History Series / AshesToAshes2008

* BigNo: Alex's response to [[spoiler:failing to save her parents]].

%%* TheMole: [[spoiler:Chris, in episode 7.]]

%%* HeterosexualLifePartners: Ray and Chris. Shaz lampshades.

** TruthInTelevision for the period, seeing as South Africa was still under UsefulNotes/Apartheid and the ANC was not above using violent means to achieve its ends. The [[UsefulNotes/MargaretThatcher British PM herself]] regarded the ANC as a terrorist organisation while at the same time pushing for Nelson Mandela's release from prison.

--->'''DCI Gene Hunt''': Jail isn't your sentence, Chris. I am.

--->'''DC Chris Skelton''': Seems there's more to Gaynor Mason than meets the eye, Guv -- about six inches more.

* FreezeFrameBonus: In the finale, Keats [[spoiler: who may or may not be Satan himself]] punches in a code to access the elevator room. Although the numbers aren't shown, anyone familiar with that type of keypad can tell that the button he presses 3 times is [[spoiler: 6]].

* ButtBrand: Alex has to have her butt stamped as part of her initiation into the police force. This has some degree of TruthInTelevision, as this was a common hazing practice for female officers back in the day.

%%* DistaffCounterpart: Alex Drake for Sam Tyler in ''Series/{{Life on Mars|2006}}''.

%%* DownerEnding: The series 1 finale.

** [[spoiler:The Clown in season one. Jim Keats appears to channel him at several moments in season three.]]
** [[spoiler:Until it is revealed that Keats is actually a demon, or possibly {{Satan}}.]]

[[caption-width-right:350:[[CatchPhrase Fire up the Quattro]]! L-R: DS Ray Carling, DI Alex Drake, DCI Gene Hunt, WPC Shaz Granger, DC Chris Skelton]]

** The motormouthed alternative comedian in 3.06 is unnamed but from the hair, the glasses, the suit and the confrontational leftie politics, he's very obviously meant to be the young Creator/BenElton; Alex even disgustedly tells him that he's going to "end up writing soft-rock musicals", a ShoutOut to ''Theatre/WeWillRockYou''. [[spoiler:This becomes a peculiar kind of in-universe FunnyAneurysmMoment when, moments later, he's accidentally shot, and indeed dies in hospital from his wounds.]]

* PunnyName: Maybe a ShoutOut to TheSimpsons. When Alex gets Shaz to take messages for her, she takes them from Hugh Jarse and Mike Rotch, both used by Bart to prank Moe.

* AndTheAdventureContinues: The show ends with Gene back at the police station, where a new DI has arrived and is wondering where his iPhone is. Gene's line to him -- "a word in your shell-like" -- is the first line he said to Sam Tyler, back at the start of ''Life on Mars''.

* RedemptionEqualsDeath: It's subverted with [[spoiler:Viv]] in series 3; his pained expression and the statement that police officers have to "finish the job" to be redeemed (which [[spoiler:Viv]] never does) implies that [[spoiler:Viv has ended up damned]]. This is further implied when Chris mentions [[spoiler:having had a nightmare about Viv "hunched up amongst all this fire."]]. Also backed up by the fact that it's [[spoiler:Keats]] who is with [[spoiler: Viv]] when he dies, and not [[spoiler:Gene]].

** [[spoiler:Alex]] at first refuses heaven ''twice:''

--> [[spoiler:'''Keats''': [looking unbelievingly at the team's shocked expressions after removing the ceiling to a view of the stars and revealing CID to be a construct of the afterlife] Oh come on... You didn't think this was like, a real police station, did you? What!? You think that they actually worked like this!? IT'S HIS GAME!]]

** In episode 3.02, he holds a petty theif (whose only real crime is using a dead person's identity) at gunpoint and then in a headlock.

** In episode 3.04, Gene chases a suspect through the Blue Peter garden.

** TruthInTelevision for the period, seeing as South Africa was still under UsefulNotes/Apartheid and the ANC was not above using violent means to achieve its ends. The [[UsefulNotes/MargaretThatcher British PM herself]] regarded the ANC as a terrorist organisation while at the same time as pushing for Nelson Mandela's release from prison.

** Not only is DC Chris Skelton generally incompetent and slow-witted, but he indulges in [[spoiler:extreme police brutality, espionage, destroying evidence and even letting a suspected terrorist walk free without permission to do so.]] Despite all this, he never ever loses his job and is basically unsackable.

** Subverted in series 2 when [[spoiler:Martin Summers murders his younger self, causing Alex to have a mini-breakdown over her own failure to save her parents.]]

* RuleOfCool: Inverted in a rare in-universe {{Lampshade Hanging}} of crime series' dramatically oversimplified police procedure and absence of the real-life tight regulations on violence and taking actions without a warrant ([[SocietyMarchesOn even in the 1980's]]), in [[spoiler:the final episode.]]

* ArtisticLicenseCars: The Audi Quattro was not available in right-hand drive in the United Kingdom in 1981, only in left-hand drive. The car shown in the TV series is the 1983 model, with slight changes to the headlights and other features. Creator/PhilipGlenister admitted that the production was aware of this and said, "But who cares? It's a CoolCar."

* ArtisticLicenseCars: The Audi Quattro was not available in right-hand drive in the United Kingdom in 1981, only in left-hand drive. The car shown in the TV series is the 1983 model, with slight changes to the headlights and other features. Philip Glenister admitted that the production was aware of this and said, "But who cares? It's a CoolCar."

* CastingGag: Elaine Downing, the head of the dating agency in 3.2 [[spoiler: who blatantly has the hots for Gene]], is played by Beth Goddard, real-life wife of Philip Glenister, who plays Gene.

** Phil Glenister in [[http://tu.tv/videos/before-the-date semi-formal wear]] twice in series 3.

* AfterlifeAntechamber: [[spoiler:Gene's world is a purgatory specifically for dead police officers.]]

* AsLongAsItSoundsForeign: Final episode, up against Dutch gangsters:

--> '''Chris''': [[spoiler:Why did you cover for her?]]
--> '''Joshua''': Because '''I'VE HAD MY LIFE''', Chris! [[spoiler:Hers was ahead of her!]]

-->'''Alex''': Is this strictly necessary?
-->'''Gene''': No, but it's bloody good fun!

-->'''Chris''': Freeze, scumbag!
-->'''Markham''': Oh, don't make me laugh! Look, there are chaps who can pull the trigger and chaps who can't, and you, my friend, do not have- ''([[AgonyOfTheFeet Chris shoots him in the foot]])'' Oh my God, you just shot my bloody toes off!

-->''Alex''': Oh shut your face, you racist git!

** Alex sees a copy of Music/ShakespearsSister's 1992 record, "Stay", in the bedroom of her future ex-husband, young Peter Drake, in 1982.
** TheFinale's action climax takes place at Gravesend Airport, which had been decommissioned in 1956 and re purposed as a housing estate long before the episode's 1983 setting.

-->'''Gene''': "Favourite Film - ''[[Film/ThelmaAndLouise Thelma & Louise]]''." Never heard of it.\\

* BadAssDriver: Gene constantly drifts and powerslides the Quattro in a ridiculously exaggerated fashion around the streets of London in almost every episode. He also barks at Alex for being silly enough to put her seatbelt on.

* CatchPhrase:

%%* {{Tsundere}}: Alex, especially in S1.

** TruthInTelevision for the period, seeing as South Africa was still under UsefulNotes/Apartheid and the ANC was not above using violent means to achieve its ends. The [[UsefulNotes/MargaretThatcher British PM herself]] regarded the ANC as a terrorist organisation while at the same time as pushing for Nelson Mandela's release from prison.

* ContinuityLockout: It's ''possible'' to watch [=A2A=] without first seeing ''Series/{{Life on Mars|2006}}''. It's just really, '''really''' confusing and virtually all of season 3 is nigh-incomprehensible. And not nearly as meaningful.

** TruthInTelevision for the period, seeing as South Africa was still under apartheid and the ANC, still outlawed, was not above using violent means to achieve its ends; while [[UsefulNotes/MargaretThatcher the British PM herself]] was branding the ANC a terrorist organization at the same time as pushing for Mandela's release.

[[caption-width-right:350:[[CatchPhrase Fire up the Quattro]]! L-R: DS Ray Carling, DCI Gene Hunt, DI Alex Drake, WPC Shaz Granger, DC Chris Skelton]]

[[caption-width-right:350:Right, let's [[CatchPhrase fire up the Quattro]]]]

* ButtBrand: Alex has to have her butt stamped as part of her initiation into the police force.