UKC

Anybody else see the grand finale of Ashes to Ashes tonight? I thought it was really really creepy! Not how I thought it would end at all.

In reply to Choss Weasel: missed it ,what happened?

In reply to Choss Weasel:
Bloody brilliant, If only it could go on for ever!!!

In reply to DIRK DIDLER:



They were all dead and in a half-way place between life and death. Keat's was the devil. It was so creepy!

In reply to rockjedi12345: Aaahhh what happened

In reply to Choss Weasel: bar-steward, have just finished watching sherlock homes with bairn,friday night she gets to stay up late,Aaarrrggghh

In reply to Choss Weasel:

I thought it was excellent myself, what an excellent programme, including Life on Mars

In reply to Soap:


Yeah it is an excellent programme and I loved Life on Mars too, the final episode just took me by surprise. I thought it was really heavy and dark. It was excellent though. Just a big shock!

In reply to Choss Weasel:

Took me by surprise this. How was Keats revealed as the Devil? I must've missed that bit!!

In reply to Choss Weasel:

Loved the scream coming from the bottom of the lift shaft!
Nice touch, top programme.

More of Keeley Hawes please!

In reply to jamiefox: The hissing, cackling, the scream as he shouted near the lift. The 'temptation' to Hell.

In reply to Dave Warburton:

Cheers, I didn't hear that, the bloody dog was barking around that time!!

In reply to jamiefox:

By the bloody huge pointers most of the way through the second half of the episode.

In reply to Choss Weasel: i didnt expect that half the team would go to the real world, or wherever that pub leads

In reply to Choss Weasel: I thought it was absolutely superb. I think the pub represented heaven.

In reply to Choss Weasel:

Loved it. was happy to see it cleared some things up, but not everything. Love hunt looking at the Merc catalogue at the end! A 190 Cossie would be a very Hunt car.

In reply to wayno265:

That's what I thought.
Is Gene supposed to be St Peter, guarding the doors of heaven?

In reply to Choss Weasel:

I liked the ending very much. It was dark and creepy though.

However, it means that most of the events before the last few episodes were of no consequence to the outcome of the series.

Perhaps a follow up could feature Molly?

MoTD

In reply to Lusk:


Yeah that's what I took from it with the gates of heaven being the doors of the Railway Arms and Keats being the devil with his lift shaft down to the basement leading to hell.

In reply to Choss Weasel:

It was a very interesting endiing,

very much in the vein of JB Priestley's plays - eg Outward Bound, where the characters only find out they are dead a long way into the play

In reply to The New NickB:

Yep, I watched it today on iplayer and it makes much more sense to me now. I had too many distractions last night to see what was going on. If they were all dead but didn't realise, how does it explain Sam going back to the "living" world before he topped himself in Life on mars?

In reply to jamiefox:


Because he woke up from his coma, thus escaping from purgatory back into the living world. He then didn't cope with being back in the real world and so when he jumped from the roof of the police station and died he went straight back to Gene's (purgatory) world eventually to be helped on his way to heaven by Gene.

In reply to Choss Weasel: In Life on Mars Sam kept getting glimpses of life in the real world; in Ashes to Ashes Alex didn't because she was already dead.

In reply to rockjedi12345:

Agree it was absolutely brilliant, but really pleased they have ended it - far too many shows drag on and on, flogging a dead horse. 2 versions, 2 series in each, perfect way to finish and wrap it up

Heaven is a pub called the Railway Arms!

In reply to wayno265:

Not sure about that - Chris, Shaz and Ray were already dead, which is why they were unaware that they shouldn't be there, and for them Gene's world was a purgatory in which they resolve what sort of cops they were - good or bad, bent or straight - and whether they were going to heaven or hell. For Sam and Alex Gene's world was a place for them to resolve whether they wanted to survive or not

So I'm not sure whether her entering the pub was dying, or going back, but I think it was the latter

In reply to Chris the Tall: that explains the reason why sam and alex were aware of their existence in the real world, but to be honest the device with the stopped clock and Gene's reference to Molly just after this revelation lead me to believe that Alex had died at this time.

another thing which confuses me and anyone who knows please enlighen me...
Sam's mentor appeared in 1973, younger than same policeman who died of a heart attack in 2006(?) whereas everyone else went back exactly the same age

Gene was supposed to have died in 1952, how can he have physically been there to take Alex Drake's hand after the death of her parents in 1981 if he did not exist in reality at that time?

In reply to aeh2010:

Calm it.

In reply to Chris the Tall: In Greenfield as I recall but don't remember much funny goings on inside? I thought this was utterly brilliant from the first episode.

In reply to Choss Weasel:

Just watched it on PVR.

What a bloody brilliant final episode. Shivers down the spine stuff. Keats was just (creepingly) amazing

My take:

Gene's World - Limbo

Keats - Devil, there to tempt them into the...
Lift - Hell

Barman - God
Pub - Heaven (of course!)

Alex - thought she was in a coma, but had actually died at 9.06, then goes off to heaven at the end (knowing Molly will be OK)

Sam - had jumped off roof to get back to Limbo, then Gene helps him to heaven.

In reply to Choss Weasel: sure beats Z Cars, Midsomer Murders and The Bill. I liked the 'Dixon of Dock Green' ending, though.
aye, Andy

In reply to Chris the Tall:

There were actually three seasons of Ashes To Ashes. I agree that it was time to wrap the whole thing up, nothing worse than a good idea which is dragged out far beyond its useful life.

In reply to Martin W:

A pretty bonkers series (x2) all in all. I didn't catch many and not even sure i liked a lot of what i saw but thank god for somebody producing something 'popular' that is essentially quite left field.

In reply to ChrisJD:




Yeah I agree. Those are the same conclusions I took from the episode.

In reply to Choss Weasel:

I thought it was fantastic. Such a good finale. I'm so glad it was good unlike most other season endings.
I love that Nelson turns out to be a key part in it. He gave sam lots of advice in LoM if I remember rightly.
Great stuffs!

In reply to Choss Weasel:

Gene and Alex never got it on......so close but yet so far. Also, the farewell kiss was pathetic, totally void of feeling. Disappointing.

In reply to Minky87: Yeah I was mega dissapointed with that too. It would have been nice if Alex could have stayed with Gene after all they went through together.

In reply to Martin W:

You're right, but somehow it didn't seem that many

Good article here - http://www.guardian.co.uk/tv-and-radio/tvandradioblog/2010/may/21/ashes-to-...

So yes, Alex was dead

In reply to Choss Weasel:

I was pleased I guessed it, a bit. I sussed Keats as the devil but not that they were all dead. The stars thing was the plot fix I missed.

Will need to watch it again just to pick up on some of the below radar references etc. A bit like hot Fuzzx is funnier second time around

In reply to Choss Weasel: Just occurred to me that Keats was present at the deaths of the two bent coppers - Viv and the female undercover officer.

In reply to wayno265:

Well Keats actually sucked the soul out of Viv ! And took him down to hell no doubt. I suspect Viv was in Limbo as well and made his "choice" on what type of copper he wanted to be.

In reply to Lusk: Hunt is trying to help people achieve what they were trying to achieve before their untimely deaths .In doing so ,he releases them from Purgatory .Ashes to Ashes is Dante for the 21st C !

In reply to Choss Weasel:

Bloody hell. What a finale! I'd kinda guessed they were all dead from the spangly star thing going on and that Keats wasn't a nice guy but christ he did Devil very well. I also admit I cried like a girl.

brillaint, though i thought Alex gave up Molly too easily at the end

In reply to Minky87:

Well they were both dead, I'm not sure the BBC want to be showing necrophilia during prime time...

In reply to Choss Weasel:
I think the key debate is not about whether the pub is heaven or Keats was the devil, but what car does Gene Hunt have next. Saw the suggestion of a Cosworth, assuming (if there were another series), it would be the 90's, what car would be the icon for that decade.

In reply to tonyw:

Hmm, Scooby I guess given the rallying success it enjoyed in the 90's

Sadly, I think ifthe series reaches 2010 Gene will be driving to gender awareness courses in a Prius.

In reply to Choss Weasel:

Wonderful ending - In hindsight the title gave it away.

Ashes to ashes, dust to dust; in sure and certain hope of the Resurrection into eternal life.

In reply to All:

D'you think the writers/producers knew how it was going to end from the first series of Ashes to Ashes?
Or even from she start of LoM?

In reply to confusicating:

The Guardian article linked to above implied they did.

In reply to John Rushby:

Nissan Almera for the 90s

In reply to AnnaSpanna:

Surely:

Ashes to ashes, funk to funky
We know Major Tom's 4
a junkie
Strung out in heaven's high
Hitting an all-time low

The ending to the single series of Life on Mars (US version) is on YouTube. It's aweful.

The crew of a ship to Mars are all in deep sleep. The mission is looking for DNA and is therefore a Gene Hunt.

When I saw their ending, I was glad the UK series wasn't so lame. But still, I didn't like the ending to Life on Mars or Ashes to Ashes. I was just enjoying the comedy version of Regan and Carter not really wanting the intellectual addition of the eternal struggle of good and evil in some tangential plane of reality.

In reply to bouldery bits:

Agreed. Problem is that he had a brochure for a 190D (diesel!) A bit lame I thought.

In reply to stewieatb:

And from Bowie's 'Life on Mars':

Take a look at the lawman
Beating up the wrong guy
Oh man! Wonder if he'll ever know
He's in the best selling show
Is there life on Mars?

In reply to Choss Weasel:

I feel a bit gutted that I never got into Ashes to Ashes. I loved Life on Mars, but the first couple of episodes put me off. Plus, good looks apart, Keely Hawes really irritates me. I just can't watch her.

In reply to Ridge:

I didnt watch the first series for said reasons, but the second & third were grand!

In reply to Ridge:



Yeah I find Keely Hawes right irritating too. I much preffered Life on Mars and found it a bit hard to get into Ashes to Ashes at the start because of her style of acting. Eventually I got into it and enjoyed the programme though.

In reply to Choss Weasel:

Oh give over - what are you two on!

In reply to Southern Man:
Anyone noticed the similarity between Keely Hawes in the last series and the DigitAl robot?