Somewhere Over The Rainbow

Tuesday night’s Life On Mars was fantastic. I had no idea how it would end, even though I’d trawled forums looking for little hints. I was glad I didn’t find anything as however much I hate waiting for things, sometimes a surprise is nice.
Especially when it is a slightly ambiguous surprise.
The forums I read (stop judging me) were full of theories at the end of it, but virtually all were some way off the mark if you read the interview in the Manchester Evening Post today with the writer/creator. I’d put a link to it but I think the chances of anyone reading this AND being interested in what I’m scribbling about are fairly low.
What the series boiled down to essentially is that a jaded cop from 2006 was involved in an accident and slipped into a coma where he invented a world set in 1973. He stayed there due to an undiscovered tumour in his brain, and only when it was partly removed did he wake up back in 2006. Everything he thought he’d done in 1973, and everyone he met WAS a figment of his imagination.
But he preferred the life in his dreams. It was where he felt most alive.
So – and this is the brave and astonishing thing for a BBC1 drama – the hero killed himself. And for the time it took him to die he was transported back to 1973, were he saved the day, got the girl etc… If this fantasy ended when he died depends on whether you think this is his afterlife, or if in 10 minutes of real-time you can have a lifetime of your dreams. And being sickeningly sentimental and romantic I’d like to believe that he did. I’m soft like that.
Plus I think it leaves the option open to maybe make a film of it, if the writers can tempt John Simm (one of the best actors we have in this country) back to the role. Nobody has quite ruled it out anyway.
So, it was sad that he died, yet also life-affirming in that he chose a “life” that was what he wanted. Heh, I’d have probably made the same choice for Liz White.