandabydozy

The disc cover is an adapted version of one of the BBC desktops, currently available from the official site. I imagine this will more than likely serve as a preview for the yet to be released DVD Boxset cover, you can find the cover artwork below.


(Ashes To Ashes - Original Soundtrack Cover Artwork)


Other than these 2 items, many less than official pieces of merchandise have started to appear on ebay.co.uk. These counterfeit or non-endorsed items can found here. The items include tshirts, mouse pads, mugs, key rings, coasters and more. 'Til next time Martians, peace and I hope you are all enjoying Ashes To Ashes. I certainly am . . .




Cyberman

PS: I have a correction to make, in the last post I stated that the A2A font was the same font as used in the movie "Close Encounters Of The Third Kind". This is simply not the case with the logo. Although the 2 fonts are similar and share the "Blinds Effect" throughout the lettering, they are actually different. I just wanted to clear that up.

Thursday, February 7, 2008

Ashes To Ashes Starts Today . . . . .

Greetings again Martians, today is the day when our hero Gene Hunt returns to the our screens after a year long abscence. This time in a different era, and with a different partner Alex Drake. Keeley Hawes (Alex Drake) was recently interviewed by GMTV in the UK, about her role in A2A and upcoming film appearances. Keeley mentions that Alex, unlike Sam in LOM is very aware that she is living in a dream. This should give her a major advantage, when dealing with Gene and 1981 in general.

She also discusses the disadvantages of being cast as Daniel Craigs sister, in one of her latest film outings "Flashbacks of a Fool". Poor Keeley, oh well I'm sure she'll survive. In addition to glimpses of A2A, we also get to see Keeley in a promo for the movie "The Bank Job". Keeley also talks about her husband appearing in Ashes To Ashes, with a mullet. As we count down the minutes until Ashes To Ashes starts, enjoy the interview.



(Keeley Hawes talks about Alex Drake)





Cyberman

Friday, February 1, 2008

Less Than A Week To Go, More Video, Confirmations, etc. . . . .

Greetings Martians, the excitement is building as we countdown the remaining days to episode one of Ashes To Ashes. Its taken a long time to get here, since the initial announcement of the show, but the wait is nearly over (well for citizens of the UK, anyway). Over the past 3 weeks, we have all been inundated with with video, pictures and articles.

Now something else to add to the list, downloadable mp3 interviews. "Whats new about that?", a lot of you are probably asking yourselves right now. Well it is and it isn't new, how can it be both? Quite simply, last year a number of audio interviews were posted. The difference though is that they were not mp3's, they were wma's (microsofts propriatry audio format). I'm making a point of this for one simple reason, these files can be locked to a certain country. In this case the UK. Whilst people in foreign countries can still download these protected files, they playback at a painfully slow speed making them virtually un-listenable (if that's a word). Mp3 format though does not support this region protection, thankfully allowing people from all over the world to listen to them. Links to these files are posted below.

Next up, what looks like the launch of an official Facebook page for the show. This may not be the case though, as there are many Facebook sites dedicated to A2A already but lets keep our fingers crossed. A fellow "youtuber" and member of "The Railway Arms", Herr Kamel seems to have scored a bit of a bonus with this new page. With a music video of his own creation being featured on the site, good on you Herr Kamel. If you become a "fan" of A2A through this site, you will automaticlly recieve updates in your own feed. A worth while feature for keeping on top of things.

Besides what I have mentioned above, more video has been circulating this past week though not in the form of a trailer. The Manchester Evening News (thanks to everyones good buddy Ian Wylie) as well as Philip Glenister's Official Site, have both posted identical clips featuring Alex, Gene and WPC Sharon Granger. In this rather short clip, we get to Alex investigating Genes new computer which is more than likely an 8086 or 286. By todays standards a mobile phone from 5 years ago would have a faster operating speed. This in time will more than likely prove to be one of Alex's pet hates, and rightly so. May be Chris (the resident computer genius or Div) will have to teach Alex some patience there.

Ian also fills us in on what happened to Sam Tyler and Genes wife after LOM, it appears the writers haven't overlooked anything. This will be great for fans, as many have pondered these questions since the end of LOM. Well that about wraps up this post for today, if you haven't done so already it may be time to program your PVRs, VCRs or DVD Recorders. After all no one wants to miss the premiere on Thursday February 7th at 9.00pm. 'Til next time Martians peace, and may A2A be everything and more than we all hoped for.

Audio 1, Audio 2, Audio 3, Audio 4, Audio 5, Audio 6.




Cyberman

Monday, January 28, 2008

Trailer 3 (PART 3)

As promised Martians, Burn Victims, etc, here is the third series 1 trailer. This trailer again includes previously seen footage, but also includes some great new scenes as well. We are recieving footage on a drip at present, which is only adding to the tension and anticipation already there. Its torture I know, but we will all be sated soon with the series 1 premiere.

You may have noticed a recent inclusion on the site, of the Ashes countdown clock on the menu bar. There simply to remind us how little time there is now, until we get Ashes To Ashes. Will Alex be a match for Gene? Its certainly looking that way. 'Til next time Martians peace, and enjoy Trailer 3.


(Ashes To Ashes - Series 1 Trailer 3)





Cyberman

Trailer 3 (PART 2)

Hello all, as promised the second part of this 3 post series. In the first part, I gave you a series of 10 stills from the third trailer. This post will be no different in that respect, here are another 10 stills for you all to enjoy. In the final post of this trilogy, as I mentioned previously I will post the trailer itself.

'Til next time Martians peace and remember, "this means nothing to me . . . " No I'm lying it means quite a lot to me, enjoy the pictures.















Cyberman

Tralier 3 (PART 1)

Hello all with the monumental thirst for content and information on Ashes To Ashes, now being quenched with promos. I've decided to give you all a special treat with the third trailer. This time in addition to the trailer itself, I'm giving you stills as well. The first of which you can find below.

If you are noting the 'part 1' in the title, this will be the first of three. The first and second will contain the pictures, the third with the video. I hope you enjoy them.













Cyberman

Monday, January 21, 2008

Official Site, Teaser & Other Stuff . . . . .

What an amazing month! Going back to December 21st last year I was in awe over the fact the site had nearly reached 10,000 visitors, well one month later its passed 15,000 and doesn't look to be slowing down anytime soon. I'm happy, but enough of my boasting you want the news. First up the trailers. To those of you who have been enjoying all of the recent trailers for A2A that I've posted, you would of noticed the fact that I had missed the very first one. To satisfy your hunger for material, I've decided to put up the initial Teaser-Trailer.

The trailer which is only 12 seconds long is still worth a look at, even though it contains footage appearing in one of the longer ones. It was our official introduction to the show, so its here for you now. You can find it located at the bottom of the post. The teaser itself, appears stretched out of perspective (ie: wide screen stretched to full screen) but it was the only version of it posted on youtube at the time. If this changes I will edit this post, and replace it with one that is in perspective. For the mean time though, this will have to do.

In site news, the official BBC Ashes To Ashes site has finally gone live. It's only one page at this stage, and part of BBC Drama though I am sure it will move to a larger site when the series begins just like Life On Mars did. It offers nothing in the way of desktops, avatars or icons. So it is a bit of a disappointment in that perspective, just simply series information at the moment. Possibly as a reaction to this, one of the contributors to the A2A Live Journal site has made some awesome avatars for your downloading pleasure. You can find the avatars located here.

In other site news, the guys over at the official Philip Glenister site have come back from their holidays now and have posted a large amount of new material. Phil also informs us of a new project hes just started for ITV, the supernatural drama "The Last Van Helsing". In this Phil plays a CIA agent, Rupert Galvin. Filming commenced on the 20th of January, for this 6 part ITV1 drama. So by the looks of it Phil is going to have a big year of scum busting, firstly with A2A and his "southern nancy boys" aided by Chris, Ray and Alex. Secondly as a Vampire-Hunter, the girls over at Philip Glenister Index will be going crazy over this one.

'Til next time Martians peace, and get your pre-orders in for the dvd.


(Ashes To Ashes Series 1 Teaser)





Cyberman

Sunday, January 20, 2008

Second Trailer (Already)

Hello again, whilst writing my post yesterday I was amazed when all of a sudden a trailer for the series appeared on YouTube. Today, I'm over the moon. Not even 24 hours since having posted that first trailer, another one has appeared and I'm sure more will very soon. What I'm most amazed about is the shear volume of traffic it has generated for the site. At the time of writing this I've received more than 470 visits, since putting it up here. Wow. We'll see how this one goes.

This second trailer contains the guys with their machine guns on the Thames. It also gives us a quick glimpse of Alex getting shot, if you look closely (its quick) you'll actually be able to make out Alex's face on the bullet as it comes towards her. During November last year I wrote a post about Andrew Clover being cast as a Clown in the show, well that clown appears to be the clown from the original Bowie music video. Same costume so I guess we can only presume Andrews character is David Bowie. The scene is quite surreal and makes one wonder "will we be getting to meet Major Tom", the character in the song as well?

We also get our first taste for what music will be used in the series as well. The trailer features Vienna by Ultravox as the background music, and gives us a quick flash of Adam Ant as well. Anyway you want to see it, here it is enjoy . . . .

(Ashes To Ashes - Trailer 2)


Well I hope you all enjoyed that, as the other trailers are shown on tv I will keep you all up to date. By the time the show actually airs, their should be quite a collection happening here. 'Til next time Martians peace, and remember "My Mum said to get things done, you better not mess with Major Tom!".




Cyberman

Saturday, January 19, 2008

2008 Is Here & Ashes Nearly Is . . . .


Greetings Martians, Burn Victims, etc . . . its been just under a month since I spoke to you last, about this up-coming series. There has been huge gaps and broken promises of posts, downloadables and other things from both this site and its parent site LifeOnMars.tv, over the last month. All I can say is sorry, these things will be sorted out soon. Apologies aside, I actually have something to say about Ashes To Ashes, its nearly here.

Yes finally after months of speculation over when the show was actually going to start, the BBC offers us a partial answer. Hooray! The BBC have finally listed the show as starting in Week 6 of there schedule. For those not in the know, what this means is the week commencing February 2. It does however not elaborate on this any further, as it is appearing as an "Unplaced Show".

Over the past few months only drips and drabs of information, besides the initial series announcement have manged to come our way. We have been tormented and teased by "I know something that you don't know journalism", which really doesn't tell you anything other than the person reporting it is a so and so. You know I didn't that Mr Wylie, love your work! I have actually been guilty of this myself. Why you ask? Quite simply the release of pictures, videos and information has been conditional on us not releasing certain sources or revealing specific information. In a way this has been good, as it has made the information we have shown you relatively spoiler free.

Other than this news, a couple of tidbits have come to light. For instance, the fact that Keeley's husband will be appearing the series. Hmmm, perhaps this was for trust reasons so he could keep tabs on the Mrs. Who knows. One thing is for certain, and that is that we will all find out soon enough. Getting back to the release date, Amazon has already posted the release date for the series 1 boxset. Yes you heard me correctly, we now know when we can buy it before we know when we can actually see it. Strange to say the least. The release date is tentatively marked for the 12th of May 2008, and the set has a price tag of £29.99 if you pre-order. The normal price will be £39.99, so a substantial saving there if you pre-order. I know I will.

With only just over a week to go until "Week 6", trailers for the series should start to appear relatively soon. As usual I will attempt to post trailers if they appear on youtube, but as we all know the BBC are quite diligent in there quest to remove unauthorised material from the web. So when these appear, they may not work on here for very long. I could have another bitch about this, but I've done it before so I'll give it a rest this time.

Over the past couple of months, since its beginning Dean Andrews Official blog has provided us with lots of juicy bits to tantalise our senses. Well the Deano comes through again, recently posting pictures of the Christmas Dinner and a couple of others including candid pics of Dean and the rest of the cast and the BAFTAS. You can find those pics here. As per usual Ms Hawes looks delicious, hey I'm male give me break.

I certainly didn't expect this, but while I have been writing this post a trailer has already appeared on youtube. Here it is, enjoy!


(Ashes To Ashes - Trailer 1)


Just before I go, you may also wish to check out this entertaining and highly fictitious interview with Ashley Pharoah, Matthew Graham and Gene Hunt. Yes Gene Hunt and not Philip Glenister, this was posted on the 7th of January at the MediaGuardian.co.uk website. Its well worth a read and will keep you entertained as well offering, well its fictitious what else can I say. The interview was conducted in the Luigi's restaurant that I have previously shown you pictures of. By the looks of it Luigi's, maybe the equivalent to The Railway Arms in LOM (ie: the local hang out).

'Til next time Martians (which will be sooner, rather than later this time), peace and may the next imaginary person you run into be Gene Hunt. Just like Keeley.



Cyberman

Thursday, November 15, 2007

The Set Pictures You Thought I Had Forgotten About (PART 2)

Okay back again with part 2 of the long awaited set pictures. Before you check them out, some quick news about Ashes To Ashes. According to Dean Andrew's official site, filming of episodes one to six are all complete now. Dean has been given the scripts for the final 2 episodes separately, for some reason. He goes on to mention that its the writers teasing them about it. Hmmm, writers teasing. If this were being produced in the US at the moment, I doubt he would have described it that way.

Its also quite possible that the series may not of been able to be completed either, poor Americans. I guess they will just have to suffer with repeats and reality rubbish, until their strike is over. After all reality TV was apparently born as a result of a previous writers strike there (so my brother tells me anyway). On the other hand if they networks are greedy enough, they may start waving dollars in front of foreign writers to complete work on shows. With that only time will tell, but that's irrelevant to A2A we'll move on.

Dean has also now joined fellow cast mate Philip Glenister in the online community recently by launching his own blog, where he actually chats to the fans. Good on ya Dean! The blog if you want to check it out for yourselves, is an off-shoot from his official site which is put together by none other than Fran Davies of Philip Glenister Index fame. Busy busy lady Fran is, both sites are awesome and well worth your investigation if you haven't been to either of them. If you want to check them out, look no further than the links tab on the sidebar.

Back to Phil now. Phil was recently interviewed by "The Guardian" about the soon to be shown "Cranford Chronicles", where he also lets slip a few bits about A2A. For the last couple of months, the writers had been letting us know that Keeley Hawes' character Alex Drake would be referred to as "Posh Knickers". Phil dispels these rumours by letting us know she's called "Bolly". Bolly want a cracker? This blogger will give you one. Tsk, tsk, keep it clean Mr Cyberman. Phil also mentions "The Clash", though whether they will be featured in the soundtrack is probably still up in the air. You can vote for them in site poll here if you like, which Duran Duran seem to be leading at this stage. The poll will be finishing soon, so if you haven't voted yet hurry up!

Now the pictures. The following are more pictures courtesy of the wonderful Mike, from the Delorean Owners Club of the UK. Below we can see a street blocked off, what looks like Gene with car trouble, the local restaurant still being assembled, some cast chairs (yes they do sit down). Finally what I like to call the Vandalorean. Your car won't be hard to find now Mike with all those autographs on it, of course I'm speaking crap again.







Well I hope you all enjoyed those, more soon hopefully. More video would be nice too, we'll just have to wait and see. 'Til next time Burn Victims peace, and remember pastel jumpers and rats are cool. Yeah right.



Cyberman

Monday, November 12, 2007

The Set Pictures You Thought I Had Forgotten About (PART 1)

That's right "Martians" / "Burn Victims" / "What ever you want to call yourselves", I haven't forgotten them. Several posts ago I mentioned to you all that I had more pictures, for you. Many of you were probably thinking, "This Cyberman character, he's full of it! Says one thing, does something else." Well the wait is over, and as you can see by the part 1 on the end of the title more are to come. This will be sooner, rather than later too so keep checking back.

This first lot that I'm putting up for you now, were pointed out to me by Kevin from Rorky Corky. Thanks a lot Kevin and sorry for the delay. Below you will find 5 pictures of the new Brixton police station, in all its glory. On top of this we have Marshall and Dean, in what looks like a typical run through. Marshall is biting his tongue in one picture, perhaps to take his mind off the pain caused by those extremely tight jeans. Marshall, Marshall, Marshall what will we do? Speaking of the "Div", the man now seems to be the only main cast member without an official site. Its a problem easily solved though, all he has to do is ask someone. Sorry Marshall just pointing out the obvious.






(Pictures courtesy of Kevin)


Well I hope you have all enjoyed today's ramblings, I am writing this rather late at night where I am and I am now off to bed. I will post you some more pictures, when I arise. 'Til next time peoples, peace and may the set pictures flow.

Cheers,




Cyberman

Monday, November 5, 2007

Ashes In Need Commercial

Yesterday Martians, I presented you with some stills from the commercial. I did this to be different, because the video had been posted elsewhere. Also because I have a problem with Youtube, as soon as anything decent is posted its taken down for copyright infringement, even commercials. This I find totalitarian and stupid as well. What is the problem with a company or tv show getting free advertising? In my view this should be embraced not stopped.

With the case of LOM or A2A, all it is really doing is promoting the product to foreign markets. This in the long term is surely beneficial, isn't it? I mean that was how I found out about the show in the first place. It is also the reason why a lot of my previously posted videos no longer function. Don't get me wrong I don't endorse theft, but come on trailers, ads, interviews, etc... this seems a bit obsessive at the least. Well that's today's rant, here's the video let's see how long it takes to get removed. Enjoy!


(Ashes To Ashes - Children In Need Promo)




Cyberman

Sunday, November 4, 2007

The Children In Need Tease

Back again Martians, as I mentioned in the previous post there is currently an A2A promo for Children In Need airing on BBC3. The promo involves Gene Hunt giving a driving lesson to some young girl. For those of you who haven't seen the advertisement, I have included some stills below for you to enjoy. Not a great deal happens in the ad, other Gene scaring the the crap out of the girl with his driving.

In addition to Gene, Ray and Chris are also featured as back-seat drivers. Ray gives his 10p worth on Genes driving, stating that he is always like that. Chris hardly says anything in it. One of the most entertaining parts of it would have to be the name of the driving school, "What The L - Driving School". Rather aptly named, indeed. Here they are, enjoy.






(What The L - Driving School)


More pictures soon. 'Til next time Martians peace, and what the L will you be watching on the 16th of November?




Cyberman

Clown-Cast

No Martians, its not something new to download to your iPod. The title of this post, actually means what it says a clown has been cast in A2A. At this stage the episode the clown is to be featured in, has yet to be revealed. I am sure we will all know soon enough though. The character of the clown is to be played by Andrew Clover, and has been confirmed on the RBM Actors website. You can check it out for yourselves here.


(Andrew Clover - The Clown)


Andrew, though previously unknown to myself looks to have had quite an extensive career. I am sure Ashes To Ashes will help him even further, his skills cover multiple accents including an Australian one. I bet you can't out-Australian me though Andrew, 10 points for trying though. On top of acting Andrew apparently has actually been a clown as well as a stand-up comedian, MC, Mime, swimmer and a multitude of other things. Let's welcome Andrew to the house of A2A, with skills like I've mentioned I am sure he will impress.

Besides Andrew's inclusion in the cast, more information about Montserrat Lombard's role has been revealed. Montserrat's character WPC Sharon "Shaz" Granger, has been listed on IMDB as being included in 4 episodes. Shaz? Hmm, sounds like a character from "Kath & Kim". With 4 episodes, Montserrat's "Shaz" could possibly be the A2A equivalent of Phylis. On the other hand it has been previously mentioned that Chris (Marshall Lancaster) has a girlfriend in this series, maybe Shaz is Chris's Annie? More guess work there, yours is as good as mine. If you have any clues as to what Montserrat's character does other than the obvious fact she's a copper, please let me know in the comments section.

'Til next time Martians, peace and may the A2A news be with you ........ always.



Cyberman

Monday, October 1, 2007

A2A: Behind The Scenes Video #1

Greetings again Martians, as promised the video I mentioned in the previous post. This a compilation of short clips posted from various sources, the owner of these wishes to remain anonymous. So anonymous he / she / they will remain. As for the pictures I mentioned they are still coming, so keep checking back. In the interim enjoy this video backed with the obvious choice of music, you guessed it Ashes To Ashes.

Will this song be included in the soundtrack? You would think so, for that reason I haven't included it as an option in the new poll. Though if you want to hear it or vote for it, you can still do so through the "other" option. For now, enjoy what is hopefully the first of many videos of our favourite or second favourite show. I had to say that, otherwise I'd be discounting LOM and I won't do that.


A2A filming, featuring the new HQ (Brixton)


'Til next time Martians peace, unless you want to make noise about the video.



Cyberman

Second Poll Results

Greetings Martians, back again with the long awaited second poll results. Yeah right. This poll out lived its welcome by a month or two, too many. The reason, you are asking? Well to be quite frank, its quite difficult to come up with something to write a poll about thats both relevant to the show and worthwhile at the same time. Why? I don't even need to answer that, but I will. The series has not been shown yet, as if you didn't know.

Okay, trivialites and bitching aside the poll seemed over after the second week with virtually everyone voting for our favourite Guv, Gene Hunt. For this reason I decided to let it go so to speak, so as the other options might at least get a couple of votes. After all poll isn't a poll if only 10 people vote in it, its simply a survey of a couple of mates. Well this became a poll after the time was extended, I'm digressing though you want the results.

After our obvious winner the breakdown went as follows . . . .


The next highest scorer in the poll went the soundtrack, for this reason I've made it the topic of the next poll. Everything else scored fairly lowly, the "other" option gave some strange answers. One of them was simply Alex, this makes sense you want to see more of her than just bad hair days. Well I've got news for you, the show is set in the '80s. All days were bad hair days then, didn't you know? The other "other" votes were blank, so there's nothing about A2A these 2 voters want see. Makes you wonder why they would even come to this site, to begin with doesn't it?

Next up I have some thanks to issue, for all of the wonderful set pics I've posted so far. Firstly as usual (ladies before gentlemen "this is un-pc by the way) the lovely Fran from PGI and Dean Andrews Official site, secondly Mike the legend from the Delorean Owners Cub of the UK (whose Delorean is featured in the show). Janet or "Wibble" (from TRA) and finally Kevin who's pictures I am yet to post (and from places unknown). Kevin your pictures will be posted shortly, along with the pictures I will also be posting our first Behind the Scenes video. This will be in the next post, later today.

'Til next Martians peace, and you all give good poll. That's POLL not POLE!



Cyberman

Monday, September 3, 2007

Back To The Past Or Future?

You just don't know what I'm talking about, do you Martians? In the last post, I featured 2 pictures which had been sent to me courtesy of PGI. The second picture, the group shot also featured a car in the background besides "the gang". It was a little hard to make out, all that was really exposed in the picture was the boot. That car though has been made famous before (via film), and has connections to time travel already. Still dont know what it is? Well Martians the car is none other than the Delorean DMC-12.

The Delorean DMC-12 was released in 1981, and ended its model run rather quickly in 1983. It came to be a very well known car several years after this in 1985, when it was portrayed in the "Back To The Future" series of films as a time machine. Apparently the way to travel through time, isn't via accidents or blue police boxes. It happens after you exceed 88mph in one of these, well that's what those movies lead us to believe any way.

We had been previously told the gang would use an Audi in Ashes To Ashes, at present it is unknown whether this is still the case or not. If it isn't, this could be one of the shortest series ever. All Alex would need to do to get back to present day, is take a drive in the Delorean and get it up to 88. Of course around London this may prove be a little difficult, but on an open country road she might even be able to do it within a couple of episodes. This is giving her a chance to get used to 1981 first.

The shows parent series Life On Mars, saw Sam Tyler return to 2007 after 2 series. It is my personal hope that the same format is not followed with Alex Drake, as it would make the show quite predictable. Life On Mars certainly was not predictable, especially its ending. What I would like to see, is Gene being able to come back the present with Alex. A story arc like this could be very cool indeed, and would take the show in a completely different direction. It would also offer a kind of role reversal for the 2 main stars, and set up the next series for Gene (that's if another is planned).

Several UK columnists have already speculated during Life On Mars's run about what it would be like to bring Gene into present day, it would be chaos. Gene would be up on sexual harassment on his first day, sacked for drinking on the job or in trouble for being a racist. This has been done before, but only in crappy romantic comedies featuring has-beens such as Meg Ryan. Sorry Meg, but its what you are. Your next job will be as a kid stars Mother, but that won't occur for another 5 years or so (just joking).

I'm getting off the point of this post now, aren't I? Okay back to the Delorean. During my web scouring over the last couple of days, I stumbled over another picture featuring the car more clearly. The picture below shows the vehicle with the guys, only this time with its famous gull wing doors open. If you would like to know more about the Delorean, head on over to its Wikipeadia page here. An interesting co-incidence has occurred with the car and Ashes To Ashes. The series premieres in 2008 and the car is being re-issued then as well, so if you want one very soon you'll be able to get one again. 'Til next time Martians peace, and don't drive past 88mph unless your car also contains time circuitry.


(The Gang and the Delorean)


(Just the Delorean DMC-12)




Cyberman

Sunday, August 12, 2007

Remember her name, Alex. . . . . .

Salutations all. Sorry for the title, it doesn't rhyme. It would have been a lot better if the writers had chosen Jane Drake for the name of its heroine, but they didn't. Again I am talking riddles. The title pays homage to the 1980 film "Fame", if you couldn't work it out. With good reason too, below we can see Keeley Hawes in one of her first candid behind-the-scenes pictures from the set of Ashes To Ashes.



Keeley clearly looks like she has just been to lunch with Richard Simmons, or maybe she's been to audition for Olivia Newton-John's Physical music video. Because she would be a year too early, to be watching Jane Fonda's Workout Tape on glorious VHS. Maybe even Betamax if she's one of the elite, but where is her Sony Walkman? Speaking of personal music devices, the previous post may very well have contained one too. Did you notice? If you didn't I'm not going to chastise you, I'll just show you instead.

Philip Glenister a 'Jesus Christ Superstar' moment?'
Philip Glenister a 'Jesus Christ Superstar' moment?


Yes indeed our Phil seems to be carrying a mobile phone or an mp3 player, either way they both can play music. Neither of them were available in 1981, so lets hope this picture is candid on the way to filming and not during filming. Otherwise this could be compared to Jesus Christ Superstar, with the digital watches. Don't you just love a comedian? Oh and finally some additional casting confirmation, with Rupert Graves official website listing him as appearing in Ashes To Ashes. At this stage though, Rupert's character is unknown. 'Til next time Martians peace and I wonder what fashions we'll see next?



Cyberman