List of Life on Mars characters
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This is a list of
Main characters
Sam Tyler
Gene Hunt
Annie Cartwright
Ray Carling
Chris Skelton
1973 characters
Derek and Ted Bannister
Ted Bannister (
Later in the episode, Ted's son Derek (Andrew Knott) is arrested for armed robbery, after organising a payroll snatch at the factory.
Pete Bond
Pete Bond (Anthony Flanagan) is a Manchester United supporter and a regular at the Trafford Arms. He tried to beat up Colin Clay, a fellow supporter, and blame it on Manchester City fans to start a massive brawl between the two sides fans on derby day. Unfortunately, Colin accidentally died, forcing Sam to track Pete down and arrest him.
Phyllis Dobbs
WPC Phyllis Dobbs (Noreen Kershaw) is the station desk/custody officer, supervising the cells and mentoring WPC Annie Cartwright, with whom she forms a friendship. Phyllis is regarded by other characters as "one of the lads" and socialises with them in the pub after work which is the "male domain". In a time of social upheaval and women being treated as inferiors to men, Phyllis's no-nonsense attitude earns respect with the male fraternity because they know that, whatever rank they are, she won't tolerate their disrespect. She encourages Sam to act on his feelings toward Annie.[1]
Dicky Fingers
Richard "Dicky Fingers" Hands (
Terry Haslam
Terry Haslam is a boxing manager who has a history with Gene Hunt. He beat up retired boxer Davie Mackie and blackmailed Hunt not to report it. However, Hunt did report it and took Haslam. Haslam was found innocent and Gene threatened to kill him. The next day Haslam is found dead and it is revealed that he had bet on Davie Mackie's last boxing match, telling Davie to throw the fight. Davie resisted, killing Haslam.
Leslie Johns
Leslie Johns (Sean Gilder) is a miner and an infamous cop killer. He organises the robbery of a train with a group of miners unaware Gene is undercover as one of the miners. The robbery seems to be going smoothly (Johns is unaware the train's staff are members of CID) but then Sam's radio goes off giving them up as police officers. When Annie, Chris, Ray and Gene run after Sam, Johns shoots Gene, Chris and Ray causing them to fall to the floor. When Sam returns from 2006 he shoots Johns dead as he is about to execute Gene.
Billy Kemble
Billy Kemble (Kevin Knapman) is arrested during
Derek Litton
Frank Miller
Frank Miller (
Arnold Malone
Arnold Malone (Stephen Bent) is a longtime rival of Superintendent Harry Woolf. According to Woolf, Malone was responsible for a large amount of the crime rate in Manchester from the 1950s to the period of the show. Woolf tries to frame Malone for the robberies Woolf has been committing but the evidence leads DI Sam Tyler, DCI Gene Hunt, and DC Glenn Fletcher to arrest Woolf.
Nelson
Nelson (Tony Marshall) is the barman at the Railways Arms where most of CID go to drink. Nelson gives much advice to Sam during his time in 1973, typically with double-meanings that seem to apply to both an issue at hand in 1973, and to Sam's overarching problem of being trapped in a dystopic 1973. He usually affects a thick Jamaican accent, although Nelson is actually from Manchester (like Marshall), and uses the accent because his customers seem to like him better as a foreigner than as a black local.
In the final year of the sequel series, Ashes to Ashes, Nelson's ghostly voice can be heard briefly in 1983 to DI Ray Carling, DC Chris Skelton and WPC Shaz Granger; Ray cannot quite place the voice, and Shaz never knew Nelson, but Chris recognises it and tells the other two. In the final act of the finale, after the characters have learned that they are dead souls in a CID purgatory, Nelson appears with a mystical version of the Railway Arms, suddenly in London. Still affecting the accent, he is an Odin or Saint Peter type figure who welcomes Ray, Chris, Shaz, and finally DI Alex Drake into a sort of policemen's Valhala or heaven: an eternal pub.
Nelson has two counterparts in the U.S. remake: a rarely seen bartender named Nelson (Mike Starr), and Sam's hippy (and possibly imaginary) neighbour, Windy (Tanya Fischer) who provides double-meaning insight to Sam.
Joni Newton
Joni Newton (Kelly Wenham) worked for local gangster Stephen Warren. She was a "honey trap" for Sam when he tried to go against Warren and take her into his care after purporting that she was going to be killed by him, where whilst she was in Sam's care she engaged in sex with him. She ended up going against Warren but was killed and her body was found on the canal.
Patrick O'Brien
Patrick O'Brien (Brendan Mackey) is an Irishman with a criminal record who was arrested by Gene for armed robbery. When dynamite goes missing at O'Brien's workplace he becomes the prime suspect in a spate of suspected IRA bombings. Gene is prejudiced against him because he is an ex-convict. This and his desire to avenge Ray cause Patrick to go on the run. Sam finds O'Brien and tells him he will find out who is really behind the bombs.
Frank Rathbone
Donald Sykes
Donald Sykes (
Test Card Girl
The Test Card Girl (Rafaella Hutchinson in series one and Harriet Rogers in series two) is a young girl resembling the girl (Carole Hersee) in Test Card F, who appears as a vision to DI Sam Tyler. She often tells him things related to his current life, taunts Sam, and occasionally scares him greatly. For example, when he struggles with the stress of a failed bomb disposal, she appears to him showing her closed fists and chants "Red wire. Yellow wire. Red Wire. Yellow wire." When he fails to pick the correct hand she calmly says: "You're dead Sam. They're all dead because of you."
At the series finale, she is seen running down a street with other children: Turning to camera, she reaches to switch off the TV, and the image disappears as in an old television set.
In an interview with the Radio Times, Matthew Graham revealed the Test Card girl is constantly teasing and torturing Sam because she represents the devil in him. "But," he said, "there is another factor to consider. In 1973, when television transmission ceased for the night, when the story is done and the characters have vanished into nothing, the BBC would switch to the Test Card girl. So she, if you want to be melodramatic, represents the apocalypse, the end."[2]
She has two counterparts in the sequel programme,
She has no direct counterpart in the U.S. remake.
Vic Tyler
Victor "Vic" Tyler (Lee Ingleby) is the father of Sam Tyler. Sam becomes convinced if he gets his father to stay with his mother then he can get back to 2006. However, he finds his father is behind some brutal gangland killings.
Adult Sam discovers to his horror the fleeting image he has throughout series 1, of a woman running in the woods in a red dress, is his memory of WPC Annie Cartwright chasing Vic at a family wedding and being brutally beaten by Vic. Adult Sam saves Annie from Vic but allows Vic to escape to protect his younger self from growing up the son of an imprisoned murderer.
His counterpart in the U.S. remake is Vic Tyler, portrayed by Dean Winters.
Stephen Warren
Stephen Warren (Tom Mannion) is a local gangster and owner of a nightclub, The Warren, who is paying the police, including Hunt, to turn a blind eye to his activities. He advises Sam Tyler not to go against him and implies that others have tried unsuccessfully; "others have tried to wear the white hat, and all have failed." After he murders one of his staff who helped out Sam, Gene Hunt decides to turn his back on corruption, and he and Sam come into his club and arrest him for murder.
His U.S. counterpart is Elliott Casso, portrayed by Robert Klein.
Harry Woolf
Detective Superintendent Harcourt "Harry" Woolf (Kevin McNally) is the most senior officer at the station. He was also Gene Hunt's DCI when Gene Hunt was a DI and sees a lot of Gene in DI Sam Tyler, respecting Sam's policing methods. Woolf advises Gene to go by the book during the murder of George Rills in series 2, episode 1. Woolf is later revealed to be heavily corrupt, having masterminded a bank robbery to gain enough money to live out his last years before he dies of terminal cancer. Woolf planned to frame local gangster Arnold Malone for the robbery and had Dicky Fingers sprung from police escort for it. After Dicky reveals the truth about him to Tyler, Woolf releases him from his cell and has him executed. Despite Gene's loyalty to Woolf, he sees his corruption for what it is and attempts to arrest him. During the stand-off, Woolf is shot in the leg by Hunt and is subsequently held prisoner by an angry, betrayed DC Glenn Fletcher. Woolf loses everything, but Gene assures Sam that he won't let his old mentor die penniless and alone.
One of Lt. Gene Hunt's sporadically seen superiors in the
2006 characters
Alex Drake
Detective Inspector Alexandra "Alex" Drake (née Price) (unseen, subsequently portrayed by Keeley Hawes) is a police psychologist in London to whom DCI Sam Tyler posts debriefing tapes concerning his traumatic injury and the elaborate 1973 world he visited in his coma. She is mentioned near the end of the finale of Life on Mars and is properly introduced in the opening scene of Ashes to Ashes, becoming the central protagonist of the latter programme.
Maya Roy
Detective Constable Maya Roy (
Their relationship is already having difficulties before Sam's accident, and Maya ends it during the second series when it appears Sam will never recover. In the same episode, adult Sam meets Maya's pregnant mother Leslie, in 1973 and, in a
Her counterpart in the US remake is Detective Maya Daniels, portrayed by Lisa Bonet.
2006 and 1973 characters
Tony Crane
Tony Crane (Marc Warren) was arrested by Sam in 2006 for the murder of his wife Eve. He manages to get to Sam's hospital room and attempts to kill him, but is arrested before he can do so.
In 1973, Crane runs a local casino and is Sam's prime suspect for the killing of a man on a bus. Gene doesn't believe Sam until Crane takes them both hostage. He is arrested after Annie uses a stinger ("invented" in 1973 by Sam, from his familiarity with them in the future) on his car in a chase, but there is not enough evidence to charge him. However, when Crane starts to make accusations of Sam's instability, citing the policeman's belief that he is a time traveller, Sam turns the tables by using this as proof of Crane's insanity. As a result, Crane is committed to a psychiatric hospital, where he remains for the next 33 years.
His U.S. counterpart is Tony Crane, portrayed by Chris Bowers. Sam arrested him for murdering his wife, Penny Margolise, in 2008 and Sam quickly suspected him of murdering a news reporter who had visited his gallery in 1973.
Glenn Fletcher
DC/Supt/DCC Glenn Fletcher (Ray Emmet Brown) appears in
In the intervening years, Fletcher rises through the ranks in
His counterpart in the
Frank Morgan
DCI/Surgeon Frank Morgan (
Sam hears surgeon Frank Morgan explain that he is a specialist who has been called in to treat Sam's condition and bring him out of the coma; he tells Sam that the latter must fight to get back.
DCI Morgan subsequently arrives from C Division, Hyde, taking acting command of A Division, Manchester, when DCI Gene Hunt is suspended during the proceedings resulting from Hunt being accused of murdering a man. Sam is impressed by DCI Morgan's modern, by-the-book, nature. Unlike Hunt and the others in 1973, Morgan records his interrogations. The manner in which he lays out his pens, notepad, inter alia, at the start of his interrogation of Gene echos Sam's actions in 2006 in episode 1.1. Morgan intends to remove Gene and modernise A Division. When Sam and Gene prove the latter's innocence, Morgan brings a bottle of liquor to CID's celebration and offers a "no hard feelings" truce which Gene accepts. In private, however, he tells Sam that bringing down Hunt will get Sam home (ostensibly back to Hyde; implicitly back to 2006). Morgan tells Sam that the latter is suffering amnesia from his injuries in ep. 1.1, is really named Sam Williams, and is undercover to expose the corruption of Gene Hunt and his team in "Operation MARS". Likening Sam's condition to a "waking coma" that Sam supposedly had after a coach crash in 1950 at the age of 12. Morgan shows Sam the cemetery where his (Williams') parents are buried, adjacent to the 19th-century graves of Vic, Ruth, and Sam Tyler. Sam tells Morgan about Gene's dangerous sting operation to catch train robbers in the act. Morgan instructs Sam to play along, ensuring him that a detachment of armed response officers will be in the railway tunnel to foil the robbery, protect Sam and his colleagues, and relieve Gene of duty permanently. When Sam runs into the tunnel during the robbery, however, Morgan informs him that there will be no armed response and he is cleaning house by letting Gene, DS Ray Carling, and DCs Chris Skelton and Annie Cartwright be killed. He leads Sam into oblivion, assuring him that he is going home.
When Sam awakens in his 2006 hospital bed an instant later, he finds Mr Frank Morgan, surgeon, greeting him. Surgeon Morgan has operated on Sam to bring him out of his coma. Sam's hospital room is in Hyde Ward.
In the US version, Frank Morgan is an FBI agent sent to the 125th Detective Squad to investigate an Irish gangster's murder and tries to frame Det. Sam Tyler, but Sam finds out that he murdered the gangster because he hijacked a truck of smuggled goods that Morgan had owned and is arrested by Lt. Gene Hunt.
Eve Olawi
Eve Olawi (Yasmin Bannerman) was killed by Tony Crane prior to Sam's coma. She dismisses his warnings in 1973 that she will have a terrible life with Crane.
Colin Raimes
Colin Raimes (Sam Hazeldine) is a suspected killer in 2006. Sam is convinced Colin was behind the 2006 crime but despite having written about killing in his diary, Raimes has a cast iron alibi. Maya suggests he might have known the killer. In 1973, Sam discovers that the true murderer in 2006 was Colin's neighbour, who was arrested in 1973 for a similar crime but released thirty years later.
His
Leslie Roy
Leslie Roy (
In 2006 (unseen), Leslie does not particularly approve of her daughter's boyfriend and supervisor, DCI Sam Tyler. She would prefer that Maya would marry a physician or wealthy man rather than a police officer.
Ruth Tyler
Ruth Tyler (Joanne Froggatt in 1973 & Judi Jones in 2006) is the mother of Sam Tyler. Sam meets her whilst in 1973, incognito, improvising the name "Detective Inspector Bolan" when asked his name – he had spoken with musician Marc Bolan the previous evening. He meets her again when the CID deduces his father Vic might be involved with the Morton brothers.
In "
Sam also speaks to Ruth when he returns to 2006, leaving Hunt and his team in 1973 in a mail train under fire from railway bandits. Without telling her the details, he says he promised someone he would return. She tells him she knows he won't let them down, because he always keeps his promises. This clears the way for his return to 1973.
Ruth is not mentioned in Ashes to Ashes. In some respects,
Her counterpart in the U.S. remake is Rose Tyler, portrayed by Jennifer Ferrin, and appears only in the 1973 world. The change of forename brought the Tyler surname full-circle. Series creator Matthew Graham's young daughter had given Sam the surname Tyler in homage to the companion on the newly re-launched Doctor Who, Rose Tyler.
References
- ^ Life on Mars episode 2.8
- ^ Griffiths, Nick (1 April 2007). "Did you spot the clues?". Radio Times. Retrieved 10 February 2008.
- episode 2.2at 07:30
- ^ Front page obituary in 2006 gives his age as 52 years; 52-(2006–1973)=19.
- episode 2.2at 09:17
- episode 2.2at 07:31, 09:41
- ^ 2006 newspaper obituary, supra.