Following Philip Glenister’s remarks  during the production of series two last year – “I think the thing about Gene is you are restricted in terms of what you do with him – people want to see him for what he is, and although that’s fun to play I need new challenges now, I want to move on.” – it’s always been clear Gene Hunt’s days were numbered. And the Kudos are making a virtue of this. Here’s the press release, issued this morning.

London, September 2009: It’s time to get your shoulder pads out of storage, start crimping your hair and get into the 80s mood for the very last time.  The award-winning BBC One drama, Ashes to Ashes, is back as filming begins on the eagerly awaited final series.

The highly-anticipated finale sees Philip Glenister and Keeley Hawes reprise their roles as that most un-PC of policeman, DCI Gene Hunt and his sassy partner DI Alex Drake, along with Dean Andrews as DI Ray Carling, Marshall Lancaster as DC Chris Skelton and Montserrat Lombard as WPC Sharon ‘Shaz’ Granger.  As well as the much loved regular faces, Daniel Mays (The Street, Plus One) will also appear in the series as Discipline and Complaints officer, Jim Keats, adding an exciting twist to the team dynamic.

With last series’ cliff-hanger leaving audiences with the frightening image of Alex lying shot on a hospital gurney, the questions on everyone’s lips are “will Alex survive?”  And “how will her colleague and accidental assassin Gene Hunt dig himself out of that hole?”

The smash hit drama, made by Kudos Film and Television in association with Monastic Productions, finally unravels many of the mysteries from the previous two series of Ashes to Ashes, as well as those first experienced by the initial time-travelling copper, Sam Tyler, in the groundbreaking BBC One series Life on Mars some four years ago.  Will Alex finally discover why she’s been sent back to the 80s? Does anything tie Alex and Sam Tyler together?  And who exactly is Gene Hunt…?

Jane Featherstone, Executive Producer, Kudos Film and Television says: “Everyone has their own theory about who Gene Hunt is and why Alex Drake, and Sam Tyler ended up in his world. Alex’s journey is nearing its end and Matthew Graham and Ashley Pharoah have planned a fabulous finale.  We’re now at the point where we can finally reveal some of the answers and we can’t wait to hear what the fans think about it all.”

Ashley Pharoah, co-creator, writer and Executive Producer for Monastic Productions adds: “Gene Hunt has delighted fans for almost five years.  Matthew and I have loved writing the adventures of Gene, Alex and the rest of the team and will be really sad to finally have to say goodbye to characters that have become a great part of our lives.”

Piers Wenger, Head of Drama, BBC Wales also says: “Series three of Ashes to Ashes will have the same combination of thrilling crime drama, outrageous 80s outfits and cutting one liners. We’ll be sad to see Gene and the gang go but the journey that will take us to that finale will be one of the most exciting, compelling and edge-of-your seat rides on TV!”

Ashes to Ashes is written and created by Matthew Graham and Ashley Pharoah, two creators of the award-winning Life on Mars.  It is produced by Kudos Film and Television, in association with Monastic Productions and was commissioned by Jay Hunt, Controller, BBC One and Ben Stephenson, Controller, BBC Drama Commissioning.

Executive producer duties will be split between Jane Featherstone, Simon Crawford Collins and Alison Jackson for Kudos Film and Television, Ashley Pharoah for Monastic Productions and Piers Wenger for the BBC.  The producer is Howard Burch.

The press release comes out today, as the drama’s second series reaches its climax on BBC1. Here’s what it says…

June 8 2009: Don’t put the leg warmers and blue eyeliner away just yet because the 80s revival is set to continue in the gripping finale of Ashes to Ashes, to be screened on BBC One next year.

The hit drama from Kudos Film and Television in association with Monastic Productions has been recommissioned for a third series by the BBC following a fantastic second run which has kept millions of viewers hooked each week.

Fans have theorised since Life on Mars and throughout Ashes to Ashes about who Gene Hunt actually is and what his alternative world really means. Producers have now revealed the climax of series three will finally reveal all and writers and creators Matthew Graham and Ashley Pharoah have promised a stunning finale for fans.

Pharoah says: “We have thoroughly enjoyed following Alex Drake on her journey in the 80s and seeing her fiery relationship with Gene Hunt develop. We are also as excited as the viewers to see how her journey ends and we promise the third series will be packed full of intriguing twists and turns to keep viewers guessing about the final outcome.”

Simon Crawford Collins, Executive Producer Kudos Film and Television, says: “Will Alex make it back home, why is she living in this parallel 80s world, what will become of bullish Gene Hunt and will we ever discover what actually happened to Sam Tyler…..viewers will not be left disappointed because the series promises to finish with a bang!”

Ashes to Ashes is written and created by Matthew Graham and Ashley Pharoah, two creators of the award winning Life on Mars. It is produced by Kudos Film and Television, in association with Monastic Productions and was commissioned by Ben Stephenson, Controller, BBC Drama Commissioning.

Executive producer duties will be split between Jane Featherstone, Simon Crawford Collins and Alison Jackson for Kudos Film and Television, Ashley Pharoah for Monastic Productions and Piers Wenger for the BBC.

Filming on series three will begin in the Autumn and Ashes to Ashes will return to BBC One in 2010.

Tonight’s Ashes to Ashes reminds me just how cheaply I can be bought off by TV drama.

It is thanks to probably less than three minutes of screen time that I’ll be tuning in again next week. Whatever else they might have got wrong, the programme’s makers still know how to develop a story arc, and despite my expectation that this was to be the year the show went one twist too far, Alex Drake’s predicament remains gripping.

Yet many of the faults that undermined Ashes to Ashes last year remain, so ensuring it can never be a wholly satisfying piece of telly. Chiefly, the show’s odd habit of jumping around locations and moods with scant regard to continuity is still there. This results in a dissatisfying viewing experience, as the investigation isn’t able to build up a head of a steam before it’s diverted into the sidings by a superfluous bit of light-hearted business with Ray, or an attempt to glimpse the inner life of Gene Hunt. These latter moments are especially ineffective as Gene is clearly an empty vessel and no matter how many hints are made that he has some kind of hidden depths, he is never going to come close to being a rounded character.

In truth, Gene is as insubstantial as the detective story at the heart of each episode. This has perhaps always been the least impressive element of both Ashes to Ashes, and its predecessor Life on Mars. The investigations are pedestrian, patching together a vague approximation of a whodunit, while attempting to deliver a satisfying conclusion by uncovering the motivation driving the miscreant of the week. Not that this happened in tonight’s episode. In fact, when our cop killer was uncovered and brought to book, we never found out why he’d done it in the first place. It all hints at darker and more substantial things to come, but for now it makes for an unsatisfying conclusion to this week’s episode.

But there are still things to be enjoyed in Ashes. Alex Drake has been toned down a bit, and her relationship with Gene stabilised so they don’t just keep flicking between flirting and fighting. The corruption subplot and its potential to drive a rift between Hunt and Drake looks like it might make for an interesting storyline, particularly if we are made at some point to seriously question Hunt’s previously unassailable position of being someone we implicitly trust.

Best of all though are the story arc developments I hinted at above. Although Alex’s kidnapping is curiously swept aside by those existing in her 1982 reality, the shadowy figure and his allusions to future events is impressive – are we to take it, this is the patient from out of whose eyes we began watching this new series?

As much as the BBC would like it to be, Ashes to Ashes isn’t in the premier league of TV drama, and probably never will be. It allows its premise to deliver us thinly realised characters and lots of moments that refuse to comply with the laws of cause and effect. Nonetheless there is an attribute about the series that is genuinely impressive and assured, and that’s the way the show dangles its mystery in front of us. If it keeps doing that right, and there’s nothing better on the other side, I’ll keep tuning in.

 Ashes to Ashes has consistently mystified, with episodes regularly grinding to a halt halfway through for some oddly unrevealing moments of characterisation (the end of last Thursday’s ep where Gene Hunt offers an apology seemed particularly pointless). Meanwhile, Torchwood infuriatingly continues to miss the mark. The whole thing seems compromised by a kids’ show premise sitting in an adult drama. You get the sense the production team is so confused by the series, they’ve lost any sense of what a good episode of Torchwood should look like. Series two hasn’t been completely crap, but it’s continued to underperform.

It’s Lost then, that I am turning to for my telefantasy kicks at the moment. This fourth series has been taut and adrenalized. The key moment for me occurred some weeks back when Jack asked Faraday to explain why he was running strange experiments on the island. The traditional prevarication then ensued, and I was left assuming that the answers Jack was looking for would be withheld for weeks on end. But just five minutes later, Faraday was outlining the whole theory regarding the island being caught up in some kind of time vortex thingy. What a relief to get some answers.

I’m not sure if the 60-odd hour investment in watching the first three series to start getting these kind of pay offs is entirely worth it, but the episode in which Desmond started jumping through time, was quite simply the best slice of telefantasy I’ve seen since ‘Blink’, and remarkably complex and high-concept for a mainstream TV series.

Completely unrelated, but a quick nod of appreciation too for Virgin 1′s American Inventor.