Upon waking in the past she is surprised to meet the returning characters of Gene Hunt (Philip Glenister), Ray Carling (Dean Andrews) and Chris Skelton (Marshall Lancaster), all of whom she has learnt about from her research, the trio having transferred from the Manchester setting of Life on Mars (Manchester and Salford Police) to Fenchurch CID, London.
Continuing the theme of Life on Mars, throughout the series, it is ambiguous to both Drake and the audience whether the character is dead or alive in the present day and to what extent her actions influence future events.
The final episode reveals that the Life on Mars/Ashes to Ashes world is a form of limbo or purgatory, for "restless dead" police officers.
These restless dead include Drake, Sam Tyler and the main characters Gene, Ray, Chris, and Shaz (Montserrat Lombard), all of whom died in violent circumstances.
All except Hunt "move on" as he is a psychopomp (a spirit guide), an Archangel Michael-like figure, to all of his officers, helping them on their way to The Railway Arms pub (standing for heaven).
During the final series, the character of DCI Jim Keats was introduced, originally appearing to be assessing the capabilities of Gene's division.
One reason for moving the sequel to London, from Life on Mars' Manchester setting, was because the iconic eighties fashion would not have reached smaller cities at the time.
[16] In Denmark, series 1 was shown for the first time on DR2 at 19.05 each weekday evening from 25 November 2011[17] under the title En hård nyser: Kommissær Hunt.
In this series Alex tries to figure out what happened to her parents, whose lives are connected to the political unrest of the time, especially Margaret Thatcher's campaign and Lord Scarman's attacks on the police.
Summers proves to be a formidable adversary, whose actions eventually lead to a murder and an extremely tense confrontation between Alex and Gene.
The series ends with Alex awakening in what seems to be the present, but she is horrified to find Gene's face on monitors, pleading for help.
Although Jim is ostensibly friendly with Hunt's officers, he makes no effort to conceal his hatred of Gene when the two are alone, and attempts to turn Alex against him.
In addition, the main cast appeared in short sketches for Children in Need 2008 (with Richard Hammond as himself) and Sport Relief 2010 (with Dickie Davies, Daley Thompson, Duncan Goodhew, Steve Cram, David Gower, Michael Parkinson, Sam Torrance, Tony Hadley, Paul Daniels and Debbie McGee as 1983 versions of themselves).
A scene in the second episode, "The Happy Day", set at The Blitz features Steve Strange playing himself performing "Fade to Grey" by Visage.
Clips from Top of the Pops, The Old Grey Whistle Test and other 1980s BBC TV music programmes, introduced by Philip Glenister in his guise as DCI Gene Hunt, were looped for the remainder of the evening of transmission.
Based on overnight returns, The Guardian reported that audience figures for the 7 February 2008 broadcast of the first episode—in a 9 pm slot on the flagship channel, BBC One—were 7 million: about 29% of viewers.
[34] The national free sheet, Metro, gave the episode four stars as "a vote of faith" on what it described as "a dodgy start".
Keeley Hawes' performance was singled out by critics such as The Sun's Ally Ross, The Daily Mirror's Jim Shelley and The Guardian's Sam Wollaston.
[38] While Robert Maclaughlin, writing for Den of Geek, praised Hawes for "the ability to pull off a white leather coat, perm and very, very tight jeans",[39] other critics were negative; Ross blamed the character of Alex Drake for "ruining nearly every scene".
[40] Entertainment news website Digital Spy praised the show's return, with cult editor Ben Rawson-Jones describing the opening episode of the second series as "greatly promising".
[52] In 2010, the Labour Party used an edited image of Gene Hunt on the Quattro with David Cameron's face as part of its general election campaign, with the words "Don't let him take Britain back to the 1980s".
[59] Glenister explained that Gene Hunt was popular with real police officers because he spent his time catching criminals rather than doing paperwork.