Life on Mars

We’re havin’ hoops! Robert Fairclough takes an inside look at the ’70s lawman beating up the wrong guy...

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From Mark Twain’s A Connecticut Yankee In King Arthur’s Court to the Hot Tub Time Machine films, marooning characters from one era in another, usually more primitive one has been a popular staple of science fiction, fantasy and comedy. In 1992, The Comic Strip spoof Detectives On The Edge Of A Nervous Breakdown went the other way: “Shouting George of The Weeney” – a spoof of womanising, fist-throwing, alcohol-fuelled Flying Squad Inspector Jack Regan (John Thaw) from The Sweeney, 1975-78) – was brought out of retirement, the show relishing stranding him in a 1990s London lacking derelict warehouses, car chases and shouting.

Eight years later, three TV professionals descended on Blackpool for a Sweeney-esque, boozy weekend of chip suppers to brainstorm ideas for new television dramas. “Tony Jordan, Ashley Pharaoh and myself were sent away by [the production company] Kudos,” writer Matthew Graham tells SFX. “We realised that we were all a bit bored with police shows. Tony had done a series called City Central, which was a fairly traditional cop show… Inspector Morse and A Touch Of Frost were really good, but they weren’t naturally our thing. As a result, we all agreed The Sweeney was great and said, ‘Let’s do that!’

“We started developing a Sweeney-style series and then, of course, after a while, you realise all the things you love about