It follows Sam Tyler (John Simm), a Manchester policeman in 2006 who wakes up after a car accident to discover that he has time-travelled to 1973, where he works the same job in the same location under the command of Detective Chief Inspector Gene Hunt (Philip Glenister) while attempting to solve the mystery of what has happened to him.

"[5] According to Graham, the initial idea was for a humorous, pre-watershed programme that overtly mocked the styles and attitudes of the 1970s, with the comic actor Neil Morrissey envisaged as the central character.

[7] Later, Channel 4 drama executive John Yorke substantially redeveloped the original script, focusing on a double act between Sam Tyler and Gene Hunt.

[5] John Yorke left Channel 4 to rejoin the BBC and, together with Julie Gardner, acted as joint commissioning editor on the show for its entire run.

The second series had a distinctive style of introduction on BBC One: after a brief collage of momentary images, such as several test cards and comedy writer and broadcaster Barry Took, a mock-up version of BBC1's 1970s blue-on-black rotating globe ident was used, although the design had to be modified to fit widescreen sets.

Matthew Graham stated: "We decided that Sam's journey should have a finite life span and a clear-cut ending and we feel that we have now reached that point after two series".

[17] Just nine months after its debut, the repeat rights for Life on Mars were purchased by (now-defunct) UK pay TV channel Bravo, where it was the centrepiece for a new drama strand.

The show has also been transmitted in Croatia (Croatian Radiotelevision), Sweden (a cut version[specify] on SVT 2), Netherlands (Nederland 3), in Germany (Kabel 1), Greece (Skai TV), Spain (Antena.neox), Israel (Hot), Italy (Rai Due), Japan, Serbia (B92), Norway (NRK) and Estonia (ERR).

Gene Hunt and the rest of the CID appear to favour brutality and corruption to secure convictions, as shown by their willingness to physically coerce confessions and fabricate evidence.

According to Liz White, the actress who played Cartwright, "She gets very tired of his constant talk about how this situation is not real, that they are all figments of his imagination — she can only explain it as psychological trauma from his car crash".

Annie Cartwright partially persuades Sam that he is truly in 1973, arguing that his mind would be unable to fabricate the amount of detail and tangibility in the world where he finds himself, evidence that he is in fact in 1973.

In most episodes, the main plot centres on a particular crime or case relating to the police, such as drug trafficking, a hostage situation, murders and robberies.

His background leads Sam into conflict, as other characters exhibit openly sexist, homophobic, and racist behaviour, and often indulge all these prejudices while carrying out their police duties.

The series frequently makes use of Gene Hunt's comical rudeness in the form of jokes and dramatic irony about a future which the audience already knows, but which the characters in 1973 do not.

However, in line with the ambivalence of the Hunt character, the irony is qualified by the fact that, in the real 1973, Margaret Thatcher herself told the BBC's Valerie Singleton in an interview, "I don't think there will be a woman Prime Minister in my lifetime."

Actually, there were a few police officers in London who started to behave like Regan and Carter in The Sweeney, but that was a case of life following art, not the other way round".

[34] Upon Sam Tyler awaking in 1973, he finds himself on a building site, beneath a large advertising board, proclaiming the construction of a new motorway, the Mancunian Way.

Some, as above, were made out of artistic licence whilst others were deliberately inserted to confuse the issue of whether Sam Tyler was in a coma, mad or really back in time.

[45] Banks-Smith summed up the programme's success as "an inspired take on the usual formula of Gruff Copper of the old school, who solves cases by examining the entrails of a chicken, and Sensitive Sidekick, who has a degree in detection.".

[46] Two days after the final episode's transmission, Life on Mars was attacked in the British press by the National Association of Schoolmasters/Union of Women Teachers (better known as NASUWT), who claimed that Gene Hunt's use of homophobic insults in the programme could encourage copycat bullying in schools.

The first series' finale (the first time since the first episode, when its ITV1 rival was Soapstar Superstar, that it was not competing against Northern Lights) gained 7.1 million viewers and a 28% audience share.

On 12 March 2012, Kate Bradley, Commissioning Editor at HarperCollins, secured a deal with Kudos Film and Television to publish four brand new Life on Mars novels.

The Life on Mars books were published exclusively as eBooks at roughly three-month intervals, but were successful enough to generate the release of hard copy, trade paperbacks in August 2013.

(Despite earlier speculation that the brother identity was a pseudonym for another writer—based on a preponderance of misleading evidence that turned out to consist of improbably high coincidence—the by-line, and the familial relationship, are absolutely authentic.)

We don't (yet) plunge into the finer details of the LoM mythology that would mystify the general reader, but if further books are commissioned, there will be plenty of room to get stuck into the minutiae!"

[101] In The Catherine Tate Show – Life at Ma's was a recurring sketch with Tom Ellis as Sam Speed, a modern-day policeman who, after an accident, finds himself back in time and struggling to cope with outdated attitudes.

It premiered in October 2008, and was broadcast to minor critical and public acclaim where declining numbers led to cancellation in April 2009 after 17 episodes, though with sufficient lead to allow the storyline to be concluded.

Spanish Television network Antena 3 bought the rights from the BBC and has remade the show as La Chica de Ayer (English: The Girl from Yesterday, the title taken from a 1980 pop song), set in 1977 post-Franco Spain.

[102] The Russian broadcaster Channel One has remade the show as Обратная сторона Луны (The Dark Side of the Moon, after the Pink Floyd album of the same name).

A South Korean adaptation developed by Studio Dragon and produced by Production H for pay TV network OCN aired from 9 June to 5 August 2018.