Life On Mars
Episode synopses
Episode 1
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Despite eerie visions that suggest a tantalising proximity to 2007, DI Sam Tyler once again wakes up to find himself very much amongst the pale brown hues of the technologically prehistoric, politically incorrect world of Seventies Manchester. And, what's more, he's got a murder to solve.
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Sam encounters the young incarnation of Tony Crane, a nasty villain he put away in 2006. He realises he is faced with the chance every copper dreams about: stopping the killer before he kills.
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Gambling everything on ensuring the man is sent down, Sam's flagrant disregard for procedure stuns his colleagues in CID.
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But they can't appreciate what Sam is starting to fear – that, since his car accident in 2006, the villain has been released and has found his way to his hospital bedside where he is exacting his revenge on Sam's vulnerable body.
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Still desperate to discover how he got to 1973, why he remains there and how he may return to the present day, Sam has to race against the clock to capture a killer, who is trying to murder him in the future.
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Episode 2
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At a loss to discover the guilty party in a spate of armed robberies, A-Division goes to prison to escort notorious safe-cracker Dickie Fingers (Steve Evets) back to CID. However, as they transport him out of the gaol, they are set upon by a dangerous gang who will stop at nothing to get their hands on Fingers.
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As his mentor, Superintendent Harry Woolf, presides over the investigation, DCI Gene Hunt is keener than ever to show off his team's effectiveness, and they head straight for chief suspect Arnold Malone (Stephen Bent) who tips them off about the next robbery.
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Jaws drop in the CID unit when their first black team member arrives, DC Glenn Fletcher. Sam is taken aback – not by Fletcher's ethnicity, but in realising that Fletcher is his own mentor from 2006.
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Glenn becomes the butt of Ray's shockingly racist jibes, and yet seems happy to put up with it – something the modern Glenn Fletcher would never do. Sam tries to inspire Glenn to believe more in himself and not stand for Ray's cheap humour.
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Episode 3
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When a bomb warning is reported, A-Division go on red alert. According to the caller, the IRA has brought their mainland bombing campaign to Manchester.
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DI Sam Tyler soon realises the bomb warning reported doesn't fit with his understanding of IRA methods. However, when Sam's 2006 know-how fails to puts his team at risk, they turn his back on him.
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As his own team's trust in him evaporates, Sam fights to prove Gene's theory that the IRA is to blame is too obvious. Desperate to regain the faith of his colleagues, Sam realises he must also stop a fearful, bigoted CID going after the Irish community with typical "Gene Hunt" aggression.
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Sam begins to show his colleagues what testing times lie ahead for them and how forming genuine bonds of trust with their communities could be the only way to ensure peace in the city – a concept Gene finds hard to adopt!
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Episode 4
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When the body of a beautiful young woman is found in wasteland, DCI Gene Hunt fears a serial killer he thought he'd sent down in the late Sixties may still be at large. For Sam, the victim, a Beauvoir beauty rep like his Aunt Heather, triggers vivid recollections of childhood.
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Utilising his knowledge of modern surveillance techniques, Sam is led to middle class suburbia where a local car dealer is throwing private parties employing the poorly paid make-up girls to "help out" when the lights go down and the wife-swapping begins.
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Sam and Annie go undercover as a young swinging couple to infiltrate the world of vol-au-vents, Blue Nun and lava lamps.
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Information about future episodes will be published in ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ Television Programme Information.
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