kaliha | Review: Life on Mars

To be honest, I'd been intrigued about this series since it was first mentioned in SFX. As a kid I loved programmes like The Sweeney with hard-nosed cops sliding over the bonnets of their cars and driving through alleys full of cardboard boxes. It was ace.

So the idea of someone from the present day being transported back into the past in a mysterious way sounded brilliant.

Life on Mars: BBC 1, Mondays 9pm

What's it about then?
Sam Tyler (yes I know, *another* time-travelling Tyler - it must be a family thing) is a DCI working in Manchester (I think). He's trying to crack a murder case but isn't having much luck. His girlfriend (another Detective) goes after one of the suspects and something (possibly unpleasant - we're not sure there's a scream and the phone cuts out) happens to her.

Tyler goes after her but can't find her and in his frantic searching gets hit by a car in the middle of a main road, (which was shocking and horrific, but surprisingly bloodless). When he comes round he finds himself lying in the middle of a building site which will eventually become the road he was knocked down on.

He looks at his car and it's no longer a jeep-thing but a good old-fashioned brown 70's Ford, his clothes have changed and something just isn't right. Turns out he's in 1973 and he's going to be trapped there until he can figure out a way back.

But this isn't your average time travelling lark - oh no. It turns out that he's actually unconscious in a hospital soewhere in Manchester and everything he's experiencing is just inside his head.

With a little nifty conceit at one point he hears the doctor's talking about him via an Open University programme.

Tyler even manages to solve the crime he's investigating. Unfortunately there's no way of him contacting the present-day world to tell them. Which is very frustating for him.

What's it like?
It's so seventies it makes your eyes hurt. It's brilliant. Just like in them days all the Detectives are your sexist, racist men, they take the piss out of the WPc who Tyler picks up as a side kick.

Sadly there's no sliding over bonnets, but it is just the first episode (so there's still hope).

The cast are all very good (and I'm sure my sister is very much enjoying John Simm in an open-necked shirt) and it opened up to a promising start.

The bloke who wrote it is doing an epsiode of Doctor who too. Maybe they'll be sliding over the car bonnets in that epsiode (well a girl can hope).

I'll certainly be giving it another watch next week and give this week's epsiode 7/10