| Life On Mars (tv Series) |
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''Life on Mars'' is a BAFTA and International Emmy award-winning British Television drama series, which was first shown on BBC One in January and February 2006 . The second and final series ended on 10 April , 2007 . The format of the series mixes in 2006 and imagining his experiences, or if he is from 1973 but mentally unstable. PRODUCTION Produced by Kudos Film & Television — the makers of '' Spooks '' and '' Hustle '' — for BBC Wales , the eight one-hour episodes of the first series were broadcast on BBC One on Tuesday nights at 9pm. The series was created by writers Tony Jordan , Matthew Graham and Ashley Pharoah , who also provided the majority of the scripts. The fourth writer on the first series was Chris Chibnall . For the second series, Graham, Pharoah and Chibnall returned to write episodes, joined by Julie Rutterford , Guy Jenkin and Mark Greig .1 The second series transmission day was moved to Tuesday night rather than Monday. The programme was originally conceived in 1998, when Graham, Jordan and Pharoah had been sent on a break to the seaside resort of Blackpool by Kudos to come up with new programme ideas.2 Originally titled '' Ford Granada '',3 after the popular car of the 1970s, the series was initially rejected by the BBC. "Back then, broadcasters just weren't comfortable with something like that, something that wasn't set in the real world and that had a fantasy element to it," Graham later told '' SFX Magazine ''. The initial idea at this time was for a more humorous, pre- Watershed series that overtly mocked the styles and attitudes of the 1970s, with comic actor Neil Morrissey envisioned as playing the central character.4 Later, Channel 4 drama executive John Yorke picked up the script and it was substantially redeveloped, with the emergence of the double act between Gene and Sam. However, senior management eventually decided not to pursue the idea. " 4 people just said 'It's going to be silly',"5 Graham told the '' Radio Times '' in a feature published the week of the first episode's transmission. However, the series eventually attracted the attention of BBC Wales Head of Drama Julie Gardner who in turn persuaded the overall Head of Drama at the BBC, Jane Tranter , to commission the programme for BBC One. John Yorke left Channel 4 to rejoin the BBC and together he and Julie Gardner acted as joint commissioning editors on the show for its entire run. The programme's central character was originally to have been called "Sam Williams", but Kudos felt that this was not striking enough and asked Graham to come up with an alternative surname. (This would later be referenced in the final episode of series two.) Asking his young daughter for her opinion, she suggested "Sam Tyler", which became the character's name. Graham subsequently discovered that his daughter had named him after Rose Tyler from '' Doctor Who '', a programme for which he would later write An Episode .6 The initial geographical setting was to be London ; this was then changed to Leeds , and finally to Manchester , as part of a BBC initiative to make more programmes in that city. Filming for a second series for BBC One started in April 2006.7 According to idea and there was no doubt it would work on the big screen... But as yet, we are concentrating on the development and production of the second series for BBC1."8 On October 9 2006 , it was confirmed that the second series of ''Life on Mars'' would also be the last, with two possible endings to the programme having been filmed. Matthew Graham stated that "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."9 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 the late comedy writer/broadcaster Barry Took , a version of BBC 1's 1970s blue-on-black rotating globe ident (with a blue "BBC 1 Colour" caption underneath) was used, although the design had to be modified to fit Widescreen sets. This was accompanied by a bass-voiced continuity announcer in the style of that era. Viewers in Wales saw a "BBC Cymru Wales" globe. Trailers for the show also used the 1970s style, including the slanting BBC logo with rounded edges. |
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