Harvey Keitel to experience Life on Mars

US rehash hits the small screen

By Lester Haines • Get more from this author

Posted in Entertainment, 6th October 2008 14:13 GMT

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Here's some good news for those of you who like a good British TV series with fewer British people in it and preferably set in the US of A: American viewers will later this week get to enjoy Life on Mars relocated to New York and with Harvey Keitel as "irascible" Lieutenant Gene Hunt.

The blurb explains:

Where were you in 1973? NYPD Detective Sam Tyler finds himself in the cultural hotbed of New York City in the tumultuous times of the Vietnam War, Watergate, women's lib and the civil and gay rights movements - without a cell phone, computer, PDA or MP3 player - suddenly hurtled back in time when he's ripped from 2008 after being hit by a car while chasing down a criminal. He's trying mightily to understand what has just happened to him and how he can get back "home".

Sam Tyler was, of course, played by John Simm in the two original BBC series, broadcast in 2006 and 2007, and received some initial rough handling at the hands of DCI Gene Hunt (Philip Glenister).

In the US rehash, Irish thesp Jason O'Mara will tackle the role, and we can only hope Harvey Keitel gives him the full Bad Lieutenant treatment.

Oh yes, and just to make sure you're clear that this Life on Mars is set in the "cultural hotbed" of 1970s NYC and not the cultural flatline of 1970s Manchester, the breathless ABC punt notes: "At home in Sam's apartment building in the East Village, there's Windy, a free-spirited, post-hippie chick who can teach Sam a thing or two about the cultural revolution taking place in front of his unbelieving eyes."

God preserve us all. ®

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