Gene Hunt: a career in Ashes no comments

Well what a night - the new Doctor revealed AND the premiere of ITV's "attempt at a Doctor Who beater"!

Well, that was a theory about the new Demons.

[Re: the next Doctor (not The Next Doctor!), I can't specifically recall ever having seen him in anything before, so I have no comment.]

Demons: I won't be the first to compare it to Buffy because it's already been done. Plus I've only ever watched two episodes which I can barely remember. (But one of those might have been a two-parter.)

The guiding light (read 'selling point') is Philip Glenister, or rather should have been, except for the naff decision to make his character American. Since his involvement hinges on association with a man of Dutch descent living in England why bother forcing him to adopt the accent?

The obvious answer is to ease the selling of the series to American networks who apparently need 'an American take' on events to make them palatable. This hasn't changed since 1952 when footage of Raymond Burr (you might remember him as A Man Called Ironside) was inserted into the first Godzilla film.

But why would American stations bother buying British programs in order to see Americans? The Avengers became a cult over there because it was so British (well, English) - it would have been watered down by such pandering. The only American influence on the series was to have Mother made into a regular character instead of a one-off, which worked wonderfully as I'm sure both Rhonda and Grandmother would agree.

Having made the character American why not cast an an American in the rôle? I feel that ITV are trying to milk Glenister's past glories. This tactic has already backfired since the guides are referring to him as "Ashes to Ashes' Philip Glenister". How short memories are: you're only remembered for your most recent disaster. He excelled as Gene Hunt in Life on Mars; in the pale imitation he plays a mere shadow of himself.

On the plus side he does sound remarkably like Ed Bishop. If ITV's creative scheduling for 2009 features a remake of UFO he's got the job . . . as long as the budget stretches to a weekly bottle of peroxide.

The best feature was Gladiolus Thripp, played by Mackenzie Crook, a Rocky-Horror 50's rocker . . . bounty hunter. Superbly over-the-top he still managed to convey more menace than his Pirates of the Caribbean character ever needed to, whilst teasing the very edges of pantomime villainy. Like all the other advantages to the show this one was squandered. As a bounty hunter he didn't have an emotional investment in the main cast, so why kill him off so soon?