“My name is Sam Tyler. I had an accident and I woke up in 1973. Am I mad, in a comma, or back in time? Whatever's happened, it's like I've landed on a different planet. Now, maybe if I can work out the reason, I can get home.”

So states the opening credits of the original BBC series of Life on Mars­­, one of the most terrifically entertaining and inventive programs to arrive from Britain in some time. In its witty, clever blend of science fiction existentialism and police procedural, Life on Mars shows a brilliant balance of the old and the new; although it asserts the knockabout appeal of classic crime shows like The Sweeney or The Professionals, it also shows a darker, harder modern edge, not-too-disimilar from other science fiction thrillers like Lost and Battlestar Galatica.

In 2006, Sam Tyler (John Simm) is a successful, but emotionally distant police officer trying to save his kidnapped girlfriend from a serial killer. Before he gets the chance to help her, he is run down by a car, knocking him back into the 1973 where his modern, methodical techniques clash with the old-school, instintive policing of DCI Gene Hunt (Philip Glenister), antagonistic man’s man Ray Carling (Dean Andrews), nervous Chris Skelton (Marshall Lancaster) and the intelligent, but modest Annie Cartwright (Liz White).

The brainchild of Hustle creators Matthew Graham, Tony Jordan and Ashley Pharoah, Life on Mars  is wonderful entertainment, working as a brilliant police procedural and a fantastical time travel story, exploring Sam’s ongoing struggle in his emotional turmoil with strong weekly storylines, which explore civil rights, black oppression, female empowerment and systematic corruption of the police force. In this regard, the writers successfully merge the worlds of the present and the past with striking non-chronological storytelling.

In particular, the writers very ingeniously introduce introduce the most important figures in Sam’s life in the ‘70s stories, forcing him to address many of the figures of authority in his past (or is it future?) life as peers. Like the screenplay for Back to the Future and The Terminator, the writers make powerful use of dramatic irony inherent in the timetravel paradox. This plays out especially well in Sam’s encounters with his mother and father, as the officer experiences shock, wonder and crushing dissapointment as he sees his parents as flawed and troubled human beings, not the working-class heroes of his childhood.     

Taking its visual cues from classical ‘70s crime thrillers like Get Carter and Dirty Harry, the series benefits from its fantastic production values and genuinely inventive direction, succeeding as a effective (but very entertaining) cop drama and a striking post-modern exploration of the genre. The series also benefits from excellent performances.

From his scorching turn as reporter Cal McCaffrey in the original State of Play to his inventively wicked role as Doctor Who nemesis The Master, Simm has proven himself to be one of England’s most versatile and interesting actors, popping up on television, film (24 Hour Party People) and stage (he will appear in Andrew Bovell’s Speaking in Tongues, which was the basis for Lantana). He’s really terrific here, giving a rounded, sympathetic portrait of Tyler- shading the ultra-modern, progressive copper with enough dashes of vulnerability and sensitivity.

He is also a bloody good straight man, beautifully setting up the often brilliant, but mostly amusingly juvenile one-liners of his castmembers. He strikes up a sharp, witty rapport with Glenister, helping create one of televisions’ finest odd couple pairings.

In the final episode of the first series, Sam describes Hunt as an "overweight, over-the-hill, nicotine-stained, borderline alcoholic homophobe with a superiority complex and an unhealthy obsession with male bonding." Which is true. But that most unlikely of sex symbols- Gene Hunt- is more than an infectiously bravuda comic creation , he is also a legitimate British hero. His appeal, I think, lies in his willingness to do the right thing- even though he shows bruality in his arrests and eliciting of evidence, he is motivated by his need to protect his community from drug dealers and murderers. Like Dirty Harry, Hunt defends and safeguards the rights of the victim, not the offender, and that form of policing is very appealing in this namby-pamby, touchy-feely, boringly PC world.