Everyone Is Jesus in Purgatory: Literally. When Gene starts to remember who he is, he describes the world the series is set in as "Somewhere we go to sort ourselves... Coppers." Nelson (from Life On Mars) is the gatekeeper, and Gene guides lost souls to him.
Growing the Beard: With some exceptions, series 1 in general has a much more frivolous feel to it, particularly in the behaviour of Alex's character. The drama gets much better when she becomes more the serious police officer from series 2 onwards.
Harsher in Hindsight: In the very first episode. Remember how confident Alex was about getting home to see her daughter and "I am not going to die."? Yeah...
Also, during episode 3.06, Ray tells Viv to go to Hell. It's later implied that thanks to Keats, that's exactly where he went.
Richard Hammond in the Children in Need special, after he told a story years later that during his car crash induced coma, he'd dreamed that he was walking up a hill and around a tree, and felt that if he just kept going further up the hill past the tree, he'd have moved on to the other side.
Or is it? Who's the star of this show, anyway? Seems like Drake and Hunt are actively dueling for that right; the narration, all the private introspection scenes are Drake's, but the Gene Genie acts like he's in charge (justified, perhaps, because he is), so often and so strongly that he often winds up as the dominant character. This wouldn't be confusing if it was Law & Order, but Gene's strength of acting is strange considering Alex is supposed to be locked in her own mind. (Although the fact that even in the first season there are scenes where Alex isn't present suggest it might not be as simple as that. It isn't.) Note: Justified perhaps in that the changes in character focus through the series parallel Alex's opinion of the "dreamland." Contrast how Sam is in every scene in Life on Mars (2006), while in season 3 of Ashes to Ashes all the main cast — including Shaz, Chris and Ray — receive independent focus without Alex in the scene.
Thanks to some advertising in the run-up to the 2010 general election, the misaimed fandom apparently includes the UK's two largest political parties. On the morning of 3rd April 2010, the Labour party put out an advertisement claiming that then-opposition leader David Cameron would "take Britain back to the 1980s", showing him Photoshopped on the front of an Audi Quattro a la Gene Hunt. Later that same day, the Conservatives responded with a re-Shopped version announcing: "Fire up the Quattro. It's time for change". It later turned out that neither party had sought permission from the BBC or the production company for the adverts, and they were both asked to stop using them. It's not clear why Labour (generally perceived as being weak on crime) thought that likening the other guy to everyone's favourite Cowboy Cop was a smart plan.
Caroline Price is now Sgt. Murray on Scott and Bailey.
Watching The Borgias can get very uncomfortable if you're used to seeing Sean Harris (Micheletto) as Arthur Leyton.
Particularly given his, er, brief relationship with Maria, the maid played by Montserrat Lombard, a.k.a. Shaz. (If it helps, they're friends in Real Life and have also made a few short films together).
claiming that then-opposition leader David Cameron would "take Britain back to the 1980s", showing him Photoshopped on the front of an Audi Quattro a la Gene Hunt. Later that same day, the Conservatives responded with a re-Shopped version