ONE OF THE most eagerly-anticipated shows ever to air on BBC America debuts this weekend with the first episode of Ashes to Ashes, the critically-acclaimed sequel to the landmark Life on Mars.

     Like its predecessor, Ashes to Ashes features a hard-charging modern detective who is transported back to the past after a traumatic incident. Only this time instead of DCI Sam Tyler of the Greater Manchester police force doing the time-traveling, it’s DI Alex Drake (Keeley Hawes) of London’s Metropolitan Police, and instead of revisiting the early 1970s, Drake finds herself back in 1981 London,  complete with New Romantics, yuppies, the Brixton riots and a certain royal wedding.

     Fortunately for viewers, Drake’s main antagonist is, once again, the hard-nosed DCI Gene Hunt (Philip Glenister), who is no longer the self-styled ‘Sheriff of Manchester’ but taking it to the scum of London in his new Audi Quattro. He is marginally less neanderthal than in his Life on Mars days, but is still flanked by his ever-faithful sidekicks, Ray Carling (Dean Andrews) and Chris Skelton (Marshall Lancaster). If Hunt thought dealing with Sam Tyler was bad enough, with his hare-brained ideas about modern policing and use of technology, it’s nothing compared to the mayhem caused by Alex “Posh Knickers” Drake, a sexy, strong-willed,  intelligent – and female - officer from the 21st Century. 

      Ripped from her current world of high tech, sexual equality and respect when she is kidnapped and shot, Drake finds herself having to deal with a time she can barely remember  as a little girl. But she quickly finds her feet, helped by the fact she’s been studying detailed reports logged by none other than Sam Tyler, allowing her to quickly recognize the shenanigans of DCI Hunt, and come up with a gameplan to get herself back to 2009, and her beloved young daughter.

     Viewers in their mid-40s (like this reviewer) may find themselves wincing in recognition of the sights and sounds of  New Romantic London. From  hearing snatches of OMD, Heaven 17 and Haircut 100, to seeing Steve Strange performing at Blitz, (the seminal Covent Garden winebar that launched Boy George and the whole New Romantic movement),  Ashes to Ashes delivers a bittersweet exercise in comic, action-packed nostalgia.

     Highly recomm ended.