Life on Mars is a British television show from 2006, currently available to US viewers on BritBox. It starts with an odd concept, borrowed from The Twilight Zone. A contemporary detective, Sam Tyler, gets hit by car and awakes to find himself back in time in 1973.

Both the 2007 and the 1973 timelines take place in Manchester.

The show is pretty violent, but that’s part of the point. We’re looking at the contrast between what was considered professional detective work in 2006 and an earlier time when the approach was to round up the usual suspects and, then, beat the answers out of them.

The relationships are wonderfully layered. In spite of knowing better ways to do police work, Sam can’t help but admire the commitment of his boss to a safe community or the kindness of a police woman who helps him adjust. Sometimes, Sam gets his way and we can see how detective work evolved over time.

We got a kick out of the fashions and the music. The title of the show is from a 1971 David Bowie song. Lots of early 70s songs provide the soundtrack.

The humor often comes from Sam making anachronistic remarks like “Starsky and Hutch have a lot to answer for” as a criticism to his boss’s reckless driving. Of course, the remarks only confuse the people around him.

Some of the 1970s references were lost on us because we have US memories from the 1970s rather than British ones. We enjoyed looking some of them up on Wikipedia to learn a little something.

John Simm, who played Sam Tyler, plays another detective in the more recent series Grace based on the novel series by Peter James. Five seasons are available on BritBox, now, and (according to What to Watch) we’re expecting a sixth one in the spring. Grace is set in Brighton, a place that I would enjoy exploring through a show.