Life on Mars and Clarkson's F...

DVD - Life on Mars (BBC1, 2006 - 2007)

Let me get one thing out of the way very early. This is going to be a very good review. Life on Mars is wonderfully gripping, glorious television, certainly one of the best series it has been my pleasure to watch and one which may well cause me to run out of superlatives before the review is done.

Life on Mars is a cop show. But it’s a cop show with humour. And apparent time travel. Created by Mathew Graham and Ashley Pharaoh, the programme spans sixteen episodes set over two series that follow the adventures of Detective Chief Inspector Sam Tyler (John Simm), who, having been knocked unconscious in a road accident in 2006, awakens in 1973. He finds himself to be a Detective Inspector working in his old Police Station in Manchester (but now for the Manchester and Salford Police) having apparently been transferred from Hyde Division. He meets his new colleagues, including the bull-like and extraordinarily politically incorrect Detective Chief Inspector Gene Hunt, played by Phillip Glenister, with whom he shares an explosive love-hate relationship for the duration of the two series. Glenister’s performance is magnificent and he and Simm are supported well by Dean Andrews (who plays DS Ray Carling), Marshall Lancaster (DC Chris Skelton) and Liz White (WPC Annie Cartwright). Each episode is an hour long and works as a stand-alone story, though the constant theme running through all episodes is that of Sam's ongoing confusion, frustration and bewilderment as he tries to work out what is going on. As he asks in the opening credits: “Am I mad, in a coma, or back in time..?”

The show works particularly well because it operates on a number of levels. There is the question of how Sam has come to be there, which teases the viewer throughout until the ultimate reveal in the final episode of series two. It is also genuinely funny, with some memorable laugh out loud moments. Each episode is a well-crafted old-fashioned police story, reminiscent of popular shows of the time such as The Sweeney and The Professionals. It acts as an intelligent and quite enlightening insight into the monumental changes that have occurred within policing during the passing years, contrasting Gene’s 'lock them in the stationery cupboard and give them a good slapping' method for solving crime with Sam’s more methodical, correct and humane approach, borne out of modern day police training. At the same time a number of some of the more pertinent issues of the time are tackled, such as racism, sexism and football hooliganism. Finally, the whole thing unfolds accompanied by a delicious and truly memorable soundtrack, featuring chart hits by a who's who of artists of the time including: David Bowie (of course!), Thin Lizzy, Free, Deep Purple, Cream, Blue Oyster Cult, Slade, The Sweet, The Who, Pink Floyd and many more.

In later episodes Sam tracks down his family home and meets his 1973 mother, played by Joanne Froggatt. An interesting and thought-provoking twist, stirring strange and conflicting feelings in the viewer in considering how it might feel to walk back into your home as it was over thirty years ago.

The sets and costumes have been recreated with impressive precision. Everything from the décor and furniture in the houses, to the fashions and the cars on the streets, even the BBC television test card has been reproduced in great detail so that you genuinely feel that you have been transported back in time. One episode features a flashback to the opening credits of Camberwick Green, which was as amusing as it was accurate. So many little touches are included, small idiosyncrasies of the age that you may have forgotten that add further authenticity. If you grew up during that time, the show has an uncanny ability to make you feel strangely warm and nostalgic.

This is tremendously satisfying, enthralling television, working brilliantly on many levels. The quality is consistently high with no obvious weaker episodes. The tour-de-force of the show though is undoubtedly Phillip Glenister’s storming, powerful and utterly convincing portrayal of Gene Hunt and the relationship between Hunt and Tyler which is as excellent as it is volatile.

If you have already seen Life on Mars, maybe this review will inspire you to revisit it. It is still just as enjoyable the second (or third) time around. If you haven’t, then you have missed out on one of the greatest television series of recent times and I would thoroughly recommend investing in the two DVD box sets, or tracking it down on catch-up television.

Note - the BBC revisited the idea later with Ashes to Ashes, another programme based on the same premise (three series 2008-2010) with predominantly the same cast except John Simm. Detective Inspector Alex Drake, played by Keeley Hawes, is the victim of a random shooting and wakes up in London in 1981 to find herself teamed up with Gene and the others, who are now working for the Metropolitan Police. The idea still works but the chemistry between Hunt and Drake, while flirtatious and unpredictable, does not match that which Hunt and Tyler enjoyed in the original Life on Mars. It is certainly watchable and the feel of the period is again captured exceptionally well, but ultimately this time around it is hard to escape the feeling that it has all been done before. Entertaining enough, but unfortunately it lacks the magic x-factor that made Life on Mars unmissable.

AG 11/05/2018

Clarkson's Farm

TV - Clarkson’s Farm (Amazon Prime, 2021 - Present)

Jeremy Clarkson. Very much a ‘Marmite’ man, and many will have an opinion of him. Some might laud the loud, brash, ‘man of the people who says it like it is’ motoring journalist that made Top Gear both essential viewing and the BBC’s number one export. Others may harbour a major dislike for the presenter who became a boorish, opinionated, smug and somewhat moronic caricature of himself and eventually ruined what was once a fabulous motoring programme by turning it into a badly produced pantomime.

There is no doubt that for a number of years, Top Gear had cracked the formula for truly exceptional television. There was a golden period when Jeremy, James May and Richard Hammond (not forgetting the Stig) had the recipe just right. You genuinely believed you were watching three mates larking about, with an added sprinkling of some extraordinarily fast and powerful cars. And it was at its best (and funniest) when things went wrong. But these situations are only properly funny when they are genuine.

Unfortunately the show started to include more and more stage-managed set-pieces, played just for laughs. This manufactured humour took over from the real mishaps; it became very noticeable and often felt forced and quite cringe-worthy - none of the presenters were actors, and it showed. When the programme finally received an enforced re-boot, I will confess to being one of those that felt that the previous incarnation had run its course and it was probably overdue. Indeed, after watching the first episode of the trio's replacement motoring show on Amazon: The Grand Tour, I found it to be largely just more of the same; overly self-indulgent and fake, and I never watched another episode.

I had also steadfastly avoided Clarkson’s Farm although the premise interested me, mainly because in the days of a zillion different television providers I had never signed up to Amazon Prime. But in the lead up to Christmas I was finally tempted by one of those ‘get free next day delivery on a purchase if you take a free trial of Amazon Prime’ offers, and took the plunge.

And I am glad I did, as Clarkson’s Farm is a triumph. It is absolutely marvellous, compulsive, feel-good television. Indeed, it is so good, I binge watched both series in just four days. And my wife watched too, and was very quickly hooked, despite normally having very little time or regard for Jeremy and his oafish behaviour.

Each series is a documentary charting his efforts to run his newly acquired 400 acre farm: ‘Diddly Squat’, over the course of a farming season.

Now when Jeremy talks about cars people tend to pay attention and listen to him, because (for the most part) he is incredibly knowledgeable and knows what he is talking about. But when it comes to farming, he hasn’t got a Scooby. We are watching someone who is, completely and absolutely, in at the deep end. This isn’t so much a case of being a fish out of water, more one of being a fish opening the batting at Lords against the 1970’s West Indies bowling attack. For the most part he has no clue what he is doing and this makes everything rather interesting and fun.

Of course, as was the case in Top Gear, things go wrong. But now you get the feeling that most (not all, I am sure, but most) of the issues are the result of him genuinely being clueless and a bit of a clot. Some are, of course, down to Jeremy just being Jeremy, such as his buying an enormous Lamborghini tractor that is way too complicated for him to actually operate, too large to fit in his barn and incapable of attaching itself to any of his farm machinery.

But there are many other problems too, the real, unavoidable sort that every farmer has to contend with, and at times you can’t help but feel sympathy for him (and the farming world in general). It is quite clear that he isn’t playing at this, he is really trying to make it work, and in doing so has to contend with unpredictable weather, endless red tape, unhelpful and unsympathetic planning committees and constant unexpected curve-balls, such as the Covid-19 pandemic and its subsequent effects on the UK and world economies.

I will make an admission here. I had no idea how complicated farming is. Oh my Lord is it complicated. Everything has to be done to precise standards, under the most rigorous regulation, while you are, at all times, at the complete mercy of the elements. Did you know for example, that crops can only be harvested when they meet a very specific level of moisture content? And this changes with the atmosphere, hourly? No, neither did I. In the very first season we see him battling with record-breaking wet and dry spells in the same year. We lurch from widespread flooding to drought. It is a miracle that anything grows at all and his frustration is there for all to see.

Now if this was just a series of programmes showing Jeremy being useless and endlessly ranting at the camera it would quickly become tiresome. But he is assisted by a wonderful supporting cast who both help him and bring everything to life. We meet Lisa, his partner, who is tasked with setting up and running the farm shop. Charlie, the Land Agent, is the voice of reason (or doom, if you believe Jeremy), and displays endless patience while providing ongoing economic and administrative help and advice. Gerald, Jeremy’s ‘Head of Security’, mends dry stone walls, and also offers up genuine comedy (if you watched Hot Fuzz and thought PC Bob Walker’s West Country accent was strong, Gerald sees him and raises it all in). There is Alan the builder, who has to keep up with Jeremy's constantly changing plans, but the star of the show is, without any shadow of a doubt, Kaleb Cooper.

Kaleb is a young local farm worker who assists Jeremy with anything and everything farm related. From using heavy machinery to building and mending fences, from rounding up escaped cows and sheep to delivering their young in distress, he is Jeremy’s personal ‘farmcyclopeida’. He is a very likeable, unassuming lad, who demonstrates skills and knowledge in working the land way beyond his years but is incredibly naive on wider world issues. He is a real country boy who has never been abroad, on a train, or even travelled further afield than Banbury. But the joy in the relationship is that he is in no way star-struck. He shows zero respect for Jeremy ‘the celebrity’, and simply treats him like the clueless idiot in this particular field (no pun intended!) that he is. Some of the looks of incredulity he offers when he arrives on site to clear up another mess are simply wonderful. The two form an unlikely alliance and friendship; the chemistry and dynamic is genuinely special and it makes the show.

Through the two seasons we see crops planted and harvested; Jeremy tries his hand at sheep farming, and then branches out to keep cattle and chickens too. We encounter his constant frustration with the local planning authority, who are permanently concerned about his further planned exploits (and perhaps with good reason, following the predictable traffic and parking chaos he created after announcing the opening of his farm shop to his seven million or so social media followers). His natural hatred of regulation is kept nicely on the boil as he is continually harangued by (what he calls) the “Cow Police”, the “Water Police”, the “Badger Police”, and all the other regulatory bodies that he must keep happy for the business to be allowed to continue.

Now I should say that occasionally it does becomes rather obvious that Amazon income is bankrolling the project. The number of times Jeremy solves a problem by throwing tens of thousands of pounds at it without even blinking does make you wonder whether the economics really stack up. Indeed when he decides that he wants to open a restaurant serving his own meat and produce, a quote of a quarter of a million pounds just for the building work to convert a barn doesn’t deter him.

But you will forgive it that as for the most part the show is properly heart warming. It is authentic and believable, and we get to see a different side to Jeremy, one that in his Top Gear days he kept predominantly hidden. Of course he still plays the belligerent buffoon. But he also understands that he is not the expert here, and while his lack of skills and knowledge coupled with endless regulation does result in exasperation, we also get to see the odd dollop of humility.

And he really does care about nature and the environment, certainly that bit of it for which he is responsible. He creates a wetland to encourage wildlife (albeit with extreme clumsiness, but he gets there in the end). He plants acres of wild flowers to attract insects. He brings in hives of bees, puts up owl nesting boxes and shows genuine concern for the animals that are in his charge. We see him delivering a lamb unaided in the early hours of the morning. And this time, unlike the ‘comedy’ on his previous motoring shows, his obvious pride in his successes cannot be manufactured.

Towards the end of season two he declares that the farming experience, despite all the problems, stresses and failures, has been the happiest time of his life.

And do you know what? I believe him.

AG December 2023

Clarkson’s Farm is available now on Amazon Prime.